Let’s face it — we all want to lounge in the sun all day on a beach in Hawaii. But we just can’t, we have to go to work and go head to head with stressors that follow the daily grind coming from corporate America.

A survey done by the American Psychological Association found that one-third of employees experience chronic stress related to work.

Meditation is leading the way as a potent tool that could potentially help out. It’s becoming a legitimate pushup for the brain. I don’t care if you call it meditation, mindfulness, deep breathing, or chillin’ time. It works — the scientific evidence is here.

Some of the brightest minds from Harvard, Stanford, University of Wisconsin, and Yale are coming to the conclusion that meditation is an incredible tool for your health.

Here are six reasons why the practice should be embraced in corporate America.

1. It’s been shown to help people stay focused in high-stress environments.

When we get stressed, it attacks are focus, we can’t concentrate. If we can’t concentrate, we can’t get things done. This happens to everyone who experiences stress — why not give meditation a try?

2. It could lower stress.

A little stress is good for us, too much and it becomes are enemy. It’s currently wreaking havoc on corporate America — it is estimated that American business lose up to $300 billion a year because of stress, according to the American Psychological Association. There’s evidence to suggest that meditation may help lower the stress hormone cortisol.

3. It works, even when you’re not meditating.

Similar to working out at the gym, there’s evidence to suggest that meditation works even when you’re not meditating. Why not do some meditation right before you go to work? This will help you have a balanced and clear mind throughout the day.

4. It lets us know our blind spots.

We all have internal blind spots that we could work on to help improve the quality of our lives. A study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science showed how mindfulness helped people to look internally at their true selves. We can use mindfulness in a productive way to manage our emotional states.

5. It could help you become more compassionate.

Wouldn’t it be better to start your day off by working on cultivating a positive attitude? What if you went to work wishing for the people around you to be happy? This would influence not only your work life, but every area of your life. Meditation has been shown to make people more compassionate.

6. It may improve sleep quality.

A lot of times the reason we are unproductive at the workplace is because we didn’t sleep well. One meditation study is showing that it may improve our quality of sleep. Why not do some during your lunch break?

Meditation is the new American pushup for the brain, it’s a tool that helps us check in with ourselves throughout the day. It’s a practice that should be embraced by all American corporations as a way to stay calm, focused, and productive through the day.

I like happiness a lot. I look at all the latest scientific evidence on the subject, I study it in myself. I try to engage with as many people as possible who are happy. I exercise because I love the happiness feeling that you get when you’re done. But out of all the possible ways to happiness, in my opinion meditation practices are the best. I practice a lot of different practices such as sitting, standing, reclining and moving meditation.

I love all the amazing scientific research that has come out in the last few decades about meditation. But, I think the real noble prize and future of science is looking into energy fields that interact with the mind and body. Now, this might fall under quantum mechanics or some other scientific model that has not yet been discovered.

In the West, we like to look at our mind like a machine, rather than an ocean like several Eastern traditions think of it as. To get to the extreme states of bliss that are talked about in the east we need to focus our mind in our belly and also understand that our mind is an energy field.

I was fortunate enough to meet to some truly incredible Traditional Chinese Medical doctors and meditators.They don’t look at the mind as a machine, they look at it as an energy field. The practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine and meditators I met view this energy field as the underlining mechanism that beats our heart, grows our hair and works with the brain and body to produce consciousness.

Buddha in the Heart Sutra said, “Form does not differ from the void, and the void does not differ from form. Form is void and void is form.” According to Buddhism and Taoism, everything in the world is made from one substance called “emptiness.” What Western scientists call matter, particles and atoms all come from this “emptiness” energy field.

Several thousand years ago Lao Tzu said that a leader should be, “stuffing people’s bellies.” Meaning bringing your mind to your stomach to cultivate and strengthen the energy within your body. In Zen Buddhism, they say you should bring your mind to your “Hara.”

In both of these traditions, they would say a real person acts from there “Dan Tien” or “Hara.” Taoist monks would have all types of meditative techniques to control the energy in the body because they wanted longevity and happiness. They believed that if the energy was just in the head, it would be wasted and exhausted from the continues rumination of our thoughts.

Taoist are like scientists of the mind, body and universe — they recognized that the umbilical cord connects to the mother in birth. They made several observations and developed the technique of meditating from the stomach. You don’t have to have any religious beliefs, to understand energy. But the journey begins in the belly.

