The OneMind Meditation Podcast with Morgan Dix: Meditation | Mindfulness | Health

This week we chat with New York Times reporter and author David Gelles. The paperback version of his excellent book, Mindful Work was just released. We had a chance to catch up David and discuss some of the themes in Mindful Work. MINDFUL WORK: How Meditation Is Changing Business from the Inside Out For anyone interested in the intersection of mindfulness and the workplace, this is a must read. This carefully researched, heartfully written, and delightfully readable book tells one of the most interesting true stories of our time: the fascinating and sometimes messy coming together of the wisdom world and the corporate world. — Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google, author of Search Inside Yourself How Meditation Is Changing Business How is meditation changing the world of business? This is the central question that drives David Gelles’ Mindful Work. In the West, meditation has evolved from an esoteric contemplative art—practiced by a few to attain an elusive spiritual jewel called enlightenment—into a form of pragmatic training for spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. As part of the most recent iteration of that development, much of the business world has started to embrace mindfulness. These days, it’s not unusual to find meditation rooms in fortune 100 companies. A decade ago that would have seemed outrageous. In our post modern climate, it’s generally recognized that you need to treat employees like real human beings who have human needs. As a result, meditation, exercise, education, and yoga are routine in the work place, yielding better work and a better life. And in the UK, companies are even more bullish on meditation largely because spiraling health care costs driven by chronic stress are a huge expense. Studies show that meditation and mindfulness training can help. Exploring Mindful Work In Mindful Work, David Gelles takes us on a tour. In fact, he take us on several tours through multiple stories. First, we learn about David’s own multi-decade journey with meditation. It started with a single book on Buddhism that ultimately led him to India to study with the same meditation master who taught one of the first American vipassana teachers, Joseph Goldstein. Eventually he took up journalism and became a business report for the Financial Times and then The New York Times before his interests in meditation and business converged and culminated in Mindful Work. Then the book traverses the fascinating and at times surprising history of meditation in the West. David then helps us understand the factors and forces that have contributed to the recent explosion of meditation into mainstream. That includes an in-depth look at how meditation and mindfulness have become a popular focus of scientific study and research. All of that is fascinating indeed, but it’s just context for the main event. Set against this rich backdrop, Mindful Work chronicles the individuals and organizations who are ushering mindfulness into the world of business. Brimming with insights and backed up with solid research, Mindful Work takes us to the front lines of a revolution that is transforming the business world. —Arianna Huffington In this episode, David Gelles and I talk about: The three main reasons why meditation has really exploded into the mainstream. Why David wrote this book and for whom One company you’ll never guess that started this trend in business The outstanding companies using meditation to positive effect in their organization The history of meditation in the West Some of the major American figures who were influence by and helped introduce meditation to the West How Thoreau’s Walden is a treatise on mindfulness The impact of the Dalai Lama’s Mind and Life Institute on nurturing interest in meditation within the scientific community Show Notes Read an excerpt from Mindful Work Buy Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business from the Inside Out Connect with David Gelles and learn more about his work Read David’s most recent NYT article on mindfulness: The Hidden Price of Mindfulness, Inc. Read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg You Might Also Like The post OM057: David Gelles, NYT Reporter and Author of Mindful Work appeared first on About Meditation.

Guided Meditation For Stress Relief This episode of the OneMind Meditation Podcast is an abbreviated version of our last episode which addressed the stress associated with the US presidential election. Several of you requested an abbreviated version of that guided meditation, without the prelude and commentary. So this guided meditation for stress and relaxation will ground you in the part of yourself that is always at rest. It will help you let go into the deepest part of each one of us, a part that is forever untouched by the drama and trauma of the world. I encourage you take the time and let yourself enjoy the unbounded freedom and release that comes from immersing yourself in pure being. Meditation Stimulates Your Relaxation Response What is stress exactly? According to Psychology Today: Stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. In other words, it’s an omnipresent part of life. A stressful event can trigger the “fight-or-flight” response, causing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to surge through the body. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, scheduling regular times each day for relaxing activities like meditation is one of the best things you can do to mitigate your stress. Why is meditation such a great response to dealing with stress and anxiety? Most importantly, it stimulates you relaxation response, which is the opposite of your fight or flight response. In essence the relaxation response kicks your parasympathetic nervous system into gear. That’s a hallmark of mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. When that happens, you’re on the right track! Enjoy! Show Notes If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to meditation and explore the Meditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes The post OM056: Guided Meditation For Stress Relief appeared first on About Meditation.

