I have been working in the PR world for nearly 20 years and have worked in many PR agencies during that time. We all know that PR agency life can get stressful, especially if we have several campaigns launching at the same time, which always seems to happen! It’s important to cultivate a mindfulness practice to help manage stress levels and bring balance to our nervous system.
When I first started to meditate, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering. This is most people’s first experience with meditation, so they give up thinking they are not any good at it. It was about six years ago when I was working a stressful job and feeling burnt out that I decided to do a yoga teacher training course to learn more tools that would help me on my journey to feeling more balanced. The training was life-changing for me and my deeper understanding of meditation and mindfulness helped me take control of my life. I also started teaching yoga on the side to share what I had learned with others.
What is meditation and why is it important?
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.
The practice of meditation has been around for thousands of years. The earliest written records come from Hindu traditions, in India, of Vendatism from around 1500 BCE. There are countless benefits, and a lot of these benefits are backed by science. These include lowering stress, reducing anxiety, enhancing mental health, improving self-awareness, increasing concentration and attention span, reducing memory loss, generating empathy and kindness and improving sleep.
Through the practice of meditation, we can start to better understand the behaviour of our minds, and increase our ability to regulate our experience of our environment, rather than letting our environment dictate how we experience life. A Harvard study showed that stimulating the body’s relaxation response could even affect our genes – in just minutes. They found that meditating (even just once) could dampen the genes involved in the inflammatory response, and promote those genes associated with DNA stability – longevity, yes please!
How do I get started?
This all sounds great, I hear you say, but how do you get started on your meditation journey? There are many ways to meditate and it’s not a one size fits all approach. It’s important to try different ways and see what works for you. When you work in a PR agency, which can sometimes involve longer hours, it’s important to choose a time that works for you. Here are my top tips for meditating.
1. Choose a time to meditate
Choose a time of the day that works for you and fits in your schedule. I meditate first thing in the morning when I wake up. At this time, my mind isn’t as active and if I don’t do it then my day gets taken over by work, chores or other people and it often gets forgotten about. It’s good to meditate at the same time every day to get into a routine. Your body will get used to it and you’ll start to miss it if you skip a day.
2 Choose a type of meditation that works for you
Meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting on the floor with your legs crossed and thinking about nothing. There are many different ways to meditate. I suggest trying a few and seeing what works. You can even mix it up each day.
- Breath awareness – focus on your breath while sitting or lying down
- Guided meditations – Using a meditation app such as, my favourite, InsightTimer. It has thousands of free meditations
- Body scan – move your focus around different parts of the body
- Walking meditation – if you struggle to sit, get outside and do a walking meditation in the morning or on your lunch break and take in the sounds and sights around you
- Candle gazing – sit in front of a candle and focus on the movement of the flame
- Don’t worry if your mind wanders
This is such an important point to note. Everyone’s mind wanders when they meditate, so let go of self-judgement and anger. The key is refocusing on the meditation technique no matter how many times your mind wanders e.g. your breath, the guided meditation. The more you practice meditation, the longer those moments of silence between your mind wandering will be. This is the sweet spot.
So, what method do you use to bring mindfulness into your day?
If you are ready to prepare your brand for 2023 and want a great comms team in your arsenal to help you prepare a strategy, please contact the Agent99 Team today.
For more blogs and our wellness at work series from the AgentPR Team see Exercise & Movement, nutrition and work life balance.
Agent Louise
PR Agency Sydney
PR Agency Sydney
PR Agency Sydney
PR Agency Sydney
PR Agency Sydney
PR Agency Sydney
PR Agency Sydney
