[Miracle Morning LIVE #1] Hal Elrod Shares His Favorite Approach to Meditation

M emers, we are live. I never go live. And you're probably like, hal, why don't you go live more often? And I probably said this before, but because I'm scared. It's so weird. I have this irrational fear of video, of talking to the camera. Put me on stage, happy to talk to a bazillion people. No problem, no fear, no concern. Put me in front of this phone. I've got my phone right here. And. And it weirds me out. I don't know why, but if you're watching this live or later, I'm sitting here and I'm thinking of something that's adding value to my life. And that's kind of the way that I work, is if it adds value to my life, I wanna share it. And I realized that doing a video would be a very intimate, personal way for me to share some stuff with you. So this will probably be a short video. Whenever I say that, they're always long. But I'm just gonna give you a thought on meditation. And I'm always experimenting with new ways of meditating. And. Ty Harmon. What's up, buddy? Good to see you. So I'm always experimenting with new ways of meditating. Just trying different ways. And for me, it's a very fluid kind of approach. I don't have, you know, I've done transcendental meditation. I've gone through the courses and kind of become. I don't know if it's certified or, you know, whatever. I finished the course and read various books on meditation. So it's something I'm always studying. And it's true for, I think, all of the savers, but meditation in particular. And this morning.

I was just sitting down, meditating. And actually, I'll share with you a couple different types of meditation. One that I've done quite a bit lately that I've been meaning to write a post about, which I'll just share it on the video now, so you don't have to wait for me to write a post and then another form of meditation. So I'll share two forms of meditation today. My favorite form of meditation. Leon. Hello, Ikram. Kathryn, good morning. Hello. But my favorite form of meditation is really an intentional form of meditation. So traditional meditation is often. Hey, Stephanie. Ty. Good to see you. Clearing out your mind, right? It's quieting your mind, kind of letting thoughts go and just kind of being in the now, in the moment. That's kind of a traditional form of meditation. I am. I think it's because I'm a really results oriented person. Being that I'm results oriented, I will often I want my meditation to generate results. So what I'll do is I'll speak, I'll choose a specific topic, like a specific result that I'm trying to create in my life or objective or project that I'm working on, and I'll bring that into my meditation. Now here's what's interesting. So what I've been using it lately for is the book that I'm writing. I'm writing a book called the Miracle Equation. This is a book I've wanted to, right, since before the miracle morning was ever an idea. Probably 10 years before the miracle morning was an idea. I started living this thing called the miracle equation, which is very simple in its explanation, but very rare in its execution. The explanation is simple. Unwavering faith combined with extraordinary effort is how we create miracles in our lives. Right? Those are the two fundamental approaches, the mindset. And the approach is unwavering faith and extraordinary effort. The that's how we create miracles in our lives. So in a miracle, I would define as any result that is beyond the realm of what you believe to be probable, not possible cause. If you're an optimist, right. The general mindset in the optimist club is anything is possible. But think about it. We don't usually approach things that are possible. We approach things that are probable. We rarely take on a goal that we don't actually believe we can achieve. Right? Therefore, yeah, it's possible, but if it's not probable, we're rarely gonna actually invest our time and energy into making that goal a priority. If it's probable, we take it on. So a miracle can be defined as anything outside the realm of what you believe to be probable. It's possible, but you might not normally approach it because it's not probable. So I'm getting off track with that. So back to meditation. So for me, right now I'm writing this book, the Miracle Equation, and that's what I've been using my meditation for in the morning and where I'll actually take the like the chapter that I am writing. So this morning I wrote a chapter called your goal is not the A New Paradigm of Possibility. So it's a chapter about how goal setting, as we've been taught and thought about it, is really limiting. It creates a lot of fear because we might not achieve the goal. So I kind of am creating this new paradigm around goal setting for you. So this morning for meditation, I sat down and I took the chapter topic Right. So for you, whatever your. For the day, whatever your focus is, your goal, whatever you're working on, a project, a goal, an objective, you take that into your meditation and you bring it in. And as you close your eyes to meditate, you don't actually think about it. Here's kind of the.