Does the election cycle stress you out? The other day, I was scrolling through social media, and every other post was about the U.S. presidential election. And as you can imagine, most of it was polarizing and vitriolic. The deeper I got into it, the more angry and stressed out I felt. It seemed to me that there was just no escape from the cataclysmic visions on offer from the media. Guided Meditation For Election Stress That’s when it occurred to me. We need a guided meditation to combat the stress of the election cycle. If I’m experiencing this kind of tension and constriction, lots of you are probably having a similar if not identical experience. Every nook and cranny of the media world is overflowing with coverage of the candidates. And of course all of us are invested in one way or another. But have you stopped to question the effect of all this on your quality of life? It’s hard not to feel invested in your candidate. Inevitably, you hear this report or that scandal, or this contrary detail. And you hear that this candidate is ahead, and that one said that horrific thing, and it’s an affront to everything decent Americans stand up for…and on and on. We’re invested. There’s no way around it. I don’t think it’s possible to remain neutral. Now the thing is, this constant barrage of media stresses all of us out. And we’re not always aware this triggers our primitive brain and our fight or flight response kicks in. Bearing Witness To Your Own Mind But there is an alternative. You can be interested in the mechanics of it all. You can foster a more mindful and conscious approach. And in doing so, foster a less reactive approach. And that’s really what we’re talking about here…short circuiting the habitual and mechanical reactivity of our stressed out minds. All this media winds us up and it feels like the world is ending. And haven’t you noticed how completely polarizing all of this is? It’s pretty nuts. But here’s the thing. This is an old story. Probably as old as culture itself. This isn’t new. What’s potentially new is you and me bearing witness to the mechanical patterns of reactivity that get played out in our own minds. Mindfulness Frees You From The Drama When you bear witness and watch the polarization, the fear, and the rising tide of your blood pressure, as you connect the dots and see that following certain trains of thought lead you to conclude that there’s no hope and the world is ending, you can let it go. You can be free of all that momentum. Seeing and observing those patterns is a lot more interesting. Because seeing frees you. It releases you from the grip of reactivity. Now remember, this is not to say that none of this matter re the election. Because it does. The election matters. Your vote matters. Your opinion matters. Of course it does. Public discourse around the issues that constitute our lives matters. But this guided meditation is not about that. It’s about taking this unique moment in time, the lead up to the election, as an opportunity to pay attention to how your mind works. Fear, Desire, And Our Resistance To Change This is a chance to see how right the Buddha was when he identified fear and desire and our resistance to change as the core drivers of human suffering. And I say fear and desire because meditation and mindfulness help you see that your mind and your patterns of thinking become habituated based on what you want and what you don’t want. Our minds glom on to the things we desire. It’s like gravity. And it avoids the things we fear and dislike. That’s how we develop deeply conditioned blinds spots. Creating A Stress-Free Oasis So I want you to think of this guided meditation as an oasis from the stress of the election. An oasis for your mind, for your nervous system, for your body. And the goal is that you want to expand this oasis. And we do that by cultivating a little more mindfulness around how we’re reacting to this whole election cycle. But remember, this lesson applies to any issues or any moments in our lives that are hot. And we all have times like that. They come and they go. That’s why we practice. So we can maintain more discriminating intelligence and more equanimity in the times when it’s particularly hard to be cool. We practice for those times when we’re most reactive and most stressed. Show Notes If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to meditation and explore the Meditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes The post OM055: Guided Meditation For Election Stress appeared first on About Meditation.

