Meditation Around The World - Lauren Skae - Ep. 10

Lauren Skae, The Zen Blonde, is a writer, meditation instructor and currently traveling the world to discover different approaches to meditation. She traveled from Bali, India, Nepal, Korea, Thailand, Israel, Turkey to Ireland to discover the ancient secrets of meditation and mindfulness. Practicing in different traditions, she learns first-hand about the culture, traditions, and religions. We talk about her travels and her discoveries in this episode.

Transcript

In this episode of the Project Mindfulness podcast,

We talk about different traditions and religions and how they are all connected.

Honest and open to all religions,

All traditions,

All ages,

And all levels of experience.

Radically accessible,

Pragmatic,

And eye-opening.

Simply for everyone.

Welcome to the Project Mindfulness podcast.

We'll take you on a journey across the globe and talk with other meditators about their practice,

The lessons they have learned,

And what they want the world to know.

Good day and welcome.

This is Episode 10 and I am Christian Netusum.

Thank you for joining us.

Today I talk with Lauren Skay about her travels and personal experiences with meditation in different countries and religions.

When I spoke to her,

She was still on her travel,

At that time in Turkey.

She talks about the book she is currently writing.

A collection of lessons and insights that she learned about,

Meeting with different cultures and their practice.

She practiced Kundalini in Bali,

Vedic meditation in India,

Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal and India,

Zen in South Korea,

Theravada Buddhism in Thailand,

And dance with the Dervishes in Turkey.

I hope this story inspires you as much as it did inspire me.

Happy to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you so much,

Christian.

I'm happy to be here.

Yeah,

It's really cool that you found time in your travels to be on the podcast.

And who are you and what do you do in life?

Absolutely.

So my name is Lauren Skay and I think we found each other over Instagram and on Instagram I'm the Zen Blonde.

And I started that account about actually two years ago because I started on my 25th birthday.

And that's really when I started becoming a serious meditation practitioner.

But I'm a writer and I'm traveling the world right now.

I'm writing a book about meditation.

So I've been studying meditation through the lens of various religious traditions and yogic traditions.

And really just diving into the many meditative offerings around the world.

Because let's face it,

Some people can't sit like a Buddha and they don't have the knees to do it.

So there are many,

Many modes to meditate.

And I've been exploring a lot of them and also pursuing one of my big passions,

Which is also travel.

Yeah.

And I,

You know,

Before I took off,

I was living in New York City and I'm from New York State originally.

And I,

You know,

I'm a certified meditation instructor through Mindful in New York City.

So that's kind of where I got my start and learned about the many meditative modes I've been studying.

Right.

Awesome.

So in your travels,

You said you're exploring meditation in different cultures,

Traditions and different approaches.

So not all through the,

Well,

One of the waves that's very popular right now is the Fipassana movement from Gunka where you,

Or I don't know how to say,

But where you sit still basically for as long as possible in a sort of lotus or a lotus form.

Which,

As you mentioned,

Can be,

Well,

Quite tough on the knees.

And especially for us Westerners,

It's,

It's a lot at the office,

Right?

It's for me,

Like,

I already sit at the office and then I also go sit in a center.

So what,

What did you,

Well,

Not to spoil your book too much,

But what did you find?

Like what kind of interesting or compelling ways that you could,

You know,

Compelling ways or approaches to meditation that you find in your travel?

You know,

It's interesting because I've heard so much about the Vipassana brand of like going on a 10 day retreat.

And that's actually,

That's great.

I've never done the Vipassana brand,

But I have done Vipassana meditation from the context of like Theravada Buddhism,

Just focusing on your breath,

But other compelling modes of meditation.

I've done a lot of contemplative practices.

So for example,

Like loving kindness meditation in Theravada Buddhism.

So thinking of yourself,

A benefactor,

Somebody random that you saw in passing and then somebody that is difficult for you,

Obviously all individually and then wishing them,

May you be happy,

May you be peaceful,

May you be well.

So different practices like that.

And then within Tibetan Buddhism,

There are actually a lot of really interesting practices,

Meditations and contemplative practices.

So there's one that I love called Tonglen.

You may have heard of it.

And so it's kind of like a,

It's taking the loving kindness practice to like another level because you're actually breathing in sort of somebody suffering and then breathing it out.

And the way that it was explained to me was I would exhale the suffering through my heart center and destroy it that way.

