Expand your mind, then expand your portfolio

The media is agog today – it turns out Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has taken up meditation.

(Wait, is he still home affairs? Did that change in the election? I’d look it up but it’ll probably change between me writing this and me posting it.)

Anyway, it’s so shocking and newsworthy The Australian has at least two articles talking about it.

I’ll admit I’m surprised, but not for the same reasons as a behind-the-curve newspaper.

Dutton talked about how he’s giving it a go after several successful friends swore by it. And journos are all “whoa, Dutton’s going all zen, lol omg”.

As usual, they missed the point.

They key part is how successful people swear by it. The only story here – the part that surprises me – is a relatively successful politician got this far without meditating.

Meditation is normal – and the higher up the rung of success you go, the more normal it becomes.

Anyway, that’s way too much talk about politicians. Let’s refocus.

The reason high performers of all kinds – athletes, musicians, business leaders, quote-unquote creative types, finance folk, lawyers… – practice meditation is it works. It’s a powerful tool for mental relaxation, which alone makes it worthwhile.

But it goes so far beyond recharging and feeling good.

It trains your focus.

It brings unconscious material into conscious awareness. If that doesn’t sound like much, just realise I can’t overstate how valuable this is.

All the solutions to all your problems come from exploring your unconscious. You already do this to some extent – otherwise how would you ever learn new ways of thinking? – but meditation dials it up to 11.

It can be a strange, abstract think to learn. In some ways it’s completely natural; in others it’s a bizarre, surreal set of exercises.

That’s why learning it can be so hard. The explanations either make perfect sense or none at all.

That’s why you probably want a guide like this:

https://amzn.to/2Pe0jVN