Practice makes perfect. It’s an old adage we all know too well. But what does it mean in the context of meditation? If you pan back and look at all the major breakthroughs in art, science, spirituality, and other fields, you’ll discover practitioners who’ve invested thousands of hours of hard work. Often that work is composed of mundane and repetitive practice. In this episode of the OneMind Meditation Podcast, we explore the power of practice and how so many artistic, scientific, and spiritual luminaries scaled the peaks of greatness through the daily grind of rote rehearsal and blunt effort. Starting With The Basics With all great endeavors, we all begin at the bottom. The artist starts with simple scales or brush strokes. Over hours, days, weeks, months, and years, the scales turn to arpeggios and become music that stirs our minds and hearts. The brush strokes form compositions and eventually transmit intention, feeling, and emotion. It’s the same with meditation. The masters didn’t become masters without logging too many hours to count. The masters didn’t become more human without the eventual confrontation with oneself that comes with decades of practice. When you practice meditation again and again, you learn how to let go. You learn to see things in yourself that were previously obscured. Above all, you learn how to step outside your own thought stream and develop perspective on your mind. Developing this perspective only comes with regular practice. Four Reasons To Practice Meditation And let me tell you. There is immeasurable value in learning how to sidestep the jetstream of your mind. Here are just a few reasons that spring to mind. First, you’ll discover that you are much more than what you think. Second, you’ll learn that there’s a part of you that never moves. It’s the very ground of who you are. Third, you’ll recognize that you can never practice enough. Stepping outside the thought stream never gets old. Fourth, you’ll experience a quality of relaxation and existential relief that can only come when you let go of your mind. With this in mind, remember that big things have small beginnings. Your daily efforts are likely to yield more over the longterm that you can ever imagine. Show Notes If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to meditation and explore the Meditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes The post OM054: Why Practice Makes Perfect In Meditation (What would Jimi Hendrix say?) appeared first on About Meditation.

Can technology really help you meditate? What if there was a piece of hardware that actually let you know when you’re mind is wandering? And in doing so, helped you bring it back to center. Well, it’s not sci-fi and you don’t have to wait. The technology to do this exists. In fact, it’s been around for a few years. But it took a unique blend of talents and vision to turn that technology into an attractive brain sensing device that actually helps you center your mind and meditate. It’s called MUSE: The Brain Sensing Headband. Loaded with a clinical grade EEG (electroencephalogram), MUSE is like an artifact from the future, which uses realtime feedback from your brain to teach you how to meditate. In this episode of the OneMind Meditation podcast, we talk with Ariel Garten, a pioneer in the field of brain sensing technology and the cofounder of Interaxon Technologies, the company that creates MUSE. Can Technology Make You More Human? Ariel Garten Ariel Garten and her team have a grand vision for MUSE. Contrary to a lot of technologies these days, which arguably make us less attentive, less available, and by extension, less human, MUSE is positioned to do the opposite. In Ariel’s own words, technologies like MUSE should: Get out of the way so that it can enhance, expand, and support our human experience so that we can become kinder, gentler, more engaged, more connected, more human and more loving individuals. Ariel and her team were compelled to create MUSE for two reasons. First, to make the invisible…visible. That starts with the brain. As Ariel describes it: The brain creates, determines, and defines the self and yet we have so little access to it. Our brain is how we process the world, it’s all of our perceptions, it’s how we build relationships, it’s how we move our bodies, and yet we can’t interact with it. We can’t see it, touch it, feel it, smell it, talk to it…its an invisible thing that drives us and I wanted to learn how to interact with it. And brainwave sensing is a very simple way to do that and one of the first ways to tangibly do that—to make the activity of the brain visible. The point of muse is to build that into every day to understand, improve, and interact with your mind in ways that can fundamentally change your life. The second reason is no less ambitious. The folks at Interaxon want to change the world through meditation. And they think MUSE has a real shot at helping to make that happen. How Does It Work? So how does it work? In simple terms, MUSE uses five electrodes to track your brainwaves. It then translates the movement of your mind—your brainwaves—into sound. In essence, you get to hear your own mind reflected back to you through MUSE. Through a very simple feedback loop, you can then start to interact with your brain. As it happens, the best way to do that is…yep, you guessed it, through meditation. The MUSE headband actually allows you to observe the