Meditation can have a profound effect on your life.
Not only does it help to calm you down and declutter your mind, but it can have a proven effect on stress levels and decision-making skills as well. That said, it isn’t always easy to fit mediation into your day. This is especially problematic while you’re at work, which may be the place that you need the positive benefits of meditation the most. This isn’t to say that you can’t work meditation into your workday, of course.
Here are just a few ideas on how to work in meditation to get you started:
Map Your Workday
Stop and think about your typical workday and everything that you do during it.
Chances are there won’t be any large gaps during your day aside from regular breaks and lunch, and you may consider using them as meditation time. That isn’t necessary, however; you don’t have to have a large block of time to work in meditation. Instead of looking for big gaps in your workday, try to isolate periods of just a few minutes where you can fit in brief meditation periods.
Just one to three minutes is sufficient to center yourself through mindful meditation, and three to five minutes of meditation can have a significant effect on your overall feeling of calm and wellbeing. Once you start thinking of short meditation breaks in this timeframe, the number of opportunities you have for meditation will increase significantly.
Convert Your Downtime
You may find yourself doing mindless activities at various points during your workday.
Instead of checking your email for the 33rd time or spending 10 minutes checking the same three social media sites again, use these periods of downtime as a chance to meditate. As before, you don’t have to have a lot of time to do a lot of good with meditation. Even if you only convert a few minutes of your browsing time or the little bit of time that you’re waiting for a meeting to let out into meditation time it can have a tremendous effect on the rest of your day.
Set Reminders for Yourself
There are a lot of things in the world around us that go unnoticed.
You can take advantage of this by setting up small reminders to yourself to meditate. Place small dot stickers or other small reminders around your office in places where they aren’t likely to be noticed. They should be in places where even you won’t see them all the time. When you do notice one of them, take a minute or two to meditate at your first opportunity.
While that may not seem like much time, it’s long enough to clear your mind and center yourself. Spread these micro-sessions across a full day and you’ll be surprised at how much meditation time your reminders can net you.
When It’s Most Needed
Think about your afternoons for a moment.
Is there a point where the day seems to just stretch on and on, when you’re really starting to feel tired and scattered? Many people fall into a slump around mid-afternoon, especially if they’ve been at work since early in the morning. This is a key time to try to meditate since it can help you refocus and finish the workday on a positive note.
Your late-afternoon productivity may be lower anyway, so you might be able to fit in some meditation time even if you don’t have much free time in the afternoons. The time you spend meditating may be just the pick-me-up you need to get your work finished and wrap up the day.
Make It a Habit
Starting to incorporate meditation into your workday is the hardest part of this journey.
Once you start recognizing the points in your day when you can meditate, you’ll be surprised at how much free time you have during your day. Once meditation becomes a habit, you may even wonder how you made it through the day before.