Leading a company or a team isn’t an easy job. It is a nerve-wrecking job that often leaves you feeling tired, stressed out and anxious. In a world where start-up culture is valued, where scaling up and attracting investment are a measure of a person’s success or worth, it is not uncommon for start-up owners and leaders to start feeling spent, stressed out and out of control. Most crises like these do not need mental health support. A good conversation with a friend, a general counselor or even your own doctor should help you relax. However, when things get a little serious, it might be time to dial the number of a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist. If you think you are feeling stressed out and would like to feel better, start with the One Minute Meditation, a simple and quick technique developed by Katherine Gordy Levine. Katherine Levine is a Colorado-based author and psychotherapist who is the founder of Emotional Fitness Training. Her One Minute Meditation helps children, adolescents and adults to cope with day-to-day stressors and slowly build resilience. What is the One Minute Meditation? The One Minute Meditation is a short vacation from your stressful environment, wherever you are. It does not matter whether you are in a boardroom, at a conference, an exhibition or at work. All you need to do is excuse yourself for a minute or even do this covertly so that nobody knows. You do not have to practice lengthy meditation or yoga sessions. Regular One Minute Meditation should just be enough to learn to cope up with stressful situations. In this article, let us learn how to do the One Minute Meditation. The procedure The first step is to breathe in slowly while tensing all your muscles. When you tense your muscles, it should feel slightly unpleasant but not so much that it will actually cause you injuries. The next step is to hold your breath and the tension that you feel in your body for a count. You could also do this for 4 counts, if you are able to hold it that long. Then, slowly breathe out while counting from 1 to 4. As you breathe out, feel the muscles relaxing and all the pent up stress leaving your body. Finally, say thank you or ‘oh, well’ or just about anything that might seem convenient to you. Once you have done this, observe your own thoughts and feelings. Do not react or judge. When a whole minute is over, you can repeat the process all over again. In just 2 minutes, you will start feeling refreshed and energetic. This is one of the keys to ensuring that you feel calm and relaxed. The second part of the OMM (or the One Minute Meditation) is to imagine a safe or a calm place in your mind. Also, identify a soothing slogan which you can repeat during meditation. It could be something like ‘I will love myself more’ or ‘I am glad to have survived another day’. Customize these slogans to your needs and utter them while you do the One Minute Meditation. Katherine also suggests that you should look for beauty wherever you can find it and focus on it. If you choose to look for beauty, it is everywhere. Combining the OMM with beauty will help you to feel calm and relaxed. Start with One Minute Meditation when you are not stressed out Katherine suggests that initially you must practice the One Minute Meditation when you are not stressed out. Yes, you read that right. If you are feeling stressed out always, try to find a time when you are slightly less stressed out and do it then. Strengthen your natural state of relaxation before attempting to relax when you are stressed out, with the aid of OMM. Slowly, relaxation begins to build into your system and you can practice the OMM whenever you are stressed out. You will naturally learn to control stressful situations and learn not to let them affect you. Everyone can practice the OMM It might interest you to know that Katherine developed this and other Emotional Fitness Exercises while directing Mental Health Crisis Teams before, during, and after the bombing of the World Trade Center on 9/11. The One Minute Meditation is not only for CEOs and leaders but also for everyone else, including web designers or developers. As you feel stressed out staring into the screens of your laptops, begin to do the One Minute Meditation and you will realize that your work is actually getting much better with each passing day.