qualities of your own awareness. Are you focused on the anchor of your meditation practice or is your mind wandering? You’ll know instantly because MUSE has a clever way of reflecting it back to you. And over time, this feedback loop makes the movement of your mind more transparent to you and more objective. In the process, you develop greater sensitivity to those moments when your attention drifts and, theoretically, you’re quicker to recover and bring your mind back. That process of recognizing when your attention has wandered is the heart of any focused attention meditation practice. Except normally you don’t have an external feedback system letting you know when you’re mind has wandered. In this way, MUSE can potentially accelerate that process of becoming more conscious. Measuring The Impact Of MUSE So how effective is MUSE and can it be used for medical purposes? It’s early days, but at present, 120 different research institutions are working with MUSE to study the impact of it’s application. The MAYO clinic is running a study with breast cancer patients as a way to test muse as a way to manage stress related to surgery. Women receive a MUSE headset 4 weeks before surgery to manage the stress related to the cancer care process. They are also testing the effect on recovery times. Another study with Harvard University and Spaulding Rehabilitation hospital is looking at the effects of MUSE around recovery from traumatic brain injury. In this episode, Ariel Garten and I discuss: How Ariel’s background as a fashion designer, psychotherapist, and trained neuroscientist influence her approach to developing MUSE Why she and her team at Interaxon created MUSE How brain sensing technology works How brain sensing technology allows you to “listen” to your mind How Interaxon used brain sensing technology to light up Niagara Falls during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics How and why MUSE is a tool for developing self-knowledge How MUSE can make you a better meditator Show Notes Get $37.35 off MUSE when you use this special discount link for OneMind Meditation Podcast listeners. At checkout choose:Podcast and Type: One Mind. (Note: About Meditation is an affiliate partner with MUSE and may receive a commission for purchases made through this discount link.) The post OM053: Exploring MUSE The Brain Sensing Headband with Ariel Garten appeared first on About Meditation.

Photo via Flickr CC: Pedro Plassen Lopes Do you ever struggle to get to sleep? Finding the right guided meditation for deep sleep isn’t always easy. In this guided meditation—designed to help you fall into a refreshing slumber—we focus on relaxing and letting go of the past. Is Insomnia An Epidemic? If you struggle with insomnia or just logging a sound night of sleep, then you’re definitely not alone. According the the popular UK newspaper, The Telegraph, “in the US alone, it was estimated that $32.4 billion was spent in 2013 on things that help us get some kip [sleep].” That’s a staggering figure. But if you look at changing lifestyles over the last 50 years and even the last decade, it’s not a total surprise. Why? We’re doing more in less time, we’re bent under the weight of information overload, and thanks to our hyper-connectivity, we experience in graphic detail tragedies happening 10,000 miles away in real time. We’ve got issues! All of the above is a recipe for chronic stress. Why We Struggle With Sleep That same Telegraph article cited two primary reasons for sleep deprivation. First, there’s not enough time in the day to get things done and second, it’s hard to switch off our racing minds. What leads to this widespread predicament? For one thing, we’re more stressed than ever. That stress cranks up our nervous system, releasing a veritable cocktail of chemicals designed to keep us alert and ready for threats to our survival. And the problem is, that heightened stress state is the new normal. Often we’re hitting the pillow with very little transition time between finishing up our last work tasks and lying in bed. There’s no ramp down time. And we all need ramp down time. The transition times are important because they help our nervous system, and our minds, downshift. So when this pattern becomes a habit, your body and your mind aren’t ready to let go when you’re ready for sleep. They don’t know how to shut off. And neither do you. Guided Meditation For Deep Sleep Photo via Flickr CC: Yumbrad The thing is, by the time you’re going to bed, you want to make peace with your day and let go of what happened. That’s important. We’re all collecting baggage every day, and we have a chance to let it go at night and start the next day with a clean slate. This guided meditation for deep sleep will help you do that. It guides you through a short process of taking stock, relaxing and letting go. This can actually help you reverse the effects of stress. The goal is to lighten your load and help unburden your body and mind while stimulating your relaxation response, all to help you fall into a restful slumber. Feel free to use this guided meditation as often as you like and enjoy the rich and restful benefits of saying sayonara to the past. Show Notes If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to Meditation and explore theMeditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes The post OM052: Guided Meditation For Deep Sleep appeared first on About Meditation.

