Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPSnacks: Say Om! Introduction To Meditation with Shiv

Episode Date: February 29, 2020

#YAPSnacks is a new series of bite-size pods hosted by the YAP team aimed to provide you with key information and actionable insights. Ever wonder why meditation has surged so much in popularity? Or why so many celebrities swear by some form of meditative practice?  If you want to give meditation a shot, but are not sure where to begin or what form of meditation is best for you, than this #YAPSnacks is the perfect episode for you! If you're interested in this topic, go back to episode #46, "Mindfulness, Meditation and Manifesting for High Performance," featuring meditation guru and Ziva founder, Emily Fletcher. If you liked this episode, please write us a review! Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, Join Ubo1 and save $0.00 delivery fee and percentage off discount subjects to older minimums and participating stores that taxes another fee still apply. Welcome to YAPSNACs, bike-sized pods of digestible and actionable content. My name is Shiv and I'm the lead researcher and producer at YAP. Hala is dealing with a family emergency and unfortunately she cannot join us today. I wish this an up prayers over to her.

Today we'll be diving into the topic of meditation. This episode is sponsored by POTCON, a marketplace connecting podcasts to amazing sponsorship opportunities, head over to POTCON.com to learn more. Meditation has come up in a number of episodes in our show. From David Allen and his getting things done system that involves removing port loops to Emily Fletcher and her techniques of Ziva meditation. It seems like today almost every successful person does some form of meditative practice. So today we're going to explore what are some of the most

practical day-to-day benefits of meditation and how we can get started. All right, so let's dig in to what meditation is and why we should meditate. Meditation is essentially some form of training that could involve a number of different techniques that is usually done to solve one of two main purposes. Meditation can be used to reach peak performance states, to energize yourself and bring out

your best self. Ometician can also be used to trigger deep relaxation, to calm yourself and create a feeling of happiness and fulfillment. Now meditation is practiced by peak performers across the spectrum, ranging from Hollywood celebrities to hedge fund managers to star athletes. Let's look at some examples of people who practice and swear by meditation. Oprah, Elinda Generas, Bill Gates, George Lucas, Will Smith, The Beatles, Madonna, and the list just keeps going on and on and on.

But why? Why do so many people, these top performers, swear by meditation? Well we talked about the two high level benefits, bringing out your best self and stress reduction getting into a calm state. But let's look at the benefits at a more granular level. Meditation can really help with stress reduction. They've been numerous studies on this, and in one study, nearly 1300 adults, all simultaneously, demonstrated that meditation may decrease stress.

Meditation can lead to enhanced self-awareness. It can help lead to a stronger understanding of ourselves and thus help us grow into our best selves. Meditation can also help increase our attention span. Focused attention meditation is kind of like weightlifting for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention. You can visit Episode 34 to hear near Ayah talk about some of those patterns. Meditation also leads to increased pain tolerance and control.

Your perception of pain is connected deeply to your state of mind. And there have been numerous studies that have shown the meditation deeply helps alleviate various forms of pain. In fact, one thought I used to have when I was much younger was that the pinnacle of meditation in an extreme form when one is in such a deep state of calmness of mind, one reaches a place where whether one is being tortured to death or one is having the most pleasurable experience of one's life, one's mental state is in the same calm, relaxed, happy state. Once mental state is in the same calm, relaxed, happy state. Meditation can also reduce blood pressure. A study of almost a thousand volunteers found that when they meditated by concentrating

on a silent mantra or repeated non-vocalized word, they reduce their blood pressure by over five points an average, and this has been reviewed and confirmed by several other studies. Meditation can also improve social ability. We're going to have Mark Metrie return on our show where he's going to talk about his social anxiety as a child, and noviceness and anxiety and feeling down, feeling disoriented, can play a big role in us not wanting to hang out with people. Meditation helps us connect better with ourselves and in the process get out there and connect better with others. Alright, so now that we've talked about some of the more granular benefits of meditation,

let's look at how you can get started. You can start small, but consistency is best. It is much much better to do five minutes of meditation every day, then to do 35 minutes once in a week. Start off by finding a quiet place and be easy on yourself when your mind wanders. That's part of the learning process. And don't get too caught up in the how, where to sit, what thoughts you should be thinking, whether you should be thinking, whether you should use an app, whether you should guide a meditation, which technical meditation you should use, how you should be breathing, etc. You know, don't get caught up in all those details, just do it. Focusing your breaths, for example, scan your body for any residual tension and relax.

