If you are interested in this book, we suggest that you get it here …
Your mind is such a powerful instrument. It governs your entire body and keeps this entire machine moving in the right direction, day in and day out… with very little effort required by you.
Think about all of the moving parts in your body that you don’t need to think about, but still work.
I don’t think about my heart beating, or my lungs breathing… but, yet they still do this every few seconds. The power of your brain.
I was recently listening to several books that all touched on the topic of meditation, so my interest was peaked on the benefits of such a practice. One of the books that were referenced several times was Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan.
Chade-Meng was one of the first people at Google when they were first starting out and much like any fast paced and growing company, they needed a way to make sure that their employees didn’t burn out.
Chade-Meng was a driving force in helping to design and implement a training course within Google called mindfulness which later is included in his book, Search Inside Yourself and started the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Training (SIYLT) organization (https://siyli.org/).
Meditation
Whenever I think about meditation, I always envision people sitting around in a circle, legs crossed, hands resting on legs humming.
As I am learning, meditation has a much deeper meaning and benefit for helping to control my diabetes and achieve generally better health levels.
Within Chade-Meng’s book, he goes into details about meditation, attitude and interpersonal topics that help to improve our overall internal wellness. The part that I found to be the most useful was on meditation.
Simple Exercise
I am a simple person, so I always gravitate to the most simple ideas and executions. If things are complicated or tedious, I find it hard to get a good understanding or mastery of the topic. Chade-Meng spends some time in his book talking about various meditation exercises that are all very simple and easy to follow. The best of the exercises that I found for me was a simple breathing exercise.
This exercise is the process of simply breathing in, then out while focusing on the breath.
Blocking out any distractions around you and simply focus on the breath. I like to close my eyes, although this has lead to a little sleeping. It is amazing how fast this exercise can relax you into a state where you can just doze off. So close your eyes, sit in a comfortable position and take a deep breath. Think only about the breath. If other thoughts come into your mind, recognize them, then redirect your attention to the breathing. Let your breath out, again focusing solely on the breath. Your chest rising and falling. The sound of your breath leaving or coming into your mouth. Repeat this process several times.
Try doing this exercise a few times a day and you will see that you can reduce stress, find mental acuity and sharpness and exercise some control over your subconscious, which is huge as you can read in my Controlling Your Subconscious Brain article.
If you are interested in this book, we suggest that you get it here …
Have you ever tried meditation? How did it work for you? Share your experiences in meditation below in the comments.