And I love it,

Especially during my travels when I see an animal that may be sick and I can't touch it or help it.

It happened a lot in the Himalayas where I didn't have a resource to help it or anything like that.

But I just wanted to send it positive energy.

And another one that's been really great that they practice within Tibetan Buddhism is contemplating your death,

Which sounds really morbid.

But it's actually,

People do it because within Buddhism at least a lot of the traditions that I've studied,

They encourage you to contemplate your death just to understand impermanence,

But also so that at the moment of your passing you're not in major distress because it's stressful for the person as well as the people surrounding them.

So I did a lot of those practices within Tibetan Buddhism.

And then of course I've studied with the Dervishes.

So I'm actually here in Turkey and I've been whirling with them.

It's really like a meditation in motion.

And the whirling,

The people who are whirling in Sema which is what they call the whirling dance,

Are meant to mirror the cosmos.

So the Dervishes that are whirling are the stars.

And then the Dervish master is the moon.

And then there's another guy who walks around and kind of monitors the whole thing and he's the sun.

So that's a really beautiful meditation in motion that I've discovered.

And I spent time in Kundalini Yoga teacher training and they have a ton of really esoteric,

Crazy meditations that definitely produce a state change.

Some of them are really weird movements,

Are chanting and you're like what am I doing,

But then by the end of it you're out of breath and you're like oh my god,

But you definitely feel something.

So it's been interesting to explore them all.

Yeah.

It sounds really interesting.

There's so much to discover.

I mean the more I get into everything about meditation and mindfulness the more I find out that as you mentioned it's everywhere and it's even inclusive in some religions that we sometimes don't think they have it.

Like even Christianity or Islam,

It's like inclusive.

It's in there,

It's just not always that obvious.

And I think it's really cool that you're exploring that too.

Thank you,

Yeah.

I think that was really the mission of this whole trip.

I mean I started out on my journey.

I was raised Catholic so I went to an all-girls Catholic school and the first time I meditated was actually with nuns.

It was a Catholic meditation,

But I think right now mindfulness has hit the mainstream and a lot of it is secular and a lot of it does arise out of Buddhism.

But within any religious tradition you can find contemplative practices and I'm learning that more and more.

All of them have a different flavor and it's just interesting to see what everyone brings to the table because there's wisdom in all of it and I'm learning that and I obviously suspected it.

That's why I set out on this journey.

But yeah,

There's wisdom and there's a lot of crossover.

A lot of people talk about duality,

A lot of people talk about impermanence and it's senseless for religions to fight because they have more in common than they don't.

Right.

It's always on the details that people start to argue,

Right?

Totally,

Totally.

Yeah,

The dogma,

You know.

Yeah,

Exactly.

I'm wondering,

You say you were raised Catholic.

How did that go from being raised Catholic to exploring meditation in all religions and different countries?

How did that journey look like?

Was it you got touched by meditation when you were doing it when you were young in this Catholic school?

Or how did that go?

Yeah,

So I was actually working a pretty high stress job and so during college,

Occasionally when things weren't going well,

I'd go to church at night and I'd do different things and actually the first job I had in New York,

I was so stressed out that I started going to confession every day at the church.

I would literally go to the confessional.

I at least thought I was nuts and I'd be like,

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

I snapped at my family again.

I'm just so stressed,

You know.

It was actually a comedic and I got out of that job and I got into a job I liked more but it just,

It wasn't really fulfilling my purpose and I was working crazy hours because I was in the events industry and I loved the people that I worked with but I was just stressed out and not really aligned with my purpose.

And so I was like,

You know what,

I was turning 25 and I wanted to try to commit to something that was a healthy way of reducing my stress.

So I started meditating at this place in New York City called Mindful and I got really into it.

I did their 30-day challenge and so the 30-day challenge was like you had to go every single day and you'd meditate for anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes.

And after the 30 days I saw such a shift in my life and my stress level and just like everything,

You know.

I felt like I was really loving my decisions and living authentically and just becoming more of myself which I think is really what happens with meditation.

You don't become a different person.

You become more of who you really are.

Right.

And yeah,

So then I was kind of like still working and doing a bunch of different things and I got to a point where I was like,

You know what,

I really want to take off.

I want to pursue this passion project because I was looking for a book that encompassed all the things that I learned in my teacher training because I wanted to read about it on a more granular level and I couldn't find that book and then I was like,

You know what,

I need to go out and I need to write this book.

