Working with neuroscientist, following current neuroscience documentation on the internet and with my own experiences, I found this article from the Harvard Business Review entitled “How Meditation Benefits CEO’s” to be right on point. The author, Emma Seppala, is a PhD that conducts researches in this area. She offers 20 reasons why meditation is beneficial including boosting your health, increasing your happiness, increases your connections with others, boosting your self-control, changing your brain for the better, and making you wiser. This sounds too good to be true. What does the Harvard Business Review have to say about all of this?
The article points out that yoga (and I would offer meditation, reflection or prayer twice a day for twenty minutes) is a process that benefits CEOs more than exercise or relaxation alone. There is an increasing trend to incorporate mindfulness into high potentials programs in firms to enhance creativity, productivity, emotional intelligence and memory. This is more than a novelty or academic research.
An example is presented in the article of a firm’s use of meditation in New York after 911 that made a real difference to the employees of the firm and the CEO. Another CEO commented how it allowed him to control his anger and put himself in better touch with others being able to put him in their shoes resulting in a better relationship with his employees.
“Dr. James Doty, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, also values meditation for its ability to cultivate emotional intelligence.” Think of this in terms of your own emotional intelligence and of those top performers technically that may not always have the best social skills.
In terms of the benefits the article points out:
Mediation enhances creativity;
Meditation enhances your relationships;
Mediation helps you focus;
I have found that taking up to 20 minutes a day twice a day to clear the mind through yoga, prayer, reflection or meditation has helped me in many ways. I have been doing this now for over 10 years. For those of you that like numbers I want to share with you that I give blood regularly and a few weeks ago when I gave blood they took my blood pressure. It was 96/56. I really think that taking the time each day for meditation, yoga, reflection or prayer as helped me. As with many things in life, when you discover something very positive, you want to share it with others. I hope this information may encourage you to look into alternatives to help yourself, your team and your employees.