meditation

I was the co-founder of Stickery, an educational games startup in San Francisco when I first suffered from stress-induced chest pains. Thanks to my doctor’s advice to learn meditation, I started to master the art of mindfulness.

In a subsequent role at Zendesk, my exposure to the high-pressure customer support industry made me realise that mindfulness is not just a personal one, but a business problem.

Today, I am the founder and CEO of MindFi, a mindfulness app and B2B wellbeing platform, and we have seen a surge in app downloads since the pandemic began.

I have been conducting a live meditation session and sharing my tricks and tips to become more mindful via the e27 webinars. And I would like to bust some of the meditation and mindfulness myths for entrepreneurs and working professionals.

What are the benefits of mindfulness?

You can increase your focus and attention span and get more done in a busy, distracting day.

Improve your sleep, too, by learning to manage your stresses in a calmer manner before rest time at night. Be a better leader by training your emotional intelligence and being kinder and understanding to team members. Get more creative by being open to new, unfamiliar experiences and not dismissing/ judging them prematurely.

These few points only touch the surface of the benefits that mindfulness can provide to you.

Is there any science behind mindfulness?

Absolutely. Mindfulness research was first developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s by Prof. Jon Kabat Zinn, an MIT alumnus in molecular biology.

He helped to bring the practice of mindfulness meditation into mainstream medicine and demonstrated that practicing mindfulness can bring improvements in both physical and psychological symptoms as well as positive changes in health, attitudes, and behaviors. Since then, more clinical research on mindfulness has been done at many top universities such as Harvard, Oxford and Stanford.

How do I practise mindfulness?

Mindfulness is ultimately about training your mind not to time-travel. We spend most of our time worrying about the past or the future and rarely stay in the present. Mindfulness is about awareness of what’s happening around you or inside you — in a purposeful and non-judgmental manner.

There are two main methods to practise mindfulness — with closed eyes (formal) or with open eyes (informal). If you think you will fall asleep once your eyes are closed, try the informal method. Join the e27 meditation webinar for a practical session.

Also read: Sailing through COVID-19 crisis with mindfulness meditation

In the MindFi app, we have the formal methods that are usually longer at 10 minutes each while informal methods are three to five minutes (as long as your favourite song). We have over 1,000 minutes of audio-guided mindfulness tracks in the apps with categories based on different moods, activities such as walking, eating or even sky-watching! In other words – be creative and find your own style!

Is there an optimum time-frame we should meditate for based on our current emotions?

Various studies recommend 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation daily to enhance brain functions and overall physical and mental health. However, everything is about balance.

You don’t want to force yourself into a 20-minute-long session if it feels unbearable at the five-minute mark because you are consciously aware of your looming deadlines, the source of your stress.

On the other hand, if you find that you are focussed and in the right mood, do not limit yourself to 20 minutes if you feel like you can benefit from a longer session.

Meditation sessions can provide you with a quick break to collect yourself and pull back from overwhelming emotions, or they can help you to understand yourself better.

Ultimately, the quality of the session is more important than the duration. It is all about what feels right for you, and the situation that you are in.

How to be calm during the ‘circuit-breaker’ with WFH?

In difficult and uncertain times like this, mindfulness can help you navigate through negative feelings in ways that help you stay calm and centred. One method I recommend is by taking a mindful pause during times when you have lots to do and feel overwhelmed.

It involves just taking 30 seconds to tune into your own body, and just breathe. Open up your attention to the sensations in your body. Acknowledge any sensations tied to stress or anxiety and let them pass without pushing them away. Then, rest your attention on your breath. Notice the way you breathe. Let these sensations anchor you in the present moment.

Our breathing is a powerful way for us to regulate our emotions, and it is something we take for granted. Through your breath, you can activate your parasympathetic nervous system — the calming response in your body. If you can spare more time, go for longer sessions. Try out different methods of breathing. These exercises can help you find calm in a hectic workday.

What kinds of routines does the MindFi app provide?

Here are the four different modes in the MindFi app:

Focus is the digital detox timer for productivity geeks to focus on a work or life task
Breathe provides open-eye haptics-guided breathing exercises
Mood has short audio-guided, mood-specific mindfulness tracks done with open eyes.
Courses consist of longer 10-minute meditations. These are developed by mindfulness experts and consists of topics such as Basics, Self-care, Sleep, or even Leadership.

Does it matter if you are inhaling from the chest or stomach? What’s more effective?

When we take in a breath, we either expand at the chest or through the stomach.

Many people are in the habit of breathing only with their chest. The problem is, chest breathing is inefficient. The greatest amount of blood flow occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs and the air just doesn’t get there when you breathe this way. These breaths are generally more rapid and shallow compared to breathing from the stomach.

Breathing from the stomach is known as diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing. Just above your stomach is the diaphragm, a major muscle used during respiration. Proper breathing starts in the nose and then moves to the stomach.

As your diaphragm contracts, the belly expands and your lungs fill with air. It is the most efficient way to breathe, as it pulls down on the lungs, creating negative pressure in the chest, resulting in more air flowing into your lungs. Belly breathing slows down the heartbeat and can lower or stabilise blood pressure. More importantly, it helps you relax and relieves stress.

Finally, if you experience any pain during practice, pause and take a break before retrying. If you continue to experience pain or have a prior medical condition, do consult a doctor. Otherwise, I wish you all the best in your mindfulness journey!

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Image credit: Jared Rice on Unsplash

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