How Meditation Helped Me Cope in the Corporate World

“The purpose of meditation is personal transformation.” —Henepola Gunaratana

It wasn’t a desire to be a productive worker-bee that led me to meditation. For me, it was survival.

London, 2015: I was sitting in a sleek office phone booth pretending to be on a business call. My heart was racing, my jaws clenched, and I felt like I’d just run a marathon. I put my earbuds in and began taking slow, deep breaths under the guidance of a soothing Canadian voice.

I had just downloaded the meditation app Calm. As my breath expanded and contracted, I began to focus on my body. I realized it had been sending me signals all day. My hips hurt. My head pounded. I was just so tired—and it was only Tuesday. But I hadn’t been able to hear any of it amidst the swirling thoughts in my mind. I worked on releasing the tension in my body, sending my breath as medicine to the places that hurt.

Fifteen minutes later, my eyes were clear and my heartbeat slow. I returned to my desk and looked at the list of emails in my inbox. I deleted the ones that had nothing to do with me. I navigated past the “fire alarms” and “asap” requests and assessed—what was most important?

What had previously felt like a biblical swarm of insects now quieted to the buzzing of flies I could calmly swat away. I left the office early. I left my laptop at my desk. That day, like many others, I excelled at my job.

From Empathy to Anxiety

As a highly empathic person, I absorb multiple layers of information in every encounter. A simple email would not only tell me what was happening and who was responsible, but who was undervalued and which bosses were too stressed to even notice.

For me, an office was a space of energetic assault. With no way to manage it, I took on all the crazy energy that I was receiving. I developed intense anxiety and chronic hip pain. I lost my sense of self.

Enter Meditation

Taking small moments of time to myself transformed my daily experience from drowning to effortlessly swimming, no matter the current. First, I had emergency phone booth sessions to stop my adrenal system from spiraling out of control. Then, I moved onto five minutes in the morning before leaving for work.

I realized that, when properly processed, all that information I was receiving gave me unique strength. I was able to do more, deal with more, be there for more people, and protect myself. Once I began to give myself the necessary space, I was able to move forward with strength.

Meditation cleared away the external noise, allowing me to reconnect to my own needs. It physically slowed down my overreacting nervous system. Meditation has been proven to rewire our brains and decrease the reactivity of the amygdala, that ancient survival instinct that evolved in a completely different environment than the glass towers of capitalism.

Tips to Tame Your Brain

For those of you who still see a master predator hiding among the cubicles and standing desks, here are a few simple tips to tame that beast:

• Start With Guidance: To kickstart your practice, take an immersive meditation course or download an app like Calm. It’s helpful to listen to someone’s voice, just make sure it’s a voice you like and want to listen to!

• Consistency Over Duration: All you need is five minutes. Showing up, even in tiny chunks, at the same time daily begins the forming of a practice. Meditation, at its core, is a practice.

• Just Breathe: Meditation begins with the awareness of breath. Try bringing awareness to your breath even as you read this. Is it fast? Slow? Does it stop at your throat? What happens if you fill your belly? If you start to feel overwhelmed or a strong emotion, observe your breath. What happens if you change it?

Now, you have just one task for today: Commit to this practice ASAP!

Saga Blane (@sagablane) is a healer, writer, performer, and brand strategist. She is part New York City urban warrior, part fairy of the Finnish woods. She hopes to help others feel their own power and remember their inner wisdom. She believes magic exists in the everyday, once we have the eyes to see it.