I don't know what the right word is, dichotomy, or I don't know what the right word is. But instead of, like, thinking, like, you know, when we're. Normally we're in our left brain and we're focusing on a project or an idea, we're really thinking, right? We're trying to force the thought, try to force the answers, force the solution. And instead of forcing it, what I do with the meditation is I bring the idea with me, and then I just. I let thought go. I don't actually try to think about the idea. And here's the magic, the miracle that happens. I actually have my phone. I have a meditation timer going, and I've got my phone there with my notes tab as the last thing I open so that I can take notes. And what happens is, as I'm sitting there not trying to think about the thing that's important to me that I'm focused on, that I want to bring ideas, I want to bring brilliance about, but I'm doing it from a place, a spiritual place, not a thinking place, if that makes sense. And what ends up happening every single day, I can now count on this. The first time I did it, I wasn't sure, but I can count on it now. Whatever topic I bring into my meditation and I let kind of just sit within me, but I don't think about. It's out of my head, and it's within my heart, my spirit. Every single time.

The ideas flow from my heart, from my spirit into my head. And so I end up going into my phone, and I'll pause the meditation timer and I'll write down a brilliant idea that I have. And sometimes I'll write for an entire paragraph, right? Like, it just comes to me. And then I go back to the meditation and I hit play. And I just sit there and I just meditate. I don't think about the idea. And again, within a matter of seconds or minutes or so, boom, another idea comes to me. I pause the timer and I go and I write it down. So this is the first form of meditation that I want to share with you. And it's. I don't know if I have a name for it. It's intentional meditation. It's productive meditation, right? It's creative meditation where the objective isn't just to calm your nervous system and be at peace. It's actually to tap into infinite intelligence to your own intelligence, your deepest wisdom, your brilliance, your heart, and to come up with ideas, to come with solutions to the problems in your life, to the objectives you're trying to achieve, coming with creative ways to achieve them.

And then again, write them down, right? Don't wait till the meditation's over. You're gonna forget them all. You just need, every time, pause the timer and write them down. So that's the first form of meditation that I want to share with you. Again, it's an intentional, productive, goal oriented meditation. It's my favorite kind because I'm really results oriented. The second form of meditation, which I did today by accident, I started out with this intentional meditation and it just kind of morphed into this other meditation because no ideas were coming to me. And so I just was like, I'm going to shift gears in the middle of my meditation. And here's what I did. And this is a beautiful meditation. This is a great default one for any given day. And it's actually combining meditation and affirmations. And maybe you've done this before, I don't know. But what I did is I just sat there and I just decided for my entire 10 minute meditation, I was going to affirm things that made me feel good. So I just sat there with my eyes closed. Oh, and I've got a bonus tip sitting right here. I'm gonna show you by the end of the video, so make sure you stay tuned because I'm gonna show you a bonus tip that you can go buy on Amazon that can help enhance your meditation, like 25 bucks or something. But I just recently got it and it's been very great for me. It's been great. So anyway, the meditation, the affirmation meditation combo is I just sat there with my eyes closed and I said things to myself. I just said, I am blessed. I am grateful. And then I got specific. I'm like, I am blessed to be married to the woman of my dreams. It's Ursula L. Wrote, in case you don't know. I am blessed to have a son who I love and who is happy and healthy and he's a beautiful human being. I am blessed to have a daughter, right? I am healthy. I value my health. There was no rhyme or reason, right? And a lot of times I would just say the same thing over and over. I'd go, I am Alive, I am happy, I am healthy. I am financially in a good place right now. I am, you know, I am part of the Miracle Morning community, a community that's changing the world, right? Elevating the consciousness of humanity one morning at a time on and on and on, just repeating things for 10 minutes. That just felt really good to say. And I think that at one point, in the middle of my affirmation meditation, that's what we can call it, right? The affirmation meditation. But at one point I did have an idea, something I affirmed to myself and actually was a book idea. And then I actually paused the timer, pulled out my notes, actually wrote a few sentences about something that I then during my writing time this morning, I wrote into the manuscript for the Miracle Equation, right? So, you know, these meditations, there's no perfect way to do it. They can be blended as long as they're enhancing your life, your state of mind, your state of being, your overall emotional well being, your, you know, your feelings about yourself, your self concept, your self image, right? There's no rhyme or reason, no exact perfect way to do or not do meditation. But I think it's really valuable when we realize that, that it is this fluid thing, but having different ways to approach it that are valuable. And that on any given day, you know, if we're in a funk, we wake up feeling down for, you know, I don't know about you, but I wake up feeling depressed some days for no reason. I have no idea why. I don't know if it's what I ate the night before. I have no idea why. I'll just wake up feeling totally depressed. And I'm like, what? You know, I'll wait till my wife wakes up and I'll go get in bed with her. I'll be like, sweetie, I feel depressed. And she's like, I love you. I'm like, I don't even know why, you know, and she has the same thing. I think we all have the, you know, just. I think we're all hormonal. I don't know what it is. But the point is, on those days, you might wake up and just do an affirmation meditation where you just tell yourself things that remind you of how alive you are and how blessed you are and how many things you have to be happy for and grateful for. And then on other days when you want to be productive and you've got a specific result, you've got a meeting with a client or you're writing, you know, you're writing your book and you need these creative juices flowing. Create. Use that creative meditation, that intentional meditation, that productive meditation where you're actually inviting and you're going deep to bring about your brilliance, tap into the higher intelligence, infinite wisdom, your own wisdom, et cetera. So there's a couple ideas on meditation. I hope those add value for you. I hope you put them into practice. And the quick little bonus tip I'm going to give you is. Oh wait, before I show you, I'm going to tell you. So I was in a pattern of not doing a. Like I went into a pattern for a few months of doing a really half assed meditation where I would just, I would like sit on my couch. Back here's where I do a meditation or my miracle mornings back here on the couch. And I would sit on the couch and.

