Once Buddha was asked: 

“What have you gained from meditation?”⠀⠀

He replied: 

“Nothing. However let me tell you what I lost : anger, anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear of old, age and death.”

I’m not sure if I’ve lost all these but I can say with complete confidence that meditating regularly for 15 years has had a profound impact on my emotional and mental health. 

Research tells us that meditation benefits both our body and mind by:

• reducing stress.

• improving concentration

• increasing self-awareness

• increasing happiness and contentmemt

• increasing our acceptance of situations and experiences

• slowing the aging process

• benefiting cardiovascular and immune health.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Lately I’ve noticed a new benefit of meditation: 

I’m able to sniff out BS instantaneously. 

When a person’s words aren’t in alignment with their energy, I can feel the dissonance. There’s no judgement here. The speaking of untruths or withholding information happens for many reasons: people want to protect themselves, they are embarrassed, they feel shame around the topic, they are accustomed to dropping little white lies. 

But I can sense it and most of the time I let it go. ⠀

With my clients however, I dig deeper. When I hear them describe a life or business event – promotion/merger/partnership and they say everything is fantastic, I pause to pick up on any dissonance. If it’s there, I prod them to peel the layers further. Is the dissonance coming from fear (of failure or success or everything coming apart) or is it intuitive in it’s quality, giving them valuable signs for a better, more harmonious outcome? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 

There’s always valuable information hidden within us if we dig deep enough. Or if we have a mentor to hold our hand through the process 🙂

Do you have a meditation practice? How do you show up differently because of it?