So that's how I got to where I am now.

Yeah,

Yeah.

And I mean it was like every year I was like I should travel the world and then it's like,

Oh no,

I'm too old to travel the world.

And it was sort of like,

You know,

I thought I was too old to travel the world for a year at 21 and like in retrospect I was like,

You were so young then.

And it was like every year I'd be looking back and be like,

You were so young then.

And I'm like,

All right,

You know,

I'm 26.

Eventually I'm going to be at a point where I might have a kid or something like that and it really isn't a possibility.

So I just took the leap of faith and the net sort of appeared.

So it was,

You know,

A very auspicious year for me and it all kind of fell into place.

Yeah,

That's a,

That sounds like a big adventure.

Yeah,

Yeah,

It has been.

You said you wanted to,

Or you are writing the book through these travels.

Yeah.

And what is actually,

Like what is the book focusing on?

So I have studied in various different traditions in various countries.

So I started off in Bali studying Kundalini Yoga and then I went to India where I learned everything out of Vedic meditation and Hinduism.

And then I went to Nepal where I trekked through the Himalayas and I was,

Oh and I also,

So I studied a little bit of Tibetan Buddhism in India and Dharmasala where the Dalai Lama lives.

Yeah.

And then I went to Nepal and studied Tibetan Buddhism further.

Then I went to South Korea,

I studied Zen Buddhism.

Then I went to Thailand,

I studied Theravada Buddhism and I actually temporarily ordained as a nun.

So I shaved my head.

Oh.

So it's growing back nicely.

That's radical.

But that was a really big,

You know,

It was,

I was like I need to learn impermanence and if my,

If what I'm doing,

If the work that I'm doing is really working,

Then this shouldn't be too big of an issue for me.

And I would,

You know,

Two years ago it would have been a big issue but I was totally fine with it.

And then,

So then I went on,

I studied Kabbalah in Israel,

I studied Sufism in Turkey and I'm off to Ireland to study Catholicism.

So each chapter is just different things that I've picked up and learned throughout these traditions and little anecdotes from my journey so that hopefully like people that are reading it can have that experience and take and leave the different practices that they like from,

You know,

The comfort of their home and not have to go out and travel the world to find these things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And just spark interest where it naturally sparks because I don't think there's a one size fit all approach to meditation or spirituality.

It's such a personal thing and different things work for different people.

And I think our own inner wisdom knows what's right for each of us.

Makes a lot of sense.

So what works for you?

What is the meditation that works for you?

Is there one?

Are there many?

What do you practice in daily life if you sit down or not sit down?

Yeah.

So on a daily basis I try to sit for about 15 minutes and focus on my breath.

And that has sort of been an anchor for me throughout all of this.

And then,

You know,

I have this kind of spiritual tool belt that I can turn to.

And for example yesterday I was feeling like I needed to move and so I was literally whirling like a dervish and I was playing like modern music.

But for some reason that movement moved some energy within me and it just produced a state change and I felt so much better after I did it.

And then of course I was saying with the animals like if I see somebody who's in distress or if I see an animal in distress that I can't help I'll do tonglen.

And then of course if I'm having difficulty with myself or if I'm having difficulty with somebody else I do like a loving kindness practice where I wish them well.

And then it usually sort of softens the negative feeling that I'm having if maybe it's somebody that I'm dealing with you know,

That's bothering me or if I'm having a bad day with myself and I'm just like in a bad mood.

It definitely,

You know,

Creates a more compassionate vibe.

So,

Yeah,

I think I pick and I choose but then really my anchor is,

You know,

Focusing on my breath for about 15 minutes.

Yeah,

That makes a lot of sense to have an anchor like that beside the different ones that you can apply in each situation.

Totally.

It makes a lot of sense,

Yeah.

So you talked a little bit about the 30-day challenge and you noticing the difference that meditation made when you did it every day for those 30 days.

Now,

Looking back on the journey to where you are now,

How has meditation changed your life?

Hmm,

That is such a good question and I feel like if you could ask people in my life they would have such good answers for you.

Because it's like,

You know,

I think other people outside of yourself notice the shift first because it's easy,

It's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar,

You know.

But if I really look back on who I was,

I think that my decisions are governed by what I hope will happen instead of like making fear-based decisions in life.

