Reading Time: 8 minutesThere are three time investments every person should make to help themselves thrive:
- Make time for the divine. It’s my firm belief that your personal, intimate relationship with your sense of divinity (whatever that is to you) is your lifeline. Take time to cultivate that relationship like you do with every other relationship in your life.
- Make time to exercise daily. Doesn’t have to be long, but make time to move for the million reasons we all know.
- Make time for meditation.
When I say “meditation,” I’m talking about a specific meditation that has completely redirected my life. It is a simple, yet profound practice that when done daily can focus every aspect of your existence. It’s called the 6 Phase Meditation.
A Little About Me — And How I’m Like You
I’ve lived a blessed life. I have a healthy, beautiful family. I love my job. I live in a place where most people vacation. I have worked myself into every opportunity that I have been given and have a sense of complete ownership to my future. I am in a spiritual space that has nurtured my soul in ways I can’t even begin to describe and my relationship with the Divine is as strong as I’ve ever wanted.
Me and my son.
Despite a moderate addiction to energy drinks and perpetually being in a state of needing to lose a few, I have what I’ve always dreamed of. What more could a guy ask for? Well, as most of us experience, you get locked down in the day-to-day so much that when you stop to take inventory of where you are and where you are headed, everything feels a little (or a lot) off. I am no exception. I have some fairly lofty entrepreneurial dreams and have carved out a plan on how I want to achieve them.
The first step in my plan was a rather large, but necessary one to get my entrepreneurial ball rolling: I needed to write. I needed to get my name out and get my ideas down on paper (or the screen), but I had no idea how I was going to get this done. Then one afternoon, I was flipping through my Facebook feed and stumbled upon a video of a guy named Vishen Lakhiani talking to a group of people in Dublin, Ireland. I was familiar with Lakhiani and his company Mindvalley because I had bought some products from him in the past. I clicked on this presentation, and 35 minutes later I was holding in my hand many of the answers to the questions I’ve always had.
The 6 Phase Meditation is a 21-minute guided meditation that will help you organize and address some of the most pressing issues we all face. This is a not a specific religious- or cultural-based meditation. It’s an all-comers practice that nurtures the most focused devotee to the complete newb to meditation. Narrated by Vishen Lakhiani himself, the practice takes you through what he feels are the six essentials everyone needs in their lives to thrive.
Beyond all of the benefits agreed upon by science when it comes to meditation, this particular meditation is geared to have you reflect on things in your life. With the proper amount of focus, this practice can change your life, maybe even the first time you try it. Wrapped up in one tidy little package, the 6 Phase Meditation unfolds like this:
Phase 1: Love and Compassion
In Lakhiani’s words, compassion is, “Expressing the intention of moving from judgement to caring, from isolation to connection, from indifference or dislike to understanding… this phase is about feeling connected to other people and having a sense of compassion towards them.” As you are guided through this phase, you are taken from your sense of compassion for yourself, to the space you are in, and then out through your neighborhood, the town you live in, the region in which you reside, your home country, and then to our place globally on the earth. Most of us have a considerable disconnection to people in our own families, let alone what is happening to people in other countries. This phase plugs us back into not only ourselves and our immediate lives but also our place in the world.
Phase 2: Gratitude
This second phase is bigger than any of us will ever understand. According to Lakhiani, science shows that gratitude can give us more energy, create higher emotional intelligence, provide a more forgiving attitude, lessen depression and anxiousness, provide a sense of social connection, improve sleep, and ward off headaches, to name just a few benefits. In this phase, you focus on three things you feel grateful for in your personal life, three things in your business life, and three things you are grateful for in yourself. Most of us spend our time worrying and brooding over the future and rarely take inventory of what is going well right this minute. The gratitude phase puts a light on those things we currently have going which we are grateful for.
Phase 3: Forgiveness
In the world we live today, we need this one more than ever. Lakhiani reflects that forgiveness, at a minimum, is the decision to let go of the desire for revenge or ill-will toward the person who wronged you. It can also include feelings of good will toward the other person. This phase, for me, is always a struggle, which I know means it carries the biggest potential for change. The grudges and judgements we have about others carry significant energetic charges that can radically alter our mood, health, and feelings about our fellow man.
