People often talk about voting with your money. When you buy organic food, you support that industry, and when you buy fast food, you support that industry. This makes sense to me, but a bigger issue that I hear far less frequently is how we vote with our time. People seem to feel that they are slaves to their work and the goals of their employer. We need to pay our bills, so we will do whatever it takes to keep our job and to make a living. While I understand this line of thinking, it doesn’t resonate with me regarding the population with ample resources to survive. If we need food, housing, or shelter, than I agree that we are slaves to our employers, but if the issue is whether we can have a second car, a 3 bedroom house, and a week vacation overseas each year than you’ve lost me. Employers need us just like we need them. There is room to compromise and negotiate what is right.

With regards to meditation, one of the biggest challenges with a daily practice is the time required to sit. Between work and life, it seems like we have no time left to spare. I choose to sit 2 hours a day because that is my way of voting for peace and happiness for all beings. Since this is one of my core values, it makes perfect sense to spend my time in this way. I also think these values are important to many companies, and they may be willing to support time used in this way. This practice mandates an ethical code, so if employers want ethically employees, meditators would be a great applicant pool.

I know our numbers are few, but if we start having these types of discussions with our employers, with time and patience, we might find more support for our daily practices than we ever imagined. We simply need to find the courage to ask. Time to meditate.