A medicine may or may not be a pill, but meditation is always medicine.
Today I want to talk about THAT medicine.
It is scientifically proven that meditation can benefit your brain by increasing focus; reducing stress, anxiety, and depression; improving memory, emotional awareness, and OVERALL HAPPINESS.
Doesn’t that sound like a good pill to take?
I have to admit though – it took me many years to understand this fact.
Being born in the 50s, I was a teenager during the Flower-Power years. I loved The Beatles! John was my favorite, and I still have all my vinyl records tucked away in a safe space.
In my world, I could not understand why there was so much hush-hush around it. You had to pay big money to learn the art of meditation and you got your private mantra – A MANTRA NEVER TO BE TOLD TO SOMEONE ELSE – or else…
BAD THINGS WOULD HAPPEN TO YOU.
Yes, that was the “story”.
I personally, was more into science and was repelled by the mysticism that was built up around the business – which was big that time.
Years went by and I did not think about meditation at all.
UNTIL ONE DAY, in 2015 – I attended a big event in California about “Building Your Online Business”, as I had started my own business ‘AskDrAnnika‘ a few years earlier and was ready to go global.
There were around 900 people in the room, and the session was about “Taking Good Care of Yourself While Working Online”.
He said: “NOW WE WILL MEDITATE TOGETHER”.
I WAS STARTLED.
My first thought was: “You are crazy, I don’t have a mantra and I guess most people don’t have one”.
Then he asks: “How many of you meditate?” and about 100 HANDS went up. That confirmed my suspicions – he was crazy to do meditation with just that small group of people.
BUT THEN he said: “We will all do this together. We will use the word ‘RELEASE’. Close your eyes and repeat the word SLOWLY OUT LOUD, if you can.”
And we all sat there, eyes closed, slowly repeating the word ‘RELEASE’ for 10 minutes.
AND IT WORKED!
Since that day, I use meditation as a tool in my de-stress work toolkit. Not my ‘teenage version’ of hush-hush and big business – BUT AS A FREE TOOL TO USE FOR ANYONE.
One of the most studied BENEFITS of meditation is STRESS RELIEF. It even relieves anxiety and can even boost your immune system.
THINK OF IT LIKE THIS:
“Your brain is a computer, with many windows and programs open at the same time. Meditation helps you close out windows you don’t need and use for the moment.”
That way, you can focus on what is essential and you will PERFORM ON A HIGHER LEVEL.
Today, I know there are a ton of different ways to meditate, and we all have different preferences. There is the “Breathing Anchor”, “Mantras”, “Guided Meditations”, or just simple walking, coloring, painting, stitching, or other textile handicraft.
You just need to find out what works for you.
I myself am a fan of textile handicraft meditational effects, and I have been doing textile projects all my life like weaving, sewing, stitching, and so on. So I, for one, am a witness to its calming effects.
I now encourage you to now TAKE A SHORT BREAK before you scoot on to your next thing.
Close your eyes and say the word “RELEASE” slowly for a few minutes, and may the rest of your day thereafter be calm, effective, and fun.
If you liked this – GET MORE EFFECTIVE TOOLS HERE.
People who feel gratitude are helpful in handling stress are faster to recuperate from disease. They often have better health – like normal blood pressure and good immune response, and they feel happier!
I guess that you too, as a business leader, would love to have all that.
And that means that “Gratitude” is a very good leadership tool too. If feeling gratitude makes you feel well and less stressed – why not take advantage of this fact?
A great idea would be to start a gratitude challenge in your workgroup.
You as the leader, the boss must go first – in the front line. That is where the worriers need to be.
This is double important now in Coronavirus attack time. After many weeks of restrictions your staff has probably been struggling with either:
a) working from home and feeling lonely, not seen and not appreciated; or
b) coming to the workplace with the fear of being infected and trying to hide as much as possible.
Neither of those scenarios makes your staff grow and perform at their best level. I am not saying they do not do a good job but it is not at top-notch.
This “Gratitude Challenge” will BOOST THEIR ENERGY – AND YOURS as a leader.
