5 Must-Know Tips for Meditating at Work

It's three-fifteen PM, you're at your desk at work, and the afternoon slump hits you. 

Gravity is begging your head to lay down for just a five-minute nap, but you can't. What do you do to cope? You can't leave until five; you have some emails and a project to tackle before you're free. You could run to the snack machine for a crinkly bag of chips, sneak some mindless Instagram scrolling, or...meditate?

As eccentric as it may seem, bringing meditation practice into the workplace is gaining traction as an antidote for workplace stress and stress-related illness. And it may even ramp up productivity, studies show. 

Meditating at work for Health and Productivity

It's no secret these days that stress carries severe implications for our health. The National Institutes of Health point out that while short-term experiences of stress are natural and have their place in survival and biological function, long-term or chronic stress can eat away at our health over time in several ways. After acute stressful situations, our body naturally regains homeostasis. But if you are chronically stressed for days, weeks, or even years (at a dead-end or high-pressure job, for instance), your body is continually living under a hormonal emergency protocol-this is a recipe for burnout or disease.

Licensed professional counselor Matthew Jones frequently recommends his clients to meditate at work. Jones points out that meditation, even for short periods, clears the mental space of clutter, worry, and confusion. With a grounded nervous system and a calm but focused mind, productivity improves, and so does life satisfaction.   

The following are five diverse approaches to get you started meditating at work;

1) Meditation in Hindi:  Hindi meditations are among the most powerful mantras in the world for building energies like peace, compassion, and awareness into your internal atmosphere. Specifically, the use of meditation in Hindi using ancient spiritual mantras could support your spiritual development while you place focus on your professional life as well.

Two of the most famous and well-loved Hindi mantras include the Om Shanti mantra and the Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya mantra.  Mantras are sacred and energetically active statements, usually originating from ancient holy texts. When repeated, the sounds and meaning of the mantras activate spiritual abilities in the one chanting them.  

Om Shanti (often chated as 'Om Shanti Shanti Shanti') is an invocation of peace. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya is a 12-syllable liberation mantra. Don't let yourself be overwhelmed by these Sanskrit phrases. Many youtube videos can provide the audio of these mantras for you with some calm-inducing music in the background. To try meditation in Hindi, pick a recording of one that calls to you and listen while breathing deeply and releasing stress. To practice at work:

• Grab your headphones and start your meditation audio.
• Start the track as you take some deep calming breaths, centering your mind.
• Repeat the mantra of your choice for at least five minutes, or whatever you have time for.
• After you end your session, turn off your music and stop your mantra repetitions.
• Take a few minutes to tune into your body and surrounding to sense any changes and savor the experience.

2) Joe Dispenza Meditation-  By presenting a compelling mosaic of scientific disciplines, Dr. Joe Dispenza, a chiropractor, offers life-altering meditations.  His books and workshops give mindset transformation techniques drawing on neuroscience, quantum physics, genetics, and more.

Dr. Dispenza's walking meditation will be a great option if you enjoy a quick walk on your lunch break to get some fresh air and stretch your limbs. He explains, "The walking meditation is a great way for us to begin to not only embody our future while living in the present moment but to start practicing living in that energy."

Steps Joe Dispenza meditation are:

• Anchoring into the heart center 
• Generating positive emotional states to tap into a new way of being
• Then walking to bring that energy into our future

3) Manifestation Meditation:  In the workplace, we commonly focus our attention on acquisition, success, and innovation. For this reason, manifestation meditation is the perfect complement to your workday- you can calm your mind, boost your productivity, and focus on your goals and dreams simultaneously.

Manifestation meditation is using the power of your thoughts to focus your dreams and intentions into reality. The concept for this style of practice stems from the understanding that 'thoughts are things.' In other words, even an invisible thought produces a vibration, and everything-including physical manifestations- is made up of energy waves. We live in a universe of energy.

To begin this style of meditation, follow these simple steps:

• Identify very clearly what your goal or vision entails- clarify your intention.
• Close your eyes and center into your body. Ground yourself through the base of your spine or soles of your feet into the earth.
• Take some deep, soothing breaths allowing thoughts to flow as they may.
• In your mind's eye, pull up the vision of what you want to manifest. Focus on bringing in the emotions that correspond to that reality manifesting, as if it is already happening.
• Your thoughts may wander; keep gently bringing them back to your goal or desire.
• Continue for 5-10 minutes.

The beautiful thing about this meditation style is that you can do your journaling and intention-setting during your off time and then take 5 minutes while on lunch or a break to practice your manifestation meditation at work.

4) Meditation Positions:  We've already covered how to include walking meditation into your workweek, but not everyone has access to a walking space or enough time to get out and about. Still, movement throughout the day safeguards your physical vitality by encouraging circulation, suppleness of muscle and connective tissues, and oxygenations. You'll return to your desk refreshed and ready to conquer any task.

So, how can you incorporate meditation positions into your workday? The most straightforward approach is to try some mid-day yoga. Though the Western obsession with yoga has morphed it into something more akin to a workout, the original intention was very focused on spiritual wholeness. For our purposes, it will encompass both. To keep it simple, going through a sun salutation works like magic. You can mind plenty of videos showing how to go through the Sun Salutation sequence on youtube.  

The following poses can be done quickly beside your desk and provide mind-body benefits:

• Forward fold:  Beginning standing with your back straight and arms relaxed. Take a slight bend at the knee (don't lock your knees), then with a sweeping motion of your arms, hinge at the waist until your chest is resting on the fronts of your legs and your fingertips touch the floor- or as close as you possibly can. Let the tension melt off your shoulders, head, and neck.
• Cat-Cow: In this energizing sequence, you will alternate between two positions. You will need to be on your hands and knees with a flat back and neutral spine. To perform cat pose, arch your back, making your belly hollow and let your neck move with the rest of your spine. Follow with the cow pose, which is the opposite. Drop and relax your belly, allowing your shoulders blades to retract and your tailbone to point upward. Again, keep your neck aligned with your spine. Alternate smoothly between these two poses for a couple of minutes.  
• Downward Dog: You can begin by standing upright, then move into a forward fold. From there, walk your hands forward, keeping them on the floor until your hands and feet are about 3 feet apart. Your back should remain flat with your neck neutrally aligned to your spine. This pose provides a stretch for your hamstrings and shoulders.

5) Meditation Crystals: Perhaps one of the simplest ways to bring mindfulness and fresh energy into your workplace is by incorporating crystals into your office and routine. Whether you work remotely or in a cubicle, placing charged crystals in your professional space can help keep your focus positive and the energy clean.

Crystals often do their best work when holding and magnifying our intentions. Whether your goals are work-related or not, consider programming them into a quartz cluster or other stone. When you bring the stone to work, it will be a placeholder for that vision, reminding and supporting your efforts. Here's how to program a crystal with your desires:

• Cleanse the crystal. If you're not sure how burying it in the earth for the night works for all types of minerals.
• Ask the crystal if it will hold your intention for you. Wait until you find a stone that you feel is willing to work with you.
• Follow the manifestation meditation steps listed above.
• As you follow the steps, hold your crystal to your third eye, intending that the emotions, images, and intentions of your goal be transferred to the stone.
• Bring the stone to your workplace and let it continually signal your intentions to the universe.

This technique is friendly if you are iffy about doing movement meditation at the workplace or simply don't have time for a formal meditation session. Having the crystal nearby can help keep you aligned with your grander life visions. Then, when you do have time for a quick meditation at work, you can use the crystal anytime. Simply sit in a comfortable position with the crystal in your hands or held to your third eye and re-affirm your intentions while you focus on breathing.