Time for reflection and recharging

With this holiday period upon us, many of us take time to rest from the busyness of our daily work lives and spend time with the people we love the most. Often time this space can allow us to reflect on our lives, review what is important to us and appreciate those close to us. For some they can simply feel exhausted and just which to lie still in time to recover for the next busy schedule.

With a 24/7 life style we can often get caught up in being ‘ON’ all the time however if we do not take time to rest and reflect we diminish our capacity to be and work at our best. The research is very clear that getting a good night’s sleep is critical to healthy brain and body function. The research is also showing that learning how to manage our thoughts and become more mindful is critical to our resilience; our ability to bounce back especially after setbacks.

The many people we work with on a daily basis via our training and coaching, are increasingly wanting to learn how to reflect, be still and be more resilient. We are being asked to teach more and more people how to meditate and become more mindful.

Rather than discuss the theories around reflection, meditation and mindfulness and have your thinking too much over this holiday break we would rather give you a small gift this holiday period – the gift of meditation which can hopefully bring peace and happiness to your busy world.

We have developed a series of short meditations for Leaders, Executives and Salespeople which form part of our series The Mindful Leader.

Meditation is a skill – a very valuable skill. The purpose of meditation is to heal and transform. The skill and practice of meditation has been in the realm of the human experience for thousands of years. Because meditation is a skill you can practice meditation anywhere at any time. In every moment you can chose to meditate. There are many forms of meditation ranging from seated meditations, silent meditations, walking meditations, guided meditations to prayer and living one’s life a in a state of continuous mindful meditation. Seated meditation is the most well known and practiced form of meditation.

This meditation is designed to help you look at possibilities and be aware that many opportunities are available to you.

Preparation: Sit in a quiet spot, preferably is a straight backed chair with your feet flat on the ground and your hands resting comfortably in your lap. Image you spine is like a stack of coins neatly placed on top of each other and your head is slightly titled forward in a restful but alert position. Take some deep breaths breathing down into your belly. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth finding a comfortable breathing rhythm. Then quietly read out loud the following guided meditation or have someone read it for you.

Exercise 3 – Seeing possibilities

This exercise is simply designed to allow you to stop and reflect so you are in a position to see possibilities. If you struggle with limited thinking and feel blocked this may help you see what is possible.

We welcome your feedback on this exercise and any other enquiries you might have in relation to developing the skills of mindfulness and meditation practice.

Thank you again for your support of loyal readership we wish you all the very best of this holiday period.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au