Learning how to meditate at work can seem a little dubious to say the least, but it’s not what you think. Your work - whether merchant banker or mother of two, or both - can present more challenges to your inner tranquility than anything else you do. Learning how to meditate and relax during your working day deals with the stress as it comes to you, so that you don’t carry it into the evening or the next day.

One of the benefits of practicing daily meditation is to clear your mind. This means you can work in a concentrated, lucid manner without getting distracted by details or confused by conflicting opinions.

If you’re going to learn how to meditate during your working day, you need to be prepared for challenges, perhaps in relation to colleagues, that are best tackled in a cool, calm and collected manner - instead of dealt with in a rush of adrenaline. Taking a little time to learn to meditate in this manner, before taking action will help you to take a more detached approach.

Apparently, we are all working longer hours, with fewer breaks, than ever before. According to statisticians this is accompanied by decreasing productivity. The lesson of this could well be that claiming time for yourself during your working day not only benefits you personally, but also helps you do your job more efficiently. All this could be remedied if we all learnt how to meditate during our breaks at work.

Work is a time when you can learn how to meditate and put into practice certain ‘instant’ meditation techniques. These quick fixes should be based on the daily meditation that you are practicing at home.

The right environment

You may be lucky enough to have an understanding employer or be running your own show. If so, think about setting a room aside for meditation - or at least using a room at a particular time for the purpose.

If you can get a group of like-minded colleagues together, meditating in a group is a great way to keep up your own meditation program. Often the energy of group meditation is powerful enough to enhance your own concentration. However, most of us are living in the current age rather than the ‘”New” one, so acquiring a meditation room at work might be just a far fetched dream. You will need to make your own arrangements. Find somewhere where you won’t be disturbed - a boardroom or stockroom, perhaps.

Really, all you need are peace and quiet. But if you can manage it, a place with dim light is good and not too much visual distraction.

The next best thing to a special room at work is learning how to meditate outside. If you leave your work environment for a while and find a different space, your daytime meditation will be more refreshing.

Being outside is more distracting, however. Failing both alternatives, learn to meditate at your desk or on |the hoof. Like any skill, this requires a bit of practice, but long term it’s more useful since you will learn to meditate anywhere.

You could how to meditate using Zazen meditation. This is practiced by Zen Buddhists, which involves gazing gently at something neutral such as a blank wall, or the ground in front of your feet. It’s a great way to blank out distractions when you’re in an otherwise busy environment.