When life gets hectic, meditation is a great tool to use to give you some clarity and calm your mind. (Everyone could use a slow sip of meditation juice now) As busy career women, running on the hamster wheel of life can be exhausting, which is why it is so important to have a good work-life and life-world balance.
Especially if you are both a busy career woman and a working mother, you may be burning the candle at both ends. As a mother, you are often expected to give everything to your children and others. Being a selfless mother is certainly a noble path, but to truly do positive things for others, you also need to take care of yourself too! Single women or child-free women are not immune to the social and interpersonal expectations that place many, if not most things above yourself.
Self-care is essential to keep yourself moving forward and prevent burnout. Thankfully, with meditation practice, you can keep your head (and wallet) above water mentally and emotionally, and even improve your productivity.
How Can Meditation Help You?
The unique stresses of our current daily lives have prompted many of us to re-evaluate our usual go-to-stress reducers. Alcohol, food indulgences, retail therapy, or over exercising may have eased tensions pre-Covid, but many of us have discovered the quick fix to be not only unsustainable but also ineffective.
Meditation is a unique practice that can be therapeutic for the body, mind, and soul. Physically, meditation practice improves your cardiovascular health, can be used to treat chronic pain, boosts the immune system, and assists with weight loss. Mentally, meditation can reduce anxiety and depression, increase empathy, relieve stress, improve sleep, and enhance your focus and concentration.
Especially for changemakers, entrepreneurs, and high performing women, having a healthy self-care or mend-reset tool is essential to helping you achieve the work-life balance that you so desperately need. Now, you may be thinking, “but I don’t have the time to meditate in my busy schedule”! Well, there is a famous Zen proverb that says, “If you don’t have time to meditate for an hour every day, you should meditate for two hours”. The busiest people are actually the ones who need meditation the most. By meditating, you will gain many benefits in the long-term.
See below for the 4 most popular styles of meditation.
Mindfulness Meditation: This is a sitting form of meditation that involves focusing on the breath or the sensations in the body.
Mantra Meditation: This is a sitting or moving form of meditation that involves chanting a mantra or phrase either out loud or mentally.
Walking (or Running) Meditation: This is a moving form of meditation that incorporates elements of mindfulness meditation in a walking or running format.
Ecstatic Dance Meditation: This is a moving form of meditation that involves moving the body to certain music in a mindful way. Certainly yoga falls int this category.
Plus, so many others! Try to investigate and find what works best for you. In the field of meditation, there is truly something for everyone.
As a busy professional woman, investing in yourself will be the best thing you ever do! Especially, if you are a mother, taking time for yourself will help you show up better for your kids. So, make that work-life balance that you have always dreamed of and become the confident woman you want to be by practicing meditation today!