Five easy mindfulness techniques to help you succeed – words Alexa Wang
It is easy to think of meditation as a waste of time or something to be done only if you had spare time on your hands.
But according to Tom Evans, author of The Authority Guide to Practical Mindfulness, when you get into the habit of meditating each day, even if just for 10 minutes, these easy mindfulness techniques will bring you real tangible benefits.
Here are Tom’s top five easy hacks as a result of bringing mindfulness into your life:
#Hack 1: Being Luckier
After just a few days spent meditating each morning, you will increase your ability to spot opportunities in your business.
Such serendipities happen all the time but we often fail to spot them when our mind is busy and over-active. The calmness we get from meditating leaks into our day and helps us zone in on the happenstances that can make our day.
The world around us mirrors our internal thought processes. If we think the world is out to get us, it has the tendency to do just that. If we harbour kind thoughts, the world and the people in our world reflect benevolence back to us.
#Hack 2: Being More Creative
We’re blessed with two minds in our head that operate in slightly different ways: The right brain tends to concern itself with the whole vision and learning new things. The left brain focuses on the detail and processing learned responses.
Regular meditation reduces the tendency for the two hemispheres to conflict with each other i.e. being in two minds about something; quite literally. When we enter the Whole Brain Thinking state, we become able to hold the whole vision and detail at the same time. This is a crucial skill for anyone working on a creative task.
#Hack 3: Creating More Time
The normal human mind is only capable of experiencing one thought at a time. So take a typical task; if you start to worry about what people will think of you’ve completed it your attention will drift from the task in hand. If your thoughts wander to a conversation you had wished you hadn’t had yesterday, your efficiency will drop too.
After a few weeks of practicing meditation, you will find you can stay in the meditative state with your eyes open, while working and creating. Meditation will help you gain a new level of control over thoughts that would previously have distracted you. Hence you become more productive.
#Hack 4: Becoming an Ideas Generator
Light bulb, or aha, moments are examples of thoughts that we pull out of the ether. They come from what is known as the collective consciousness.
We are only capable of having one thought at a time, so if our mind is consumed by internal dialogue and commentary, these external thoughts don’t get much of a look in.
If you are short of an idea and ask for some inspiration before you meditate, you will quickly find that by stilling your mind, it just shows up. Your next bright idea is just one meditation away.
#Hack 5: Becoming More Attractive
When we maintain a calm demeanour, it helps reduce tension around us. Worry lines drop away from your face. You, and your business become more attractive – in all senses of the word.
At the same time our attractiveness increases, we hone our ability to spot coincidences, as in Hack #1. People like working with creative people, so #Hack 2 kicks in. With more time on our hands, from #Hack 3, we have more time to be kind to ourselves and others which makes us even more attractive to be around. When we exercise #Hack 4, we become the ‘go to’ person for people who are short of ideas. The whole thing is cyclical and what goes around, comes around.
When all of this potential is available to us by investing 10 minutes of ‘me time’ each day, you can see why it’s a kind of madness not to meditate.
Tom Evans is the author of 12 books including The Authority Guide to Practical Mindfulness published by SRABooks. http://www.suerichardson.co.uk/product/the-authority-guide-to-practical-mindfulness/
Five easy mindfulness techniques to help you succeed – words Alexa Wang
