The School of Greatness - 812 Calm Your Mind and Master Meditation

Episode Date: June 19, 2019

MEDITATION WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. A lot of us are suffering, and we don’t even realize it. We’re always on the move. We’re always doing. We’re balancing so many responsibilities. We don’t take time to quiet our minds so that we can start to understand what’s going on up there. That’s why meditation is so powerful. It allows you to get to the root of your problems instead of constantly fixing the symptoms. It’s like flossing your brain. Meditation will get all “gunk” out. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I’ve combined interviews with experts on meditation: Jay Shetty, Preethaji, Krishnaji, Dan Harris, and Andy Puddacomb. Jay Shetty is a former monk who was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017 for being a game-changer and influencer in the world of Media. Jay’s daily show HuffPost Live #FollowTheReader, where he interviewed the likes of Russell Brand, Tim Ferriss and Deepak Chopra reached 1 million people daily. Jay aims to share knowledge at the pace we want entertainment, something he likes to call “making wisdom go viral.” He has created content for and partnered with Snapchat, Facebook, National Geographic, Nasdaq and HuffPost to name a few. Preethaji is a modern day Indian philosopher and sage who has co-founded along with her husband Krishnaji the O&O Academy (school to revolutionize and transform human thought), World Youth Change Makers (an elite community of youth redirecting the future of the world through a revolution in consciousness), and One Humanity Care (a Foundation working with the vision to uplift 10,000 villages in India). Dan Harris is correspondent for ABC News, an anchor for Nightline and co-anchor for the weekend edition of Good Morning America. Harris encourages the use of meditation, and his "10% Happier" podcasts are interviews with other meditators. Harris' book, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Really Works – a True Story, was published in March 2014. Andy Puddicombe is a meditation and mindfulness expert. An accomplished presenter and writer, Andy is the voice of all things Headspace. In his early twenties, midway through a university degree in Sports Science, Andy made the unexpected decision to travel to The Himalayas to study meditation instead. These masters explain the importance of meditation, the common misconceptions, and the science behind it all. It’s a lot more straightforward than you might think. So get ready to learn all about meditation on Episode 812. Some Questions I Ask: What’s the biggest lesson you learned from being a monk (5:45) What’s the intention you set every morning? (10:45) Why do we focus so much on suffering when it only hurts us? (21:10) What’s the importance of a spiritual vision? (22:35) Why is meditation so powerful? (24:45) Why is mindfulness meditation healing and how can we know what’s for us? (29:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: Why you need to deal with the root of the problem instead of relief of symptoms (7:00) A three-minute meditation to connect you to your emotions (13:00) How to end all suffering (20:40) About “mindfulness meditation” (28:30) Three tips for meditation (37:00)

OM. This is episode number 812. Calm your mind and master meditation. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Eckhart Tolle said, you have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

greater than anything the world can offer. And Marcus Aurelius said, nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. This is all about calming your mind and becoming the master of meditation for yourself. Whatever that looks like for you. I've got some incredible leaders in this space, the top in the world at what they do in meditation and calming the mind, here to reveal the strategies, the secrets, the techniques to support you in doing just that.

Jay Shetty is a former monk, award-winning host, storyteller, and viral content creator. He's got over 24 million followers globally on Facebook, millions of people on YouTube and Instagram, learning how to become more wise in their own way through his content. Pritaji and Krishnaji, founders of One World Academy in India, they do workshops and retreats around the world to help people tap into their own consciousness and find peace within on a daily basis. Dan Harris is an Emmy award-winning ABC News correspondent

whose panic attack live on Good Morning America led him to something he always thought was ridiculous, which is meditation. He went on to something he always thought was ridiculous, which is meditation. He went on to write a bestselling book, 10% Happier, and he started the app 10% Happier Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. He's got a podcast, 10% Happier with Dan Harris, interviews guests on whether you can still beursue Enlightenment. And Andy Petticombe, who is a meditation and mindfulness expert, an accomplished speaker, author of many books, and founder and the voice of Headspace, here to bring you wisdom on how to bring more calm in your mind. And in this episode,