In Taoist meditation theory, your imagination works as the gateway towards understanding your “Dan Tien.” First you visualize it in your stomach and then it becomes an actual real substantial feeling. According to Taoist theory, as we grow up we lose this connection to the Dan Tien that we once had as a baby. Meditation reconnects us back to it. You don’t have to have any kind of religious belief in it. It’s not an accident that Western science is starting to understand a second brain in the stomach.

1. Place your attention in your stomach region.

2. Start to visualize a small point below your belly button.

3. As you inhale feel you belly fill up.

4. As you exhale let the belly contract.

So if you’re having a rough day take a few moments to bring your attention to your belly. When you sit down to do some meditation try to continually bring your focus to the stomach region. Eventually after a period of time it will become easier and easier.

With all the scientific evidence coming out in the past several years, meditation is becoming something that can’t be overlooked. As anyone who’s ever played a sport knows, the biggest opponent is always inside. Meditation gives you ways to come to terms with this opponent.

It doesn’t matter what sport you play, any athlete can benefit from the positive benefits of meditation. Meditation research on athletic performance is still very much in its infancy. However, meditation has been shown to help in other areas that could relate to athletic performance.

Every professional coach in the world should be looking at the thousands of studies that have shown the effectiveness of meditation. Phil Jackson, one of the all-time winning coaches in the NBA, has been using meditation for years with his players — he won 11 NBA championships.

Here are a few reasons why every athlete should consider the practice.

1. It helps you focus.

Your focus will determine if you win or lose a game. When you’re at the free throw line, and you’re not focused, you may miss the shot. Why not train your mind to focus? Meditation has been shown to increase states of focus within the brain. Every athlete, no matter what sport they are playing, could work on bettering their focus.

2. It helps you cope with pain.

There’s an old cliché around professional athletes that no matter what, they’re always dealing with some sort of pain. High endurance sports do a number to your body. Meditation has been shown to help people cope with pain.

3. It helps you deal with fear.

Fears can hijack our minds from the present moment; this can lead to so many errors in sports. Meditation has been shown to help calm the fear center of the brain known as the amygdala even when you’re not meditating. This information alone is worth millions of dollars to a professional athlete.

4. It strengthens your immune system.

An athlete cannot afford to be sick; if they’re sick they can’t play. Athletes are always looking at various ways to avoid becoming sick, why not trying meditation? Meditation has been shown to strengthen our immune system.

5. It reduces our mind from ruminating.

Ever lose a game, miss the game winning shot? Fail hard? We all do. Sometimes it becomes hard to bounce back; we run obsessive thoughts through our mind. Meditation has been shown to reduce rumination; mediation will essentially help us reset are mind to focus on the present.

6. It makes you resilient.

The greatest athletes in the world are the most resilient; meditation has been shown to help out in this area. Everyone knows you have to fail over and over again until you succeed. Meditation helps you detach yourself from the negative thoughts that keep you from achieving your goals.

7. It reduces stress.

Athletes are always under stress. They pride themselves on the ability to be in a high stress environment. Why not embrace a practice that has been shown to reduce stress? Incorporating a little bit of meditation before the game could help.

8. It helps to stabilize emotions.

One study showed that people with more mindful traits are better able to stabilize their emotions and have better control over their moods. The competitive nature of all athletes causes them to have to deal with a roller coaster of different emotions. Why not embrace meditation and uses mindfulness throughout the game?

9. It helps with sleep.

One night of lost sleep could lose a championship; quality sleep is one of the most valuable things every athlete should have. Meditation has been shown to improve our quality of sleep.

10. It helps us to see our blind spots.

Athletes train over and over again to perfect their craft. It’s one of the reasons why coaches exist; they are able to help you to see your blind spots. Our blinds sports cause us not to perform well, and meditation has been shown to help recognize our blind spots. By recognizing these blind spots, we can work on becoming better.

Meditation could be that extra edge that helps you win the game-winning point or helps you go the extra mile when you think you can’t. Why not incorporate it into your training regime? It just might make you a better athlete.

(Sources: If you click on shown and/or showed it will take you to the source.)

Half of America exercises at least three or more times a week. I’m not sure why at least half of Americans don’t do meditation, considering the benefits. America is one of the most resilient countries in the world; the DNA of this country is made up of people that took risks and came from all over the world. I think Americans need to adopt a practice that’s been shown to increase resilience and compassion.

