Mindfulness, Leadership, and Vedic Meditation

Mindfulness helps manage stress and improve leadership.

• What it is: Awareness of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.
• Benefits: Reduced stress, better decision-making, increased empathy.
• Limitations: Requires effort to stay focused.

Vedic Meditation takes a deeper approach.

• Focuses on transcending thought through mantras.
• Reduces stress, leading to natural present-moment awareness.
• Effortless and more sustainable than mindfulness.

When you open your email in the morning and discover 14 urgent messages, overlapping meetings, and a looming  presentation… of course, you’d feel stressed.

Before your mind can spin out to the possible catastrophes, you take a moment to breathe and return to the present. As you create space to observe your thoughts and notice your stress, you avoid getting sucked into fight or flight mode in quite the same way. You realize that you can communicate your limits, and you only need to worry about the next step.

This little exercise is an example of a mindfulness practice in the workplace.

As more and more studies have been published on the positive impact of mindfulness practices on the brain, mindful living has become a household term. Mindfulness has made its way into the workplace as well, with corporate mindfulness programs on the rise.

In this post, we’ll explore what mindfulness is, how it can be a useful coping mechanism for stress management.  We’ll also cover  how it differs from Vedic Meditation, which focuses on transcending thought and releasing stress.

What is Mindfulness?

According to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley , mindfulness is “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.” It’s a practice of intentionally focusing our thoughts on the present, without any judgment on the sensations and feelings we experience each moment.

Rather than running on autopilot or feeling completely distracted by the past or future, mindfulness practices train the mind to keep coming back to the immediate present. With full awareness in the present, the idea is that one can more easily create awareness to have greater agency in their decisions and reactions.

Does Mindfulness Work in the Workplace?

Creating awareness around thoughts and feelings is a natural step to forming mature, thoughtful responses under stress. Mindfulness practices encourage building this kind of awareness.

Aetna, one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States, conducted a study on mindfulness programs. They found that employees who participated in mindfulness programs experienced a 28% reduction in stress levels, a 20% improvement in sleep quality, and a 19% reduction in pain.

General Mills, a multinational food company, implemented mindfulness training for its employees and reported positive outcomes, including increased productivity and employee satisfaction.

Often, the research completed on mindfulness programming covers a broad range of practices.  All to increase individuals’ sense of present-moment awareness.

Mindfulness and Leadership

Many companies have started incorporating mindful leadership programs into their training initiatives. These programs often include workshops, training sessions, and access to mindfulness apps and resources.

Mindfulness practices have been shown to help leaders improve their:

• Decision-making abilities
• Grow their emotional intelligence
• Reduce stress
• Increase creativity
• Improve work relationships

The ability to be present with thoughts, sensations, and feelings distinct from the present situation is a useful skill. It helps them to think and lead with more agility and resourcefulness.

To best contrast how mindfulness practices are different from Vedic Meditation in the workplace, we’ll go through four main areas in which mindfulness helps leaders. Then we’ll see how Vedic Meditation furthers those benefits.

But first, what is Vedic Meditation?

Vedic Meditation: Beyond Present-Moment Awareness

Vedic Meditation is a practice where you meditate  for twenty minutes twice a day and transcend thought entirely through the gentle repetition of a mantra. The mantra is a meaningless Sanskrit word assigned by a qualified instructor, who teaches the technique in a four-day in-person meditation course.

Vedic Meditation comes from the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.   He continued the Vedic tradition as one of a long line of Indian gurus and teachers.

A student of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Thom Knoles, teaches Vedic Meditation in the United States, Australia, and Europe.  Along with many other places all over the world.

Unlike many forms of meditation, there is no concentration involved with Vedic Meditation. The practice is completely effortless, and thoughts are allowed.

The peaceful, easy quality of this meditation style allows the body to rest very deeply while the mind remains conscious. As the body rests, it releases stress from the physiology.  It clears reservoirs of stress even more effectively than sleep can do.

The effect is of continually releasing more and more stress from the body each day.  This way  the mind is not quite so busy thinking about ways to manage or avoid the stress. The body’s ability to adapt to change and new demands increases as the stores of rest increase each day.

The Difference Between Mindfulness and Vedic Meditation

Vedic Meditation and the techniques involved date back upward of 5,000 years. On the other hand, mindfulness practices have a more recent history. They emerged in the last few hundred years with modern adaptations of Buddhist practices.

Here are 3 differences between the two practices, to start with:

1. Focus: Vedic Meditation typically involves the use of a mantra, but does not require focus on the mantra. The mind forgets the mantra easily and thoughts float in and out of the awareness. With mindfulness, the practice forces the mind to focus on the present moment to the exclusion of all else. Mindfulness requires concentration and effort, whereas Vedic Meditation does not and is essentially restful.
2. Goal: The goal of Vedic Meditation is to access deeper states of consciousness and experience Being, the place beyond thought. The purpose is to release stress, so the mind naturally comes to the present without the distractions of stress. Mindfulness aims to cultivate non-judgmental awareness and acceptance of present-moment experiences.
3. Tradition: Vedic Meditation is deeply rooted in the Vedic tradition. It’s often taught by trained teachers within specific lineages. However,  mindfulness has been adapted for wide and public use and is widely accessible through various programs and resources.