we talk about the single thing that is with you your entire life, the three-minute meditation that will connect you with your emotions, how to release yourself from suffering, why objectifying your thoughts is so important, the science behind the benefits of meditation, and so much more. ready to tap into your soul and tap into your heart in this episode. Make sure to share with your friends. If you know anyone who's dealing with stress these days, just take this link, text them, post it all over your social media accounts. Tag me at Lewis Howes on Instagram stories and let me know you're listening and share this and be a champion to someone who is dealing with stress in their life today. lewishouse.com slash 812 to send them the meditation episode. All right, my friends, get ready, get excited and get ready to tap into the power of meditation

and calming your mind. So I remember my first day of monk school. I've just shaved my head. I'm now wearing robes. I still look like I'm from London. Like I can't get away with it. I'm walking around and I notice this monk who's teaching. This monk's 10 years old

and he's teaching a group of five-year-old monks, right? And I see him teaching. He looks like an adult. Like, you know, his ability to like teach these five-year-olds and conduct himself. And he's got this great aura about him. And so I'm kind of eavesdropping on his class. I can't obviously go and sit with a bunch of five-year-olds, even though I really want to, because I'm like, I feel like a five-year-old

next to that 10-year-old. And I went up to him and I said, what are you doing? And he said, oh, well, we just taught their first class ever. And I said, oh, cool. And he said, well, what did you learn in your first class at school? And I said, oh, well, I learned the alphabet and numbers. And I said, well, what did they learn? He said, do you want to know what they learned on their first day of school? I said, yeah, of course. He said, the first thing that we teach them, the first thing you learn at monk school is learning how to breathe. I said, why? He said, because we're taught that the only thing that stays with you from the moment you're born to the moment you die is your breath. All your friends, family, the country you live in,

all of that's going to change. The only thing that doesn't change that stays with you from the moment you're born to the moment you die is your breath. And he said, notice when you get stressed, what changes? Your breath. When you get angry, what changes? Your breath. When you're sad, what changes? Your breath. When you're happy, what changes?

Your breath. Every emotion is experienced with the change of the breath. So he said, when you learn how to navigate and manage your breath, you can actually navigate any situation in life. And I was just blown away. I was just like, wow. And then I remember researching it and noticing how athletes were taught how to breathe, musicians, singers, especially those who play wind instruments who have to reach really high notes. They're all trained how to breathe

because they have to use their breath in challenging, stressful, pressure-filled situations. But I was like, so are all of us. You've got to go on stage in front of 10,000 people. You've got to go to a concert. You just lost a deal or a contract. Our breath changes in all those scenarios, yet we don't know how to use our breath to change our life. And so for me, that was a huge learning point where I just thought, wow, that's what you're taught. The priority is on the root of things, not the leaf of the

symptoms. And that's the biggest thing about living as a monk. You're not dealing with your challenges at symptomatic level. You're dealing with it at root level, right? People say, oh, if you're stressed out, just take a stress pill. If you're stressed out, just go to get a massage. If you're stressed out, just relax, watch Netflix and chill. But all that's doing is pacifying you, escape for that hour, two hours, maybe a week. But going to the root of it and learning how to change your breath means you can manage any situation in life. And that principle, that's an example of the principle, which is so much deeper that always go to the root. It will take longer, but it will last longer. Right. Right. Right. If you go to the root, it takes longer, but it lasts longer. But if you go for the symptom,

you get it quick and it never lasts. And we don't know that. Yeah. So that was the deepest principle I learned as a monk. You always go to the root. Cut down the root of that weed in your heart. Cut down the root of that weed in your mind. Don't just let it grow and kind of water a little bit and snip, snip. Cut it a bit. Just really go to the root and just knock it out. You know, just get rid of it.

Get a big axe and cut it down. Wow. Are there any weeds in your life right now? Loads. In your heart or in your mind? Always. My daily practice is to refine my intention. The biggest weeds that we all get is in our intention. So when I say

intention, I mean my current intention is to use everything I've been given, everything that I have in the service of others. So I want to use the following that I have to help people. I want to use the money that I have to help people. I want to use the following that I have to help people. I want to use the money that I have to help people. I want to use the network that I have to help people. But every day that intention, which is a beautiful little plant that's growing, gets weeds around it. No, do it for the money.

