Ask the typical individual to describe meditation and they may picture Lululemon-clad influencers gazing off into the distance seated next to their infinity pool. Or perhaps robed monks seated lotus-style bathed in incense smoke.

If your understanding of meditation is limited to such stereotypes we urge you to think again.

Consider, for example, that the term meditate comes from the Latin, meditor, which means to think, consider, contemplate, ponder, or otherwise reflect upon something.

Contemplative Meditation

The early practitioners of meditation saw it as a commitment to deep concentration. An individual might meditate on the meaning of life, why they exist, or if there’s a God; or they might meditate on why their business is struggling, how to help their kids, or finding a purpose in life.

In other words, contemplative meditation narrows and focuses the mind, which of course is a critical stepping stone toward quieting the mind.

When the mind is quieted, our innate intelligence and creativity are allowed to rise to the fore. Consider the great inventor, Thomas Edison, swore by the power of focusing intensely on a problem, resting, and miraculously finding the solution waiting for him.

“Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just parts of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If any system teaches you how to be attentive, then you are attentive to the system, and that is not attention.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

So if we drop all the labels and preconceived notions, we might instead think of meditation as a truly single-minded approach to solving a problem. The nature of the problem is less important than the practice of finding its solution.

So whether you’re trying to invent a new product or find spiritual truth, you begin in a state of contemplative meditation. Mull your topic of choice in a state  of silence. Gradually, allow the silence to take over and the contemplative portion of the meditation to recede into that silence. Something wonderful may just take its place.

If not, repeat the process, again and again, throughout the day – a minute here, 5 minutes there – until an insight arises that helps you better understand or even solve the object of that contemplation.