Entheos Academy – How to Meditate Without Moving to the Himalayas With Brian Johnson

Entheos Academy – How to Meditate Without Moving to the Himalayas With Brian Johnson

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50% Philosopher + 50% CEO. Brian is 100% committed to helping people optimize their lives so we can change the world together. He created en*theos + Philosophers

Notes + Optimal Living 101 + Zaadz + eteamz.

The Top 10 Big Ideas

1. Pick a Reason Why.

It all starts with why. Get really clear on your WHY. Write it down. A possible why: “I’m committed to meditating because I know it’s a key way to help me transform myself into the type of human being I’d like to be.” Yours?

2. Commit & Make It 100%.

Alright. You have your why. Awesome. Now, it’s time to commit. If you’re really serious about building any habit, you want to make sure you have a 100% commitment to doing it. Not a 90% commitment. Or 95% Or even 99.8%. Paradoxically, making a 100%, non-negotiable commitment is WAY easier than making a 99% commitment.

3. Start Simple.

Recommendation: If you’re just getting going, consider meditating for at least ONE minute a day. Just one minute. That’s 5 deep breaths. You got that.“In Sanskrit we have a word which means “heroes at the beginning”: people who take up a job with a fanfare of trumpets but soon find that their enthusiasm has tiptoed down the back stair. Those who go far in meditation are the ones who keep on plugging. They may not be very spectacular; they may never hear a trumpet. But they keep on trying day in and day out, giving their best in every situation and relationship, never giving up. Such people are bound to reach their goal.” – Eknath Easwaran from Conquest of Mind

4. Don’t Be a Hero in the Beginning.

Just love that vision of a hero starting a job with a fanfare of trumpets and then the moment it gets hard or a little less inspiring/fun, that little hero of ours tiptoes out the backdoor. We’ve all done that. Let’s not do it with our meditation practice. Mmmmk?

5. Sit with Dignity.

“How do I sit?” That’s one of the most frequently asked questions. You can sit in a chair or in a more traditional posture, but either way, keep this Jon Kabat-Zinn gem in mind:“When we describe the sitting posture, the word that feels the most appropriate is “dignity.” Sitting down to meditate, our posture talks to us. It makes its own statement. You might say the posture itself is the meditation. If we slump, it reflects low energy, passivity, a lack of clarity. If we sit ramrod-straight, we are tense, making too much of an effort, trying too hard. When I use the word “dignity” in teaching situations, as in “Sit in a way that embodies dignity,” everybody immediately adjusts their posture to sit up straighter. But they don’t stiffen. Faces relax, shoulders drop, head, neck, and back come into easy alignment. The spine rises out of the pelvis with energy. Sometimes people tend to sit forward, away from the backs of their chairs, more autonomously. Everybody seems to instantly know that inner feeling of dignity and how to embody it.”

6. Pick an Anchor.

Alright. Your why is in place. You’re 100% committed. You’re sitting with dignity. Now what? Now, pick an anchor. Sailors use anchors to keep their boats from drifting. We use anchors in our meditation practice to keep our minds from drifting. An anchor can be anything from silently repeating a prayer or mantra to yourself to following your breath or counting down from 10. Whatever. But we want to return to that anchor again and again and again as our mind inevitably wanders.

7. Say, “Oh, Well!”

You’ve thrown your anchor into your mind and… Your mind’s wandering anyway. D’oh. Welcome to the club! One of the biggest mistakes we make as new meditators is to think that we should be able to turn our minds off. Um, yah. Good luck with that. Our minds will wander (and the more stressed we are the more they’ll wander). That’s just part of the process. The trick is to notice when this happens and simply say, “Oh, my mind wandered again. Oh, well!” and gently bring your attention back to your breath/prayer/mantra/countdown/whatever anchor you picked for that session.

8. Brush Your Brain!

When you brush your teeth are you saying to yourself, “Oh! Did I get that back molar really well? Hmmm… Are the front of my teeth as well scrubbed as my back. Oh, man! Am I doing this right?” Riiiiight. We don’t do that. We just brush our teeth.

We want to approach our meditation practice with the same level of ease. Sit down. Stay there for however long you committed to be there, work with your anchor and just brush your brain!

9. Work Diligently, Patiently & Persistently.

“Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you’re bound to be successful. Bound to successful.” The great Vipassana meditation teacher, S.N. Goenka, repeats that mantra again and again in his silent 10-day meditation practices. (With his slow, lyrical Burmese accent it takes him about 10 minutes to say that. Don’t judge your meditation. Don’t get impatient with yourself. Just show up day in and day out. Bring your attention back again and again and again. Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you are bound to be successful. Bound to be successful.

10. All Life Is Meditation.

A lot of people get confused and think meditation is all about what we feel when we’re meditating. It’s not. It’s all about who we are the rest of the day. The most important thing to remember: All life is meditation. EVERY. SINGLE. MOMENT. gives us an opportunity to practice—to show up with the highest version of ourselves. So, let’s!

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