Groverwhelmed Sundays (2) — Meditation: The act of wearing anti-fog goggles
Last year in the month of April, I started practicing a little bit of Meditation. It was the peak of the pandemic, a time of chaos and uncertainty. Restless, I turned to meditation. Popularly known as the classic method to manage stress — I felt it just had to help. However I was not regular with it. Some days I did it, others I forgot or didn’t even bother. This attempt to calm the chaos basically never lasted.
Dec last year — as I spent Christmas with Aarti and her family, I got re-introduced to meditation. She and her mother had this ritual — 10 mins of guided meditation everyday before sunrise. This they mentioned, helped them have a calm start and prepare for their own days of chaos and surprises — they had plenty of these :)
I felt like joining them in the mornings. These 10 mins of meditation would then extend to conversations over chai, and basic planning of the day. I liked this calm start, it helped me visualize my day ahead and balance my thoughts around what I was to do. I also enjoyed that it was a daily ritual for them. Something they did every day at the same time and at the same place in their house. Coincidently a month later, Netflix released a docu-series on Meditation in collaboration with Headspace. I really enjoyed the series — it did not completely simplify meditation for me but it did throw light on why and how meditation helps. It also cleared a few misconceptions I had about meditation such as it being about training the mind not to have any thoughts, it takes a long time to perfect, stillness is critical etc. It turns out meditation was none of this!
My inquiry continued. I read about different meditation techniques, about the Co-Founder of Headspace: Andy (monk turned entrepreneur), about business leaders, high performers who meditate regularly, why they do it, how it helps them etc. The more I read, the more I was convinced that a simple 10–15 mins per day investment of doing nothing could have a considerable impact on my performance.
Cut to May 2021, I have been very consistent with my meditation practice and I see a massive change in the way I approach work, decision making, chaos and my relationships overall. To give an example, more often than not in the middle of conversations with the team I used to zone out — never really realized how noticeable it was till I was pulled up a few times for it. I now find myself, doing this a lot less, much to the teams dismay I am actually in a super attentive state most of the time — it works for me, not sure if it works as well for them any more :)
So what changed? How did something I did randomly, become a daily habit? Two things:
- Firstly, I did not know enough about meditation at first to be really convinced that it could work. I knew it was the thing people did, but wasn’t clear on why I should do it, what specifically would it help me for? As I researched, the value of meditation began taking shape, I could see how it would improve my attention span, my ability to give clear feedback, hold fort through difficult conversations — the benefit to my own daily life and evolution became apparent — lesson 1: make it personal.
- Secondly, making it a ritual. Rituals are a form of bringing structure to an otherwise uncertain anxious day for me. A scheduled slot where I know exactly what I need to do and why I am doing it. Looking at meditation almost ritualistically helped me be consistent — it is now a part of my 5 other daily rituals — lesson 2: rituals work.
Fun fact: Over a month ago on my birthday, while celebrating with the family on Zoom, my nephew Vivan was asked what was his favourite memory with me. His answer: the time Ankur Chachu and I meditated together. It took me by surprise that a 7 year old classified meditating as a favourite memory! kids these days..
To sign off, here is an excerpt from a podcast which strongly resonated with me:
As an entrepreneur, your success is directly linked to your ability to tune out the noise and focus. Not just when external fires burn, but also when internal worries blaze. Once you have the ability to take a more detached view of your thoughts, you’ll also be able to see them more clearly. And therefore act more swiftly. A metaphor might help you picture how this works.
Imagine you work in a foundry full of molten metal — it’s blazingly hot, you’re constantly surrounded by a cacophony of noise, and your movements are limited by your protective gear. It’s disorienting and stifling. Now imagine your job is to move through the foundry, quickly reading off precision gauges. Lives depend on you getting your readings right every time. Imagine how much harder this would be if your protective goggles were constantly fogged up.
Meditation is the equivalent of anti-fog goggles. It’s not going to improve the situation around you by making the foundry quieter or your protective suit less restrictive. But it will bring you clarity. And this will help you make clearer gut-checks and faster decisions.
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The Genesis of Groverwhelmed Sundays
My days go by in a flash and I don’t always get the time and headspace to express my emotions with my team at TinkerLabs. Being alone at the top of a growing organization amidst these times is overwhelming. The virtual world hasn’t helped. With this in mind, about 1 year ago I started a ritual of Friday emails where I would share reflections, lessons, direction, observations… things I want the team to know which I felt would not only help them get to know me better, but also help them grow and evolve.
I really look forward to penning my thoughts down every Friday now, it marks the end of my every week — a full stop (mostly a semicolon) to the rush that is Monday-Friday. I hear from the team often that they look forward to these mails too.
Hence, Groverwhelmed Sundays — a spin off of these Friday emails, reflections which are personal to me, and perhaps of value to some of you out there.
