In this episode, we discuss the importance of taking breaks and doing mediation can help you realize who you need to be as a person.
Full Transcripts
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how if you quiet the mind, the soul will speak. This is a quote from Ma Jaya, a spiritual teacher. This is a quote that I take very seriously. I love my solitude time because it gives me time to think and see how things are going. I usually go for walks and just think.
One of my best walks was the summer before I graduated from college with my economics degree. I was coming at a crossroads where I had to decide if I wanted to go the Ph.D. route or if I wanted to go the business route and become a financial planner. After going on a long walk with my ex-spouse, and talking about the pros and cons, we discovered that I was talking more about doing business than actually going back to school, so I decided that I was going to become a financial planner.
It’s a choice that I don’t regret but I feel like I made a decision with great certainty because I was able to quiet the mind and let my soul speak. I think it is really important to step away from a desk or your home, and just let your mind wander. You can be amazed by what type of solutions you will come up with.
A lot of famous people said it was their breaks from their work that caused them to have their famous breakthroughs like Newton and Einstein. It gives you mind the ability to make connections with things and come up with something new. When I go for my walks, I don’t listen to music or a podcast, I just walk for 15 minutes twice a day, and just think about stuff. It might be what’s bothering me, it might be about an opportunity I’m trying to take advantage of or just a reflection about how my life is going. I trying not to be distracted and just think.
I think we live in a very distracted world where are actions are dictated by someone else and most likely not what we want to do as a person. It’s important to quiet the mind so you know what is truly important that needs your attention. Your attention is a very scarce resource and if you use it on the wrong things, then you’re not going to get the life that you want.
If you have trouble with being distracted, a good practice to do in the morning is to meditate. Dr. P. Goldin, a psychologist, and neuroscientist explains perfectly why you should meditate and he says the goal of meditation is not to get rid of thoughts or emotions. The goal is to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions and learn how to move through them without getting stuck.
You can do meditation about why you’re walking or sitting down. I prefer to do mine walking. It’s best while you do it on a quiet street or a park, where you don’t have to make a lot of decisions. You’re just allowed to calm the mind and just clear your mind. Then you see what is going on in your life and see what is affecting you internally. I feel like I have a good grasp over my life because I take this time to reflect. You can easily get into a situation where you’re just going from thing to thing without much thought and then all of a sudden you have ten things on your plate when in an optimal situation, you should only have two of those things. Then it will seem like all ten of those things are important to do because why would you be doing them if they weren’t important.
It’s important that you ruthlessly look at the activities in your life and see which things should stay and which ones should go. This also applies to your emotions and the people you let in your life. As people we don’t have all the time in the world, we only have enough time in our life for the things that are important. Otherwise, we are just wasting our time and it’s something that we are never going to get back again. Just because you’re 40 years old doesn’t mean you lived life for 40 years. A lot of those years could have been just existing, and to me, that’s a pretty sad life. We have so much potential in this life to do amazing things and it’s just so easy to be passive about life and let life dictate who we are, and most likely that won’t be the life that we absolutely want. And the way you’re only going to find out if you’re existing or living is through self-reflection, which will build self-awareness, which will hopefully spur action towards a life that is fitting for you.
That’s it for today’s episode, and to summarize it, if you quiet the mind, the soul will speak. So make sure you take some quiet time for at least five minutes a day and clear the mind. This can be done by walking or sitting alone. This will give your mind the ability to see what are the emotions and thoughts that you have to deal with so you don’t become stuck in life. The with this self-awareness, hopefully, you have the strength to take the positive action that is needed to give you life. You only have one shot at life so make sure you’re doing the things that are important to you and not following someone else’s dream.
So in your journal, ask yourself, are you taking the time to clear your mind on a daily basis? If yes, what are some of the thoughts that you are having? Are they showing you what is important or not important? If you’re not taking the time, ask yourself, when can you make the time? Is it in the morning? Is it during your lunch break? Can you take a 15-minute walk during working hours? Late at night? Just remember, we don’t have the time, we make the time. So make the time. Just write a paragraph or two and also write how you’re feeling today. That should give your soul an opportunity to speak. If it hasn’t spoken to you in a while, it probably has a lot on its mind and you should probably listen to it.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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