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
DO YOU HAVE STRONG ENOUGH REASONS TO FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS, OR YOU’RE JUST STUCK IN ‘DREAMING’?
95% of you have now lost your new year’s resolutions. They were just promises, promises, promises with no substance. Maybe they were not even your own wishes, but someone else’s wishes you thought you needed to live up to.
Or they were just put out there because of the pressure from the crowd around you.
Whatever, we are now into the third month of the year and it is time to re-set your goals for the year if you haven’t done that already.
This time – it is a good thing to put out your own wishes, what YOU truly want.
Where do you want to be a year from now? What do you want your business and job to look like? What kind of leader do you want to be known as? How do you want to feel?
Take a minute and write that down. Make it compelling for YOU, for your best.
A COMPELLING VISION is something that pulls you towards it, you don’t want to be pushed.
A vision that excites you, that makes you eager to go on.
A visiongiving you strong enough reasons to follow through – because there will be struggles on the way.
A visionstrong enough to feel it every day – get it into your brain system that you’ll be aware of it all the time.
Ultimately you also need to – RAISE YOUR STANDARDS – “Who do I want to be?”
Make it a MUST!
When you decide that something is a MUST for you, you will find a way to get there and SUCCEED!
When you make it a must you don’t need the willpower anymore – it just IS THAT WAY.
If you say: ”I am not that kind of person” – that is a belief that holds you back, CONTROLS YOU.
We are all conditioned to be like “WHATEVER” as a child, and as life goes on you stop to try to get away from it. It becomes a “TRUTH” in your mind.
The REAL TRUTH is: You can do different, but you have to change your thinking and WALK ANOTHER PATH.
Your physical body of today is a result of your standards, not of your goals.
That means your body is a result of what you have eaten, how you have exercised and how you have slept – and not of your goals of how you had wanted it to be. For a different result you need a different action.
Routines are actions you do consistently. They turn into RITUALS when you don’t want to live without them.
People who get their dreams haveexpanded their standards.
HERE IS A STEP BY STEP HELP for you to start your desired life:
Step #1 – Select an area of life you would like to improve – describe your current situation – be specific
Step #2 – Write down:
The rituals that have shaped your current condition in that area – be honest
What you want – your compelling vision – go back to what you answered on the questions earlier in this text – be specific again
The rituals that will get you your compelling vision. What would you need to do differently each day to get what you want?
START TODAY!
Start with 1 or 2 new things from your list in step #4 and see what happens. Change one habit and other changes will automatically follow.
When you see the change, you will be proud of yourself.
You will have your best year ever!
Changes can be hard to do on your own. If you need a helping hand justsend a message hereand I´ll get back to you.
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.
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