Why is it that meditation seems to have so many amazing benefits, yet it's so hard for many of us to make it a habit? Why does it appear so effortless for some, yet so challenging for others? I’m excited to answer those questions and share some insights and practical tips on meditation that I gathered from my interview with Light Watkins (🎧Ep 126).
Light is a meditation coach with 15+ years of experience, known for his unique approach to mindfulness and making meditation easy and accessible to people from all walks of life.
So today, I’m going to break down my key learnings from him, which include:
- Body and mind benefits
- The power of gratitude, presence, happiness, and fulfillment
- Common misconceptions
- Steps to get started (and to make it effortless)
- Finding purpose using curiosity
- And, of course, some rapid-fire hacks
💡 Just Start
I’ll share how to start your meditation journey in a few sections. But there is no better way to start than to...just start.
So here is a short video of Light’s calming meditation technique. He walks you through his process and gives you a 3-minute window of silence to practice.
3 minutes.
Just start…then come back 😁.
If you took action before reading on…excellent.
If you’re back after reading the rest of the newsletter…wonderful.
😩 Stress & Meditation
Science has shown that meditation can profoundly affect well-being. Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard cardiologist, pioneered research on the relaxation response triggered by meditation, which counters the stress of the “fight or flight” survival response.
Stress often sabotages our efforts to exercise, eat well, be kind, and sleep peacefully. By incorporating meditation into your routine, you can reduce stress to foster a genuine desire to pursue other positive habits.
🙏 Gratitude & Presence
Being more present daily can also be a powerful source of joy.
One effective hack to enhance your presence is to practice radical gratitude. This means intentionally recognizing and appreciating the blessings surrounding your every moment.
Consider a thought exercise aimed at the practice of radical gratitude:
Here's the video of this exercise from Brad Lea.
This exemplifies how you can reframe the present moment and be more grateful.
Gratitude amplifies the present moment. And surrendering to the present moment lets you see opportunities and solutions previously obscured by the noise of “woulda coulda shoulda.”
Meditation helps you find your presence with practice.
🙂 Happiness & Fulfillment
The spiritual perspective on happiness greatly differs from the common belief that happiness comes from achievement.
This means there are two ways to think about happiness.
- Happiness is the prize of accomplishments
- Happiness is the prize of the process
Prize of Accomplishments
Most of us believe that happiness is on the other side of achievement.
Finishing that project, getting that new job, earning enough to buy that new car... each of these events have a spike in dopamine and joy, but the level of happiness doesn't last forever. With time, you always seem to settle back into the level you had before.
You know where I’m going with this…happiness as the prize of accomplishments leads to adverse consequences, impacting health and straining relationships. It’s a paradox of pursuits and commonly ends in dissatisfaction.
Bill Perkins (🎧Ep 91) taught me a similar lesson about the pitfalls of focusing on net worth over net fulfillment.
Prize of Process
A meditation practice can help you solve this paradox. You can build a stable foundation of fulfillment, peace, and happiness through meditation. It’s a way to increase the baseline gradually, not the spikes. It means that you need less and less to feel content over time.
Taking this path opens up the opportunity to lean into work that fills you, possibly reshaping career choices, relationships, and personal projects you undertake.
For instance, leaving a high-paying, soul-sucking job in favor of a lower-paying, highly-engaging role. What may seem crazy to most could offer you a renewed sense of purpose and joy. Besides, who knows…such shifts in perspective may create unforeseen paths.
Like Bill, Light reminded me that happiness is not based on achievement. And leaning into your heart will take you out of your comfort zone and into your growth zone.
Meditation helps you cultivate your inner fulfillment.
✖️ Misconceptions
Starting meditation doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful.
But it is easy to overcomplicate the process by thinking you must follow a laundry list of instructions like “let go, focus on your breathing, or witness your thoughts.”
Light clarified that you don’t need to do any of that, and doing less means more delightful meditation experiences.
🧘 Begin Your Meditation Journey
There are many variations of meditation and even more ways to start. Here’s one process you can use to help you get started on this transformative journey today.
Sit Comfortably: Find a quiet and comfortable spot to sit. Leaning back against something is okay because, as Light shared, it’s more important to be supported and comfortable than to have a perfect posture.
Set a Timer: Have a timing device nearby to track the duration of your meditation. Start with a manageable time frame, such as 10 minutes. During this time, let go of your attachment to time passing quickly or slowly – it’s all part of the experience.
Embrace Your Thoughts: As you close your eyes, you’ll likely be hit by a wave of thoughts. While we’ve been conditioned to fight the thoughts – they are natural and not something to fight.
