Transcendental meditation (often abbreviated as TM) is one of many meditation techniques. People use it to alleviate anxiety, manage their stress levels, and even keep their blood pressure in check.
You can already imagine that it would be helpful to anyone in the hectic corporate world. But what if you utilize it as a business strategy? Strange idea? It works! Even celebrities like the Beatles and billionaires like Ray Dalio have proven it.
What is transcendental meditation?
It’s a form of meditation that has a specific focus. Most popular meditation content nowadays talks about mindfulness meditation. That’s the practice of “clearing your mind of thoughts” by returning your attention to the present moment whenever you notice it wandering.
By contrast, TM has you pick a mantra and repeat it for a period of time. You do this silently, in your head. The mantras are usually single words or simple phrases or sentences. Everybody’s mantra of choice is different. You can choose one for yourself or be assigned one by an instructor if you opt to do a TM course.
What are the general benefits?
As we mentioned, transcendental meditation has several notable benefits, both for your physical and mental health.
Physically, TM helps with:
- lowering blood pressure
- improving heart health
- improving brain functioning
- combating Alzheimer’s disease
Mental health-wise, it has been shown to help with:
- various forms of anxiety
- depressive disorders
- attention-deficit disorder
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- general stress management
- addiction treatment
- improving resilience
- academic performance
- insomnia management and overall sleep quality
- improving self-confidence
How does it benefit your business?
The many various benefits we already listed can be easily translated into the corporate world. They become especially apparent in the startup scene, though. Starting your own business is a highly stressful endeavor, and you should grab any tool that will improve your chances of success.
Better creativity: When your mind is stress-free, ideas flow better. Meditation makes this flow an everyday occurrence. You can come up with better marketing campaigns, branding designs, catchy slogans etc. Putting together processes and writing up policies also becomes easier.
Decision making skills: Ever had to give a critically important answer in a high-stakes situation on a moment’s notice? As a business founder and operator, you will need to do plenty of that. A regular meditation practice improves your resilience to stress, which means you can make the best decisions in complex situations at any point.
People management: All company levels benefit from a level-headed leader. When you’re calm, you can foster much better interpersonal relations in the workplace. A peaceful leadership figure models good conflict resolution attitudes for managers and employees alike. Professional efficiency dramatically improves as a result. In addition, the work environment in general is healthier, more pleasant, and more conducive to teamwork and productivity.
These benefits extend to all aspects of running a business: financial planning, process optimization, marketing, troubleshooting, and relationships with your colleagues, business partners, employees, contractors, suppliers, distributors, and investors.
How to do it
Now that you have an idea of what transcendental meditation is and why it’s worth a shot, here is a brief guide on how to actually meditate this way. The technique itself is pretty simple. The recommended practice time is twice a day for 15 to 20 minutes.
Get comfortable and take a few relaxing breaths. Ideally, you should breathe through your diaphragm. Take stock of what’s going on in your head. Are you thinking about bills, excited for an event, anxious about whether your meditation will work, bored out of your mind?
Whatever you’re thinking is okay. Don’t engage with the thoughts, just notice them, like taking inventory. Then choose your mantra and play it on repeat. Focus on whatever sensations arise from doing so. If you’re worried about time, feel free to set yourself a timer or alarm before you start.
You can learn this kind of basic transcendental meditation on your own. Likewise feel free to use books, videos etc. If you want a more structured learning experience, look up a certified TM instructor. They can correct you along the way and optimize your practice.
Official courses last a minimum of four consecutive days. Your instructor will give you a mantra they think would be a good fit based on your personal characteristics. Traditionally, you’re not supposed to share it with anyone else.
People who meditate have better stress coping mechanisms, improved creativity, and better decision-making ability. This translates to improved interpersonal relations in the workplace, better rapport with various stakeholders, better planning and execution of different strategies and processes. TM specifically works by polishing your focus, which is an added bonus. It’s also easy to learn on your own, and doesn’t take up much time in your day.
In summary, transcendental meditation might sound like an unusual business strategy, but it undeniably works. By improving your own physical and mental condition, you improve your professional capabilities and consequently your business success.
