Using Meditation to Find Balance and Purpose in Your Life with davidji

davidji is a globally recognized mindbody health & wellness expert, mindful performance trainer, meditation teacher & author of the much anticipated and newly released Sacred Powers: The Five Secrets to Awakening Transformation, Amazon’s Best Seller: destressifying: The Real-World Guide to Personal Empowerment, Lasting Fulfillment, and Peace of Mind; and Secrets of Meditation: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace & Personal Transformation REVISED EDITION, winner of the Nautilus Book Award. He is credited with creating the 21-day meditation process, which spawned hundreds of 21-day meditation experiences & challenges around the world.

Often referred to as the Velvet Voice of Stillness, davidji is the most prolific creator of guided meditations in the world. His more than 1,000 guided meditations are available on Insight Timer, DailyOM, Apple Music, Amazon, Hay House, Spotify, Tidal, & more.

After a 20-year career in business, finance, and mergers and acquisitions, davidji began a new journey to wholeness, apprenticing for a decade under Drs. Deepak Chopra and David Simon, serving as the Chopra Center COO, Lead Educator and then as the first Dean of Chopra Center University, where he trained more than 300,000 people to meditate and certified more than 2,500 meditation teachers.

He has since left the Chopra Center to teach the practical integration of stress management, mindful performance, meditation, and conscious choice making into our real-world, modern-day experiences. For more than 15 years davidji has helped thousands of people around the world to perform at higher levels, become more reflective and less reflexive, make better decisions, sleep better, enhance their relationships, experience abundance, and live purpose-driven lives.

He has a passion for working with entrepreneurs, business leaders & those in high-pressure, high-stress situations. His teachings on stress release, conflict resolution, and mindfulness are now practiced in Fortune 500 companies, the military, law enforcement and his signature techniques have been portrayed in movies and TV.

davidji is a certified Vedic Master, and every week, throughout the world, he hosts empowerment workshops, corporate trainings, life-change immersions, transformational retreats, and teacher trainings.

Known for its many benefits, meditation has been an effective practice to improve one’s mind, body and spirit. Since meditation can foster a sense of inner calm, balance, and contentment in life, many people use it as a preventative measure for overall well being.

Join us in today’s episode as we learn more about refocusing your mind and finding your purpose in life with davidji – a mind, body, health and wellness expert who has taught millions of people to heal their hearts, plant powerful intentions and manifest their dreams.

Meditation as a way to find balance.

davidji started meditating back when he was still in college. In fact, he was part of a circle of 12 people. They had an experimental Asian Studies course wherein they had to sit in a circle and a Zen master stood in the corner who would whack their back if they had a thought and would raise their hands.

His initial thought was that he wasn’t going to like meditation enough to complete the class. However, he ended up loving meditation and its positive effects on him. Meditation gives you that calm feeling that’s very reassuring and comforting; it is a way to find balance promoting mental clarity, relaxation, and self-awareness.

Four areas of existence

In relation to meditation as a way of finding balance to promote mental clarity and self-awareness, there are four overlapping areas of your existence to better find your purpose in life.

These four areas are centered on things that you love doing, something that you’re good at, something that supports, heals or serves other people, and things where you can be rewarded enough that it becomes sustainable.

If you can find something that meets those four things, that’s called Ikigai which, when translated loosely, means “waking up to joy”. It can make you live longer and with more direction as it helps you refocus your mind and find your purpose.

What’s going to be on your tombstone?

A butterfly moment that really stuck with davidji was when a guy suddenly reached out to him and looked into his eyes asking him what would be on his tombstone. At that moment, davidji recalls feeling like everything suddenly stopped and it was only him and that guy who stopped him; no sounds of traffic and people.

It was a strangely intense moment for him. He still remembers hyperventilating as he staggered away with a heavy heart and palpitating tears streaming down his face. That moment made him contemplate his purpose in life and what would actually be on his tombstone after all these.

When he got home, he shared his thoughts with his wife who told him that he needs to find something that would really make him feel fulfilled, not just something that would pay their bills despite feeling miserable. His wife introduced him to Deepak Chopra who’s doing a meditation retreat in Oxford, England to which he attended after quitting his job.

He was disconnected from everything else as he was focused on meditating during the 6-day retreat. That was when he realized that after such a long time, he felt joy. That was also when he reassured himself that life is a long journey.

Why do you need to surround yourself with people who don’t agree with you, even if they’re rooting against you.

There was a time when davidji was confronted by his friends and did a mini intervention on him. They told him that he hasn’t worked in a year and instead, all he does is sit around and meditate.

His friends suggested being certified as a meditation teacher but he rejected the idea as he was only focused on himself and his own meditation. They were a big part of Davidji’s support system that made him realize that it’s really important to be surrounded with people who don’t necessarily agree with you.

We can learn a lot from people who don’t agree with us but at the same time, who are rooting for us to succeed. Even if you relate to them but they are not rooting for you to succeed, you have to move on. Life is too short for you to focus on that and to be surrounded with people like that.

Being surrounded with good people led davidji to where he is now. He became the COO and a lead educator teaching meditation every single day. He also became the Dean of Chopra Center University. Throughout the years, he was able to help thousands of people with their recovery and healing.

How yoga and meditation can be used to ease stress and anxiety.

davidji noted three things when it comes to meditation. We can direct our thoughts anywhere we want at any moment. Don’t run away from your thoughts as it's also important to sit with some of your real trauma and pain and let it ooze out of your heart. We can adjust and redirect our attention whenever we want.

Introduce a pattern that interrupts a break in the action. If suddenly you're in a heated conversation, create a pause or a pattern interruption. Breathe in, hold that breath in your belly, and release. You have to watch how you breathe in and out to be fully present with that activity. It will help you lower your pulse and slow you down.

Meditation is always about consistency, not duration.

Consistency is key. When you’re working on yourself, you have to show up for yourself every single day and don’t let go of your goals or yourself. The same applies for meditation which is always about consistency and not duration.

In a landmark study by Dr. Sara Lazar, 16 test subjects were told to meditate for 56 days. They had MRIs before, during, and after 56 days. In the end, their amygdala, which is the part of the brain responsible for anger, fear and anxiety, shrunk by more than 5%. They also unanimously experienced an increase of more than 5% of the grey matter of their hippocampi.

As proven, meditation is a helpful tool which is scientifically and clinically proven to create positive changes in the regions of your brain especially to the areas of your brain which are responsible for memory, decision making, and others.

A meditation app suggested by davidji is Insight Timer which helps in building a healthy routine. However, it’s also important to emphasize that meditation can also be done without any equipment. In fact, one of the beauties of meditation is that it can be done almost anywhere, at any time. The key is to find a technique that resonates with you and fits your preferences and lifestyle.

What Rewriting the Mother Code Means for Davidji

davidji believes that everyone was born pure and whole. As someone who grew up in a fairly violent household without a great amount of guidance, he believes that each of us can decide to be rebirthed every single day.

He emphasizes the need to end the cycle of things that aren’t nourishing and instead, elevate the things that do us good. This is essential for personal growth, well-being, and overall happiness. Ending unproductive or unhealthy cycles allows us to create space for new opportunities and experiences that can promote personal growth and development.

Awaken the divine feminine energy which is the most powerful energy in the universe. That’s mainly what Rewriting the Mother Code means – awakening the magnificent divine feminine that has been resting inside each one of us. Give yourself permission to loosen your grip on what’s holding you back even if it’s scary.

If you’re planning to start with your meditations or interested in learning more, you can access davidji’s free guided meditation videos, tools, and other resources on his website (https://davidji.com/). He also does meditation training for those who want to level up their practice so make sure to check out his website.