Why is everyone in America not using a tool that may make you more compassionate, resilient, kind, and happy?

One thing I noticed enormously from the time I started meditation is that the practice has made me a happier and more compassionate person. I’m not perfect, and I’m sure there are people out there who think I’m not compassionate at all, and they are entitled to their opinion. But the reality is it’s something I consciously work on because of meditation.

I grew up in a culture where most of my guy friends are alpha males who love sports, and work in corporate America. They like to joke around and greet each other with a series of insults. Anyone who observes this would think that it is a comedy show. Now this is not good or bad, this is just a part of the subculture. If you ever go into a locker room of football players in the NFL, you might see a similar subculture.

If you would have heard the jokes that were made about me doing meditation, then you would understand where I’m coming from. Outside of the mindfulness and yoga communities in America, meditation is still not mainstream.

I admire Dr. Richard Davidson for his pioneering research in the area of meditation. I think programs like the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at University of Wisconsin-Madison are causing a ripple effect on bringing meditation to the masses. Or the work that Congressman Tim Ryan is doing with promoting the positive effects of meditation.

I think the millions of Americans who exercise should be meditating before and after they jump on the treadmill. Why is this not possible? They adopted an iPod into their workout. They should be meditating before work, and they should be doing some meditation during their lunch break to stay focused.

Ten years from now, this practice is going to be seen as just like doing a push-up.

Here are four ways to make the practice a part of your life:

1. At Work

Come up with various ways to incorporate meditation into your work schedule, whether it’s before, during, or after work. Try to bring your attention to your breathing whenever you feel stressed out, this can be done at any time throughout the day. Another option would be do it at your lunch break.

2. Before You Exercise

I find meditation to be immensely beneficial to be used before exercising. If you’re a runner, try to do at least 10 to 15 minutes of meditation right before you run. Then you can make your run a moving meditation.

3. Right When You Wake Up

If you do meditation right when you wake up in the morning, it will impact every area of your life. Try to do a few minutes of meditation every morning before you start your day.

4. Schedule a Five-Day Challenge

Make a commitment today that you are going to do meditation every day for the next five days straight. Meditation is like anything else — once you get over the initial difficulties, like trying to focus your mind, it becomes easy.

The pushup has been a standard part of being American. If you grow up in America and go to school, one of the first things you’re taught in gym class is how to do a pushup. Millions of Americans do pushups before work, during their lunch break, and at the gym. Because of pushups, we’ve mastered getting ripped pectorals, deltoids, and triceps.

However, we’ve done horrible at managing stress.

Stress costs American businesses around $300 billion a year. Stress is one of the most common long-term absences in the workplace. NBC’s chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, recently said: “Stress is a huge factor when we look at medical problems such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiac disease.”

Millions of people in America are paying for an overstressed lifestyle: More than 25 million American suffer from diabetes, and some 74 million have high blood pressure. Stress shrinks our brains, may cause depression, and people who are stressed have higher risk for a stroke.

Several of my friends are driven business-savvy men and women with Type A personalities; they like to tease me about how I do meditation. Until one day, on a Friday night one of them pulled me aside and said, “Hey, I have really bad stress problems. Can you tell me about meditation?” He wasn’t the first of my friends to do this; I’ve heard the same line from a few of them. I stopped over at one of my friend’s house, who lives in an expensive high rise in Chicago and works 100 hours week. When he opened the door, he was grinding his teeth, and looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. My first words were, “Stressed out?” He responded, “Yeah, terribly stressed.”

This seems to be the culture of America; everything is go, go, go! No wonder the majority of heart attacks in America is on Monday morning. Another guy I know had band aids on his thumbs, from typing so many emails on his BlackBerry keyboard. He types more than 100 emails a day on the thing — the skin on his thumbs were actually peeling off. He was so stressed; it was difficult just to have a conversation with him.

It seems like this fable of The Lion and Gazelle is installed into the psyche of American culture, “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle — when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

We don’t have to live like this; we can still be successful and relaxed at the same time if we incorporate meditation into our culture. There’s nothing wrong with a culture full of ambitious men and women; I just want to see more people relax.

I teach meditation to a lot of very wealthy Type A personalities, and one of the things I see with Type As is a lot of them have forgotten how to breathe. The first thing I teach them is to breathe naturally.