I hear that voice, right? Do it for the fame. Just do it for the fame. Do it for the followers. Do it for this. All these weeds are like going around my real intention every day. Every day. That's a weed. A weed is the intention that you don't want. And the problem is sometimes you've let it grow so much, the weed looks like the plant.

Right? The weed looks like your intention and you start believing it's the same thing. So for me, my daily practice is going back in, reflecting on what is my voice right now in my head? What am I saying to myself? And I'm hearing, make that deal. It makes a lot of money. Do this, do that, do this, more followers, fame, all that stuff.

And I'm cutting it down. I'm cutting that weed every day. And you've got to do it every day because the more you're surrounded by that energy, the more it's going to keep creeping in like a creeper weed. I'm just using the plant analogy because I don't garden at all by the way. I have no idea.

What's the intention you set every morning for yourself then? If it's going back to the core of what you really want to create, what is that thing you want to create the most? Service? Yeah, service. To help people find their purpose, whatever that may be, and help them help other people find their purpose. I think Mark Zuckerberg said it brilliantly at Harvard.

He was saying that finding your purpose isn't enough. You have to help other people find theirs. And I know you're passionate about this. Whatever that definition is, but it has to lead everyone. So whether I meet a celebrity, an entrepreneur, or whether I meet somebody starting out, I'm always asking them the question, how can you use what you have to make a difference in the life of other people? Because if you start there, everything else will work out. But if you're starting from the point of what am I going to get, then you're always going to feel disconnected. And I see that. I see people who live like that and feel pain in their lives every day. I see that. It's not like some conceptual philosophy. We see it. I see people who live like that and feel pain in their lives every day. I see that. It's not like some conceptual philosophy.

We see it. I see people who are only in it for themselves, and they feel disconnected, dissatisfied every single day. And then you see the other extreme where people are just trying to give too much, more than they even have themselves, and they also feel disconnected. And again, they have nothing at all, right? So we know, again, attachment and aversion, two sides of the same coin.

So we want to be in that dynamic balance of growth, but always to give. So I always think, how can I go three steps deeper so that I can move three steps forward so I can give three times as much, right? That's always my mentality. How do I go deeper to go more forward to give more? Yeah.

And if I can get those three in action for that reason. See, it's all about the reasoning. You can do anything you like, but it's why are you doing it? Yeah, of course. We know that. For most part of our lives, we really don't know that we're suffering. We don't know that we are in this limiting states of anger, of fear, of frustration, of stress, of anxiety. Yes?

Yes. We feel in that space, life feels so difficult. Yes. In that space, life feels so painful, so heavy. So we have a practice, even the smallest three-minute practice that we see. Get to your emotion. What is the exact emotion that is arising within you now?

It is a small practice for three minutes. So people learn that practice, they know what exactly they're feeling. And it involves a small technique of visualization to move them away from a place of that emotion to a place of calm. Should we try it?

Yes, definitely. Okay. You want to try? Sure. Or do you want to try with me or the audience or both of us? Yes. Okay, perfect. Close your eyes.

Can you practice three conscious breaths where you inhale deep and let your exhalation be prolonged. So let us do it for three conscious breaths. Satsang with Mooji What is the exact emotion that is arising within you right now? It can be an emotion which is limiting, say anger, fear, frustration, stress, anxiety, or it could be an emotion which is a beautiful state. It can be a state of calm, peace, love, joy, serenity, or bliss. Recognize the exact emotion that is arising right now as you recognize this emotion observe your mindset

where is your thinking revolving around As you recognize this emotion, observe your mindset. Where is your thinking revolving around? Is it moving into the past? Or moving into the future? Or is it moving in the present? Are you just in the present? Are you just in the present? Observe your thinking. If you're obsessing about your past,

or obsessing about your future, or are you in the middle of your skull, the place around your pineal gland. Visualize the candle flame glowing. Amen. I don't know if you're ready you may open your eyes so why that process? what does that process do for us? it actually helps in getting in touch with your emotion