How do you nurture mindful relationships? And what is a mindful relationship anyways? Every adult who’s had an intimate partner knows that healthy relationships take work and a lot of practice. They’re like a a garden. You can’t take it for granted. If you tend it carefully, mind the bad weather, and nurture it over time, then good things flower from the soil. But how do you do that and how can mindfulness and meditation help? In this episode of the OneMind podcast, we explore mindful relationships. What are they and how can you bring the fruits of your mindfulness practice into your most intimate relationships? In the end, I find a lot of it comes down to communication and paying attention. Let me explain. What Do Mindful Relationships Look Like? Recently a small bolt of lightning struck my home. Not literally, but figuratively. There we were, my wife and I, moving along through our lives together when suddenly there was a flashpoint that erupted between us. We are about to cross the 13 year threshold of our marriage. And over that time, I’ve learned that you can never predict when flashpoints are going to emerge. They just hit when they do. And they always test your mindful presence. Do you react? Do you lash out? Do you suppress the injured feelings? Or do you endeavor to build a bridge across the chasm that suddenly opened up between the two of you. Recently my wife and I hit one of these flashpoints. It reminded me of why it’s so important to cultivate mindfulness every day. For me, there’s no question that my meditation and mindfulness practice (and my wife’s training in the same) enable us to meet in these moments and forge a deeper connection. We’ve both realized that these moments are some of the most important. And no matter how hurt one of us feels, the rewards of a mindful approach—patience, listening, renouncing the natural reactivity, and trying to understand the other side—always pays off in the form of deeper trust and intimacy. Cultivating Non-Judgmental Awareness The science seems to corroborate my experience. In a recent post on Psychology Today, Melanie Greenberg Ph.D. writes: If, in the midst of a fight with your partner, you can label your angry thoughts and hurt feelings as “just my rejection script,” or if you can notice your blood pressure rising and your face getting redder, then you have a greater degree of choice about how to behave. Rather than feeling compelled to scream and attack or vigorously defend your position, you can instead choose to take a break, connect with your love for your partner, or try to understand his/her point of view. As a result, you should have reduced stress and more loving, connected relationships. This makes sense to me. Mindfulness is a form of paying attention, non-judgmentally, to the present moment. Cultivating that skill and capacity is invaluable when the you-know-what hits proverbial fan. In those moments, a little presence in the face of a rising hurricane of righteous indignation can make all the difference. I bet you know exactly what I’m talking about. Pausing in the face of that inner momentum is all it takes to keep yourself from saying the thing you’ll regret and making space for your partner’s perspective. In this episode, I share some tips on mindful relationships along with a recent story from my own life about how the mindful pause helped my wife and I navigate some tricky terrain. Show Notes Check out the Podcastica Podcast Network Read How Does Meditation Improve Your Relationships? If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to Meditation and explore theMeditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes Photo Credit via Flickr CC: Ed Yourdon The post OM051: How To Nurture Mindful Relationships appeared first on About Meditation.