So I think that I'm living more authentically and really living my truth and speaking my truth and like showing up at each moment in a way that I'm proud of as opposed to sort of like answering a question anxiously or you know,

Like making a choice and saying yes to something that I maybe want to say no to.

And I think in a weird way,

Like meditation has made me more of myself.

So I'm living more authentically,

My decisions are authentic.

And then I also think just overall stress reduction,

Like really big picture thinking,

Like if something's happening that's negative or I'm not having a good day,

It's like okay,

I'm the sky and this is just the weather passing by and I can sit with this and it's just a moment in time as opposed to like letting that bad moment or situation hijack my entire day and like ruin the entire day,

You know.

So I think like just really a greater sense of self-awareness and just noticing my emotions and sitting with them and then if they're positive,

Like that's awesome.

I sort of lean into that naturally.

If they're negative,

Just sitting with it,

It's uncomfortable but it's going to pass.

Yeah,

So those are the major shifts.

And then of course,

Yeah,

Stress reduction.

And noticing little things like an expanded awareness,

Noticing like a cute caterpillar,

Like you know,

The little things that you sometimes miss when you're staring down at your phone or not paying attention to the world around you for whatever other reason.

It's always hard to look at yourself in a past sense because at least for me,

It feels like with my change,

My perception also changes of myself and even of the past.

It's not some sort of fixed thing that like a photograph I can look at and say,

Oh yeah,

This is exactly how I felt then and this is how I feel now.

It's like even how I felt back then,

It's sometimes hard to even understand how I could think like that or feel the way I did.

Yeah.

Yeah,

So I definitely resonate with what you're saying.

And memory is funny.

Like memory,

Like I think I was reading somewhere,

It's like we'll remember bad things either,

I can't remember the exact study but we remember good things as like not as good as they were in that moment and then bad things.

I don't know if they're worse or better but memory is interesting in that way.

And of course perception too.

And just unpacking all that duality and being like,

Oh,

Maybe that was like I was behaving badly or I don't love how I was in that moment but it was just like a part of the journey.

Right.

Yeah,

And it's a good point what you make about memory because I feel that with mindfulness,

It's a lot about remembering to be mindful,

Remembering to be in a moment.

Like before you practice mindfulness,

You just forget like where you are and what you are doing sometimes.

You just slip off into thoughts.

So it seems that mindfulness is so much connected to,

I don't know,

Memory in some kind of way that you remember to be present and then you forget to not be present.

Totally.

Totally,

Yeah.

It's so crazy and you can go to any restaurant in this day and age and see like four friends sitting at a table together and everyone's on their phones and nobody's talking and it's like,

You know,

I mean that's like the world we're living in and we're all so connected to our technology and I think it really does,

You have to keep it in check and I was talking to this nun in Thailand so I stayed at this monastery in Thailand and the woman that started it was the first Theravada Buddhist nun in Thailand.

So she got ordained in Sri Lanka and she was sending women to India to get ordained because ordination is kind of frowned upon for women in Thailand in Theravada Buddhism specifically.

And so,

Anyway she was just saying to me,

She's like,

You know,

Now that we have phones it's like you can pick up all of these like bad vibes that's what she was calling them,

From your phone because there's all this input coming in and so she was saying you have to clear it with a deep breath and I was like that's so true because now like anyone can contact you,

You can see something negative on the internet,

All these different things can be happening to take you out of the present moment and she was like yeah you just have to put it away and also you just take a deep breath and like clear that energy and I was like wow that was great advice like just a deep breath and like put it away,

Put the phone away,

Be where you are,

You know.

Yeah,

And I mean it's crazy how the phone connects us to the whole world but it also can connect you to things that right now they're not going to help you and they're not going to improve your life or whatever and it's also dealing with that,

I read a little booklet on mindfulness the other day in a bookshop and there was this practice of becoming aware of your fingers as they touch the screen of your phone and when they swipe and the sensation and the texture and I thought it was so funny like wow I never thought about doing a mindfulness practice with my phone,

It's like it becomes this whole thing,

This whole entity into your life it's like a person almost,

Right?

