Work metrics for personal health?
Performance review is a term I’m familiar with, having been in, and serving the corporate world for my whole tech career. You know the drill: at least once a year, you meet your manager to document your contributions before you got graded. As management, the business evaluates whether it hit revenue, profitability and other KPI goals. When successful, everyone hopes for a pay increment, a bonus and/or even a promotion.
Meditation is not like that. We don’t meditate and then evaluate if our practice was good or bad. If you expect to attain peace and relaxation from attending a meditation class, you will be rating your experience poorly. In my decade of guiding meditation sessions, the majority reported experiencing moments of profound stillness, not remembering any thought they knew they had, or feeling so relaxed that they fell into deep meditative states. By not chasing after the very end state they desire, the practise gifts them the very thing they need.
Befriending our minds
One technique I teach in class is the classical Awareness of Breath. As participants pay attention to the Breath Anchor, they experience that their mind wanders off on its own; we all do. When practitioners realise they have forgotten to focus, that is a sweet spot of mindfulness. “I know where I am, I know what’s happening. Do I return back to focusing on my Breath Anchor?” The technique gently invites you to return back to the observer’s seat, untangling yourself from a thought or a distraction.
There’s a calm and neutral part of you that can just witness things as they are, hanging out with whatever is unfolding. As you consider what meditation can offer you, it will be useful to frame your journey as one of befriending your mind. In holding this “end goal” lightly, we cultivate cognitive awareness. And from this seat of witnessing, we develop the ability to remain grounded amid arising thoughts and experiences, even those that are unpleasant. It can even be useful during your actual work-related performance reviews.
“Being at peace with not feeling peaceful.”
– Dave Potter, MBSR instructor
Next steps: Experience more intentional moments of awareness by attending a public class, or arrange for a private session. What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness?
