Welcome to the Excessive Explorer Energy Meditation.
I want to start with a story of my own.
I share it a little bit in the book about but when I was in my early 20s,
I spent some years traveling the world and I was living in India.
I remember having this realization at a certain point that I was always chasing adventure and I was avoiding this feeling of being part of the quote-unquote normal world,
Having a job,
Partner,
Having to worry about money,
All of that.
I was living in an ashram kind of away from society and really enjoying the exploration and the adventure of life.
But at a certain point I realized,
Oh,
There's some avoidance happening here.
I'm avoiding responsibility.
And so I had to find balance with that energy.
Now that's just one type of explorer energy in excess.
Maybe you're a scientist or a historian or futurist and you avoid what's in your personal life,
What's right in front of you.
The explorer in excess might have this fear of missing out.
We can call it FOMO.
Maybe wants to avoid responsibility as disdain for the normal life.
Maybe even looks down on people with less experience.
The explorer in excess might be easily bored or prone to addiction.
And they might also have trouble being content in the moment.
There's always the next adventure,
The next thing I want to explore.
So there's this almost disdain for normalcy.
Maybe you go down rabbit holes and lose yourself.
So there's many ways this explorer energy can go into excess and I can't describe all of them.
But I want you to get a sense for yourself where you might experience it.
Because the point of this meditation and all the meditations here are to help us find balance with our excesses and deficiencies.
And we might be in excess with one energy for days,
Weeks,
Years on end.
And then we might be in deficiency with it all of a sudden.
And we might ping pong back and forth.
So it's okay if you have deficiency in this area as well.
You might have both.
So let's go into meditation.
Let's find out where some of these excesses are.
And let's find some balance.
You can close your eyes.
And if you have the thought or the notion,
I don't want to be meditating.
I want to be out exploring.
Then there's some of that energy we're going to work on together.
So take a few breaths.
Let your body settle into this moment with me.
The excessive explorer always wants the next thing.
Give me the next thing.
And almost energetically eats experiences.
Like Pac-Man.
And it's never enough.
Get a sense of if there's some of that energy playing out in some patterns or beliefs in your life,
In the way you perceive or approach life.
If you feel that fear of missing out,
Of this moment isn't quite good enough,
I need more.
Or if there's a resistance to the normalcy of life.
In Zen,
They say enlightenment is carrying water and chopping wood.
There's almost a reverence for the normal,
For the common,
For the simple.
So as much as we love exploration and the call to adventure,
We also want to be comfortable with being still,
With being what's in front of us.
So what is some of that energy that pulls you?
If you judge your life based on how many countries you've gotten to visit,
On how many exciting experiences you've had this week,
Then you might be putting too much pressure on yourself.
I want you to notice whatever that energy is that pulls you into excess here,
Where you can't be still and just be here.
There may be a boredom.
This moment is an incredible miracle that sometimes the mind covers up with resistance that we call boredom or apathy.
Notice whatever this energy is for you.
And just by noticing it and sitting still with it and accepting its feelings without trying to change it,
It may start to peel off of you.
Just recognize the energy and see what happens.
In one shape or form,
The excessive explorer in us might say,
This experience isn't good enough.
Now the deficient explorer in us might say,
This experience also isn't good enough,
But it's safe.
It's predictable,
So let's just stay.
And the excessive explorer might say,
This isn't good enough,
Let's go.
Give me more endlessly.
Maybe I want to explore one partner after another,
One job after another,
One city after another.
Just give me endless knowledge and information.
It's never enough.
I have to pack it all in there.
Allow that feeling of almost excessive longing to start to melt off of you.
And let the present moment help.
Be aware of the sounds in the room,
Of your breathing,
Of your physical body.
Allow the presence of the moment to help any anxiety of needing more or of missing out to just start to melt off of you.
To have a true experience of exploration,
We have to be in the present.
Let whatever energy needs to shift begin to shift.
The balanced and fulfilled explorer can meet any moment with full awareness and enjoy and appreciate what life is offering.
So it's not a longing and a need that can't be met.
It's an appreciation for the infinite,
For all the forms life shows us,
For all the experiences life gives us.
It's a calm acceptance of the infinite.
Make sure you're still breathing.
There's this line in the Tao Te Ching where Lao Tzu says,
Nature is never in a hurry and yet everything is accomplished.
Just take one more moment,
Let any more of that excessive energy find balance.
And we do that by integrating it,
Not by pushing it away.
Some of it,
Yes,
May just melt off naturally as we bring acceptance to it.
The experience that we have with it informs us and makes us more whole.
Oh wow,
I was avoiding this moment and I was chasing.
We accept that,
Some energy melts off and then we find a center.
So let's be explorers from a very grounded place.
We can explore the galaxies,
We could explore the cells of the body,
We could explore quantum particles and consciousness and neurons and anthropology and history and technology.
We could explore anything and everything and we could do it with a presence and a gratitude.
Great work.
Say hello to that balanced explorer in you as you bring the excess back into balance,
Maybe even some of that deficiency.
You're present,
You're here.
Your mind,
Your heart are open to the mysteries of life.
And you,
By your birthright and the nature of your being,
Are an explorer.
Enjoy the ride.
Have fun.
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes and stretch.
And I will see you in the next one.