There are a number of excellent apps out there. Headspace and calm are the two main ones that are most popular. YouTube, too, has a ton of amazing guided meditations. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast.

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Now I want to talk a little bit more about what meditation is and the way I've looked at it. The mind is like a stormy ocean, broodged with thoughts. There's always deep calm below the surface level thoughts, just like below those choppy waves there's always deep calm at the deeper depths of the ocean. However, those calming depths are not easy to access. And there are many techniques and meditation that help get us closer to that calm

by focusing on something, such as focusing on the breath, the present moment, the sound, senses, or a feeling, such as love. So the idea is that from being barrage by hundreds, thousands of thoughts, we get to a place where we are focused on one single port. And then the ultimate state that we want to reach is a state called no mind, where we are literally living right completely in the present, moment to moment. The moment you try and grasp or think or try to control reality, you have left

the present moment and are living in the past or the future, which is the source of all stress, all anxiety, all worry, and all misery. So let's look at some types of meditation now. One of the simplest forms of meditation is mindfulness meditation, where you just try and live completely in the present moment, you pay attention to your thoughts, and you don't judge them or become involved with them, or even try and control them, you just pay attention to them and observe them silently and dispassionately. In the episode with Emily Fletcher, we dig deeper into the difference between mindfulness and meditation. It's actually a very interesting and

instructive distinction, and I encourage you to listen to that episode if you haven't already to dig deeper into that topic. Then we have Zen meditation, where you focus completely on the present moment. It's usually practice seated on a floor or on a cushion, where you focus on your breath, count from one to 10 and then back from 10 to one. The essence of Zen is really summed up very nicely in a quote that says, "'Real wisdom is not thinking what spirituality

when you're peeling the potatoes. Real wisdom is simply peeling the potatoes. Transcendental or Mantra meditation involves repeating a mantra which could be words like affirmations or even just a sound, the classic example being Om, which some schools of thought believe is a fundamental vibration of the universe or of our being. And a lot of celebrities that we mentioned earlier are big fans of this transcendental meditation. Reason being is that it's great form but it was also popularized very well in the West by a man named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Pranayama is a yogic practice of breath control. Again, there's a focus on a single element, the breath, and the different forms of pranayam and breath exercises,

some to get us energized, some to balance us, you know, the left and right sides of our brain, and some to just get us in a calm, relaxed, easy-going state. Yoga Nidra is another amazing yoga technique, which is essentially that lingering state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, Another amazing yogic technique, which is essentially that lingering state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, which is typically induced by a guided meditation. Now there is a lot of scientific evidence that Yoganidra helps to relieve some serious

stress and is even being applied by the US Army to assist soldiers to recover from PTSD. Sense meditation can involve deep concentration on any of our five senses, so just imagine being in a restaurant and really enjoying the food and being completely immersed in the food, that is essentially a form of sense meditation. Movement meditation involves things such as walking through the woods, gardening, running, again, just being completely and deeply focused on what you're doing in the moment. Golf is a very similar activity where you're completely focused on making an excellent connection with that ball, hitting it and getting it to go where you want. And that's why golf is a dicting,

in some ways, it's that complete state of focus on that one action that gives us great joy and pleasure. And finally, there's metameditation, which is essentially a form of loving kindness meditation where you try and get out of yourself and you develop a feeling of happiness and well-being for all. I'm reminded of a quote I read once, which went something like this. Whenever you're having a bad day and you're feeling down and depressed and irritable, just remember that the world is a very big place, the tons of beings out there. And even though you may be having a bad day, if you can get out of yourself and identify with

the bigger reality that's out there, somebody out there at that very moment that you're feeling really bad, somebody out there has a stunning sound. Somebody out there has gotten to the college of their choice. Somebody out there is having their first kiss. Somebody out there has just had their first kiss. Somebody out there has just got a promotion. Somebody out there has just got a job. Somebody out there has just built up what their dream house.

And somebody out there is rolling on their floor, laughing their butt off. This has been Yapsnax, bite-sized spots of digestible and actionable content. I'm Shiv, and if you don't meditate, I hope we've convinced you at least to give meditation a shot and see the benefits of it. Until next time. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Rubin, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast.

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