Phase 4: Future Dreaming
This is the first phase where you don’t look at yourself now, but instead begin to write the blueprint for the future. Lakhiani has you look at where you see your life three years from now. How will your life look? Your love life? Your health and your body? Your career or business? Are you happy and content with where you are this minute or can you visualize a life that will make you happy, one that shows you thriving in any and every facet of your existence? Future dreaming creates the space to let your wants and needs take shape. Instead of brooding over how the success is going to take place, you spend time looking at the fruits of those successes and the happiness around those situations. This phase is about momentum.
Phase 5: Perfect Day
The fifth phase entails forming a picture of what you would consider to be the perfect day, today. With your Future Dreaming in mind, how can today support your vision of three years from now? Create the movie of today in your mind and watch it from beginning to end. This is about seeing your morning, your interactions with colleagues and loved ones, the successful meeting you will have this afternoon, and the wonderful meal you will share with your family when you return home. This phase sets up the day that is about to unfold. You can go into your day and allow the little things to steal your thunder, or you can actually plan how you are going to be happy all day. It’s all a choice when we strip away the nonsense.
Phase 6: The Blessing
Assuming you have a higher power, this phase is geared toward connecting to that energy and asking for support for the first five phases. You’ve done your due diligence by sending the world love and compassion. You’ve examined your life and given gratitude where it belongs. You’ve forgiven someone in your life to put the weight of a grudge down. You’ve taken the time to plan out not only the future but also a perfect today. It is now time to reach out to your sense of divinity to supply you with endless energy to support the earlier work. This is also where the meditation concludes.
The Complete Meditation
I’ve studied numerous spiritual systems. What I can tell you is that each of them govern their theology around compassion, love, forgiveness, and taking personal responsibility for yourself and your development. And in all the years I have been seeking, nothing I’ve done has been more thorough and complete than the 6 Phase Meditation. This practice will hit all the major points and extends you to bettering yourself in a way I’ve never encountered. The good news is, you can get this meditation free through the Omvana app on your phone. Once this app downloads, open it and you will find this and several other free meditations that you can use at any time of the day. This article is not an advertisement or a promotion — I simply think this meditation is priceless and needs to shared.
My 6-Phase Meditation Experience
So, what became of my entrepreneurial dreams and the hoops I had to jump through? In June of 2015, I began using the 6 Phase Meditation as my morning ritual. I set my mind on using this practice to restructure how my life was unfolding. Writing was the first of several major hurdles to position myself and my business where I wanted it.
Three weeks after starting this daily routine, I hosted a kettlebell certification at my weight room and Andrew Read came in from Australia to be the head instructor. After spending a week with Andrew and becoming fast friends, he connected me with his editor at Breaking Muscle, an online encyclopedia of strength training and fitness and a site with millions of readers. This was a break I could only dream of.
I submitted my first article to the editor and the rest is history. Fast forward five months later. I now write monthly for four separate websites, all of which have massive followings. Ironically, my editor at Breaking Muscle stepped away for a new position and I received a lovely email from her inquiring if I would be interested in working with her on her new endeavor. That new website? The Whole Life Challenge – and here we are.
Under the tutelage of legendary Kung Fu and Qigong Grand Master Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson, Chris has been at the forefront of Qigong research at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Dr. Holder has created a working laboratory within his strength program blending both eastern medical and spiritual practices with western scientific strength training protocols. Having concluded the first-of-its-kind Qigong/strength training study in the winter of 2015, Dr. Holder and his staff are preparing research on Qigong and the induction of flow states along with research investigating Qigong's impact on inflammation in high-level CrossFit athletes.
Known in many circles as a pioneer of kettlebell training at the college level, Chris, a Senior RKC, opened the door in the early 2000s to break the mold and monotony of the traditional methods of training college student-athletes. Having been mentored by some of the most recognizable gurus in the strength training world, Chris is an accomplished Olympic lifting coach, a fully decorated Z-Health Trainer, and a go-to expert on fixing issues with CrossFit competitors.
