Meditation for Busy People (Like Me)

If you want a simple, actionable meditation practice to jumpstart your own meditation here’s my ridiculously simple guide for busy, upstart professional like me.

I once thought meditation is for people who have hours to spare doing some weird postures on rubber mat. Well, I don’t think I would be able to do those postures and I don’t have hours for mediation. I was dead wrong. You don’t need those bone stretching bends nor hours just to reap the benefits of meditation.

Before anything though, let me clarify something about my meditation practice:

  • I’m always searching for ways to optimize my time, effort and finances to achieve life goals. I read “optimisation’ books and resources online, snatched a few ideas, tried a method or tool onto myself or tweak it to my context. Meditation is one on these optimisation tools (termed mindful tools in this site) I’m currently learning. Thus, I can only attest to the result of my own experimentation.  
  • I’m not a meditation expert, nor I teach meditation in any form.  I’m not prescribing a particular meditation technique for you and your lifestyle. You have to find that out for yourself.
  • You might be tempted to ask but no, my meditation does not have any religious dimension to it.  I,  as well as many well meaning practitioners ( Tara Brach, Sam Harris, Tim Ferriss ) shy away from such undertones because no single denomination has the monopoly of meditation and its benefits. There are more similarities than differences you can find in meditation that cuts across beliefs and religious denominations.
  • The benefits of meditation are also not confined to a single method or the level of meditative practice you’re in!   Case in point, me!  I had all those benefits even if I only allotted 20 minutes of my time each day!

Having said that, I enumerated the benefits of meditation in this post. After experiencing some of the benefits I listed, I decided to include meditation in my must do tools daily.

Most meditative practice I’ve tried contained 3 basic foundational elements:

  1. The first element is on body posturing and finding an anchor to focus your attention. This rely on the body’s contact to environment and breathing.
  2. Second element is about collecting the mind, called “coming back” when one is distracted during meditation.
  3. The practice of “being here”, the practice of being mindful, recognizing and allowing  non-judgmental presence completes the third part . 

Let’s jump to my current meditation practice. This is a guided meditation based on Headspace Take 20.

  1. 5 minutes to 0 minutes : This is me settling on my meditation area. I often fidget so I make sure I’m well seated upright, free from distractions. 
  2. 0- 5 minutes : With eyes open and sitting comfortably on a chair, hands/arms on my lap, feet on the ground, back on the chair support, I familiarize with my environment. Then I start deep breathing.  After 5- 6 deep breathes,  I close my eyes with the last out take of a deep breath.
  3. ~5-10 minutes : I return  to my normal, regular breathing. I use the five senses to be “aware” of my surroundings- the feet on the floor, my back on the chair, those smells in the air, the sounds I hear. Then I go on identifying my present emotional state and feelings, doing a quick head to toe scan for any discomforts. The idea is to acknowledge these stimulus but not being judgmental about it. It is in this part also where I clarify my goals on why I am meditating.
  4. ~10-15 minutes: All about breathing- taking note of the intake and out take, how regular or irregular it is and where is breathing felt on my body. Then I start counting my breaths from 1- 5, then going back to 1 and start counting again. If I’m distracted, I just going back to one and start counting again. The “bringing back” exercise is very important here. Some practitioners consider meditation a success if you are able to “come back” from distractions !
  5. ~15-17 minutes : I let go any control of my thoughts. I just let my mind to do what it wants to do or what it wants to think.
  6. 17-20 minutes: I bring back my mind to my anchor points– breathing, environmental stimuli etc, making sure I am aware again of my environment. Once I do, I open my eyes, blink and remain seated while focusing on what I’d be doing next. After that, I’d do a bit of upper body stretch then get on with my daily activity.

    If  you noticed all of these foundational elements (plus some) are in my meditation practice. You can copy and tweak this to your liking. Better yet, try first Headspace Take 10 before jumping deeper into meditation. I listed tips on meditation in this post. For more tips, tools and updates on meditation, do subscribe to this blog and get it right in your email.

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    How Meditation “Win the Day” for Me

    I started with a ten minute guided meditation just a few months back. I’m now on Day 20 of a longer Take 20 minutes guided meditation.  My meditation routine is far from perfect (not one are, according to many veteran meditation practitioners) but I plan on continuing this habit. Here’s why:

    I started with Headspace‘s ten minute guided meditation (Take 10)  just a few months back. I’m now on day 20 of a longer, Take 20 minutes guided meditation.  My meditation is far from perfect (none are, according to many veteran meditation practitioners) but I plan on continuing this habit. If you are wondering what made me take on this habit, here’s why:

    1. Laser sharp focus to what I value most– family, career, education, finances and advocacies. I could analyze efforts and results calmly and start with actionable steps right away.  Finding balance between too much analysing and decision making paralysis also improved noticeably!
    2. Decluttered my life – together with journaling, I’ve cut down excesses like unnecessary expenses and mindless going outs.  I also had some success on achieving my low information diet goals like reducing TV time and social media glut. For example, I managed to take off  1,000+ friends on FB without noticeable effects on my social media advocacies.
    3. Balanced Optimism– I’m taking every information as constructive as possible, avoid whining or debating minutiae and would rather find solutions or actionable steps.
    4. Boost in energy level with less caffeine.  Brought my caffeine sensitivity level down (3 cups) but added a kicking hour to my productive day.
    5. Patience– able to could withstand mean people, events or happenings longer. I empathize more than before. 🙂
    6. Creative thinking and doing. I went back to actively finding solutions myself to challenges I used to outsource before. Read on reports and papers meticulously than before. Renewed interest in fixing things around- appliances, furnitures and hacking ones I needed. I also had more time to read books!