you don't know you feel so clouded because you're so fast. You have to do one after the other. You have to send your children to school. Then you have to get to work and then you have to attend to all the problems there,

the challenges there, then get back. Life is so fast. We're reacting a lot. We are reacting, not even knowing from which place you're coming. So this process is to be aware

of how we're feeling. Yeah. And it is just a three-minute process. It doesn't take longer than three minutes aware of how we're feeling yeah and it is just a three minute process it doesn't take longer than three minutes so when we're aware that okay i'm actually what happens is if you think this is the brain this is how the brain looks right yes so the entire activity around the brain when you're in the negative states when you call it negative states the limiting states where you feel separate it's about fear or anger or frustration. It is this part of the brain,

which is the limbic system that gets activated. When we're frustrated or angry. When you're frustrated and angry. Okay. So it's this. This entire part, we can call it the neocortex. Mm-hmm. And this part of the brain is responsible

for analytical thinking and logical thinking. So we're not concerned about it. We have enough schooling already happening and all skills given too. So the journey that is happening right now, a journey, a moment within, a moment of actually knowing what is happening, it focuses on activating the mid-prefrontal cortex.

Mid-prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for experiencing the expansion and experiencing connection. And it's a place of greater wisdom. This small practice that we did kind of moves away from the limbic activity, from the limbic system

to the mid-prefrontal cortex. Okay. So we're activating a different part of a different part of the brain which is which is kind of neglected refocusing our attention on something different how did you learn all this we want to help people right we want to help them move out of the suffering states to a beautiful state we know life can be lived out of a beautiful state you don't need to suffer all along in order to create wealth you don't need to suffer all along to achieve you don't need to suffer be in those painful states

of stress and anxiety because if you're not in that space you can create so much you can innovate so much you can create nurturing relationships you can stay in a beautiful state at all the time having the space of joy, and then still go about doing whatever you want to achieve, but in a more, what do you say, more intelligent way? Intentional. The beauty is when you look at the truth,

the freedom is automatic. Really? Yes. So nothing else needs to happen. Nothing else needs to happen. You look at the truth, you see it, you realize it's about me. I'm suffering because of my obsessive, self-centered thinking.

Yes. Once I recognize that, then the suffering goes away. Yes, because you clearly see that you're moved away from love, you're moved away from connection, you're moved away from courage, you're moved away from connection, you have moved away from courage, you have moved away from vision, you have fashioned to yourself. So you have moved away from also addressing your problems to yourself.

Then you are in the space of really answering the question, what is important to me? Am I going to keep suffering like this and obsessing about myself? Or if I have a problem with my children or with my wife, am I going to move to a beautiful state and address the problem? Because I need to address it. Because if I go on this path of suffering, everything around me is going to get destroyed.

So that's... I feel like a lot of people inflict suffering on themselves. Whether through their beliefs, through religion, or through family stuff, they feel like they have to suffer to live better in the afterlife or do something or give back in some way. What is that doing for us? Why do we focus so much on suffering when it only hurts us more and more and takes us

away from joy? Well, the first answer is we don't know how to come out of the suffering. That's the first one. The second answer is we really do not have a stronger, deeper purpose for our relationships. We need to find those answers. And the third one is we need to look at the truth. See, I was in London giving a talk when we started in 2009, 2010. And there was this woman who stood up and asked me this question.

Krishnaji, I understand these two states and everything, but throughout my life, I have been taught that if you suffer from there, your passion to get more in life or achieve more in life is easier. Because now you have learned a lot and you have suffered. Now you are driven or something. Now you're driven. So I just told her that you just do not have, you've just not learned the art of creating success from a beautiful state.

That's it. From inspiration as opposed to proving people wrong or trying to make yourself look good. Yes, absolutely. So what's the importance of a spiritual vision? And if we don't have one, what's going to happen to us? Well, if we don't have one,

we are going to suffer. We don't have a spiritual vision. Yes. Because spiritual vision is all about living in a beautiful state and acting from that beautiful state. Addressing your problems from a beautiful state. Not from a state of anger, not from a state of fear, insecurity, loneliness or state. Not from a state of anger, not from a state of fear,

insecurity, loneliness or depression. But from a state of courage, passion, connection. So one needs to learn to live in this state. That should become the most important thing because as I told earlier, all experiences are happening within you. So it's our interpretation, right? One, it's our interpretation.

