Seth Godin popped into my inbox with “Are there places do you feel like you’re falling behind where there’s actually no race?”, and it reminded me of being in the karate dojo bordering on tears as I was doing so terribly and hadn’t been there for ages. I’ve resigned myself to the fact I’ll likely be a white belt for my entire life, but I had a particularly rough session after not being there for 6 weeks.
Feeling sorry for myself, I stuttered to my Sensei at the end of class that I felt like I was falling very behind. He paused and asked me ‘falling behind what?’. And I grappled with that a moment, hot and sweaty and replied slowly ‘weeellll, just myself I guess’ to which he tried to hold back a laugh and said semi seriously ‘and how can you fall behind yourself?’. I fell into the trap of the modern mind.
I feel that in our frantic world that moves so fast we all get caught in the idea that everything must ‘progress’ and go at break neck speed. Which when we are calm, we know is utterly ridiculous. It’s out of complete alignment with nature. Trees don’t race each other. Clouds don’t chuck a fit because one is moving faster than them through the sky. Stars don’t sulk because another star got to shoot faster through the universe than them.
This is where our daily meditation practice is so great, because we have to just BE in it and not DO things in it. And there’s no black belts for meditation and you can’t show anyone on Instagram your clear mind. You just experience it for yourself and enjoy your life flowing with more creativity. It’s not that you lose your competitive edge, or are less driven, but you feel more compassionate, kinder and are more gentle and therefore are a better leader (whether that’s as a CEO or running your household with toddlers). And you can’t prove it or get a certificate, you just know it and experience it. And for that, I’m so utterly grateful.
It’s the perfect medicine for modern living.
If you want to come learn to meditate with us, myself and Emily are teaching every month multiple courses in Sydney, as well as in November in Byron Bay, London in January and Melbourne in February. Lots of opportunity to discover all this goodness for yourself, and we teach it so you can meditate on your own, app and device free, just you sitting anywhere, every day and becoming more you.
Visit HERE for more details.
Sent with love,
Jac
Image from California in the Redwoods whilst on a Retreat with Sri M. Oh the memories…