Meditation to Enhance Business Intuition

Integrating Business & Spirit with Martin Brossman

A friend once said, “When I meditate regularly it makes a profound difference in my life, which is why I stopped.” He was both joking and honest, pointing to the ease at which we can drop out of habits that support our lives. I have been meditating first thing each morning, for the most part, since 1985. I have also done multiple weekend meditation retreats, 4-day “sits” and even a 10-day “noble sit” (total silence) which was a humbling experience. Over this time I have seen a clear effect of enhanced intuition and clarity when I practice meditation regularly. It helps me as a success coach to pick up subtle things about my clients. It is also easier to keep a perspective on what is most important to focus on and makes it easier to spot any of my own biases in business so they don't influence me.

I have very specific opinions of what meditation is and is not. To me meditation is NOT concentration or forcing your attention to be held on one place. Meditation is not visualizing a peaceful place and imagining yourself there. Meditation is NOT imagining your day going perfectly. Meditation is NOT something you do walking or lying down. Meditation is NOT talking or praying to God. Meditation is NOT something that requires you to sit in a painful way. These can all be good experiences and add to your life, but I do not define them as meditation.

My concept of effective meditation comes from working with people I perceive as masters and my own years of experience. It involves sitting upright and ‘witnessing your existence' with eyes closed. It is a process of being still and letting the thoughts and feelings bubble through you. It is a dance of your thoughts and feelings and then becoming aware of yourself and gently returning your awareness to a point on your body, a mantra (often given by a teacher) or your breath. You may experience many thoughts and feelings. I view thoughts as something you need to move through you as you practice meditation, gently letting go of the thought or feeling. This process brings your attention back to the point at which you gain more insight on what is going on inside your body / mind rather being controlled by it. The best way to describe how to ‘hold the point' is in a relaxed and not firm condition. As for the points you return back to—there are two points in the physical body and I invite you to experiment with them. One is the classic point, about the center of the forehead. Another point of profound result is your center of balance, which is about two inches below your navel. If you have ever studied serious sports or dance you know this is the most powerful place to move from. Aikido also instructs you to move from this point referred to as the “hara” or “one point.” The other issue is noticing your breath—being aware of your “breath-breathing-you.” In addition, sitting upright in a chair not only gives you good posture and support, it allows the body and mind to remain alert and present.

I recommend you start meditating as little as a few minutes and work your way up to 20 to 30 minutes. Of course meditating twice a day is better and once a day is good—preferably two hours after eating or before. Falling asleep may occur when you start, usually a sign of not getting sufficient rest. In this case you may want to start your practice just before bedtime and then go to sleep. If you think of things you want to write down, just wait until you are done meditating.

Results start to show in about a month or so. One of the most common is thinking about someone who suddenly shows up, or you call them and find out it was important to contact them. You may notice that you become less reactive, keeping things in perspective with less effort. The effects of meditation move at a gradual rate that you can handle. As you master it you will receive the bonus of increased intuition, a real competitive advantage.

When I first began meditation I asked about its relationship to activity, and my instructor explained: “Meditation is like the way Indigo has been dyed into cloth so it does not easily fade again. You dye the white linen in the Indigo, and then you expose it to the sun to fade it. You die it again and again exposing it to the sun to fade, continuing the process again and again. Eventually the linen stops fading and remains even in the presence of bright sun." The meditation analogy to the dyeing of Indigo and the sun is much like the challenges of every day life. We need both to grow. My intention is that you find meditation a tool to make you more creative, insightful and resilient.

Email Martin Brossman at martin@coachingsupport.com, (919) 847-4757 or visit CoachingSupport.com where you can find his article “Vipassana Mediation VS. Martin Brossman.”