Two, if you're suffering, there's only one interpretation. It's about you. But there's experiences happening in the external world. Yes. And we interpret it in a certain way internally. Yes. Right? Yes. And it's either suffering

experience or not suffering. Yes. You? Yes. And it's either suffering experience or not suffering. Yes. And you are right. But when suffering arises, you stop interpreting outer world. You are only thinking about yourself. Gotcha. Okay. But if you are just interpreting outer world without suffering,

then you are probably thinking about how do I solve this problem from a strategy point of view or just from a vision perspective. You are looking at how do I make this just better. You are not suffering, but you are just seeing it in a practical, pragmatic way. So yes, spiritual vision I think is the most important thing. If you do not learn to live in a beautiful state and learn to relate from that state, you will not be enjoying any of your relationships, be it your kids, your wife, your work, your profession, and yourself. How do we cultivate that on a daily basis besides being aware of

we're not suffering, but how do we just stay in that and cultivate it? There are definitely certain meditations that we offer which you can practice on a daily basis. Those will help cultivate a beautiful state. Why is meditation so powerful? Meditation is powerful

because meditation becomes powerful when you apply wisdom. See, meditation should go along with wisdom. So not just meditating, then meditate not understanding why. Yeah, not understanding why. Not understanding why you meditate. Yeah. Okay.

You have to, there has to be a purpose for meditation and that purpose must have the right path. Then you're meditating in the right way. Otherwise meditation by itself has no purpose. It might make you just feel good but you don't have achieved anything. It might help for a few hours, a few hours or a few minutes. What would you say is your spiritual vision? My spiritual vision has always been to live in a beautiful, powerful state.

And I address my challenges and my mission in every aspect of my life from that state. How does this wisdom apply for business? Because you've built a number of successful businesses. You've done very well financially. How do you apply this mindset and this way of being

in all of your relationships in the business? Because there's a lot of entrepreneurs watching. Yes. And what if you're like, well, this is just for your relationships, your family and for your relationships, your family, and your intimate relationships, but can this really be helpful for my career

and my business? Yes. I have interacted with many business people and one of the strong emotions that they work from is competitiveness.

They constantly compete with somebody else. Competitiveness. Competitiveness. So I was in a meeting with one guy here in India who's a very big business person. And I was asking him what's the vision and what's the purpose. And he was telling me, like, I want to become

better than that guy. I want to do things better than that person. I want to get those projects. Then I told him, I don't think that's going to work because that guy is good at what he's doing. So you need to find what you are good at. And what you really love doing. Then I think you'll be far more successful.

So I think it's very important, number one, to find what the vision is. And number two, not to go about achieving that vision from a place of fear. See, we are constantly, most business people want to vision from a place of fear. See, we are constantly, most business people want to achieve from a space of fear. And after achieving, they don't want to lose what they've achieved against fear. So there's definitely no enjoyment in this entire path. So I have done it from a beautiful state.

If there's a challenge, because I can differentiate challenge and suffering, I address it. I see that suffering is about me. And once I'm out of my suffering, there is immense clarity and power to address the challenge, whatever the challenge might be. Because now you're seeing challenge as a challenge.

You are not part of that. So then there's tremendous clarity to address those problems. Unfortunately, we make it too much about ourselves. We make it too much about our image. We make it too much about what people are constantly thinking about us.

So if you bring awareness and if you start looking at the truth, then you will actually see that 70% or 80% of the time you are spending thinking about yourself rather than your business. I do a lot now, so I've kind of jumped into the deep end of the pool,

or at least I'm trying to. So I do two hours a day. But my way of doing that is I tell myself I can do it in whatever increments I want, whenever I want. Five minutes at a time. I could do five minutes. So this morning I had time, so I did 70 minutes. And so at some point during my golden rest of the day will be to get those 50 minutes in somehow. Um, and I do straight up mindfulness meditation, which is, um, there are lots of permutations of that.