The Limits of Mindfulness

Many leaders and employees will eventually fall off of a mindfulness practice because it requires more energy to force their minds to “stop thinking” and focus on the present moment. So long as there is stress, the mind will generate thoughts to solve problems and feel better.

Since present-moment awareness can’t remove the stress sensations or change the mind’s tendency to solve problems, mindfulness can only train focus and build a practice of working against the mind’s natural tendencies. As useful as this might be as a tactic to operate with more mental clarity, it doesn’t solve the underlying problem: the stress and the mind’s natural pull to distract from or solve the stress.

Mindfulness is not as sustainable and long-term a solution to remove stress from the body and take the mind beyond thought altogether. It may be a step along the way to realizing the usefulness of meditation, but it cannot remove stress from the body’s cellular memory.

Techniques that focus on releasing stress, transcending thoughts, and building reservoirs or rest and adaptability will create all of the same benefits as mindfulness, but without the need to force or control the mind.

Now, let’s look at the benefits of mindfulness and leadership and how Vedic Meditation can further those benefits.

Benefits of Mindfulness for Executives and Leaders

Enhanced Decision-Making

If you’re mindful of the present moment, you won’t be as bogged down by past stressors or future plans. Instead, you’ll be empowered to glean valuable insights from the here and now.

With a clear mind firmly anchored in the present, you’ll be poised to make exceptional decisions for your company or team and exhibit mindful leadership examples for your managers as well.

The trifecta of effective leadership is to be able to make accurate decisions quickly while remaining calm under pressure. And with heightened present-moment awareness, it becomes much easier to operate this way.

With Vedic Meditation, a leader doesn’t have to remember to come back to the present moment. Vedic Meditation releases stress the longer a meditator practices, and the nature of stress is to distract the mind from the present moment. Vedic Meditation addresses the root of the problem.  It creates clear thinking and resourceful decision-making from a place of greater adaptability.

Greater Empathy

An extensive body of scientific research shows that mindfulness practices help leaders and employees get into another person’s shoes.

Cultivating empathy is pivotal for managerial excellence. Armed with a deeper understanding of their employees’ perspectives, managers can refine their guidance, optimize time usage, and make sound recruitment choices. Employees will perceive you as a more empathetic and efficient leader. These are qualities that boost productivity and maintain talent retention.

When we immerse ourselves completely in the present, we leverage all our senses to intuitively grasp every situation, interpret body language and words, and interpret unspoken cues. This heightened sensitivity allows us to cultivate genuine empathy.

With Vedic Meditation, the consistent stress release and increase of adaptability leads to heightened perception. Instead of training the mind to focus on the present, a leader will naturally cultivate greater present awareness and perceptive ability – without having to work to be present.

The function of transcending thoughts in Vedic Meditation also brings an experience of unity, as the mind goes beyond thinking and into Being. Every time the mind touches the place of Being, the meditator experiences unity and Totality. The consciousness of unity naturally grows in their awareness, and empathy grows as a result.

Communicating Direction and Objectives

Great communication hinges on our ability to understand what will land with the other person or people, or, what they will hear. Rather than reacting and becoming positional, or making other people feel wrong and defensive, mindfulness creates the space to consider responses and communicate more clearly.

Mindfulness cultivates active listening, creating responsiveness rather than reactivity. These practices also prompt us to consciously acknowledge our emotions and pause before reacting.  This gives us the time to articulate what we’re feeling and distinguish the feelings from what is happening around us. Over time, this fosters deeper connections and trust.

With Vedic Meditation, a leader need not ‘take a moment’ to get present and sort through their thoughts and emotions before communicating. The release of stress and greater empathy make it effortless to communicate instantaneously without reaction. Reactivity naturally drops as the meditator releases stress consistently in each sitting.

Vedic Meditation and Fearless Leadership

Vedic Meditation develops such a heightened awareness without focus or effort that meditators begin to be fearless. They know they have the resilience and adaptability to handle any situation that life throws at them.

In the Vedic Worldview, everything that happens is evolution, and evolution is a positive thing. So for those who go beyond mindful leadership for executives and learn to practice Vedic Meditation every day, an easy certainty will develop that they can make rapid decisions and adapt as needed.

Learn to Meditate with Susan

Though mindfulness practices and mindful leadership trainings are a valuable starting point to begin cultivating emotional intelligence and presence, Vedic Meditation offers a transformational alternative (or addition).

Leaders and employees who learn Vedic Meditation gain an effortless technique to deeply rest and release stress. While some employees may find the extra mental work of maintaining present-moment-awareness exhausting, Vedic Meditation can be done with no concentration at all.

To learn more about Vedic Meditation and what the Learn to Meditate course can do for your team, email Susan Chen at hello@meditatewithsusan.com.