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In the last 149 interviews, a common theme that comes up in interviews is the importance of self-knoweldge: of knowing what one is good at, knowing what gets one energized, and knowing what one wants out of a career and life. For today's Skills episode, I wanted to share my experience with a powerful tool: Meditation and Silent Meditation Retreats. While the benefits of Meditation is well documented with respect to concentration and increased productivity, I wanted to share four different ways in which this may help veterans. The episode covers (1) the basics of meditation, (2) why a veteran may be interested in a silent meditation retreat, (3) an overview of silent meditation retreats, and (4) resources in case you would like to learn more.

Selected Resources:

• BTU #123 – The Veterans Yoga Project (Dr. Dan Libby)
• Spirit Rock Meditation Center is where I have done my four retreats, and I have also heard very positive things about the Insight Meditation Society
• Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) - a great introduction to meditation; there are programs around the world that offer MBSR. I took mine through UCSF.
• Book Recommendations
  • 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story
  • Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace)

Outline of Episode:

• Agenda
  • Background on Meditation
  • Why you might consider a meditation retreat
  • My experience with meditation retreats
  • Resources if you’re curious to learn more
  • Part 1: Background on Meditation
    • Dan Libby - episode 123 - veterans yoga projects
      • BTU #123 – The Veterans Yoga Project (Dr. Dan Libby)
      • http://beyondtheuniform.io/btu-123-the-veterans-yoga-project-dr-dan-libby/
      • Not about religion; christian pastor, jewish people, atheists, agnostics
      • Tool
      • Being present and aware of what is happening
      • Being honest of what is going on right now - in this moment
      • Not living in the future - dreaming of what might be, planning about what to do next
      • Not dwelling in the past -  beating ourself up for past mistakes, day dreaming about things that occurred in the past
      • But being present and open to this moment right here
      • And doing it without judgment
      • Being open to whatever the experience is
      • The realization is that this moment is all that we have
      • Even though oftentimes I live on autopilot
      • I drive to the store and don’t even remember how I got there
      • Or my wife is speaking to me at dinner and I’m thinking about a work related email I need to write
      • But instead trying to be fully present in each moment, curious about what is going on right now
      • John Kabatt Zinn - Raisin experiment
      • Many people could explain this more elqounty
      • will have resources at the end
      • but that it my headline, my teaser for the rest of this
      • Part 2: Why you might consider a meditation retreat
        • This actually came up in my recent Reprogramming seminar
        • As a group we talked about how a silent meditation retreat may be an extremely nice activity to do immediately after ones transition to a civilian career
        • So a few reasons I can think of
        • First - decompression
          • We’ll talk about the structure of the retreat, but it is an extreme unplug from our daily life, from the news, from email, from texting, from everything that keeps us distracted
          • And that might be an ideal way for many of you to take a step back from the 3 - 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 years you just spent doing what less than 1% of the population does or understands, serving in the US Military
          • Second - tapping into your intuition
            • My experience has not been a lot of reflection on these retreats
            • Instead it is about calming and settling
            • Being more aware of my mind, body, and intuiton
            • Getting rid of a lot of the cloudiness
            • SO i can actually pay better attention to my gut feel, to what is really going on in me
            • Muddy stream
            • Example post retreat with fundraising
            • Third - empathy
              • Many forms of retreats are great for cultivating empathy
              • This is something many veterans have cited as not being a strong suit for many veterans
              • Fourth - open to new experiences
                • Comfort zone
                • Budget for personal development
                • Part 3: My experience with meditation retreats
                  • I started doing this 4 years ago
                  • My wife took me - kicking and screaming - to my first one
                  • Have found it to be by far the most rejuvenating experience in my life
                  • in a  way that no vacation is
                  • MBSR
                  • Weeklong
                  • Silent
                  • Structure of day
                  • Types
                    • Non judgment
                    • Insight
                    • Metta - cultivating kindness - oneself, those around you
                    • Part 4: Resources if you’re curious to learn more
                      • MBSR
                      • Stanford - Compassion class
                      • 10% Happier
                      • Search Inside yourself
                      • Email me
                      • Yoga