So usually the basic instructions are just to feel your breath coming in and going out. And every time you get lost, go back to the breath. So I do a little bit of that, but I also do what's called noting practice where drop my focus on the breath and just note whatever is happening in my field of consciousness. focus on the breath and just note whatever's happening in my field of consciousness. So thinking, feeling my butt on the chair, uh, feeling the cold air coming at. Yeah. So it's, and what the, why that's useful is in a sense, you're kind of like objectifying your thoughts and, and the sensations that come up in your, um, consciousness. And so you're not taking it also personally. And so when anger comes up in your real life, you're not yanked around by it.

So when somebody cuts you off on the freeway... It's like someone just cut me off on the freeway. You don't have to... You will get angry. You're not going to be transformed into a bowl of Jell-O, but you don't have to take the bait and act on it and start chasing that dude down the highway

with your kids in the back of the car. So the cliche here, and I hate meditation cliches, but the one that I love is that what meditation teaches you how to do is respond wisely instead of reacting blindly. And that's the game. That is mindfulness. Why do you think we react so much to so many situations in our day-to-day life? Because we're unaware of the central feature of our lives, which is our inner narrator. Nobody points out to us that this voice that's offering up terrible suggestions like, you know, eat the 18th cookie or say the thing that's going to ruin the next 48 hours of your marriage or whatever.

Nobody points out that that voice is full of shit. You know, that it's just a, you know just a – it has no relationship necessarily to reality. Sometimes it has great ideas, but you have to have – An awareness. Mindfulness, yes. You have to be able to step out of the traffic and to see it with some nonjudgmental remove in order to figure out – in order to separate wheat from chaff, in order to figure out, oh, this is a good idea, this is a terrible one. And mindfulness is a basic human capacity.

We all have. It's our birthright. It's not just something like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra have. We all have it. And all you have to do is have it pointed out to you that you have this capacity

to step out of the stream of consciousness a little bit and to see it without blindly reacting to it. And meditation teaches you how to do it. Why do you think we were wired and designed to be this way? You know, it's, you know, the best guess I've asked this people, I've asked this question a lot. I mean, we, we, um, you know, we evolved for threat detection.

You know, we as a species evolved in a time when there were a lot of threats, you know, saber-toothed tigers, other dangerous human beings, other animals. And so we had to constantly be on guard. And what made us different from other animals is this ability to plan for the future and learn from the past. And so really we evolved, this part of the brain, the new part of the brain really evolved and allowed us to do some, the new part of the brain really evolved and allowed us to do some of the things that are the most remarkable feats of humanity. Like I was saying before, build, plan and build skyscrapers. Go to the moon, build an airplane. Yes, yes, yes.

And, but it also, you know, you don't see your dog spending a lot of time worrying or planning. By the same token, you know, the dog poops on the rug. So it's not. Mindful. I don't know if you want to call it – there's a difference between being present and mindful, right? Exactly. But the dogs are present.

Yes. My cats are present. I don't know if they're mindful when they're puking on my bed, which they do. They all do, right? Mm-hmm. Oh, man. Amazing. So no one's really given you a great answer except for that answer.

That's the guess. Yeah. That's the guess. That's the guess. But clearly we also have in our brains slash minds this capacity to be mindful. same time i'm not religious so i think buddhism is not something to believe in but something to do the genius of the buddha was and and lots of other people in history by the way not just the buddha but the buddha is the guy who i just know the most about is that he's he saw that we have we have this ability to kind of hack our own minds amazing and get out of this rut how many years ago was buddha 2600 years ago pretty incredible yes yeah yeah so what is uh what's next for this mindful space it's meditation space there's a lot happening there's a lot of voices experts books apps where is it heading and how can we know what's right for us or what can we start with

i think it's awesome i think there's like kind of an explosion now where where you're seeing it in corporations you're seeing in locker rooms you're seeing it in corporations. You're seeing it in locker rooms. You're seeing it in – TV stations probably. Absolutely. We have a meditation room on the 13th floor of our building. Really?

