Quiet your mind Soak it all in It's a game you can't win Enjoy the ride
I feel the change Goin' on all around me It's strange How I'm taken and guided Where I end up right where I'm needed to be
The lyrics from this Zac Brown Band song ring so very true to me today, however, there was a time that I welcomed any distraction when my mind tried to be quiet. I could not absorb or create enough chaos to fill my mind - but I gave it one hell of a try.
Back then, meditation was not real because it was obvious to me that no one could actually be still that long. Then... one warm Sunday afternoon I found myself lying very still on a living room floor with a collection of strangers I'd come to love. We were meditating - or trying our best - to the entrancing voice of a beautiful Buddhist yoga instructor who had just finished teaching a contortion called 'gentle yoga'. And while my mind was picking up the pink chalk to write a series of 1's - it happened. I achieved a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. I meditated - FOR REAL. My love affair with my quiet mind began that day and that stillness has saved me ever since.
Meditation has become my hardest working management tool and we have become close allies in every challenge and opportunity I face. Meditation is my trusted advisor and my Life Coach. (Full disclosure - I will always - always - consult my real-life Life Coach.) Meditation helps me make sense of all circumstances and instinctively, I know exactly what to do once I've quieted my mind and let my breath out. Meditation and that pink chalk moment saved me. Meditation is an Underdog's Leg Up in the World.
Think you can't meditate? Try this:
Take two deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth - close your eyes if you can
Now breath normally - in an out through your nose - notice every sensation
Follow and feel the full journey of your breath as it rises in your belly and fully escapes - notice everything about each breath - how it feels on the tip of your nose and the back of your throat
Take about 10 of these fully conscious breaths and then notice the change
Quiet your mind. Soak it all in. Enjoy the ride. You might just end up right where you're needed to be.
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