Episode 167: Make Decisions using Meditation

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to share with you something that is really important, a skill that you have within you, a skill that we don't tap into often. And when we do, I hope it solves all our problems. And what I'm talking about is meditation. Now, hold on. Some of you might be going, meditation? What is he talking about? Let me tell you a story and then you judge afterwards. Many years ago, when I was living in New York City, I had to make a choice. I had to make a choice whether or not I was going to move to Norway within a few days, pack up my entire life, say goodbye to all my friends, all my family, take my apartment that I was living in, put it in storage, find storage, then put it in storage, break the lease, blah, blah, blah. Take my entire life and put it in a box. That decision process, the thought of being 31 years old and taking everything that I know and saying goodbye to make that decision, I needed to tap into something. Now, there wasn't no one I knew that could help me make that decision. Of course you could go to friends, of course you go to family, you could go to your mom and dad if you have that as an option, you go to your best friend. But any of them, of all of them, how many of them have left their entire life behind out of choice? Not because of this situation, that's completely different. I remember meeting a guy from Afghanistan, and because of the situations of the wars there, he had to leave in the middle of the night after watching his mother and father being killed. He fortunately, or unfortunately, depends how you look at it, he crawled through his window and went out partying that night around 10 o'clock, told his parents he was going to bed, came back around 3 o'clock, just in time if you want to put it that way. To see that people had raided his family's house and murdered his mother and father right there on the front lawn. He then went to a local aid government agency and eventually ended up in Norway. That's being forced to leave your country. That's when you have no options. What I'm talking about is you have an option. You have an option to continue with the life that you live, smooth, predictable, same language, same culture, people with the same background, people with similar tastes, people who maybe look like you, talk like you, or take your entire life and take all those comforts and all those things that we take for granted every day and throw it away. To make that decision, or any big decision you have in your life today— should I change jobs? Should I change husbands? Should I change my wife? Should I change my girlfriend? Should I ask for an increase in my salary? Should I get a new position? Should I, should I tell my teacher that he's an idiot or she's an idiot? I, you know, there's a million decisions we make every day. Now let me show you how I make my big decisions and small, and that's just meditation. And meditation is not just meditation, because in itself it's just the— it is the action of doing no action, of being at peace with yourself such that you're tapping into this inner force that's within you. Now let me be very clear about meditation. Meditation is hard to do. It's not as easy as just closing your eyes, because when you close your eyes, you instantly get thoughts. Into your head, and those thoughts are distractions. Those thoughts are things that come up because, you know, think about it, how often a lot of us don't want to close our eyes because all of a sudden we start thinking about all these weird things. That's like the first layer to get through when you go through meditation, when you close your eyes, when you want to connect with your inner self. That's what meditation is, it's connecting with your inner self.

So close your eyes, try it now.

Relax for a moment. Close your eyes. And you'd have thoughts come in, memories, people, names. Ignore them. When I see those faces and voices and thoughts, I just tell it, Go away.

Not forcefully, but softly. Go away. It's not your time. And I rest my mind even further, even deeper beneath the voices, beneath the images, beneath the movie that's playing in my mind. I enter into the darkness, into the void of stillness, the void of solidarity, this calming place. Feel nothing, hear nothing. That place is where I want you to stay. In that place where you are, just relax. Don't think about your idea, don't think about your problems, don't even think about your name. Don't think, just relax. When's the last time you were at such peace with yourself? When was the last time you could just relax like this? Stay there for as long as you like, because this is where you can make all the decisions you need to make. In your life. Any problem you have, you can make it in this quiet, private void that you have. This is your little home. This is your escape from reality. This is all yours. I want you to stay here for as long as you like. Go forth and spread beauty and light. I love you. Till the next time.