Box of Crayons

“If you can’t stand solitude, perhaps others find you boring as well” (Great Work quote)

If you can’t stand solitude, perhaps others
find you boring as well.
~ Mark Twain

For me at least, the evidence is getting increasingly hard to avoid: meditation is a powerful leadership tool. Tony Schwartz, Eric Klein, Kevin Cashman and a bunch of other smart people all point to the power of meditation to help bring focus, intention and self-wisdom to the work we do.

But gosh it’s hard. I’m trying 15 minutes most mornings, and I spend my time entangled in my monkey brain, gibbering nonsense and leaping from thought to thought, forgetting entirely to keep coming back to my breath.

And then, occasionally, I remember that everyone finds it difficult and that sticking with it and coming back to the breath when you remember is the point of the exercise in the first place.

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Posted on June 21, 2010
Posted in self-management | Tagged , ,

12 Responses to “If you can’t stand solitude, perhaps others find you boring as well” (Great Work quote)

  1. Graeme says:
    June 21, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    I read once that meditation is more like allowing (freeing I guess) your brain to work. Like a machine that is running well. Then it will quiet down. I found this helped me a lot and stopped the meditation feeling like I was trying to ram my brain in reverse :)

  2. Bert Jackson says:
    June 21, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    I always have a better day when I meditate the night before. I also found that when I stopped intentionally trying to quiet the chatter (and I have a lot!) it would naturally settle, like dust swirling will settle when the air is still. Now I let it chatter on, but do so as an observer. It comes to a rest pretty quickly.

  3. Sharon Eden says:
    June 22, 2010 at 9:54 am

    Sounds like you’re in the process of
    becoming a great meditator, Michael!

  4. Mahala Mazerov says:
    June 22, 2010 at 11:48 am

    Michael ~ Even 15 minutes can be too long for a beginner. You may want to try 3 minutes at a time then relax, stretch, look around and go for another 3 minutes. Do just a few rounds of this and try to stop while your mind is light and fresh. Feel free to be in touch if I can help you in any way. Your work means a lot to me, happy if I had something to give in return.

  5. Sandy says:
    June 22, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    This is one area where I am a drop out – a spectacular drop out. I have tried many different trainings and techniques – following the breath, noticing, visualization, walking, morning journaling, writing with my non-dominant hand and have had benefit from all … for a time.

    You point to the ingredient that is the most important – discipline – finding one that suits and committing to daily practice no matter what – no excuses – no daily measuring or judging – just the doing of not doing. Now to take my own advice… Thanks for the prompt.

  6. Deborah Wall says:
    June 22, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Hey Michael,

    I’m on the meditation train too and what I’ve learned so far is not to try for too long 5 – 10 minutes is just as good. And when your monkey mind takes over label, label, label. So just think thought, for thought, sound when a noise hits you ear etc. Also if you use a mantra like breathing in, breathing out it distracts the monkey. Keep going with it – the fact that your there in the first place is awesome.