YOGA + MOVEMENT
BRINGING
BY MEGHAN HATALLA (SHE/HER)
M
editation is not a new practice, but is completely revolutionary in seemingly conflicting contexts, like the corporate world. In a 2017 study by Academy of Management, researchers found an increase in productivity in those who began a transcendental meditation practice, but it didn’t stop at simply performing at a higher level. Meditators also felt they built better relationships with supervisors and coworkers. They felt more satisfied in their jobs, and a general sense of happiness (I’m not sure how exactly the researchers quantify happiness, but it’s in the report). Numerous reports showed similar results, headlined by improvements in focus, decision-making, and self-discipline. I began meditating relatively recently as a structured part of my yoga teacher training, and the first time I set a timer for five minutes, it felt like forever. Gradually, as the class went on, and I became more adept at sinking in more quickly, meditation became a thing of both respite and rejuvenation: the perfect practice to bring to my corporate job. Learning more about meditation as something that could help others strengthened my resolve to bring it to my
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MEDITATION
to the (Corporate) Masses coworkers. In enterprise software, workers don’t have a great track record for work-life balance. High pressure deadlines for code freezes, glorified “crunch” weeks that saw some engineers putting in 60-80 hours at their desks, and catered meals to ensure people wouldn’t want to leave work are the norm. If I can’t change an entire culture, maybe I can help a small culture shift, I thought. The sessions started small. I came back from maternity leave, not so much rested, but ready to carve out a sliver of sanity among the office workers. A mindfulness group had begun to form, designed by an unpaid intern studying mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). I collaborated with the group to jumpstart a meditation-focused offshoot.
CREATING THE CASE FOR MEDITATION Meet Them Where They Are I knew the importance of understanding more about my coworkers and their ability to participate in a meditation group. For example, would they prefer to meet in person or online? How much time did they have in their day, and when was the best
time to meet? We created a survey asking these questions, and included a call for moderators and specific topics of interest. The survey response was small, and we even got one response detailing how meditation in the workplace was unprofessional. Undaunted but informed, we started hosting small group sessions with interested people. We scheduled 30-minute blocks of times in the day at times that met the needs of most people (Tuesdays at noon), and developed a consistent group of folks. Keeping the time consistent and sending recurring calendar appointments keeps the sessions top-ofmind for our users without any additional pressure to attend. And even in this pandemic, remoteworking world, we’ve kept the same time blocked off. Attendance changed a bit — people sometimes get too Zoom’ed out to attend yet another Zoom meeting — but numbers stayed relatively strong. In the spring, summer, and fall months, we even managed to meet in person a few times for outdoor sessions. The format for our meditation sessions is consistent, and provides people with the option to move around a bit. We start with a greeting, share news, and do a short, reflective meditation within the first ten
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