Performance

Great music to meditate by

Keeping meditation simple and regular is the secret to a successful practice. The two keys are:

1. Have a focusing device like the breath, music or a voice guiding you

2. Adopt a non-judgmental attitude to anything that arises - just observe the thoughts

The best focusing method is to get some help from good music or listen to guided meditations. Here are a few of my favourites you can have a listen to. If you like them of course you will need to purchase your own copy.

My favourite Meditation Music

Download 1-03 Devakant Blowing Zen Just music in Zen style

Download 01 Dewa Che Chenresi Beautiful woman's voice Dewa Che is the eldest daughter of a Tibetan Lama and she sings buddhist chants. One of my favourites.

Download Deva Premal Guru Rinpoche Mantra Deva Premal sings ancient Indian chants and ragas in modern arrangements, a bit more modern and upbeat than Dewa Che

My favourite guided meditations

Download 01 Carmen Warrington Ocean of Peace Carmen has an album of guided meditations called Today I Will, this one is about diving into the ocean.

Download 01 Peg Baim Manifesting Hearts Desire Peg Baim's album, Building a Meditation Practice, is more traditional than Carmen. She has more silence in her meditations and she covers more advanced practices like Tonglen.

Download Mary Maddox Trust Guided Meditation Mary and Richard Maddox have a business called Meditation Oasis and you can download lots of free meditations, including this one, from iTunes. I find Mary's voice ideal to listen to when I'm meditating.

East meets west in the Deep South

 

Jenny Philips took meditation to Donaldson Correctional Facility in Southern Alabama. Inmates volunteered for Ten days of 10 hour meditations and it changed their lives.

Inmate Grady was interred there for 20 years serving life without parole for capital murder. He was on death row for 17 years awaiting execution when the death sentence was replaced with life when his lawyer petitioned courts because all Grady’s black jurors were dismissed. During his meditations he came to terms with guilt of brother dying. When Grady was 5 his mother dressed him and Danny, his 3 year old brother, in their best clothes and took them for a drive. She went down a long driveway and left the boys on the porch and said she’d be right back. She didn’t return. Grady found water in an old hubcap and a dead bird which kept the boys alive for a short time but Grady watched Danny die. Grady didn’t forgive himself for 37 years.

She tells their stories in her book East meets west in the Deep South.

Heidi recommends TED

TED talks, www.ted.com ,if you've not already heard of them. These have inspired me for the last 2 years as they are talks from people who I see as fulfilling their potential as they are speaking about an area that they are passionate about, that they love and they're wonderful to watch, sending shivers of excitement down the spine occasionally. These talks have prompted me to wonder in relation to human potential because each presenter seems truly gifted when they talk about their area of interest and I wonder whether when humans perform at their highest potential, their chosen area of expertise is actually perceived by others as a gift. It got me thinking about what I was 'gifted' at and also how far I was away from fulfilling my potential and then it prompted me after a while to send my thoughts your way - I'm certain you'd have a view on this... On the flipside is it possible that every human has a unique gift to give and this only emerges when they perform at the highest potential. Thus all you have to do is help people understand what will help them perform at their highest potential in order for them to perform as if they are truly gifted. Food for thought, for me anyway!

 

If you haven't already seen them, a couple of my favourite TED talks include: 

 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/keith_barry_does_brain_magic.html

 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

 

Best regards, 

 

Heidi

Learning from the future

Otto Scharmer is a lecturer at MIT in the US and is famous for his U Theory. He talks about learning from the past as an inferior approach compared to learning from an emergent future. He suggests we do just two things -

1. Know what direction we want to head

2. Know the immediate next step

Check Otto out on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8HKxvKVUsU

Armstrong’s Optimism

In his book Chasing Lance Michael Duggard talks about Lance Armstrong's approach to bad news. "You could give him the most horrible of news and he would be able to absorb it, deal with it, and move past it very quickly and never, ever, ever go back to it. He has no fear paralysis, and it frees him up to be optimistic about everything, even when it makes no rational sense to be."

Explorers of the infinite

Maria Coffey runs a sea kayaking business and writes about adventure. Her most recent book, Explorers of the Infinite, helps us understand more about how people perform at a peak. After studying many mountaineers, adventurers and explorers she concludes that there are three aspects of these peak performers:

1. Getting into a state of Flow by taking on a great challenge that just exceeds their level of high skill.

2. Stripping everything else away that might distract them from the challenge

3. Developing a sense of intuition or sixth sense with nature which means they can feel breezes before they arrive and know the density of ice before they step on it.  

A performance community of practice

I'm keen to connect a group of people interested in sharing ideas - movies, books, quotes and people - that promote you to perform at a higher level ot just make you feel good. Can you contribute your ideas to this weblog so we can enrich the experience for us all?  Can you recommend at great book? A useful quote? A person worth checking out? If so please add a post to this weblog or send me an email (peteranthony@mettagrp.com) so I can share it with others ( you can remain anonymous if you like!)

Cheers, Peter.

You might lose the goal and gain your destiny

Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico in 1907 and like many young South American girls at that time she was crippled with polio at 6 years old. She dreamed of being a doctor so she could help people with pain like hers. This dream drove her to be one of only 35 girls out of 2000 students at the local high school. Her studies were going well and since the school was a long way from home she caught a bus and a tram. One morning when Frida was 18 on her way to school her bus ran off the road and overturned at 40 mph. As the bus turned a second time a handrail broke free and impaled Frida. Her back broke in three places, her pelvis smashed and both her right leg and foot were broken. In her recovery one of her nurses suggested she paint and over the fourteen months of her recovery. Frida’s work was quickly recognized by the contemporary art world and her passion for her art overtook her desire to be a doctor. Her work was exhibited in New York in 1938 and Paris in 1939. Frida died in 1954 and major exhibitions of her work are still enjoyed today.

All in the mind

All in the Mind is an ABC Radio National program hosted by Natasha Mitchel. Each week she interviews a leading thinker - from the Dalai Lama to psychologists like Martin Seligman. The best way to listen is by downloading the podcast of the program at http://www.abc.net.au/rn or check out the blog at http://blogs.abc.net.au/allinthemind/.

Seven reasons why Optimism promotes success

1.    Optimistic people have a strong desire to improve their ability. They welcome new ways and are flexible in dealing with their customers.

2.    Optimists have a greater tendency among optimists to engage in a positive reinterpretation of negative outcomes. They react to difficulty by attempting to learn something from the experience and trying to grow as a person as a result of the experience.

3.    Optimists seek and use social support.

4.    Optimistic people are big picture thinkers. Because optimism are more likely to be focused on the big picture. Pessimistic are more likely to be focused on current pressures.

5.    Optimism rubs off; being around optimists is infectious.

6.    Optimistic people are more able to shape the priorities and interests of their customers, for example, convince an important customer to value an attribute that is a key feature of the person's offering. Because optimists look at the customers interests and priorities as malleable.

7.    The positive halo of optimism extends to one's view of other people.  Optimists expect others to act more pro-socially and reciprocate their trust. In contrast, pessimists are skeptical about the intentions of others and anticipate negative behaviors.

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