Simple mindful breaks throughout the day will do wonders to the culture as a whole. If we all looked at our breathing and checked in with ourselves throughout the day, we would feel a lot better.

Here’s a simple meditation that anyone can do.

1. Find a comfortable place to sit in a chair, close your eyes, bring your awareness to your breathing.

2. Take a deep inhale.

3. Exhale out.

4. Again inhale, bring your attention to all the feelings in your body in a non-judgmental way.

5. Exhale out, focusing on all the feelings in your body in a non-judgmental way.

6. Repeat those steps above. As you progress, work on bringing your breathing to its natural state.

7. Then, open your eyes and carry that feeling with you for the rest of your day.

America is a culture that loves to win. If Americans want to continue to win, they better figure out a way to incorporate meditation into their schedule. Because as the statistics show, stress is cleaning house. To continue winning we have to incorporate meditation into our culture. Meditation is the new pushup.

Stress is an obnoxious thing. If not managed, it can derail your career, love life, and compromise your brainpower. It saps your energy, causes you to do irrational things, and even makes you stupid. To do away with this feeling, we do all types of irrational behaviors, such as swear at our coworkers, and eat an obscene amount of junk food.

Most of this stress comes from the annoying chatter in our minds, which is filled with worries, doubts, fears, and other nonsense. What most people are searching for when they indulge in irrational behaviors is a feeling — they want a quick-fix good feeling. There’s nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence of our favorite junk food. The problem is when these behaviors become addictions.

Instead of engaging in these behaviors, why don’t we use two of the greatest tools in the world to reduce stress — meditation and laughter? Both of these activities open your mind, clear away stressful feelings, and help you engage with people more effectively.

One study showed that just by seeking out experiences that make us laugh, we can lower our stress hormones. Meditation is a tool to become more conscious of the feeling of laughter that is within us. Once we come to know this emotion, we can learn to utilize it in our relationships throughout the day. Why not practice cultivating this emotion every day in meditation?

Meditation can essentially be seen as emotional weight-lifting for the mind. If we do meditation in the morning and focus on the feeling of laughter, then we can carry that feeling throughout the day. A lot of people say that when they do meditation, they feel an incredible sense of calm and happiness. But then they go through a stressful day at the workplace and they lose this feeling.

I think if we learn to hold onto the feeling of laughter inside our body, then we can interpret the world in a much more fulfilling and stress-free way. The Dalai Lama, in his book  My Spiritual Journey, said, “I am a professional laugher. I have been confronted with many difficulties throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. When people ask me how I find the strength to laugh now, I reply that I am a professional laugher.”

What if we were to carry that same attitude throughout our day? Could you imagine how much it would improve our day? What if you went to work every day with the attitude, “I wish for everyone I meet today to find humor in their lives.” This type of training could be incorporated throughout your entire day. If you find yourself stressed out in the middle of the day, try to bring your attention back to your breathing, then work on bringing a feeling of laughter to the surface.

Laughter Meditation

Find a comfortable place to sit. Bring your attention to your breathing; watch your breath as you slowly breathe in and out.

Bring your attention to your belly; breathe as if your belly is filling up with water. As you breathe, let go of any tension that you may have in your body.

Now bring up an image of something you find really funny. Then once you have that feeling, try to spread it throughout your entire body.

Then bring up another image of something you find to be hilarious. Again, work on spreading that feeling throughout your entire body.

Keep breathing and working on noticing the feeling of laughter inside your body. This simple meditation will help you to carry this feeling throughout your day. This will reduce stress, build strong relationships, and give you a greater sense of well-being.

Our minds tend to spin into different emotional states throughout the day.

For thousands of years, eastern traditions have recognized how the mind goes from extreme states of joy, to extreme states of sadness and worry.  Monks from eastern traditions were essentially scientists; they recognized that a wild mind could adversely affect our health.  So they used meditation as a way to stay in balance throughout the day.

One thing we know for sure is that stress is extremely damaging to our health. It’s estimated that somewhere around 70% of hospital visits are stress related. The goal is not only to monitor your breathing, but also monitor your feelings. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the one thing you are told about health care prevention is to monitor your feelings.  Because negative feelings cause your body to become unbalanced leading to various health problems.

Right when you feel a stress response, bring your awareness to your breathing. You can meditate everywhere and anywhere; meditation is not just for sitting down on a cushion.

