Do Nothing To Be More Competitive

It's hard to ignore a title like "Want a competitive edge? Do nothing every day."  Call it a bit of clickbait, but the article went on to discuss a way to reduce work stress, boost energy, improve focus, and help you be more productive at work. Is it a drug? No. Nothing with side effects. Do I have to buy some new tech gadget? No special equipment. Do I have to go to a gym or run 100 miles a week? Nope.

It is ancient. It’s meditation.

According to the article, 40% of us say we already meditate at least once a week. That seems high to me.

The benefits of meditation are many and have been found in multiple studies: reduced anxiety and stress, improvements in focus and cognitive function. Those are results after just a few weeks of mindfulness training. If you do it long-term, there is some evidence that your brain may age more slowly.

Probably some people meditate at home but the article suggests that meditating during the work day is also important. 

Since I have seen it suggested that you should take short naps during the work day - which sounds like a bad thing for the boss to catch you doing - I guess some meditation is possible at work.

Actually, some of the big "best places to work," like Google, Ford, Aetna and Adobe, offer corporate mindfulness programs. Viewed as a kind of preventative care, they say it improves employees sleep quality, lowers stress and increases productivity.

There are lots of classes and books and even apps to get started with meditation. I have done both of those approaches multiple times. I know what to. The tough part is doing it.

The basics are having a space that is quiet and private, and being consistent in your practice.

Every class I took or book I read starts with following your breath. That may involve counting the inhalation, holding and exhaling. Most of us are pretty shallow breathers.

The second thing that is emphasized is emptying your mind. That is much harder than the breathing. You're told that when a thought comes, realize it is that and let it go. Much easier said than done.

How much mediation do you need to do? Start out small. Even after years of on and off practice, I had trouble with sessions that ran for an hour or more (zazen). It is okay to start with 5, 10 or 15 minutes a day.

An old old Zen adage is that you should sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day—unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.  Fifteen minutes a day every day is better than an hour twice a week.

It was a revelation to me to realize that meditation - or mindfulness, which is a term I prefer - can be incorporated into activities. I am very fond of recommending kinhin which is walking meditation. It is usually done between long sessions as a break, but I like doing it as its own activity. It is a lot more than just taking a walk in the woods. But it can be done as a start just walking from your desk to lunch.

Another place I often bring my meditation is in the garden. I particularly find the usually unenjoyable and "mindless" chore of weeding to be a good activity for mindfulness. It has actually become enjoyable.

Sitting on a nice empty beaching to meditate is great, but not practical for most of us on a regular basis. Find you places and times.

Teaching the Daily Practices

Daily practice is a part of many religions and spiritual quests. But the discipline of daily practices does not have to have anything to do with religion or spirituality. The self-discipline of having a daily practice is good for the mind, body and soul.

My writing online is a daily practice that is spread around in a number of places. It is the best thing I have done in my life to improve my writing. I have tried daily writing practices before. William Stafford and other poets are known for their daily poems.

It did that in 2014 with a daily poetry practice that I called Writing the Day. It helps that Stafford, when asked about how he could write a poem each day, replied that he lowered his standards. He didn't write a gem every day. But he did write every day.

This year, I still write poems and I still contribute weekly to that poetry blog, but my daily practices have changed.

Maybe your practice is yoga, meditation, working in the garden, painting, or making time for serious reading. The list is long with possibilities.

It takes discipline. I know that "discipline" has a bad bad reputation. It makes you think of school and getting sent to the principal's office for detention. But discipline is good and necessary.

As a teacher, applying what you learn is one of my top goals for my students. It's also a goal that we should have in our non-academic life.

When I was more seriously into meditation practice, it became important to me that the practice moved into some actions in my life. The idea of meditating peacefully on some hilltop or is some tranquil Zen monastery is very appealing. But it also seems very self-indulgent.

Buddhism is generally not taught in America as a religion. Buddhist teachings are offered in a very practical, nonreligious way, and students of any – or no – religious background can benefit from learning them and putting them into practice.

When I stumbled upon the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Germany, that's what I was thinking about. EIAB has a mission to not only offer training but also "methods for using Buddha’s teachings to relieve suffering and promote happiness and peace in ourselves, our families, our communities and in the world. "

The institute operates under Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, the world-renowned meditation teacher, scholar and writer, and with Dharma teachers in the Plum Village tradition.

People apply Buddhist teachings in such a way as to release tensions of the body, reduce bodily stress and pains, and in many cases alleviate not only symptoms but also underlying causes of illness. Can you pass on that knowledge and teach others to have a daily practice? I think that is the ultimate point of gaining the knowledge.

The other place I see this happening is with yoga - a practice that I have very little experience with. (I took a 5 week class that didn't work for me.) But i saw a blog post about Yoga from the Heart by Seane Corn and she talks about a concept of "body prayer." She applies her yoga practice to her humanitarian efforts. (There is a a video excerpt of her demonstrating the movement of "body prayer")

I see yoga classes being offered everywhere from corporate centers to churches, hospitals, schools and storefront and formal fitness centers. It's a 5,000-year-old spiritual practice.

Healing yourself is good, but healing the world, or at least a small part of it, is better. I have been a teacher in schools for my entire adult life, but my sense of the "teacher" is not really connected to schools but to every experience.

I have posted on another site about contemplative practices. I posted something about a very simple and brief guided practice using a bell sound meditation. It takes five minutes to do. Everyone can do a daily practice that only requires five minutes. But that is still more time than many people seem willing to give to quiet contemplation.

Even a daily practice of five minutes a day requires discipline.

One of my new daily practices is taking a few minutes every night before I go to sleep to review the day and note what I am grateful for from the day. Honestly, when I started, for a few nights I couldn't come up with anything I was grateful for that day. That first saddened me, but then it bothered me. How could there be nothing that day I was grateful for? Sure, I could say I am grateful for being alive and healthy, for having a job, and for being married to someone I love and for my children. But that sounded corny, a bit of a cliche and too easy. I could use them every night. I am grateful for all those things every day, but it is harder and more important to probe deeper and

In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says, "Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself? The master doesn’t seek fulfillment. Not seeking, not expecting, she is present and can welcome all things.”

At the top of this page is the Tree of Contemplative Practices, which is a nice visual of seven branches of practices, that I found on the website for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

You can see that it ranges from quiet practices for stillness (sitting meditation; centering prayer) to movement (walking meditation; pilgrimage). These practices can be done alone, but most of them actually involve others (especially work and volunteering or storytelling), Some of these practices can produce tangible results. That might be music, art, a house, a sacred space, a journal or a dialog with someone.

I asked a co-worker this past week if she sets aside any time each day for conscious contemplation. She said that it was those ten minutes that would sip coffee while waiting for the train every morning. "What do you think about?" I asked. "Nothing. I stare mindlessly at the tracks."

I know that many teachers of meditation will encourage you to empty your mind, but the "mindless" nature of my co-worker's practice make me think it's not a contemplative practice.

You can add another level to an activity that seems mindless or just relaxing. For example, gardening is one of my favorite activities and I consider it to be a contemplative practice when I am conscious of an intention of cultivating awareness. I know someone who gardens as a way of developing a stronger connection with God. That's different from just gardening.

You can do it while sitting quietly, walking in the woods, watching a fire, gazing at the ocean waves or resting on the couch, but you have to move beyond the experience and the moment.