Find peace in times of chaos
[Music]
what if
you could choose to create peace
in any chaos
airplane airplane cries my father
looking out the window
my dad is three years old it’s 1950
the korean war has just begun
my dad now an orphan must flee south
200 miles to the city of busan by foot
mostly being carried on the back of his
grandma
hearing this story all growing up my dad
would reminisce
i just remember how warm and comforting
it was
on my grandma’s back
i was struck that despite the chaos of
war my dad experienced peace
war is an extreme form of chaos
on a more personal level chaos might
look like
separation from a loved one a sudden job
loss
or an unexpected diagnosis
on a day-to-day level chaos might look
like you’re about to go
on zoom to present and then your son is
suddenly making these joyfully loud
gleeful bizarre noises or about to throw
a temper tantrum
it could look like cooking a meal while
you’re trying to text
three people at once and then listening
to a podcast all at the same time or
scrolling through your social media
feeds getting triggered
by notifications responses and comments
chaos can then go internal like the
throbbing headache that never goes away
all day or
feeling an underlying anxiety from the
uncertainty
and not being able to plan or
that mind that never shuts up right
before bed
oh i should have done that why did i do
that oh what am i going to do tomorrow i
hope that thing doesn’t happen
chaos can even be the awesome things in
life like
so much business growth that you cannot
keep up with it
or having so many passion projects that
you love
and are over committed to or
being addicted to achievement after
achievement fulfilling all your vision
board and another vision board
yet still feeling empty that was me
i lived the cliche of attaining
everything i wanted financially
physically socially
yet i was still missing peace of mind
the only time i experienced true bliss
and peace would be at these silent
meditation retreats
i fell in love with myself and
experienced the most tremendous
pouring of love and abundance flowing
out
i didn’t need anything or anyone to fill
me up
then i would come home the reality would
hit the chaos would ensue
and i was just struck by this blissful
peace i just experienced
against my chaotic life how
how could i create peace in my
day-to-day chaos
i figured i’d have to either become a
monk or a nun
or be rich enough that i could fly
around to all these meditation retreats
because apparently peace costs a lot of
money
now you may not have the time to go to a
meditation retreat
it’s not in your budget you’re not
interested or you don’t have time to
just sit still for one hour
let alone five minutes but
what if you could create moments of
peace
in your day-to-day chaos i became
obsessed
with that question pouring over all the
energy training and peace training i
could get my hands on
i became a martial arts student yoga
instructor and energy master and a
conscious business coach
helping business leaders in burnout be
able to replenish
and focus their energy as they grow
their business
i want to share what i gleaned and
distilled over
all of those years with you right now in
a few moments
where together we can directly
experience
creating these moments of peace and
chaos right there in your chair
before we do that first you have to
accept
the chaos
so instead of trying to avoid it
gosh chaos why are you even here
or i don’t notice the chaos i’m not
gonna i’m just gonna look right here
and ignore or avoid the chaos
or okay let’s come up with a solution
okay
let’s fix this chaos or
bring it on i can overcome you chaos
show me what you got
oh there’s just so much chaos is so bad
and indulge in the chaos
accepting chaos looks like surrendering
the illusion of control operating from
that life has always been uncertain
and always will be
once you’ve accepted the chaos you can
now allow for the chaos really be with
it and face those fears
and unwanted emotions or pains
i’m excited to introduce to you now that
interactive exercise we were talking
about
that my dear friend and colleague
umasangavi created
and introduced to me through many other
peace pioneers
she’s now my body coach but formerly a
stanford
neuroscience researcher all right are
you ready
so go ahead and invite you to close your
eyes
and do a body scan from the top of your
body
noticing any tension or pain whether
physical or emotional
you know those unwanted emotions like
anger irritability
anxiety embarrassment loneliness
and then once you pick one ask yourself
where
exactly is it located in my body
what shape is it what texture
what color what movement
just let it be and then go ahead and
move to another part of your body where
it feels good or neutral if you can’t
find a place
in your body just think of a happy
memory
now go to that place and what does that
feel like
is it warm is it tingly and let
that feeling saturate the rest of your
body and all its cells
top of your head to the tips of your
toes
now go back to the pain
and now ask where is it located now
what shape what color what texture
what movement
you can now open your eyes and
for most people when i do this exercise
with them
they’ve shifted the color that hot
throbbing pulsing spiny thing in their
throat
has now become this liquidy lobby pink
goo
or that blue churning ball in their
stomach or chest
is now settled down whatever you felt
is perfect now
that’s allowing the chaos
and after you’ve accepted it allowed it
now we can move
through the chaos through something
called moving meditations
this is based off the work of ilchi lee
he met with the un ambassador of el
salvador a central american
small country that’s been plagued with
poverty gang violence and civil war
and they were like help us so he came
and brought brain education and moving
meditations
into the school curriculums training the
teachers to then work with the students
in training them in these moving
meditations
and it had such effectiveness in
bringing peace to these
extremely chaotic situations that it
just kept spreading and
seven years later 25 of the entire
school curriculum
now has this i got so inspired i brought
i wanted to bring that work locally and
we started a scholarship fund through
our local kitsap community foundation
where we were then able to provide a
fund to train teachers for free