Middle school and meditation. Sounds a little like oil and water to me. Focus, stillness, relaxation, and equanimity aren’t the first things that spring to mind when you think of adolescents launching into puberty. It is, after all, the greatest physical, mental, and emotional transformation of their young lives. But maybe we need to look at it differently? Maybe mindfulness is just what kids need when their hormones are on overdrive and their peer group has turned into a gauntlet of social survival. Ross Robertson Like adults, maybe kids also need tools to help with emotional regulation and mental clarity. In this episode of the OneMind Meditation podcast, I explore meditation in the classroom with middle school teacher and long-time meditator Ross Robertson. The Rise of Meditation In The Classroom The movement to introduce meditation and mindfulness into school curriculums isn’t new, but it’s definitely gaining momentum. Recently, we interviewed high school math teacher Lawrence Carroll about his work blending math and meditation in the classroom. Last year, NBC News did a segment on the success of one San Francisco public school that integrated mindfulness into its program and saw dramatic results. In a nutshell: Over a four-year period, suspensions decreased by 79 percent and attendance and academic performance noticeably increased. In 2014, actress Goldie Hawn leveraged her star power at the World Economic Forum to advocate for teaching mindfulness in schools. Her own foundation has done groundbreaking work in this area for over ten years with over 400,000 students benefiting to date. The Hawn Foundation’s signature program is called MindUP. MindUP was created through a collaboration of neuroscientists, positive psychologists and educators to create the evidence-based training program for teachers and children called MindUP. Based in neuroscience, mindfulness and positive psychology, MindUP teaches children greater emotional self-control, resiliency and helps develop better decision-making skills. Mindful Schools is another organization powering this trend. With trained educators in all 50 states in the U.S., Mindful Schools has impacted over 300,000 students worldwide. According to their website: Our courses and curriculum are designed for under-resourced public schools with high turnover and toxic teacher and student stress. We focus on giving educators practical skills for self-care, facilitation, and connecting with youth, allowing educators to implement and adapt simple, effective mindfulness practices that put little demand on the school day. This allows mindfulness programs to manifest organically, responding to the specific needs of any environment. What About The Science? So what does the science tell us about the efficacy of teaching mindfulness and meditation in schools? It’s still early days. Although there is a growing body of evidence in the medical field, and some real data, more is needed to prove anything conclusive. In a recent Atlantic article on this topic Lauren Cassani Davis points out a few studies exploring the effects of mindful therapy on children: Mindfulness is widely considered effective in psychotherapy as a treatment not just for adults, but also for children and adolescents with aggression, ADHD, or mental-health problems like anxiety. In this episode of the OneMind Meditation podcast, Ross Robertson and I explore: Ross’s experience and training in meditation Why Ross started teaching meditation to his middle school students The approach Ross uses to introduce his students to meditation Some of the positive results Ross has seen in his students Why Ross no longer meditates The indelible mark that meditation has made on Ross’s own life Show Notes Download Ross’s article on Bright Green Environmentalism Learn more about states and stages of awareness If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to Meditation and explore theMeditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes The post OM050: Teaching Meditation To Middle Schoolers With Ross Robertson appeared first on About Meditation.

