Episode #7 of Dan Harris’ podcast, Ten Percent Happier, is one of the best episodes of a podcast I have listened to yet. Which I’m sure Dan Harris would be happy to hear. :p
The reason? George’s honesty and humility and his insane ability to answer each of Dan Harris’ rebuttals with grace and precision. He never wavers from the point of it all. His understanding of the purpose of all of this is so profound. Let’s just say that I listened to the podcast more than once to really soak it all in.
George is best known for bringing mindfulness to the NBA– he started out working with Phil Jackson and the Chicago Bulls and then progressed to the LA Lakers and is now with the NY Knicks. He was an aspiring athlete himself, he states, before injuries took him out of the game. Though successful as a financial analyst for the defense industry, George tells how his addiction to prescribed narcotics for his chronic pain from previously mentioned college basketball injuries numbed him to an emptiness inside. That addiction then advanced to heroin and alcohol. According to George, he was a functioning addict– which is no small feat given he was under the influence of not just one but two very powerful addictions. Eventually George came to understand that he was hitting a “spiritual rock bottom” where he found that he couldn’t get high and he couldn’t not get high. He also saw clearly that his health was in decline and that he would die if he didn’t change.
One comment that struck me was when Dan asked George where his stress was coming from. George responded that, although he was in a stressful career, he was also stressed about “life and dealing with life on life’s terms” and not knowing who he really was. Gosh! How that resonates. Some of the things that life throws at me I just don’t want to deal with. Even if just minor inconveniences. Even if not inconveniences but just something or someone I don’t like or would prefer not. Like, can I say No, but Thank You??
George credits a friend, himself recently clean, taking him to an AA meeting as one of the things that helped change his life. A second life-changing event occurred shortly after becoming sober in the form of an HMO through his job introducing him to stress-reduction techniques via a mindfulness and meditation class. The real credit, though, lies within George himself. He claims that is was his “perfectionism” that got him to read every book on the syllabus of that stress-reduction program and to keep trying at meditation because he “didn’t get what everybody was talking about.” But in this case, I’d say that his perfectionism is just persistence and dedication– qualities that we all have and that don’t have to be soul-sucking or negative. George wanted to change and he clearly had a fire within him, being able to succeed in the financial sector while addicted to drugs and alcohol. He clearly had the drive to succeed despite losing his basketball dream– a dream attained by people he knew, including his college roommate, Julius “Dr. J” Erving. What a slap in the face that must have been! We can all be motivated, we can all be driven. The questions are: how do we tap into this and how do we make it work for us?
Well, good thing we have George to tell us! His book, The Mindful Athlete, speaks exactly about this. The book is mapped after his sessions and coaching techniques with the NBA that he has since expanded to individuals of all career-types. George spends much of the podcast trying to help Dan understand what it means to be “flow -ready.” He explains that we all know what flow is, especially athletes. We know what it feels like to be in-the-zone, one-with-the-ball, hyper-focused but at the same time just “being.” As if the ball is dribbling itself. Authors and painters know this feeling when inspiration strikes. Students know this feeling when their thesis seems to be pouring through their fingertips onto the keyboard (or pen to paper for you old folks!). Ever been in a successful conference meeting where the ideas just kept coming and building on one another and a conclusion was reached or a goal was defined and it was just “productive”? We’ve all experienced it. George, is quick to explain, though, that we can’t force flow or being in the zone. Once you try to be in the zone, you aren’t present, and you therefore can’t get there. So what can players on the Knicks do to win next season’s championship?
From listening to George, this is my interpretation: they can give it their all, being as present as possible and accepting flaws as building blocks rather than obstacles, and they can foster a personal environment and a team environment in which they are always “flow-ready.” The more positive, compassionate, and forgiving your mind is, the better able you are to deal with life’s disappointments with grace. This grace enables you to learn and remain productive. A positive and safe environment that fosters learning, growth, and productivity, is the same environment that enables you to drift seamlessly from “normal” to “flow. ” But you can’t “try.” You can’t force it. You have to just be. Maybe you missed the shot yesterday, but because you didn’t hang on to the negativity and disappointment of it and, through persistence, you looked at your hand and your footing and you kept trying, maybe tomorrow you make the shot. This is what I’ve gathered so far.
George is quick to state that he is not Buddhist. I think this is very important. Buddhism has, perhaps, most succinctly captured the essence of mindfulness and meditation, offering verbiage with which to discuss the topics. But Buddhism is by no means the originator of mindfulness nor does the religion as a whole claim to be. All religions share in positivity and compassion for those of equal, higher, and lower fortune, of being your best self. Just because Buddhism has given us words with which to communicate these age-old concepts does not mean that using that language makes a person Buddhist. I’m not Christian but I still plan to teach my children to “love thy neighbor.” That’s because it’s not about being put into a religious box. It’s about not being a jerk!
George is also quick to state that those who believe they can not meditate because they can’t quiet their minds are missing the point– you can’t force flow! It’s not about forcing the meditation to be anything. It’s about just being. Just noticing the sensations of the body or the sounds around you. And finding the space between action and re-action. He tells Dan that, though his formal meditation practice of sitting on a cushion is anywhere from 10mins to 1hour per day, he practices mindfulness all day long! And isn’t that the key? He says that “enlightenment” is his goal, but the important part is the journey itself. He describes enlightenment as being ever-present, as seeing life for what it really is without past experiences determining our re-actions, of living in that space between action and re-action, of being in control. I truly admire this approach to life. Enlightenment is not a place to go to. It’s not a destination over there somewhere and I can beat myself up because why haven’t I gotten there yet?? Enlightenment is a state of being in the ever cycle of acting and re-acting that makes up human existence. Suffering is part of being human. The idea is not to prevent suffering, but, rather, to understand that suffering comes and goes and to see that the real power lies in how we react to that suffering. How we can learn to just be instead of being tossed to and fro by our emotions.
During Dan’s interview, George talks about how he came to study mindfulness and meditation, all of the people and practices that he has come in contact with over the past 30 years, how that lead to meeting Phil Jackson in the first place, and how that has now led him to a successful book that he is adapting to reach children through a shared love of sports as well as reach anyone else that he can. He believes that what he has learned throughout his life and his journey should be available to everyone– not just affluent middle-class Americans who can afford retreats and yoga classes and private liberal schools for their children.
Towards the end of the interview, after all of the fluff and the warm talk about athletes gracefully accepting defeat, Dan states something along the lines of “tell that to a fan!” George’s response: to praise the other team for winning because they earned it. It’s not about being a fan– it’s about being human. #yaasss. It really is about being human.
Watch the podcast below or listen via your preferred podcast app– you won’t be disappointed!