Meditate To Improve Your Presentations…And Your Life

Meditation is all the rage among thought leaders and business influencers. Executives and ambitious professionals have taken to heart the old Zen adage: You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day — unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour. 

The busy founders of Ebay, Twitter, Facebook, and PayPal are listed among the many enthusiastic participants of Wisdom 2.0, a series of events dedicated to helping people live with deeper wisdom, compassion, and awareness in the digital age.

For it’s hard-working workforce, Intel offers meditative activities that include lunchtime meditation sessions and mindfulness discussions, as well as Awake@Intel, a 9-week mindfulness program.

At Goldman Sachs, hundreds of employees are on a waiting list for the company’s meditation programs.

Google’s internal mindfulness course, Search Inside Yourself, reaches capacity within seconds of being listed among the enrichment opportunities.

meditation quote
Why are business professionals going nuts over meditation?

Recent scientific studies revealed what spiritual practitioners have known for centuries – meditation is good for you.

Meditation is proven to help with a long list of issues that plague the modern professional, however, stress is possibly the most costly ailment that meditation is known to remedy. The World Health Organization estimates stress costs U.S. companies at least $300 billion a year through absenteeism, turn-over and low productivity, according to the article Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit.

meditation for stress
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that practicing mindfulness meditation for only 20 minutes a day can improve attentiveness and decrease stress in less than a week. (source)

Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43 percent, suggesting an improvement in stress-induced aging. (source)

A 2009 UCLA study suggests that a long-term meditation practice can increase the size of the right frontal cortex and the hippocampus, areas of the brain associated with concentration, decision-making, and emotional stability. (source)

A 2005 study from Harvard Medical School found that meditation increases the thickness of your prefrontal cortex, a center of your brain associated with attention and self-awareness. (source)

A 2010 study from the University of California, Davis, found that meditation increases your attention span. (source)

In 2011, researchers from the University of Wisconsin demonstrated that daily meditation-like thought could shift frontal brain activity toward a pattern that is associated with what cognitive scientists call positive, approach-oriented emotional states — states that make us more likely to engage the world rather than to withdraw from it. (source)

A study published in Psychological Science claims meditation can help people focus their attention and sustain it — even during the most boring of tasks. (source)

job-related stress
What is the secret to successful meditation?

Mike Brooks, director of the Austin Psychology and Assessment Center, says our thoughts are like a river. When we’re thinking about what we need from the store, the river is calm, but when we’re having negative thoughts—worrying about a presentation, for example—the current becomes more turbulent. Mindful people—those who live in the present—can step back and stay on the riverbank, watching their current of thoughts and not getting swept away by their content. (source)

To become one of those people living on the metaphorical riverbank of life, in the now, you only need to practice mindfulness meditation for 15-20 minutes every day. (source)

For those few minutes of daily meditation, you can sit on a yoga mat and listen to your breath. Or, you can weave meditation into your daily routine by devoting your full attention to anything that is happening in the present moment, such as the sound of the wind in the trees, the warmth of the water as you wash the dishes, or the texture, scent or taste of a bite of food.

Brooks simplifies mindfulness meditation by explaining that the goal is not to empty the mind; the goal is to focus on one thing, and only one thing.

mindfulness for professionals
What does the sound of the wind have to do with presentations?

Presenters should be first in line to reduce stress because, as we all know, presentations are stress-inducing projects. Presentations force you to research, write, edit, design, edit again, memorize, rehearse, and then stand in the spotlight for potential scrutinization, just to name a few of the challenges.

Some of those presentation-related tasks might even be labeled boring so presenters will also benefit from the attention span boost that meditation provides.

In addition, if you ever feel shy, or want to withdraw from the limelight, your presence during presentations will improve by the brain activity shift towards approach-oriented emotional states.

Lastly, even the calm and confident presenter needs meditation too because great presentations usually lead to increased opportunities and responsibilities. If you’re about to deliver an award-winning presentation, start meditating now so you will be prepared to handle the stress of success.

Resources

Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute

Summary: Born at Google and based on brain science, SIY uses the practices of mindfulness to train Emotional Intelligence skills, leading to resilience, positive mindset, and centered leadership. In the midst of complexity, it’s about finding the inner capacity to create, to thrive, to lead. And it’s surprisingly fun. Backed by some of the world’s leading experts in neuroscience and mindfulness, SIY is changing thousands of lives in over a dozen countries.

Get a sneak peak with this video:

Whil

Summary: Billionaire Chip Wilson, founder and chairman of yoga-inspired athletic apparel company Lululemon, and his wife Shannon (formerly Lululemon’s lead designer) recently launched the whil initiative and website to convince professionals to meditate a few times a day in increments of just 60 seconds. (source)

How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains: Sara Lazar at TEDxCambridge 2011

Summary: Neuroscientist Sara Lazar’s amazing brain scans show meditation can actually change the size of key regions of our brain, improving our memory and making us more empathetic, compassionate, and resilient under stress.

Articles

In Silicon Valley, Meditation Is No Fad. It Could Make Your Career by Noah Shachtman

The Mindfulness Guide for the Super Busy: How to Live Life to the Fullest by Leo Babauta

5 Meditation Hacks for People Who Stink at Meditation by Jessica Stillman

Can You Meditate Your Way to Smarter Business Decisions? by Sigal Barsade, Ph.D. and Nancy Rothbard, Ph.D.

Mindfulness for People Who Are Too Busy to Meditate by Maria Gonzalez

Meditation Techniques for People Who Hate Meditation by Stephanie Vozza

To Make a Killing on Wall Street, Start Meditating by Katherine Burton and Anthony Effinger

Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit by Makiko Kitamura

From OM to OMG: Science, Your Brain, and the Productive Powers of Meditation by Belle Beth Cooper





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