In the eastern health care traditions, Doctors would do just a few minutes of meditation before they saw a patient so they had a clear mind when tending to a patient.  This is something we should incorporate into our workplaces. Imagine if you just did two minutes of meditation right before you saw your next client.

How to meditate.

You can meditate sitting down in a chair, when you’re walking, laying down, etc. There several various ways to do meditation. Just bring your attention to your breathing. If your mind is anxious just continue to bring you attention back to the breath.

Here are four methods to use meditation to reduce stress:

1.       Go out into nature

Go out for a walk in nature, this can be very meditative for people.  You can do walking meditation with your eyes open by just bringing your attention to your breathing. Meditating in nature will help you realign with your body.

2.      Prevent stress by meditating in the morning

You can prevent a lot of future stress responses throughout your day by doing meditation right when you wake up. Make a commitment to do five to ten minutes of meditation every morning. You will have a lot less stress in your life.

3.      Be aware of the stress feelings in your body.

A lot of our day to day activities remove our attention away from the feelings in our body. Learn to recognize when you’re getting stressed out. When you feel you’re getting stressed stop what you are doing and do some meditation.

4.      Do meditation during your lunch break.

If you do five to fifteen minutes of meditation during your lunch break every day, you will see almost immediate results.  Set a reminder, on your calendar or in your phone to stop and do meditation right before you eat lunch.

One of the greatest tools for happiness and a positive state of mind is meditation, there’s a reason why it’s been used for thousands of years by eastern cultures.

Over and over again in countless scientific studies, meditation has been shown to strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, and build strong positive emotions. I hear people saying all the time, “I would love to do meditation, but I don’t have the time.”

You come home from work, and then all of the sudden your kids are telling you they need to be taken to soccer practice. So you cook them dinner and then rush them to practice. I suggest you develop a strategy of incorporating small two minute meditation’s into your life. Each, day you start fresh, you start with maybe only two minutes and then slowly work yourself up to more.

Meditation will build a strong and resilient brain that will protect you from future episodes of stress. As in any practice it takes discipline, but that discipline will pay off tremendously for the well-being of your health.You can’t expect to try meditation once and all of the sudden be the happiest person in the world. Start with two minutes, then go to five minutes, then to 20 minutes and beyond.

Here’s a Very Simple Meditation

A simple meditation practice is to close your eyes and bring your awareness to your breathing, without trying to control your breathing. Use a non-judgmental awareness when accessing this state.

Here’s four ways you can incorporate a two minute meditation practice into your life

1. In the Office

Set up a alarm at the same time every day, to remind yourself to do meditation. Then put your phone on silent and close the door. One way to incorporate a practice into your day is to do it at your lunch break. Or you can get to your office a few minutes early and do two to five minutes of meditation for clarity. Another strategy is to become conscious of early stress responses. If you find yourself starting to become stressed at work, immediately slow down and bring your awareness to your breathing.

2. In the Car

I suggest you find two minutes to do meditation while in a parking lot. Or while your waiting for someone in the car. We spend so much time in our cars and at stop lights. If we just incorporated a few minutes while waiting at a stop light, it would greatly improve our life.

3. While Waiting

I do meditation all the time while I’m waiting in line at a grocery store. Remember you don’t have to do meditation with your eyes closed all the time. You can do meditation just by bringing your awareness to your breathing while you’re waiting, which will put you in a more centered and balanced state. Try this when ever you’re waiting at the bus stop, while sitting in traffic, or even in the parking lot while you’re waiting to pick someone up.

4. Before You Go To Bed

I find doing meditation right before bed to be extremely beneficial. It will greatly improve your sleep. I also recommend if you’re having trouble going sleep to get out of bed and do some meditation. Find a time to schedule meditation sessions, and do it every night at the same time.

Lets face it we all need something to manage stress!

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Stress has been shown to

• Add fat to our bellies
• Cause aches and pains
• Shrink our brain
• Cause heart disease
• Unravel our chromosomes

 The last one makes me cringe.

I don’t know about you. But I don’t want anything to unravel stuff.

Over ONE THOUSAND scientific studies have showed how effective a meditative practice is for our well-being. Fortune 500 companies are introducing meditation into their board rooms. The US military is using it.

Its estimated that over 70% of hospital visits are stress related, this info-graphic points out what stress does to our bodies.

Source: Heartmath.com