This phone is like It is,

Like we should name our phones Yeah,

That's a good one Stanley the iPhone,

I think that's mine,

Stan You know what though,

So I was reading this Oh,

He's a total Stan I was reading this book and it was City Monk,

Country Monk I can give you the name for the show notes if you have those but it was a great book,

It was a Q&A with a monk who was a Tudong monk,

Which they live in the forest in Thailand they only eat once a day and they eat oms meals and just the craziest food because the oms offerings in that part of Thailand were just so strange like bugs and stuff but his Q&A was so insightful and it was basically like this person asking about depression and he was saying depression is a result of sensory overload and I was thinking about it,

I was thinking about my mood living in New York,

Constant sensory overload I was living in Gramercy but I was right near Flatiron it was just a really busy place and I really believed him,

That was really insightful like sensory overload I think being mindful of technology is a huge thing and I think it's going to come to the forefront within the next 10 years just because I think that's a major thing that takes us out of the present moment and then of course ruminating on the past or getting anxious about the future and another piece of advice that was given to me at the Theravada Buddhist I'm about to say nunnery but that's not the word for it,

The monastery was the nun was like,

I was like to her,

I was like listen,

I like being present I want to remain in the present moment but I have to plan for the future I need to think about what I'm going to do in my life like three months from now I can't just sort of show up in that moment without a plan and she was like that's totally understandable but what you need to do is you need to set aside a certain amount of time that you're going to plan for your life so like 30 minutes for me to decide where I'm going to move when I get back to the States or whatever it is that I'm trying to plan for and then I take that specific set aside amount of time and that's the time that I have to plan for my life and then once I'm done with the 30 minutes or however long I have to drop it and I thought that was great advice,

The planned thinking because you know it's a mindful way to think about something without and plan for your life without you know going haywire and just thinking about whatever it is you need to think about for the entire day like sporadically so that was good advice that she gave me that's like you can take time to well in that way plan for the future but just take that amount of time and then let it go again,

Right?

That's the idea of it.

Totally and to be mindful about you know the amount of time you're spending and to do it like intentionally and to really like set aside that time so I thought that that was good advice like I'm definitely taking that one with me.

Yeah definitely.

It also makes a lot of sense to me when I look like at these monasteries or retreats or these kind of things one of the main things for me was not necessarily the meditation itself it was the schedules like they have such tight and well planned schedules and because of that at day four you go on autopilot but not the bad autopilot the autopilot of going through these things and being aware of them and not having to think about them that's so great.

Yeah planning can be so beneficial for your mindfulness practice if you plan it out right if you have a morning routine right you can like if you set that morning routine every day you can ease into this whole routine and do your meditation well get up early in the morning or whatever well and I noticed that that's a big thing that I think we sometimes underestimate when we look at like monasteries and everything it's like yeah meditation is a big part of it but it's also these routines that they have that are very healthy or at least very efficient.

Totally totally and you know I mean at least the monasteries I've stayed in they have daily chores but they're turning the chores into a meditation and anyone can do that like just when you're let's say washing the dishes like you're really washing the dishes and you're really focusing and you're there and you're like doing it maybe joyfully you know I mean the zen monasteries were definitely really big on that and they'd be picking peppers but they would really be present when they were doing it and it kind of turned into a moving meditation in a way because they were just focused on that one thing which was the task at hand so yeah I mean I think anything can be meditative too if it's done in that way you know because technically meditation is just focusing on a single point and yeah I definitely noticed that in zen and even especially when I was in Korea at the zen monastery the gardening even just the way they would like dig up the weeds and stuff like it was meditative in a way and the routines 100% were magical like by day four I agree with you completely you know you were in autopilot but just as you said like a good version of autopilot yeah I love a good retreat I think anyone listening to this if you need a sign to go on a retreat this is your sign 2019 is your year go on a retreat it's magical especially a good silent retreat I mean I know it's hard to take the 10 days that are usually required but there are shorter ones and I think being silent for a few days and getting rid of your technology for a few days really is such a nice detox for your mind and your central nervous system and just really a great way to fast track getting into a meditation routine I think people get intimidated by the idea of silence but really I mean this year or in 2018 I did 23 days of silence and I was a little bit nervous about it because I'm a talkative person and it was amazing I loved it like I can't wait until I get to do another silent retreat that's awesome 23 days yeah yeah so it was three different retreats one was 10 days one was 8 days and one was 5 days and the first one I did in Dharmasala,