Challenge them and yourself to do something everyday that leans towards GRATITUDE – and share with each other. It is a win-win in eternity.
Here are a few things you can do:
Send a short Gratitude message to a coworker.
Make a physical “Wall of Gratitude” in the office; or make one online – where everyone can contribute. Set the rules to “just for positive cheering, no complaints here”.
Write DAILY the 3 things you are grateful for, ESPECIALLY during times of hardship.
Write a positive testimonial to a valuable deliverer or business partner.
Send a real postcard to someone you are grateful for. Put a real stamp on it and send it.
Donate to a charity you like. The need in the world is so immense right now, and helping is one of the best ways to increase your own wellbeing.
Ponder about your leadership – is there anything you can do differently that can benefit someone else at the same time?
Send flowers or maybe a lunch to someone in your staff that you know suffers extra right now.
These are a few actions you can take to BOOST your own wellbeing. I am sure you can think of many other good ways too.
Doing good and being kind to others produces feel-good hormones in your brain. That makes you feel better.
On the other hand, the person at the other end of your gift feels seen and appreciated – producing feel-good hormones in their brains too.
If both YOU and your STAFF get FEEL-GOOD HORMONES – YOU WILL TOGETHER PRODUCE BETTER RESULTS for your clients – making them happy and ordering more from you which increases your revenue.
This makes the gratitude way of doing things one of the most effective business and leadership tools we have – and a beautiful way to LESS STRESS too.
Also, making it a challenge for your staff will make their well-being boosted too that can cause RIPPLE EFFECTS all over the place.
What are you waiting for? Just start right now with a big smile and a nice word to the person next to you!
Feels good, doesn’t it?
If you want personal help to get started – send a message here to connect
Halfway into the first month of the year and with the celebrations past us, we are back to the reality of life – and most of our New Year Resolutions are – well, forgotten.
In most cases, that is a fact.
We generally feel elated with the idea of new year. We see new possibilities, set new goals, take on new opportunities, and even make all kinds of promises to ourselves – but then the moment we realize that we’re back into our daily lives, we lose track of everything; and since that is the life that we know, we find it easier to stay rather than move forward.
And just like that, our so-called promises, our #NewYearsResolution – disappears in thin air.
The question is, does it always have to be like that? Or perhaps, is there anything that we can do to stop the cycle from happening?
Of course there is one. Actually, there’s a lot; but this one is my favorite:
“RAISE YOUR STANDARDS – so you can turn your ‘SHOULDS’ into ‘MUSTS’.”
Now why, that out of all the possible things we can do, I chose this one? My answer would be simple – it’s because I believe that once you get to do this, the rest will follow.
Your standard is something that you set – something that you have the ability to control. You decide which level you want to be on.
So when I said ‘Raise your standards’, I meant that if you are stressed out, overweight, or you are a smoker, but didn’t want to be any of those – you don’t get to find excuses not to change. Because if you do, then that is the standard you set for yourself.
But where ‘MUST’ you start? Here are some steps that can help you:
Define what you want to achieve;
Identify how far you are from your goal;
List the specific steps you plan to take in achieving your goal;
Implement; and
Celebrate when you succeed – celebrate with everyone around you.
AND above all, ALWAYS REMEMBER TO RAISE YOUR STANDARDS.
Christmas is now just around the corner – is it the season to be JOLLY, or the season to be STRESSED?
Of course it’s easy to say it’s always the first one, but for those who have experienced preparing for the Holiday Season, it is normal to experience both.
BUT WAIT – this year is very special – we are not supposed to do those extravagant preparations, we are not supposed to meet in larger groups, and we are not supposed to travel around to exchange gifts.
The BEST WAY to get through this – for the sake of our sanity – is TO ACCEPT – that this is how it is right now; and that we can do nothing about the virus holding the whole world in it´s hostage. NOTHING.
If we can take that fact to our hearts and accept it, then we will have much more peace of mind this Holiday Season. Then we do what we can from a distance – focus on the good things, and believe that next year, all will be back to normal again.
Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy what you can control.
This upcoming week I will travel through half of Sweden to a far away place and work in a health care center for 7 days.
Why do I take valuable time from my business to do that? There are several reasons.
First of all to help out. There is always a lack of doctors in Primary Care in Sweden. In this Corona virus era the lack is even bigger.
Because you are not allowed to work if you have any symptoms. Because a lot of the doctors are of high age and more at risk. Because some primary care doctors go to work in other facilities in internal medicine to help out there. Plus, some doctors are scared and don’t dare to work with patients right now, just like many others.
I am not scared, I am not in a risk group and I have the ability to use some of my time on this. This is my first reason.
Second, I want to stay updated. If I am going to do a good job as a mentor for stressed out business leaders I need to be up to date in my knowledge.
What does the world look like today?
What does science say?
What do people seek help for?
Are there any new big findings?
These are questions I get updated on when going out in real life and work.
And third, of course it gives some money to my company so I can keep working on developing my de-stress business. It also makes it possible for me to contribute to good causes, like being interviewed for both the EvolveUp for PeaceWeekend two weeks ago and for the Suicide Prevention Show taking place last week.
Both of those interviews were deep discussions about serious stuff. But nevertheless, it was fun discussions with lots of smiles and laughter. You see, smiles and laughter help our brain to produce feel good hormones. That helps us to feel calm and focused and the discussion leads towards solutions instead of towards anxiety.
You could say that a smile is one of the most important and powerful tools for stress management!
The video for the other interview is not up yet. I will share it as soon as I get it.
Do you to go off your trail in your current life to expand, help out, learn more or just to get away for a week or two? Whether you do or not write your thoughts on a piece of paper and ponder about it. What could you try out? Is there a place I can go to get new ideas and be updated? Write pros and cons and maybe you will come up with your next big thing in life! And put a smile to your thoughts! What is your next step?
I have been in business for about 10 years now. Working with Stress Management – taste those words!
It has been a roller coaster including a co-op that went into bankruptcy in the early days. Incredibly stressful experience!
It has been far from a calm journey as you can see, and I have tested my own de-stress tips over and over. And they work!
Before this business era I was working as a doctor in the Swedish primary health care system. That was not a business school. In Sweden health care is paid by the tax system and as a doctor you don’t chase clients/patients, you don’t deal with the payment system – you just do the job and get your pay-check. And you never talk about yourself, you just do your best helping the patient.
About 10 years ago everything just got a little bit too much. Stressful is a good word for what happened!
Endless amount of work, family, household, other people’s expectations – never time to reflect – I am sure you can relate!
But instead of walking straight into the famous wall of burnout, I took a step back, to see what my options were.
I believe this is a step we take way too seldom – the step back to look at the whole picture.
I realized I needed to change something – so I took a turn. I joined a course in stress management – to help myself – and realized – this is what I was aimed for: To help people avoid becoming patients, health promotion and stress management.
Again and again I have seen the need to take that step back, to get a clearer view of what is going on. When you are in the middle of it is hard to see the forest for all trees, you need to get out first to get the overview picture.
I think the forest is a great analogy of what I mean but I have taken it yet another bit further – I call it taking a virtual helicopter ride over your situation. It is good to get that far up to see the whole picture.
When clients come to me to discuss their situation and find solutions they often say: “My friend/colleague had the same problem and they did “this or that” and it solved all their problems. Can you help me do the same thing?”
And my answer is always: I can help you solve the same problem, if that is what you need, but it will probably not be in the same way.
You see, there are not any one-size-fits-all solutions in stress management. Even if the problems or challenges look alike every person has their own setting in life. The variations in circumstances are endless.
That is where the virtual Helicopter ride comes in. We look at everything from work, family, free time, health, network, where you live, status and more.
Up till today I have not had many clients solving their challenges in the same way they thought they would. Often the overview showed them other issues that were more important and maybe even easier to change first.
Are you ready to take a virtual helicopter trip over your life situation with me as your guide? And then make the changes you need?
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