How often do you need to meditate? To advance in your practice, should you meditate every day? This is the question that we explore in this episode of the OneMind Meditation podcast. Why We Struggle With A Daily Practice Let’s start with the perennial problem. A lot of people feel guilty because they start meditating and then life gets in the way. Things happen and you lose your mojo. It happens all the time. And mostly, it’s for really good reasons. What kind of reasons? Well, maybe you found out you’re pregnant. Maybe you have a killer series of work deadlines. Your parents moved in. Your kid moved out. We all have major life disruptions all the time. It’s true, you could make the argument that it’s at those moments more than ever that you need meditation. And there’s real truth to that. A daily meditation habit can be a grounding godsend when those hurricanes whip your life into a frenzy. But it’s not the whole picture. More often than not, it’s not the interruption or stopping the practice that’s the issue. It’s that you feel guilty about it or like somehow you failed. And that often prevents you from getting your backside on the cushion again. It’s a negative cycle I hear about all the time. Nurturing Your Impulse To Meditate But what if we tilt the picture just a little to see it in a different light. First, what is this compulsion to meditate? Why do you want to do it? Why does it feel important to you? See, here’s the thing. You need to honor and nurture that impulse to meditate. It’s like a little green seedling that you’ve just planted. Each time you sit, it grows a little taller and soaks in a little more sunlight. And that impulse is precious. It’s the part of you that yearns to let go of your moorings on planet earth and fly. It’s your desire for freedom and the pure intimacy of contact with life without any mediating filters. Should You Meditate Every Day? So yes, meditating every day is a great way to nurture that impulse. But you’re probably living a busy life. I’m guessing you have people who count on you to show up and care for them and love them. For some, you may be the only person. So somehow, you have to find a way to meditate regularly. Because you need that contact with the limitless part of yourself. You need to grow that seedling into a vibrant tree. But maybe it’s not every day. Maybe it’s once a week. Maybe it’s a few times a week. The most important thing is to find a rhythm that works for you and your schedule and your existing demands. If you start with a realistic approach like this, your much more likely to have a guilt free relationship to your meditation practice. And then, over time, you might just find that you’ve grown a little tree. And surprisingly, it’s providing some shade. Now, amazingly, you find that you want to spend more and more time there. And at that point, meditating every day won’t feel like a chore. More likely, it will feel like home. And you’ll want to come back again and again. Show Notes If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like the Meditation for Life Mini Course Learn more about free awareness meditation with How To Free Your Mind & Discover Deep Peace Take a self-paced introduction to Meditation and explore theMeditation For Life Core Training Program Leave us a rating & review on iTunes The post OM049: Should You Meditate Every Day? appeared first on About Meditation.

What happens when you find that you aren’t actually living your own life? When you’re there, but not there? When the perfect Molotov cocktail of stress, ambition, and an ego-infused corporate culture drive you to physical breakdown. Because, it happens more than you might think. In this episode of the OneMind Meditation podcast, we explore the story of chronic stress with author and transformational life coach, Erin Owen. She works with clients who suffer from the same symptoms of stress and overwhelm that compelled her to leave the corporate world over a decade ago. Erin Owen The Transformative Journey From Stress To Insight Thirteen years ago, Erin Owen was a corporate consultant in a big firm with a big future. She earned her MBA in the evenings while holding down a full time job. Erin was climbing the corporate ladder. But something was not quite right. The signs were there but she didn’t recognize them at first. She was driven to a high level of achievement. Her perfectionism, ambition, and reliability had earned her a reputation as a team leader. Then at work she started to feel foggy all the time. She missed meetings she had scheduled. She was falling asleep while sitting up. As a people pleaser and a perfectionist, these things just didn’t happen! In her intimate relationships, she was there but somewhere else. Together…but not together. Slowly but surely, things were slipping out of her control. And she couldn’t understand why. She was taking all the right medications and doing everything her doctor directed. But it kept getting worse. The stress was bringing her to the edge of a physical breakdown. That’s when Erin knew she had to make a change. And so began a transformational period that saw Erin abandon the corporate grind and turn her voracious appetite for learning in a more contemplative direction. First she learned yoga and became a certified yoga teacher and then she moved on and practiced Vipassana meditation. Next she immersed herself in Taoist teachings and after that she learned the Japanese healing art of Reiki and became a certified Reiki master. Finally, she spent time on the Southeast Asian island of Bali learning the spiritual and animism practices native to that land. From Insight To Impact Today, Erin shares the story of that transformation and how she blends her business acumen with Eastern meditative and yogic influences to work with clients who suffer from the same symptoms of stress and overwhelm that compelled her to leave the corporate world over a decade ago. Erin has developed a completely unique approach which is encapsulated in these six pillars of transformation. If you want to learn more about Erin’s work or contact her directly, please follow the links below. Erin’s Six Pillars of Transformation Vision and mindset Health and wellbeing Spirituality and creativity Time management and personal organization Relationship and communication Career and finance  Show Notes Learn more about Erin’s work Connect with Erin The post OM048: The Journey From Chronic Stress To Mindful Presence appeared first on About Meditation.