India was at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center called Tushita and it's reasonable the food is amazing and the meditations are incredible so if anybody listening is planning on going to India Dharmasala is definitely an amazing stop and if you're lucky you might actually meet the Dalai Lama I have a few friends that met him and he just hangs out I mean he greets everyone if he's doing a public talk so he's very accessible if you're there and he's there giving public talks and the retreat center there is amazing I've been to a lot this year and that one really stands out in my mind you know it's a part of India that is really Tibetan because a lot of the people that fled Tibet ended up in Dharmasala following the Dalai Lama and it's beautiful it's a cooler temperature because it's in northern India and you're beneath the pine trees and it's just stunning so I definitely recommend that to anyone looking for a far away retreat yeah now I'm actually now I want to do it I feel motivated you should go you should go I'm literally I should be a spokesperson for them because I am their biggest fan and it's funny I was you know you don't talk to anyone obviously at the retreat and so but you remember everyone's face after 10 days so I was in Tel Aviv and I'm on the street in the middle of Tel Aviv and all of a sudden lo and behold there's a man for my silent retreat in India in Tel Aviv and I make eye contact with him I shaved the head so he didn't recognize me and I was like no no look at this picture of me I was in your silent retreat I just had hair then so yeah one of those strange occurrences for sure wow it's it's yeah one of the common themes with retreat seems to be that when it ends for a lot of people the effect seems to fade away and they find it hard to get back into the zone so to say the experiences and the state of mind that they had in the retreat what's your trick for doing that how do you stay in the zone?