Anchor with Breath: You can gently bring your attention back to your breath.
Shift to the Present: Shift your focus from controlling your thoughts to simply being present. Like swimming with the water’s flow, move with the rhythm of your thoughts without trying to stop or analyze them. And cultivate a nonchalant attitude toward your thoughts. Learn to see them without judgment or expectations.
Do Less: Ease into the experience by releasing the tendency to force a particular outcome. There’s no need to anticipate results or set expectations.
Embrace the Heart Voice: Meditation helps you connect with your heart voice – your internal GPS. Listen to it without resistance, as you would follow directions from a GPS.
Embrace the Drop off: As you indulge your thoughts, you might suddenly lose awareness of them – akin to how you sometimes drift off while reading a book. This transition to deeper understanding can’t be forced; it happens naturally when you embrace your mind’s flow.
Are you going to succeed right away? No
But consistency matters in meditation, just like in physical exercise.
🏋️ Building the Habit
Meditating sporadically won’t yield the same results as a daily practice.
We all know that stress is a constant factor in our day-to-day lives, so counterbalance it with daily routine. It will take some work (and discipline) to build the habit.
Conventional wisdom has said it takes 21 days to form the habit. But on average, it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic (depending on the person).
Ready to start?
🧘♂️ Effortless Meditation
I know I just ended the last paragraph talking about daily practice and suggesting 66 days of work. That can seem like a daunting commitment, but the trick is to learn how to do it enjoyably.
Think about meditation the same way you do your other habits that you effortlessly engage in. Brewing your morning coffee or going for a midday walk…similarly, meditation can become a natural part of your routine when you create a sense of authentic enjoyment.
It will help to shift your mind from “have to meditate” to “get to meditate.” It’s removing the feeling of obligation and substituting it with opportunity.
Attitude matters.
By adopting a renewed attitude, you’ll find that your thoughts gradually settle effortlessly, and your ability to prioritize daily meditation will become easier.
😸 Find Purpose with Curiosity
Light suggests you learn to tune into your “heart voice.” That’s the one telling you to do the right thing for you. The problem is that it’s soft and often overshadowed by the voices of your social circles, family, teachers, and coaches...and what you "should" be doing.
I learned that trusting and acting on your heart voice aligns curiosity with purpose and the opportunity to create remarkable stories in your life.
Light shared a story on the power of his heart voice and how it told him to buy a Rubik’s cube, which became a catalyst for transformation.
I urge you to listen to the episode for the full story around the 43-minute mark (🎧Ep 126), but here’s a short version:
Light had this inexplicable urge after a meditation class one evening to find and buy a Rubik’s cube. It was 9:45 pm. He was tired and just wanted to go home. But his inner work and commitment to listening to his heart voice led him to act.
Why? He’d soon find out.
When Light gets home, his friend calls, and he’s dumbfounded as to why Light is spending time learning how to solve a Rubik’s cube. And why Light should be spending time on more productive things.
Instead of listening to his friend, Light started researching how to solve a Rubik’s cube. While he had assumed you had to be a genius to solve one, he discovered it was a simple step-by-step process. And so, in a few days, he could solve the cube in 3 minutes. What was once a seemingly impossible task became this structured process.
It turned into this neat little party trick…people on the train are amazed he’s solving it so fast. And then it dawns on him one day the process of solving the cube (row by row) parallels the levels of meditation.
He made a YouTube video to share his insights (mind you, this was 2006). Unexpectedly, the video went viral, spreading across the meditation community, driving more and more people to learn how to meditate.
This was what he ultimately wanted…to help people see the value of meditation. And through his heart voice was this excellent, adventurous path to get that result.
Curiosity is the gateway to purpose. You never know where it will lead, but you must trust and follow it; it will lead you to the place you’ve always envisioned for yourself but in the most unpredictable way possible.
If you don’t know what to do, follow your curiosity.
🔥 Rapid Fire Hacks
Today’s post is deep but intentionally so, but I wouldn’t be Chris without a series of hacks. So here are 5 simple hacks you can use to stay consistent with your meditation practice.
- Find an accountability partner: Connect with a coach, close friend, or someone else online looking for an accountability partner too
- Gamify the process: Use apps like Headspace or Waking Up to guide you and tap into the power of gamification
- Focus on 10-minute increments: Keep it simple and eliminate the burden of promising yourself long periods
- Remind yourself often: Use any means necessary to remind yourself every day to meditate (phone alarms, calendar invites, sticky notes)
- Create an excuse book: If you are considering skipping a day, write down your excuse…because the moment you finish writing it, you’ll realize you really should just meditate
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