If Meditation Is What All Successful People Have In Common, I’m Screwed

shutterstock_140489614__1373129950_142.196.156.251I love reading articles that give me little insights into the habits of successful people. I like to see if we do any of the same things, you know? Well, some amazingly successful people seem to share one daily habit – meditation. If meditation is an important ingredient in a successful life, I am totally screwed.

The Huffington Post created a list of these super-successful, mindful folk. Oprah Winfrey says, “Knowing for sure that even in the daily craziness that bombards us from every direction, there is — still — the constancy of stillness. Only from that space can you create your best work and your best life.” Padmasree Warrior, CTO, Cisco Systems says, ”It’s almost like a reboot for your brain and your soul,” she said. ”It makes me so much calmer when I’m responding to e-mails later.” Russell Simmons, Co-Founder, Def Jam Records says, “You just have to take the time to do it. The old truth is still true today, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ My advice? Meditate.”

It’s not that I wouldn’t want to meditate or think it’s an amazing skill to develop. I’ve just never been able to do it. If meditation isn’t something I could master before my house was filled with children – it’s definitely not happening now.

A few months ago I was walking by a yoga studio in Brooklyn that advertised “Free Meditation.” I laughed. Free meditation? Isn’t it always free? Now I totally get it. I would skip off to a “free meditation” class in a second. It’s the silence I’m missing. There is no silence in a house full of children. For example, my husband is watching the kids right now so I can get some work done, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t hear the sounds of “Tree Fu Tom” echoing through the house. The cute little gurgling sounds a baby makes can also turn into nails on a chalkboard when you are trying to form one, complete, coherent sentence.

I think it’s important to remember to go to a place of silence – especially when you have children. After my kids go to sleep tonight, I’m going to resist the urge to clean my laundry room or veg out to some wonderfully bad TV and take some of this advice. I’ve never really been able to meditate before, but I’ve also never appreciated the value of stillness and silence as acutely as I do know that I never have it.  I also totally want to be one of those people who brags about “feeding my brain” and says things like “the constancy of stillness.”

Ha. I’m probably going to fail at this endeavor.

(photo: Sogno Lucido/ Shutterstock)

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