I would do a, I would just like, I would just close my eyes, you know, after I read some affirmations or done some reading, I wouldn't actually sit up in a meditative position, right? And you know, in the full lotus or half lotus, I would just like close my eyes and be slouched on my couch and I would do this half assed meditation where I would kind of just be quiet for five minutes. And it wasn't, you know, it's almost like you slip into these patterns and I didn't even realize that I was into this pattern. And then I went on Amazon and I bought this, I bought this meditation pillow. It's filled with beans or something, right? And I got white. You can get whatever color you want. But if you go to Amazon, you type in meditation pillow. I think that's how you'll find it. But here's the beauty of it is it is a physical. Well, a. It does what it's supposed to, right? You sit on your butt, you put your legs and you sit in half lotus or full lotus in front of the pillow. And it creates this posture where, right, the oxygen's flowing and you're alert, you're aware, but you're relaxed, right? So it does what it's supposed to do. But the other thing that it does is every time I walk through the, you know, into this room, I see this meditation pillow sitting there, right? It is a prompt, if you will, to do meditation the right way. And I'll tell you, I bought it maybe a week or two ago. Every single day since I've had it, I have, not only have I used it every day, so I'm not doing my half assed slouched on the couch. Meditation, right? The slouch on the couch meditation. That's what we're calling it. But I actually now, even throughout the day, I'll meditate more often. Not just during the miracle morning, but I'll meditate at just different parts of the day. So like in the middle of my writing, I'll be writing at 2 in the afternoon and I'll be like, I'll have writer's block and I'll be like, oh. So whenever your creative juices are blocked, go and sit on your meditation pillow, right? And go do that creative, productive, intentional meditation and watch how, you know, those ideas start flowing once again. Of course, going for a walk or doing some form of exercise is a great way to do it as well. But this meditation pillow is great. And the other thing I love about it is my kids are seeing it, right? My kids are seeing the meditation pillow and of course the first time they saw it, they're like, what is this? And my 5 year old son is, you know, he's always like slamming it and I'm like, halston, that's not. You're going to break that. It's not invincible. Be easy on it. But I love it because it's a visual representation and reminder for me. But it's also a visual reminder representation for my kids that daddy meditates, right? And I've had them sit on it and try their meditation. And my daughter and I did this, you know, what's it called? Peace Out Meditation. If you have kids. By the way, there's a Peace out podcast, which is these awesome, awesome story meditations, right? Where they tell us it's like a meditative story. And kids love stories. So it guides them through a story that also calms them down and relaxes them and gets them into a meditative state. So that is a really cool Peace out podcast for kids meditation. So I think that's it. You know what, since I'm on here, anybody have any questions? I haven't been looking at the chat here, but thank you for all your comments, Christina. I'm grateful the book changed your life. Where's the Peace Out Meditation, Danielle? It is in the app store or the podcast store. So if you go to itunes or if you have the podcast app on your phone and I think you could probably also google, I bet you could google Peace Out Meditation or Peace Out Meditation podcast, you'd probably find it there. And that way they probably have it online. So if you don't have smartphone or, you know, whatever. I think if you Google Peace Out Podcast meditation. You'll probably find it. And Simona. Hello, Jamie. What's up, brother from overseas? Helen. Robin, what are your top three goals? My top three goals? That's a great question from Robin. Thank you, Robin. Top three goals are. They're usually changing, but number one is husband and father first and foremost. Keeping that at the forefront of anything and everything I do today in the middle of my writing, you know, my son came down. He wanted to play. I have kind of a rule where, for the most part, I will almost always. And I say almost always because it's never perfect. If I'm really, like, on a deadline, I can't break away. That's occasional, but I'd say nine or eight or nine out of ten times if my kids come down and they want to play with me, I just, you know, I usually say, hey, give me 20 minutes to set. Like, this morning, I'm like, Halson, I need 20 more minutes to finish this. And so we have the Alexa, you know. Oh, she just heard me. And, you know, Halston will set