Bust stress at work with meditation

Recently I was suffering from allergic cold and my doctor prescribed anti-allergic tablets. After taking it at night, it practically turned me into a zombie the next day. This continued and I knew this wasn’t working (those of you who know me must be thinking that this is my own venture and I could just put my head down or my legs up and catch a snooze).

Now I’ve been a fan of meditation ever since my sister introduced me to Yoga Nidra. It really helped me to sleep at night. Meditation came to my rescue again here. I tried a 5 minute meditation video and it really worked. I felt refreshed and calm and ready to start work. That’s when I had a realisation. We don’t ‘start’ work when we physically reach work, it starts in our minds a long time before. If you are like me, you must be starting this around 4 a.m. in the morning. Often my sleep breaks and then I drift into a semi sleep, semi office ninja mode. This continues till it is time to roll out of bed and the morning routine starts. I still find myself thinking about work all through-out - my work-out, loo time (of course right?) and dropping the kids off to school.

When I finally reach work, I’m in a bit of a frenzy. Where to start, whom to call, what tasks to prioritise? I discovered this was the perfect moment to meditate. Now I’ve been doing it every day just for a few minutes. It really helps me to calm down and more importantly, center myself. It reminds me that if I’m able to take out time for meditation, I can do my tasks also in an appropriate time.

I use different videos from YouTube, I just make sure they are less than 5 minutes long. I tried Headspace too. A good tip they give is to try and make a habit out of it (like brushing teeth). This again made sense to me because I figured morning time was good when there are less people and less action. On days you are really tired, you could do a longer video (20 minutes or so). That would be better than fighting sleep during a meeting or a presentation.

So try this and remember the key elements –finding a suitable time, keeping it short, using a video which involves deep breathing and centres oneself. Bust that stress and be productive and happy at work. Cheers.