    My routine is so simple I could meditate while inside a bus, inside my parked car or just about anywhere you’re comfortably seated!  So give meditation a shot! Take the simplest meditation to follow and stick to it even just for ten days.

    Interested what or how I do my meditation routine? Stay tuned for my next post on this.

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    Voluntary poverty, have no fear.

    “Damn! It’s freezing out here!

    Less than an inch thick of corrugated cartoon insulated my body from the pavement. There’s about a foot of ceiling overhang sheltering us from the foggy sky. I was oblivious to passers by and vehicles traversing the street.  D2 to K2 mountain traverse (Philippines 2nd and 4th highest peaks) is a tiring feat for weekend hikers like me. So post climb, I really didn’t care if I’m sleeping on a pavement.

    “Well, what the heck. I’m too numb and tired to feel cold”.

    Why didn’t I get a decent hotel room I can afford that time? Most of my climbing buddies are expense savvy vagabonds who’d rather spend on travels than a decent hotel room. The social decorum among climbers is that we go where the pack goes. So I go where they go. Even sleeping on pavements.

    Looking back now, my reasons for “trying out the pavement instead of the decent hotel room” goes beyond the group’s social decorum. I was re learning a habit I learned growing up which faded when I already afford decent hotel rooms.

    Being comfortable with discomfort.

    I slept on a folding bed at inside a bus terminal because I can’t afford a hotel room. I rode crappy inter island sea vessels because I can’t afford a ticket for a commercial plane. I can survive a day on a single pande sal and a cup of 3 in 1 coffee. In early med school, I live in a 2 x 4 meters room with 3 double decker bunk bed. Your bunk bed is your study table, eating table and your sleeping space. Military bunks are way better.  I once thought I couldn’t go home to Tandang Sora QC after wasting the last peso in my pocket, but did so by walking from Taft Avenue Manila all the way to our apartment. I collapsed in exhaustion but I did survive.

    Losing a job? I applied as a part time bank teller and a fast food service crew but was rejected. Overqualified. I had to quit a job and was literally jobless for a year. Well, I didn’t die either. Yeah, I was rock bottom broke but I did survived. Poverty made me fearless in the past. I fear nothing because I could only go up from the abyss of poverty.  Back then, the rock bottom is my trampoline to success.

    Until I got comfortable with comfort.

    When the time came I can afford decent hotel rooms, I worked like a cog on a wheel to maintain my ability to afford a decent hotel room. No, I’m consumed by it. Then life choices became so much more complicated.

    The fear of going broke and the world will end.

    This is the kind of fear that consumes me now more than ever. That fear that if we don’t work hard to protect our “comfortable life” today, we go broke and die. Even if that “comfortable life” does not in any way contribute to productive, of true value gains to our life.  Worse,  that comfortable life clouded our path to finding something, someone of value to us.

    My personal experience could only vouch for me. I did hit rock bottom before and I was ok. No decent hotel room? Sure, I can sleep on a pavement. No taxi? Sure I can hike! I went broke but the world didn’t end. That’s not so surprising, right?

    Finding a way to combat fear.

    Maybe it took me some time to look back at my past experiences to find a way of combating fear. A way that I’ve unconsciously tested by in the past. Something to anchor my profound curiosity for experimenting on life hacks to achieve goals of value.  I need a strategy to optimize my decision making process and get rid of fear that is consuming me. I had to actively re create or maybe simulate what worked for me in the past and regain habits that brought me to something of value.

    Voluntary poverty.

    Voluntary poverty or some call it, “simplicity” is an “optimisation” strategy wherein you actively get rid of options that are not of real value to you to un-complicate many decision making process. Central to this is knowing what is of true value to you to remove unnecessary choices in the equation. This optimisation reduces the chances of you being stuck in the decision making process and actually make a decision.

    Many of us are often caught in that decision making process trap. A good practical example is choosing what clothes to wear. Did you know that a human being spend some 15-20 minutes choosing what to wear each day? Imagine what you can do with that 15 minutes each day to be productive. Talk to family, meditate, journal, read 2 pages of a book. What a time saver right?

    Most of the people I admire, or people I consider successful practice voluntary poverty or simplicity. Steve Jobs,  Mark Zuckerberg,  AJ  Jacobs, Kevin Kelly (co founded Wired magazine) all who despite their vast capacity to indulge in their money, chose to live a life of simplicity and converted the time they earned to build something productive.