In ABC News. We have a meditation room. Do you go in there? Yes. Do you see other people? I do. I do. When I go, it's usually – because I usually go before I anchor Nightline and so I'm by myself.

But there are 3 o'clock meditations almost every day. No way. So someone's leading the meditation. Actually, you know, they use the meditations from our app. That's cool. In the room. Okay. And sometimes people lead it, and it's a whole mix.

But it's taken off on its own. Lots of corporations have meditation rooms now. Lots of, you know, I mentioned before the lead singer of Weezer is a daily meditator, Katie Perry, Lena Dunham, 50 Cent. A lot of people. A lot of people are meditating. So I think it's an awesome thing. I don't know where it's all heading. Where I hope it's heading is that this is the next big public health revolution.

Yeah. I think that. The next yoga. Like the way yoga is becoming mainstream. Yeah. It's like this is the next. I think we're going to view mental exercise the same way we view physical exercise. Yeah, physical gyms.

I don't know if you're aware of the meditation center that's here. Unplug. Yeah, unplug. I'm assuming those are going to be opening up like yoga centers. There's one in New York now called Mindful. I just heard that they're opening up. I just got a call from a woman who's opening up a center in Miami. I know there's center in Miami.

I know there's one in Austin. So it definitely happens. Meditation is at its best when we use it for prevention. When you're already doing well. Exactly. Not when things are crazy and messed up. Yeah, only because it's that much harder. If you're in the middle of a really intense situation and someone's like oh just learn meditation yeah you're struggling to even deal with and never mind learn new stuff so it doesn't mean we can't use it for for those

things but i think if we can get into a cycle and a habit in the same way we don't wait for our teeth to go really well in britain we do um exactly right so we get into this kind of pattern of hygiene and in the same way i think it's hygiene of the health of the mind you know how do we just kind of keep it fresh and sharp and calm and focused and if we do it consistently that happens interesting i love it it's like flossing your brain yeah right it's like getting the gunk out in between the stuff it's a new light it's flossing the brain yeah um i didn't prep you for this but i'm curious can we can we do like a couple minute meditation or something you know okay i would love to yeah i mean just to either give people a sample of yeah like what this even looks like and sounds like and

and um i know you have different like tracks for like going to sleep and like yeah all these other things in there let's do one if you can again i'm putting on the spot here let's do one for like preparing yourself for a big moment in life okay like you're you're feeling anxious because you've got a big speech ted talk you've got a big sports game like the biggest game of your life you're going on because you've got a big speech ted talk you've got a big sports game like the biggest game of your life you're going on the first date of like the woman of your dreams that you're about to meet yeah and you were just like your heart is pounding your mind is racing you know nothing bad is happening in your life but you're just like overwhelmed and you can't relax

but you want to perform and do the this is like your make or break moment yeah we can do that let's do it the the context and it's important to give because it's as much about genuinely like the technique's important in meditation but the approach is even more important because unless you know how to approach it you're not going to get the benefit from it what do you mean by that so for, for example, just three tips, kind of, which I think will give you more benefit from this exercise. So, tip one, expectation. Like, if you are sitting down and you're thinking just because we're doing something called

meditation that your mind is immediately going to switch off and be quiet and there'll be no thoughts, you're going to think that this has failed. Right. And you might not do it again because you think, I'm no good at this. Right. Because your first time, it's probably not going to be calm. Exactly. You're probably going to continue to have thoughts.

Exactly. Not be able to focus. Exactly. Perfectly normal, like learning any skill. Yes. More than that, meditation is not even about stopping thoughts. It's about stepping back and seeing the mind more clearly. And so this place, I always think about it like cars on a road.

The road is the mind and the cars are the thoughts. The job is not to run around in the road trying to stop this thought and chase after that thought. It's about actually stepping off the road. And seeing the thought. Sitting on the verge comfortably and witnessing thoughts coming and going. And when you do that over time the traffic starts to kind of slow down a little bit and you might one day doesn't happen very often here in

la i know but you might just see a road without any cars on it at all you know who knows who knows so expectation is the first thing okay so know that your mind will continue to think. Thoughts will arise. That's okay. Perfectly natural. Second thing, effort. Okay. We, again, live in a society where we're encouraged to kind of do stuff. And to do stuff kind of with passion and intensity. Well, that's fine. And it's great.

