I've taught quite a few people to meditate and I get asked a lot of crazy questions. I've been thinking of making a book about the funniest and weirdest questions that I get asked but the number one question I get asked is some variation of "How do I find the time to meditate?"
Let me answer your question with a question. Who do you have a huge crush on right now? Real life or fantasy it doesn't matter. You can say Ryan Gosling or that hottie from Game of Thrones, it's OK. Second question: Who could make your financial dreams come true right now? A big investor in your dream project, a director that could cast you in a big movie, your boss at a promotion meeting. Whomever you like. Now imagine for a second that this person called you up and said that they wanted to meet with you for twenty minutes. Would you have any time constraints? I imagine that you would magically find the time no matter what your situation was. Now here's my follow up question:
What would change in your life if you were as dedicated to developing yourself as you were to wish fulfillment from these other people?
I would suggest that one of the changes that might take place would be that you would become more worthy of a big life changing event. If you had that meeting you would be the kind of calm, creative, collected and funny person that would make the most of this situation. Now let's alter the meeting a little. Instead of a meeting with a cutie or someone with a fat wallet let's imagine you were meeting with God. Since he's been typecast this way God is going to be played by Morgan Freeman in our shared fantasy. Morgan Freeman is going to meet with you and offer you a blessing that will make you happier, more creative, less susceptible to disease, almost immune to heart attacks, smell better, smile more and have a lasting sense of inner happiness that will never go away no matter what your external circumstances are. Would you take that meeting for twenty minutes or would you have trouble finding the time?
Wanna join me? I'll be meeting with Morgan Freeman today at 2:30 PM.
With love,
Charlie Knoles
P.S OK cool but why are we meeting Morgan at 2:30 PM? Answer: Your brain has this really cool cycle called the serotonin cycle and basically what it means is that every 2 hours or so you get a peak and a slump of creativity and focus. It goes up and down all day but then weirdly at around 2:30 PM you get a big mega-slump and your serotonin level goes down dramatically. You know the feeling. You reflexively want a nap or coffee at that time of day. Smart countries do siesta. If you meditate you get a big boost of serotonin and the rest of your day and evening feel awesome. It also means that you have your evening meditation covered and don't wind up having that conflict between dinner/social duties and meditating.