Motivated Meditation: Avoiding Burnout and Establishing Inspiration

While meditation has been presented as many different things and in many different ways, I have yet to see a fairly comprehensive presentation of how understanding and practicing meditation can benefit the small business owners who are so important to our society.  In this article, I will avoid writing about the obstacles to such an understanding and presentation so as to get right to the meat of the subject.

Depending on presentation and functional fit, meditation can be seen as mostly a distraction or as simply a different subject than business, but I don't believe it is necessary to separate mental health, a feeling of internal balance, and intentional clarity from one's business.  Because of the unique situations small business owners have created for themselves, they are both more likely than average to be inspired by their work and also more likely to face sustained difficulties, significant flexibility and confusion, and personal disappointment largely on their own.  In other words, their personal success is often more significantly dependent on networking and an individual ability to sustain intentional activity through adverse conditions over a long period of time.  While most of us know to look towards those moments of inspiration, there are specific ways of fostering and sustaining inspiration that are not all that familiar.  Since there are many excellent comments on this site about how to deal with the circumstances outside of one's body and intention, I will focus on internal circumstances and the techniques that directly affect concentration and motivation.

In the same way that hatha yoga prepares one's body and mind for sustained periods of seated meditation, keeping oneself physically fit is a strong basis for consistent concentration.  Meditation can be understood most broadly as "balance", and balance begins with good sleep, a reasonable diet, minimal usage of alcohol and caffeine, etc.  We've all felt the difference between hectic schedules that push us to be our best and those crazy-hectic schedules that keep us from sleeping well, eating well, and exercising.  A healthy body is fundamental; healthy relationships and emotions in general are fundamental.

Beyond the basics, though, things can seem pretty complicated.  In the same way that we want to organize business and personal goals by distinguishing what needs to be addressed immediately from what needs to be done soon from long-term goals, we can have a sense of meditation and its benefits based on what can occur immediately, what builds by daily investment, and what can occur over a long period of time.  We are lucky to live at a time when neuroscience is helping to delineate these effects.

In the immediate moment--right now--it is possible to have significant effects on one's internal experience by mixing cognitive psychology (such as noticing and debating negative belief styles), physical techniques, and attention to detail (such as choosing to breathe deeply).  Most often, when we feel anxious or rushed, one of the best things we can do for ourselves is step out of that feeling.  The question is how, and effective answers will depend largely on the total situation.  But we can introduce simplicity to the process by recognizing and practicing what works for ourselves--for me.

When people have trouble concentrating in any given moment, getting to where we want to be (usually, focused and effective) involves: first, an awareness of whatever is troubling us rather than mentally avoiding whatever we find dissatisfyng; second, a feeling of acceptance or openness rather than judgmental rejection of where we're at; and third, intelligent action that addresses problems or moves us along with a sense of progress.  To rephrase, we're looking for a way to step out of a frustrating or ineffective internal state by noticing it, accepting the situation for what it is, and doing something effective about it.  Because we are dealing with mental and emotional processes that happen in terms of milliseconds, sometimes it is easier to understand how this process can occur--theoretically--than it is to actually make it occur or allow it to occur.

The ability to concentrate is the most basic aspect of meditation and effective action in general.  The most basic way to concentrate one's mind is to intentionally change something about one's body.  So tensing and relaxing muscles works even when just telling oneself to calm down mentally does not.  Tensing then relaxing is much more effective than just trying to relax.  Holding one's breath is the most basic way of using breath to concentrate one's mind, and breathing deeply is very effective for relaxing.

If we practice any of these techniques before we get into really challenging situations, they are more likely to work for us in those challenging situations.  Now, since it won't always be appropriate to make fists and tense your shoulders while holding your breath before a long, intentional exhale, it's helpful to have multiple techniques in your repertoire.  While techniques relate in terms of subtlety from muscle control to breath control to mind (so it's easiest for beginners to control their muscles then breathing then mind), it may be socially most appropriate for us to use changes in mind.  One option is to find a mantra or a question that invites a sense of serenity or openness.  If mind is like sky, how big is mind?  Ask that some time when you are sitting at a traffic light, frustrated because you are in a rush.  Let your shoulders and hands tense and then relax as you exhale slowly.  Neuroscience tells us that, as you exhale slowly, your amygdala (which is part of your limbic/arousal/emotional system) is actually telling the rest of your brain it's okay to calm down.

If we practice deep breathing for twenty minutes a day OR if we can remember to take even one deep breath about twelve times a day, our brains will literally begin restructuring.  (If you're busy learning new business skills, you may be interested in Jeffrey Scwartz's work on "neuroplasticity" in THE MIND AND THE BRAIN.  Your brain will be on your side if you can practice your new skills for an hour at a time, especially on the first day.)  The techniques which might work in the immediate situation will be bolstered by any beneficial practice that we work on consistently.  In other words, finding a daily practice will satisfy that middle range concerning time.

But there is also really good news concerning long-term development.  In Elkhonon Goldberg's book, THE WISDOM PARADOX, he explains how our brains are wired for developing towards our selves becoming more "open-ended, open-minded".  We are at a time in world history where we are starting to recognize and scientifically prove how mindfulness is the personal and neurological basis of consistent inspiration.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote an influential book on optimal performance called FLOW in the early 1990s, and the field of psychology in general has since been working towards how to enter flow states, being "in the zone",  consistently rather than sporadically.

For those of us with somewhat hectic lives, the good news is that we do not have to set aside separate time periods for daily investment in psychological health and development (although this can be very helpful).  It has long been said that experience is the best teacher; we are capable of building a sense of equanimity and inspiration by daily focusing in a mindful manner while doing the things we already do.  Mindfulness, which is a balance between concentration and relaxation, is the basis for consistent--rather than sporadic--inspiration.  If we recognize that this is the case, we can intentionally build these skills and qualitites or feelings into our daily lives.  The key lies in figuring out how all the science, equanimity, and inspiration can be built into our individual, everyday lives.

Just as we all have learned how to recognize and then practice new "business" skills, we can learn to recognize and practice attentional skills.  Concentration is most basic, intentional relaxation fits with what many people are looking for right now, and mindfulness follows relaxation (in a neurological-developmental sense).  If mindfulness can be stripped of unnecessary religious overtones, we can see it as the basis for consistent inspiration.  So inspiration is like happiness in that we are more likely to be happy by setting up a good context for happiness rather than trying directly for happiness.  If we do the work that it takes to build mindfulness into our repertoires, we set the context for mental clarity and consistent inspiration.  There are many ways of breaking down attentional abilities into applicable and personal "manageable chunks".  The key lies in finding what works for you.