About a year ago, I received a call about a VP HR job at Headspace. Headspace? A meditation app? Hmmm… Happy working where I am and grateful for all that my company has offered me over the last 5 ½ years, I wasn’t interested in a new a job. But I was curious. I researched the company founder, downloaded the app and went through the 10 free sessions. I kind of liked it, my curiosity spurred me on…
I explored other apps – Omvana, OMGmediate, 10% Happier & Calm. The result: for the last year, I have been meditating with the support of the Calm app. Before starting each day, I sit in my favorite chair and meditate for about 10 minutes. I have achieved varied consistency with this daily discipline, some days are easy, some days are hard. But I find every session well worth the “time spent”!
I wasn’t completely new to meditation, exactly. My college Sociology Professor, mentor and friend, Jim Spates, was an avid meditator. Jim taught a Sociology class on Consciousness. We read Autobiography of a Yogi and a book called “Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness,” by Itzhak Bentov. We explored alternative ways of looking at and understanding our conscious world. I loved playing with these new ideas and the expansive possibilities of science and spirituality.
Then I graduated and started “life.” Marriage...career…kids…family…friends - obligations took over. My days were so full and I was always juggling so much that I found myself far away from the world of these ideas. And it seems that as I stood still, the world of scientific research on quantum physics and neuroscience raced forward into a pop cultural explosion of the realm of meditative arts.
The kids are grown, the career is built and there was no reason not to focus on myself and open space for my development and to play with ideas again. I did this by entering the world Coaching almost 1 ½ years ago. I had no idea that doing this would somehow lead me back to my work in Jim’s Sociology of Consciousness class in 1986, but here I am!
Through my Coach training I began working with my own coach and setting intentions about my development and for my life. The result of this is that I read more, have attended ICF talks on mindfulness and neuroscience, watched Ted talks on the topic of neuroscience and mindfulness. I began practicing yoga again, committing to twice a week with the inspiring, fun, and spiritual Christine Burke at her amazing studio, Liberation Yoga, in my LA neighborhood, and I even attended a Sound Bath. I am once again open and exploring. And opportunities seem to be everywhere.
Someone recently asked me what has changed as a result of meditating. My answer at the time was that I notice when I don’t do it. I really hadn’t thought analytically about the direct results of meditating and don’t feel that I need to (though there is plenty of research that proves out it’s many positive impacts). For me there is just an inner knowing that it is right and good and that is good enough.
Now I am reading “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself,” by Joe Dispenza. He begins with quantum physics and neuroscience and ends with a how to guide to build a meditation practice. I’m only on chapter 3 but I’ll leave you with a few quotes from the early part of the book to ponder and an inquiry to work with:
“If an atom is 99.99999 percent energy and .00001 percent physical substance, then I’m actually more nothing than something! So why do I keep my attention on that small percentage of the physical world when I am so much more? Is defining my present reality by what I perceive with my senses the biggest limitation I have?”
“Isn’t it ironic that to influence your reality (environment), heal your body, or change some event in your future (time), you have to completely let go of your external world (no thing), you have to release your awareness of your body (no body) … you have to lose track of time (no time) – in effect, you have to become pure consciousness.”
“…change your mind, you change your life.”
Joe Dispenza
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
And here’s the inquiry…
If "time and physical resources" were of no concern, what great imagining
do you desire to manifest into your life?
Meditate on that!