When Meditation Benefits Me and Clients

I’m a financial professional who’s been a steady meditation student for a few years. But only now do I appreciate how meditation benefits me and my clients.

Over the past few weeks, zigs and zags in stock, bond, currency, and commodity prices have grown due largely to quick and big changes to US industrial and trade policies. The size and pace of those changes, sometimes on-again-off-again, made me feel nervous, frustrated, and stressed that I could fall short explaining their implications to clients. I felt additional emotional tumult because of quick and big changes to other government policies that I believed would harm many American families.  

Despite what has felt like a ride on the tallest and fastest roller coaster, I never once freaked out. I sensed when unpleasant emotions were welling up. I experienced one of the oft-cited benefits of meditation: recognizing emotions such as stress, frustration and anger keeps them from consuming me.

Why is comfort with discomfort helpful to clients? In times of turbulence in the world, clients can feel anxious about their financial health. They want to know from me what changes, if any, should be made to their financial strategies. To the extent that I’m at ease and balanced, I can be more helpful as a source of calm, reason, and warmth.  

Does this make me a better financial advisor? Does meditation make me better at my job? No, not in and of itself. It’s one part of the whole that I bring to my work.