Meditation has been around for thousands of years, but in the past few years, its popularity has skyrocketed — mostly due to its far-reaching benefits. Meditation is basically like the gym for your mind. Athletes like LeBron James and Stephen Curry turn to meditation to help them find their focus and excel at their jobs. Mindfulness and meditation isn’t all woo-woo, studies have shown that meditation helps you come up with more creative ideas and improves your sleep — helping you to attack issues that need addressing as opposed to running in circles trying to put out a million fires. It also has been shown to increase your self-awareness, which allows you to take a step back from anything negative and look at a situation objectively. Long story short, it’s the five-minute a day habit that might just help you eek out that personal best in the 5K as well as help you get ahead in the boardroom.
If meditation sounds too “new age” to you, Jesse Israel, the founder of The Big Quiet, gets it. Israel hasn’t always been an avid meditator (twice a day for those who wonder), but found himself Googling the term back when he graduated college. “I was running a record label and managing the band MGMT when I was in my early 20s. I was experiencing pretty debilitating anxiety and having panic attacks,” Israel shares. As a young guy living in New York City, he started looking around to see what he could do to better manage the mental and emotional challenges that his day to day life caused. To better understand the practice, Israel went all in — he took classes at Shambala for about nine months before discovering a mantra form of meditation that he enjoyed more.
In an attempt to let other people in on the secret, and bring meditation into the more mainstream, he founded Medi Clubs, intimate groups where the attendees share in meditation practice, and then in 2015, launched The Big Quiet. It’s pretty much just what it sounds like, but not as quiet. “It brings thousands of people together for mass meditations and rare performances at some of the most iconic places in the world,” Israel says. “I usually highlight Madison Square Garden, the top of the World Trade Center and under the blue whale at the Museum of Natural History. It’s really important for us to create accessible ways of experiencing meditation and doing it in ways that actually feel relatable, exciting and social.” The Big Quiet wants to attract the people that meditate every day as much as it does the people who turn their nose up at the first sign of humming in tandem. “We never push meditation onto people. It’s always, ‘This is something we’re doing and if you want to come be a part of it, we’d love to have you.’”
In light of the New Year and the renewal that comes with that, we chatted with Israel about easy ways to get started, the gear you need and why he thinks it’s the key to help you get ahead in your career.
Let go of what you think mediation looks like.
“I really encourage people to let go of the expectations that they may have around what meditation is and how they do it,” Israel says. “What I see so often is people go, ‘I can’t meditate. My mind runs and races too much.’ And I always remind people that all of our brains do that.” There are many different approaches and types of meditation, so if you try one kind and hate it, look for another type. “Drop the expectations.” An easy way to test the waters is with an app — you might have to try a few to figure out what you like, but there are many free ones out there.
Stop, Breathe & Think
