Meditate your own way
No time, too hippy, boring”, are comments that could be preventing us from practicing meditation in a formal sense.
Excelling in the digital age, means finding a way to focus our mind but this is not an easy thing to do. A Harvard study found that we are lost in thought 47 % of the time, mostly when we are at a computer or at work. For high performers wishing to excel and stay on task, we need to be aware of where our attention is focused, in each moment. In other words, we need Attentional Intelligence. How then, do we increase our level of Attentional Intelligence and train our brains to focus, even in an environment not conducive to concentrating?
Meditation…where our attention is focused entirely on one thing at a time, is an option. Andy Puddicombe (a monk and creator of ‘Headspace’) reports how meditators’ experience, “structural changes around the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain involved in monitoring our focus and self-control”.
A formal meditation practice however may not be for everyone. As we are all individuals, just maybe, we are more suited to different forms of meditation? Guy Leech (a world champion marathon Ironman and a very successful entrepreneur) in a recent seminar held by the National Coaching Institute, spoke of his commitment to visualisation as part of his method for achieving goals. Brain scans tell us that visualisation can be effective due to the brain interpreting, “imagery as equivalent to real-life action” (Frank Niles, Ph.D). This technique suits Leech’s sporting background and helps him achieve goals by not only visualising the perfect outcome but also by focusing the mind on one thing at a time, which is in essence a meditative act.
Whether it’s in the form of; physical exercise (yes sex included), dancing or singing along to a greatest hit, Mindful yoga, a bath, a few deep breaths or a progressive muscle relaxation exercise, if practiced regularly and focused on completely, a deeper level of concentration may start to become a reality.
Perhaps if we can all set aside the time to regularly practice our own style of meditation, we could look forward to having more Attentional Intelligence.