    Wait.  “Voluntary poverty” is NOT an excuse to waste money on something that do not give you true value or a profound sense personal fulfilment. Spending all your money on vices that does not in any way help achieve productive goals is not optimising. It’s pure time, money wasting. You can only do voluntary poverty when you have unscrewed what you value and your priorities are clearcut. Or at least you’re trying to.

    Another important component here is that you are able to convert those saved time, effort, or money to something of value to you.

    So why I am saying this loud? That practicing voluntary poverty is a way of optimising ourselves and combating fear??

    First, I believe voluntary poverty could save me valuable amounts of time, effort, and money I can use to fuel more productive goals in life. Second,  I should not be afraid of going broke whenever I embark on something to improve myself. I’d go for it and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. I have been to rock bottom before I did ok. Why should I be afraid now?

    I shouldn’t be. Poverty made me fearless.

    “So, concerning the things we pursue, and for which we vigorously exert ourselves, we owe this consideration- either there is nothing useful in them, or most aren’t useful. Some of them are superfluous, while others aren’t worth that much. But we don’t discern this and see them as free, when they cost us dearly.” -Seneca, Moral Letters, 42.6 as quoted by Ryan Holiday in The Daily Stoic.

     

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    Owning up a less than perfect but tremendously awesome productive week!

    “Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn’t from outside me but in my own assumptions” –Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.13 (  from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday)

    Last week was perhaps my busiest and ironically, my most productive week so far. Right of the bat,  let me clear it out that “busy” is not the same as “productive” and I try to be more of latter. How? Please read my last post.

    So basically I’m updating what I’ve achieved (or not achieved) so far on my #lifedoover:

    Journaling

    I’m still doing the old school, handwritten, spring bound notebook type of journaling.  I missed two days last week, since I was on the road most of the time. Apart from that, I felt great after finishing each journal entry. Nay, I relish it. I’m beginning to focus on more important things, listing only 3 top tasks each day and actually finish 80% of it. 2 out of 3. Not bad for a beginner. I still have to work on a what not to do list each day in the coming weeks will be on . Just to fine tune my focusing attitude. I wish I can develop a format for evernote, but I’m pretty sure thats just one other distraction for me.

    Meditation

    Headspace 10 days trial. Fifteen minutes, 2x each day. I’m still on the 4th day of the app, but I meditated without my smart phone too so it wasn’t counted there. The first 3 was difficult for me but I like the effects on breathing, self awareness and most especially on my sleep. I can now induce my body to sleep with this quickie meditations. I have to get meditation into my psyche now, without my smartphone where the app is, because I’m also consuming less info nowadays.

    Low information diet

    The more chaotic part of my do over, life redesigning attempt. I got some negative feedback from people, especially on missing out sms, private messenger and emails. I explained though that I’m working on being productive and is avoiding distractions from repeatedly glancing on my phone. I also gave out schedules for people to contact me then tried some auto responders. The autoresponder failed on many occasions. My social media engagement dropped significantly by almost 60%. I’m not sure if that is good but, I also had time bringing offline conversations to real, in flesh friends. 🙂

    Book readings

    I did consume tons of audiobooks and podcasts, probably because I’m on the road often. I’m almost done with one hardcopy and is simultaneously reading half of a non fiction. Then, crap I bought 4 more new books! Now I really have to cut off some more of my “busy look” time! I’m totally orgasmic each time I finish a book. Couldn’t wait for a next one!

    Blog/Vlog/Podcast

    I’m writing this didn’t I? I also am about to publish a vlog, maybe this week after post processing. I still have to finish that book on digital interview and podcasting. I’m quite fascinated how I’m learning so much deconstructing interviews, picking out habits, tips I could use myself for my #doover. It’s pretty amazing , there’s literally so many stuff to learn from people. Oh, glad I listened to Maria Popova‘s (Brainpicking) podcast on How to start a Blog? Because she just said…”Write for yourself

    Work/Career

    A ton of opportunities exploded last week. The “good problem” still lingers in me and I have yet to get a grip on my bearing. Why I am not yet calling the shot? I don’t know. Maybe I did already. Ah, I did get a feedback I might be overdoing stuff and is just killing myself. Well, maybe thats a good way of killing one self right? Or because I’m in the habit of “overdoing” things thats why opportunities just pops out right off the hood.

    Something to work on next week. Diet, exercise and photography. Plus I really have to work on my roaster hack! For coffee!

    Now, about that quote in the first part of this post. It simply mean that everything that happened to us, it was mainly our own doing. Owning up our actions, thoughts, decisions and everything else we do. We are the only ones who has access to our mind, our freedom, our will. Not anyone else or some thing outside us. So own up, and do not blame others!

    If you guys wanted to meet me in flesh, have some coffee, or a life conversation (yup you’ll be on my vlog) or maybe just shoot landscapes, give me a call. Or comment below. 🙂

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