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In this inspiring Super Soul conversation with Oprah, Phil Jackson, called the Zen Master and greatest basketball coach of all time, shares his journey as a seeker and how he used his background in Christian mysticism, Native American Rituals, and Zen Meditation as guiding principles for his work as a coach.

What resonated!

• Spirituality means trusting in one’s own intuition and having the courage to lead from a place of authenticity. That is, leading from the inside out versus following someone else’s leadership rules.
• Spirituality is also about esprit de corps, the spirit among a connected group of people, the idea that we’re in this together.

• While it takes the right mix of talent, creativity, intelligence, toughness, and luck to win a championship, LOVE is the most essential. He talks about the circle of love – that everyone needs to sacrifice and give a little more of themselves in the process of bonding and becoming a unit.
• Leadership is about making everyone else a little better, but a leader has to create the space for others to step in and be bigger than themselves (case in point, Michael Jordan’s acceptance of this role).
• His admiration of Pema Chödrön’s concept: “What you do for yourself, any gesture of kindness, gentleness, honestly, and clear seeing toward yourself, will effect how you see the world” and use of it as a key building block in his work as a coach.
• In addition to building physical strength, he stressed the importance of building mental strength through mindfulness and meditation –one breath, one mind.
• How morning meditation allows him to start the day at peace and with a quiet mind – and that he is always capable of coming back to that during the day.
• His philosophy of giving up control to get control, trusting in the moment, and living in compassion.

Don’t miss out – check out Phil Jackson’s SuperSoul podcast with Oprah or his book: Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success on Amazon!

I highly recommend Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Much Meditation Changes your Mind, Brain, and Body written by two leading PhD scientists Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman.

Davidson and Goleman discuss their own experiences as lifelong meditators, their travels to ashrams and retreats all over the globe, and their meetings with yogis and monks – including the Dalai Lama. A must read for anyone interested in learning how meditation affects the body physically, mentally, and spiritually.

In addition to talking about how meditation leads to altered traits (what’s an altered trait? read on!), they review scientific studies done on meditation over the last fifty years, ancient practices of meditation, how the West tried to replicate them, the beginning steps to becoming an advanced meditator, and what deep meditation is.

Highlights:

• Meditation leads to altered traits
• Altered traits are traits that remain after meditation sessions have ended and endure for the long term versus short-term, Another way of saying this is, beyond the pleasant states meditation can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting personality traits that can result.
• 8 minutes is enough to reap short term changes to the brain
• After two weeks of meditation practice, participants began to see changes: less reaction to stress, better focus, less mind wandering, improved memory, more compassion, and less bodily inflammation.
• Long-term meditators (those with 1,000 hours of meditation) benefited from the following altered traits: significant prefrontal cortex development; significantly less stressful cortisol resulting in less inflammation and decreased reaction to stress; greater sustained and selective attention; and slower breath and metabolic rates

Enjoy and happy meditating!

CLICK HERE to read this short article by physicist Alan Lightman and learn more about why we owe it to ourselves (and children!) to spend quiet time alone each day. Lightman explains how we need slow down, build in time for reflection, privacy, silence, and work on our ability to sit quietly without external stimulation in order to cultivate our creative capabilities and healthy habits of mind. A short and inspiring read!

CLICK HERE to watch a short clip by Simon Sinek on why effective leaders speak last – especially in the boardroom.

Click here to hear Dan Harris openly share his story about having a real live panic attack in front of 5 million TV viewers on Good Morning America and how it led him to discover meditation.

Key points Harris makes about meditation:

• A simple brain exercise that can have an extraordinary impact on your brain and your body
• Can lower your blood pressure, boost your immune system, and literally rewire key parts of your brain that have to do with self awareness, compassion, and stress
• A scientifically tested simple thing to do everyday that will make you significantly happier
• Can change the relationship between you and the voice in your head that you’re probably most embarrased about

My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.

An old Zen story goes like this: An old Chinese farmer had a mare that broke through the fence and ran away. When his neighbors learned of it, they came to the farmer and said, “What bad luck this is. You don’t have a horse during planting season.” The farmer listened and then replied, “Bad luck, good luck. Who knows?”

A few days later, the mare returned with two stallions. When the neighbors learned of it, they visited the farmer. “You are now a rich man. What good fortune this is,” they said. The farmer listened and again replied, “Good fortune, bad fortune. Who knows?”

Later that day, the farmer’s only son was thrown from one of the stallions and broke his leg. When the neighbors heard about it, they came to the farmer. “It is planting season and now there is no one to help you,” they said. “This is truly bad luck.” The farmer listened, and once more he said, “Bad luck, good luck. Who knows?”

The very next day, the emperor’s army rode into the town and conscripted the eldest son in every family. Only the farmer’s son with his broken leg remained behind. Soon the neighbors arrived. Tearfully, they said, “Yours is the only son who was not taken from his family and sent to war. What good fortune this is…”

By Caren Goleman