I mean I think just first of all being gentle with yourself because in life you know like Pema Chodron said like you know things are never really solved they fall apart and they come back together and they fall apart and they come back together so I think that the first thing is just to be compassionate about your practice because you know it's meditation you know it's not army boot camp and if you didn't meditate for a week like just give yourself a break you're off the hook just get back into it my biggest advice for somebody looking to deepen their practice is if you can find a community where you can meditate with other people it's so helpful I don't think I ever would have been able to really like commit to that 30 days on my own in my apartment like that would have been so hard once you get into the groove of things yeah you know the apartment is great but at least for somebody like me who has a cat who likes to come over and hang out and like when the phone rings you know it's hard to maintain your discipline at home and if you don't have that option of you know going to a place where you can meditate with other people just creating a setting within your home that feels like okay this is my meditation space like this is my little area where I meditate because then that when you're in that area it sort of sends a signal to you like okay like I'm ready to really like delve into my meditation as opposed to you know being in your kitchen where maybe you're also doing work usually and it's like a hectic cue for you in your brain where you might be tempted to do something else and like get out of your meditation so I think environment is really important yeah and then of course like if you can find somebody to keep you accountable or maybe like you have a roommate that wants to try it with you and maybe that's something that you and your roommate can do in the morning but really I think kind of what you were touching on before routine can be a great thing so if you are if you don't have a place to go meditate maybe setting a time every day that you you know you know that you're going to wake up in the morning you're going to meditate for 15 minutes and that's how you're starting your day right yeah that's a good advice I think especially the accountability with our online community you see we see a lot of people who join the meditation challenge so every month we do like a challenge where people can take on this 30 days they can set the time for as long as they want but the big thing is that you're you're having some sort of feeling of accountability there's you can even ask someone to buddy you to be your accountability buddy and it's the internet so there's there's obviously a little bit it's a little bit further away at times but then it's also really close because every day you're on your phone and there's this app and you know like oh yeah I said I I do 30 days and yeah and you know what so many people don't have access to a place to go so online is a great option and I actually started my Instagram account two years ago as sort of like an accountability for me I didn't like I didn't want any of my friends or family to know about it and they eventually found out about it and I love having them on there now but at the time it was like this private thing for me that like people were starting to follow me on and I just wanted to have people on the internet that knew I was meditating so that I would continue meditating and it would be out there and I would commit to it so I actually think that that's a great option finding even virtual accountability buddies or like even an app that checks out with you or a community that's amazing a lot of people you know if you're in New York City if you're in a major city there are places for sure but you know if not you know start with the program on your phone or on your computer and then you know maybe you'll start a center of your own in your small town or wherever you are yeah that's that's really awesome I just got aware of that like oh why actually am I not like I'm so now used to my routines that I what you say about finding a community in your neighborhood it's so important to have these people around you that are also practicing it's some sometimes I feel a little bit I wouldn't say snobby but a little bit strange because you also start to notice it at least for me I sometimes start to notice like oh with certain things that I'm not I'm not well with certain things it's hard to talk about with people who don't meditate and then you know it feels a little bit like it starts to become this separate thing and I always hope that it that it isn't but I I suppose that's the nature of whatever you're doing if you're making music then you can't talk music with everyone at least not at the the level you're making music and I suppose when you do meditation it's natural to disconnect a little bit sometimes with other people and it doesn't have to be for the most at least totally yeah yeah you know and it's funny because I totally get what you're saying and I think there's a hyper awareness when you're a meditator like you know and just picking up everyone I know that meditates can really read the room and like pick up on things and you know is really in the present moment they're never the friends that are going through you know be on their phone at dinner like you know not paying attention to the conversation or anything like that but the great thing that I found too is since I've started meditating it's so in the mainstream now so many of my friends that don't meditate want to learn and they're like coming to me being like oh like I want to start meditating and everything like that so I think it's really becoming it's coming to the forefront like all over the world and I think it's because you know it's you know it's not you know religious but it's a practice that you know I mean can really improve anyone's life and I think in this day and age where it's like you can't escape work because your email is on your computer and your phone and you know everyone's stressed and you know running around and trying to be as productive as possible and you know accomplish so much like a lot of people are looking for a way to reduce their stress in a healthy way but also you know there's a lot of people that are working at fortune 500 companies that want to tap into the amazing focus that you can obtain from having a great meditation practice so it's been amazing to see it sort of explode in the last you know 10 years really I mean a lot I'd say probably in the last five years it's really hit the mainstream and now there's so many different things going on which is awesome because I like I like getting involved in all of them yeah it is amazing you're right actually I found that out myself too with my latest job when I made the application I was just I don't know I followed some courses on meditation Buddhism and these kind of things and I first felt a little bit reluctant to put on there in the end I put it on there and even with my like intake they already mentioned it but in a positive way and I was like oh of course it's like completely shifted now yeah you know Nike started this like partnership with Headspace and all the big companies are slowly tapping into meditation mindfulness so it's it's not no more a woo woo word but it's really becoming a oh you're doing that I want to do that too kind of thing yeah it's amazing totally totally you know yeah it's funny how that happens and I think you know even like 10 years ago people didn't really know what it was but now yeah it's really hit the mainstream and that's awesome that it was seen in a positive light on your on your job application I think yeah I think companies are looking for people that you know are mindful you know I think that it it's actually beneficial for the company because less likely their employees are going to burn out if they're meditating and or or snap on another employee or something like that because take a deep breath and manage their emotions so that's great that's great to hear and a lot of companies are starting to offer it I mean my aunt works for an insurance company in like it's a big one in the States and they've been offering mindful training for their employees so it's good to hear that stuff like that's happening just because I think with the work culture especially in like the States and really all the Western world it can be a little soul crushing and I think you know we all need to take time for ourselves you know just take care of our mental health and really just reduce stress in a healthy way not just turn to the bag of chips or the booze or whatever other way there is to sort of you know manage stress in an unhealthy way so yeah I think that's great yeah all right well as a sort of final question I usually ask our guests what would you give as an advice to anyone listening well we actually had a lot of advice that you picked up on your travels and but still I'd like to ask the question and maybe look at people who are hearing about meditation and mindfulness for the first time or they're just getting into it like what would you give them as an advice um if you're just starting out and you want to learn to meditate my advice for you would be try to find a community where you can learn and try to find a community where you'll be held accountable and give it a shot for 15 minutes a day for 30 days you're you might not see results right away and it's going to be a little mental and it's going to be a little mental it's going to be a little maddening at times some days you'll have great meditation some days it'll be really tough to sit there and some days your mind will not want to focus on your breath and it'll be all over the place but the first like after the first 15 days I really felt the magic so my advice would be to find somewhere that will hold you accountable and then stick to it for a month and then tell us how you did I think it'll be good yeah well thanks a lot for that advice and thanks a lot for joining me on the podcast it was great talking to you Lauren absolutely it was so great chatting with you as well and I appreciate you having me and I'm a big fan of the podcast so I look forward to hearing more of them if you enjoyed this talk with Lauren Skahe make sure to check out the link in the description of the podcast don't forget to subscribe to this podcast if you enjoyed this talk and thank you for listening and have a great day and I'll see you next time bye

Reviews

Really relatable with good tips for meditating well

Insightful conversation!