Benefits of Pondering and Meditation for Busy People
While visiting the children's museum several months back, I was struck by some information about an inventor. It mentioned that this particular inventor had a place he liked to visit for inspiration. He would take time to relax while working on complex problems. I didn't pay too much attention to it until the friend I was with pointed it out- It's important to find time to Ponder and Meditate. I guess I should point out the irony. I went to the "children's'" museum, a place that is designed to inspire children and came away inspired myself.
The next day I watched "Kung Fu Panda" and there was a scene where the wise master turtle told panda that he was doing well to have found his place for pondering under the sacred peach tree. I know it was meant to be funny and it was but I can't help but think about this concept-- the notion that you can change your focus from the task at hand for awhile and then come back and solve it with much greater ease.
I've seen this principle play out numerous times in my professional life. I work with programmers who can spend a whole day trying to fix a bug only to leave and come back the next day and solve it in a matter of minutes--not hours.
A friend of mine likes to sleep and find answers. She says that if you go to bed thinking about something that you need to solve, your brain works on it while you sleep-- it's akin to a super computer-- just turn it on and let it do the processing while you go about sleeping.
Take time to think, to reflect, to meditate. You'll have to find what works for you. It might be on an airplane away from your phone and without Internet access or it might be at the top of a mountain or in the comfort of your own shower. As you do this, here are some of the benefits you can expect:
- Improved health
- Improved relationships
- Better ideas
- More motivation
- Increased creativity
- Higher productivity
- Improved retention rate
- Increased patience
- Much, much more.
I did a quick Google search for "benefits of meditation" and found this article: "100 Benefits of Meditation". In addition, if you would like to see the "science" behind meditation, check out some of the information available from Time Magazine.