a timer on Alexa. Also, guys, here's a great little tip. I have timer or I have a reminder set on all of our Alexas, and we have a few of them in our house, different spots in the house that at 5pm it says, Daddy's off work. Daddy's off work. And it just keeps saying that. So that's accountability. So my kids will come in. They're not watching the clock. They hear that still, and they come in and they. Sorry, I'm trying to read. Stephanie, love for us to see you regularly, like, Fridays live, chat in the group. Maybe Miracle Morning Mondays. How about I just log in Miracle Morning Mondays? What do you guys think? Everybody says, I like Stephanie's idea. Yeah. I need to come in here live every week. All right, ready? I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna face my fear. I already faced my fear by doing this. But. And it's so funny. It's like, it's such an. All of our fears are irrational. Like, has there been any fear since I hit play? No. There was a little bit of nervousness, like, oh, I'm gonna go live. What am I gonna say? I don't know what I'm gonna say. But then when I started, like, I haven't. I've been talking for, I don't even know, what, 10 minutes or something. There's no fear, right? So whatever. Oh, here's my. Before I commit, I'm gonna challenge all of you. I'm gonna challenge all of you before I, I'm gonna commit here in a sec, but I'm gonna challenge all of you. What's one thing you're afraid of? What is one thing thing that you are afraid of that you are putting off because you're afraid of it, right? And I'm gonna ask that you do what I did, right? Which is just do it. Stop thinking about it. Cause the fear is all in your head. When they say that the only thing to fear is fear itself, that's what they mean, whoever they are, right? Is the only thing to fear is the fear. Like it's made up in your head. And when you do it, I tell my kids this all the time. When you do the thing you're afraid of, there's no fear. The fear disappears. The fear is only in the thinking about the thing. And maybe you're thinking it's often irrational, sometimes it is rational, sometimes you're thinking, but what if this happens? And what if this happens and what if the worst case scenario, what if this goes wrong? Rarely though is there anything horrible that can happen when you're, what you're doing. Unless your fear is like, I don't know, something that's like death defying, right? But anyway, so what's one thing you're afraid of? Join me today and do it today. Do it. Take the first step. Make the phone call. Do the thing, whatever it is. Sign up for the thing, whatever it is that you're putting off that you're afraid of. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to invite you, I'm going to challenge you as a community. Let's do the thing that we're afraid of and post it in the comments below. If you're watching this now or you're watching this a week later, post in the comments below. Let's have some accountability for people. Come on, community. What is one thing you are afraid of that you will commit to? Commit to that in the comments below. Hey, today I will do blank or in the next 24 hours. If you can't do it today, when can you do it? This today, 24, 48 hours ASAP. Commit to that. And I will commit to start doing once a week. We'll plan on Miracle Morning Mondays. But you know, in case I'm traveling on a Monday or something, it might not always work out, but we'll shoot for Miracle Morning Mondays. As I will plan on going live, I'll look at my schedule. I'll see if there's a regular time that I could commit to. I'm sure there probably is. It'll probably be, like, 4 in the morning, my time zone, but. Yeah. We're gonna do it, people. We're gonna do it. Let's overcome our irrational fears together. Because when we do right, we can serve at a higher level. We can not only live to our full potential, which, by definition, in and of itself unlocks other people's potential by them seeing us unlock our own potential. Right? People around us, they're inspired. When we live to our full potential, that in and of itself is the greatest gift that we can give to those around us. And. But also, whatever it is that we're afraid of doing by us doing it right, whatever the results of the thing that we're doing that we've let fear hold us back from, that starts to improve the lives of everybody else that it touches. So let's overcome our fears together, our irrational fears. Get out of our head, get into action. I love you. I appreciate you Miracle Morning Community more than you know. And I look forward to seeing you.

In the next week on the next Miracle Morning Monday, or whenever. I do it live. But I'm committed. You guys are gonna see once a week. I'm going live in the community, and we're gonna make this happen. All right, I love you guys. How do I turn this off? I don't know how to turn this off. Let me see. If. Is this.