And it gets us kind of to a lot of places we want to get to in life. But you can't force relaxation to happen. You can't force a quiet mind in the same way that you can't force sleep. So, you know, I would say the things are very similar. You lie in bed. Let's say you've got that big presentation or whatever it is the next day and you're lying in bed thinking, I've got to get to sleep. I've got to get to sleep.

Well, the more you think that, the less likely you start sweating. You know, I can't get to sleep. No, I've got to try harder sleep i've got to get to sleep well the more you think that the less likely you know you start start sweating you know oh my god i can't get to sleep no i've got to try harder i've got to try harder this is never going to work right so in the same way you know with meditation it's can't it can't be a case of oh no i'm doing terrible i've got to focus harder i've got to focus harder i was saying to someone the other day i mean there's a talk i was going i can't remember i was in a i went to to do a uh a thing in a bank once with 600 kind of bankers traders there and teaching meditation yeah and and as i as i walked in there i heard one one of them say say to the other one like right i'm gonna meditate the crap out of it and it's kind of okay well if we're going into it with that kind of intensity we're probably not going to get the benefit we're looking for. Yes.

You want to give your full effort. Exactly. But that doesn't mean like… It's not kind of a will kind of thing. It's more kind of actually like easing off a little bit. Yeah. Like in kind of saying, oh, this is nice. Yes.

For 10 minutes, I don't have to do anything. Right. Right. You know, so expectations are first, efforts are second. And the third one i think of it as blue sky it's um for me this idea was a total game changer i always meditated with the idea that as we were talking about earlier like happiness or peace of mind was somewhere else and it was maybe five minutes ahead of me or 10 minutes or maybe a year ahead of me and if i could

just get to that point then everything would be okay then one of me or 10 minutes or maybe a year ahead of me. And if I could just get to that point, then everything would be okay. And then one of my teachers said, kind of like, think of it like this, you know, so even on a, even on a cloudy day, the blue sky is still there. If we think about the blue sky being that peace of mind, that sense of kind of happiness and ease, like that's always there. And if we live in a very cloudy country like england where i'm from you know sometimes you forget you don't see it much and so you forget and you kind of and you have to get in a plane and kind of go up through the clouds to be reminded okay it's it's still there and in the same way like in the mind happiness peace of mind is always

with us it's never been anywhere else it's just that we've got so caught up in the clouds or the clouds have obscured our our perceptions so much that we've forgotten about that so it doesn't make any sense to be sitting there trying to create what we think is relaxation or happiness or peace of mind because it's already there it's within us and so all of it that does something to the dynamic rather than trying to project an idea onto the experience instead we simply witness the experience so remembering that your mind will think anyway knowing that you don't have to try too hard and knowing that peace of mind is always within us and is always here if you can remember those three things then you then you start to get some benefit from the exercise.

There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode all about mastering meditation and calming your mind. If you did, please share this with a friend. Just take the link on the podcast, wherever you're listening to this, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are listened to. Take the link and text a few friends right now the link. You can be a champion in someone's life by sharing this message to them. If this is your first time here, please rate, subscribe, and review over on Apple Podcasts right now. The more reviews we get, the more this message spreads far and wide and we can help more people in taking their life to the next level.

And as Eckhart Tolle said, you have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer. And Marcus Aurelius said, nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul?

You have the power in your soul to tap into something much greater than any technology out there. You have the technology within you. If you're willing to manage your thoughts, calm your mind, transform your mind into one of clarity, calm, and peace. When you change the thoughts in your mind, your emotions start to transform from chaos to stress or anxiety or resentment or fear or anger to one of pure love, love and flow. You deserve to be loved. You deserve to be in the flow to one of pure love, love and flow.

You deserve to be loved. You deserve to be in the flow because that's when you can create something at your fullest potential in those states, love and flow. You cannot create full potential results in any other state of anger, anxiety, stress, or overwhelm. Calm your mind. Master the art of meditation. Step into your purpose of love and flow. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.