Why Our Workplace Matters

And how meditation can help us there

We simply spend too much time and have too much psychic and emotional energy invested in the workplace for us to declare it a spirtual desert bereft of life-giving water.

- David Whyte, “The Heart Aroused”

Your workplace is likely an essential element of your overall existence since most of us have to work for pay in order to operate on this planet. In the quote above, the phenomenal poet David Whyte captures one of the reasons why our workplace matters so much — the amount of time and effort that we spend working is shocking if we add up the hours, days, and years. (Let’s not do the math!)

If your work involves a lot of creative activity, that means there’s an internal well of creative inspiration you’re tapping into that needs to be cared for and ideally replenished. This truth might especially apply to the writers and artists here. If your work involves achieving things in communication with other people, you operate in a web of relationships which means trust, persuasion, and collaboration are important skills to develop. This reality applies to anybody operating inside a business organization.

In all of our workplaces, the one constant throughline is ourselves. How do we show up every day? How do we sustain our optimism? How do we build stronger connections with others? How might we see our creative ideas and solutions land more successfully with our target audiences? How might we help our teams reach our desired goals more consistently?

Since we show up as an individual at our workplaces, having practices that support us internally is critical. I believe that our work benefits if we can foster positive heartsets (like mindsets, but emotional states) that contribute to both our inner wellbeing and that of the work culture around us. Are we accepting of the realities of our workplace? Can we trace our work efforts back to compassionate service for others? Can we love the problems we contribute to solving? Do we have the courage to stand up for our convictions? Do we have the resilience to muster forgiveness and patience when the time calls for it?

In Praise of Mindfulness

One of the most powerful tools I’ve found in sustaining my soul across the marathon of my career is mindfulness. Mindfulness is most often learned and developed through the practice of meditation. (While there are many, many forms of mindfulness and meditation, let’s envision here a “vipassana” or “insight” style of meditation where one tends to use a focal point such as our breathing to center the mind while seeking to gain internal and external insights from the activity.)

Does meditation seem impossible to you? So many people over the years have said to me, “But Lizz, I sit down to meditate and my mind just chatters away. I’m terrible at meditation.”

I’m delighted to tell you that if you are a human who sits down to meditate and you find that your mind just chatters away and you notice your mind chattering away, then guess what: you’re absolutely good at meditating! As far as I know, everybody who begins to meditate experiences the activity of their human mind to be like a distractable monkey that feels pulled towards certain things and repelled from certain other things. It’s simply our human nature. There’s nothing wrong with you, and you’re definitely not bad at meditation if this has been your experience. Simply note the mind chattering, and return to the effort to center on your breath. And, repeat. Accept, and let go. And, repeat.

Starting to meditate does not mean that we magically reach a state of emptiness in our minds. Meditation practice simply means that we start to observe the activities of our mind and begin to recognize the transitory nature of all things (up to and including ourselves). Meditation is called a practice because it’s a gradual process of applying and learning techniques, observing and shifting behavior.

Our minds are like the sky: there’s always some kind of weather happening! The weather might be cloudy and stormy. The weather might be mostly sunny with a slight easterly wind. The point is that we begin to observe that changing weather. And slowly but surely, this confounding practice will start to give us moments of clarity.

“The storm has passed.”

“The conditions feel calmer today.”

“I glimpse the eternal sky existing behind these clouds.”

Meditation involves observing the ever-changing weather of our inner selves (Image credit: DALL-E)

Practicing at Work

Our workplace — where we spend so much of our time and devote a lot of energy to — is an environment that can both test us and teach us. It’s a crucible with invaluable lessons and opportunities to grow and get better not just at our job, but at being a conscious and fulfilled person. Our work situation might inspire us to begin to meditate, and it certainly offers us a place to see how meditation affects our inner self.

My first encounter with meditation was in 2000 when a combination of work stress and personal life transitions paralyzed me during the first “proper” job of my professional career. I got motivated to take a meditation course at a local community center. I received an especially wonderful gift when the instructor said, “Any meditation is better than no meditation.” This helped me be realistic in my efforts, and not feel like a failure when I missed a day or three.

Even during that first class, I began to find more internal equilibrium, and gained spiritual insights about myself and the nature of reality. My well of creativity was replenished. My personal life thrived.

Over the years following, my meditation practice fell away in large part, because it seemed I didn’t “need it” as much. More fool I! I fell back into work stress in my next professional role, and my spiritual growth stagnated. Re-discovering meditation and resuming the practice was like finding an oasis in the desert.

Over time, the practices and mindful insights from our meditation start to move from the cushion into the rest of our lives. We might discover a gap of space & time between a triggering event and how we can choose to react. We might see a pattern of negativity or grasping or rejection arise that we don’t want to perpetuate — so we don’t. And when we deliberately seek to elevate our consciousness and refine our behaviors in this way, our workplace gives us ever so many opportunities to practice. (Sometimes, too many, eh?!)

As I sustained my practice, I’ve gradually become calmer, friendlier, and less prone to reactivity. I am able to feel more compassion for myself and for my colleagues. Every time I sit down to meditate today, I have an opportunity to observe the clouds of stress arise and dissipate; I have an opportunity to know the balanced center of myself and dwell there, even if only for a few seconds. And when I operate in the workplace, I have an opportunity to apply my insights and improve my balance.

I could share some of the copious research about the proven, durable benefits of meditation in a future post — please let me know if you’d like that!

Coming Soon

This Wednesday, March 6th, I’ll introduce my new course, “Sustaining Our Souls at Work: Powerful Tools and Positive Heartsets for Working with Others” at the School of the Possible Open House event where other faculty will be introducing courses as well. Please go here to learn more and register for this free, virtual, live session that is bound to inspire and excite! And naturally, I’ll be posting my full course introduction and registration form here on Substack as soon as it’s ready to launch...