in giving this to their students can you
imagine our next generation
of global leaders being able to have
access to peace and chaos
transforming our communities locally one
school at a time
i’m going to introduce these moving
meditations to you now
and the first one’s called pinky thumb
exercise
so if you put both fists out you put out
your thumb
and your pinky and you close both fists
and switch
and switch again and when people are
first doing this they’re like oh
and your left and right brain lobe and
your is
actually now integrating when you do
this it’s a favorite one
for students right before test taking
helps them lighten up
and focus their brain with their body
okay now the next one is called
intestine exercise
you put both thumbs onto your belly
button
and rest the rest of your hands like
this then you want to suck your belly
button
into your spine like a sitting crunch
whether you’re sitting or standing and
keep pumping like this
so keep doing this while i talk and
start to feel
and generate the heat we often exercise
our muscles
but how often do we exercise our organs
the gut is called the second brain
because if you were to cut off your
central nervous system of your brain and
spinal cord
your gut would still keep working in
fact it has three to five times more
neurons than your brain
and produces over 90 percent of
serotonin
often dubbed the happiness hormone
vermeer
versus a mere 3 percent is produced in
your brain
now what’s happening as you feel that
heat building up is a principle called
water up
fire down normal we have so much chaos
and distractions
and thinking so much in our head we need
to bring that hot hot-headedness
into our core heating up our body
helping support our immune system
and then that cold gut stiff energy
that’s stagnant
makes it hard to go to the bathroom can
then come cool energy
calm your mind so that’s water up
fire down now you can do
this moving meditation at the checkout
line while you’re on a zoom call or when
you’re driving
and even just a few pumps of awareness
will help bring all those outside
distractions back
into your body all right you can stop
now
so so far we have accepted chaos
allowed the chaos now we’ve moved the
chaos which has
set us all up in your body to be primed
to now receive and listen within
listening within is what will allow you
to
generate peace and chaos
and listen within to your body’s wisdom
first you have to be able to feel energy
what do i mean by energy so energy comes
in many forms of
light sound and vibration which is what
we’re going to practice
and it comprises the building blocks of
all of
what’s around us in nature from the
stars to the oceans and the mountains to
your
physical body and then to the invisible
atoms and molecules inside the
microscopic level
and energy is just your thoughts your
emotions and your body sensations as
well
all right so let’s actually experience
feeling the energy so we can listen
within
and you can just start by going like
this like you’re screwing a light bulb
in
and really focus your attention on your
wrists feel
your hands warming up good and now
tap like this and your fingertips plus
your wrists
good keep breathing and then you can go
like this
and slap and shake
your hands and go ahead and make
friction
feel the heat building up and then stop
oh do you feel that that tingly
sensation for some it might be a
magnetic
pull others you just feel the heat
that’s energy
now imagine there’s an energy ball
between your hands and i invite you to
close your eyes again as you breathe in
expand the energy ball and as you exhale
contract the energy ball in that imagine
it burning brighter
inhale focus on the awareness between
your hands
exhale where mind goes energy flows
so again put your awareness between your
hands and inhale once more
and as you exhale you can open your eyes
and put it into your heart
and ask your heart what
is my message today
and listen within
open your eyes and whatever message
you got was perfect and you can take
that energy ball not just into your
heart you can
put it into your brain or put it into
your gut your power center or you can
share that energy ball with another who
might need some energy
you can ask that question as well what’s
my message today
to a body part an organ or to
a pain in your body
listening within is your way to really
generate peace
in any chaos now
what we’ve done is allowed the chaos
accepted it
we’ve moved through it which allowed us
to then listen with it
so if you forget all those steps just
smile
that’s the shortcut to generating peace
lots of science why that’s awesome
and generating peace can be as simple as
that
to what i shared earlier with my
dad’s grandma generating peace from my
dad
hearing him riding on her back
safely self a friend
and colleague of mine is a neurologist
and physician
who works often in the icu and in his
line of work
he often sees people’s final moments
before they pass away and i asked him
during this time
what are the lessons that you have
learned
and he said well there’s the good deaths
and the bad deaths
bad deaths are where the family refuses
to speak to each other
they burden our staff with three staff
members having to update each of the
three family members
and at the time of passing nobody’s
around
a good death is where i’m holding up the
speakerphone
between the patient and the patient’s
family in those final moments
they might have their favorite music
playing and they often say
the same final words i love you
you know that thing that you’re worried
about it’s taken care of
and that thing that you always wanted me
to do
i did it thank you
i love you and that final moment of
passing
it’s so peaceful and you can feel that
love
permeating to the whole staff and
rippling out to the whole hospital
death is likely one of the biggest types
of chaos humanity faces
and my question to you is
if you were to have a peaceful passing
who would you be right now
as humans before our precious time on
planet earth passes
each moment you have an opportunity to
choose
to create peace in any chaos
our world is a bit chaotic
and could use some peace each time you
choose
to become a source of peace in the world
world peace becomes possible
you have now experienced choosing
to create peace in any chaos
what will you choose now
thank you
[Music]
you