Why do I Meditate?
Have you ever felt like you weren’t doing what you were supposed to be doing with your life, but you didn’t know what you were supposed to do?
For years, I felt like I was living someone else’s life and doing what I thought I was supposed to do. At 75, I had a nice job as the Dean of the business school at a small university. It was the last job I was going to have at my age, and it paid well. I had my own VIP parking spot. But, I was unhappy. Every morning I would sit in that parking spot for a few minutes and dread the day ahead of me. It felt like I was selling the rest of my life for a paycheck that barely covered my basic needs. But I was too scared to leave that paycheck because I didn’t believe I could replace it. Was that going to be my legacy? This guy who just showed up every morning and answered emails?
I was stuck between not wanting to do what I was doing and not knowing what I wanted to do.
Meditation was the key that helped me silence the noise in my head and figure out what I was meant to do with the rest of my life. I learned that meditation was more than just a relaxation technique. I learned how it could give me insight into who I was and allow me the space to hear what I was being called to do. I had been ignoring that call like a telemarketing call for most of my life.
I’ll never forget the day when I handed in my resignation and left my VIP parking spot for the last time. Now, at 81, I’m living my best life and starting a non-profit organization to help others find their purpose and flourish, not just survive, in the second half of their life.
If I could find my purpose at 81 and start a whole new chapter in my life, then you can too if you want to.
Joseph Campbell said it beautifully in this excerpt from his book, Reflections on the Art of Living.
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
If we fix on the old, we get stuck. When we hang onto any form, we are in danger of putrefaction.
Hell is life drying up.
The Hoarder, the one in us that wants to keep, to hold on, must be killed.
If we are hanging onto the form now, we’re not going to have the form next.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.
Destruction before creation.
Hardly a new idea. Here’s what Jesus had to say about it:
Matthew 9:17 (NIV): "Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
We’ll never hear the call with so much noise in our heads. Sit still, breathe, and listen.