Making Your Business A Prayer
Friends, this is another solo episode in which I wax poetic on the philosophical underpinnings of how I look at business and how to root it in devotion to something greater than ourselves. I hope listening will remind you why you started, and inspire you to continue moving in purpose and reverence.
GIFT FOR YOU
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Podcast Transcript
Hello there, friend or friends. Not quite sure if I should be using the plural. I mean, this is a podcast going out to hopefully millions of people around the world. Just kidding. Maybe one day. But you're also listening to this by yourself. Unless you have an Art in Business and Meditation podcast, watch party or listen party that you have with your friends and you have all your closest companions come over and they're listening to this in the living room. If you are doing that, I will happily show up to your living room and do a live version of this because I think that would be awesome. But I'm assuming that is not you. You might be listening to this, making dinner or driving your car. And. And it's probably just you. So, friend, I will use the singular, even though know that this is going out to many people. All right, weird introduction over. You're listening to the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. If I didn't say that I am Lou Redmond and I am a mindful business mentor, coach, guide. Again, lots of things. And today is one of those solo episodes where I just spend speak and hope that anything that I speak may be of value to you, may inspire you, may give you a different way to look at your work, and may help you continue to share your gift with the greatest potency, with the greatest energy and alignment and integrity. Because that is what's going to make the most impact, and that's going to make you the most fulfilled and at peace. And so today is an interesting topic that we're going to explore, and it's something that I've talked about before without using the label of business. And I would share about this for years. You can go back and find meditations that are on making your life a prayer. And this is something that might not make sense, and I might not be able to really make sense of it today to you, but I'm going to try. This is something I've learned from David Hawkins, who wrote many books and is a spiritual teacher. He's passed now, but he wrote maybe some of his more popular books are Power versus Force and Letting Go. And he was a pivotal teacher for me, I would say in the year 2018-2019, I read all of his books and I was just really deep into his work. And something that he always emphasized was to make your life a prayer. And there's something about that that just resonates so deeply. What is a prayer? Now? I don't think he was talking about making your life a constant chatting with something separate from you, asking for what you want and bemoaning when things don't go your way. The prayer that we normally speak of, which is amazing, and this is not to take away from that, that sort of speaking, asking, talking to God or the divine, that is part of what prayer can be. But when I hear the term of making your life a prayer, to me I see that as the example. It's kind of similar to Gandhi's be. The change you want to see in a way is that there's this embodiment that your life, your, your actions are in service to something greater than yourself, that they are actually in devotion to that, that you walk in that space. And as you walk in that devotion to something greater, everything becomes sacred, everything becomes an opportunity of service and love and compassion and deep understanding, deep contact, maybe deep grief, maybe letting go of difficult things. This is not to say that it's only positive, right? That it could be the most powerful prayer to fully experience grief or loss or sadness, but to really feel it, right? So to make our life with that connection, keeping that connection to the divine. And so let's just insert business into that. For us solopreneur meditation teachers, I don't know about you, but it can be hard to separate life and business because they're so intertwined. We're not running Apple or Google and this is not to take away from that. This couldn't apply to bigger companies. I think it totally can. But for many of us, we are one person operations. Maybe we have a virtual assistant, but it can be tough to delineate life and business and so these kind of can go even more hand in hand. But let's just for the sake of this podcast, insert business, make your business a prayer and simple. Your business is in service to something greater than yourself. And it takes into account not just our personal needs and wants, but it takes into account the wider world. It takes into account the impact it's having on others, on the environment, on how we relate to our families and other important relationships in our life. And it gets us out of our self. If our business can be a prayer, sometimes that might ask us to forego our personal wants, to get out of ourself, to transcend it being about us to it being about something wider and deeper. And with that there's a humility. Maybe that's. There's no list in this episode. This is not like the most practical episode. Probably this is kind of a philosophical rant that I'm going to offer today. And again, if it's helpful, great. If you Resonate with it. Great. I hope you can feel a sense of what I'm trying to convey and help you think about how do you make your business a prayer? Or how do you make your life a prayer? I think they're so connected because our life gets to be. Our business gets to be a creative expression of our life that supports life, that supports our families, that supports our communities, and allows us to help walk each other home. As Ram Dass would say, that we all, I believe, have a unique service to offer to ease the suffering of the planet in our own unique way. Doesn't have to be through the direct way of helping others that are suffering, but in our own way that our work, our music, our art is needed. And I believe that wholeheartedly. And so coming back to a humility is inviting you to walk with your business with humility. And not humility in the sense of we play small or we don't own things that we do that are great. I think there's a false definition of humility and not owning our own power and our own greatness. If we do something great, not that we go too far into pride, but we just say, yeah, like I can do this well, but humility in the sense that we don't know everything, we don't know everything, and we can keep that trusting that we don't have to have things figured out and we can open and. And we can stand under to understand that something else is leading our lives, something else is leading our business, and our job is to stay in that unknown. When you are working on growing a business, when you have a business, you are in a ocean of uncertainty. There is no guarantee of the revenue coming in next month or next year. Hopefully you have some things start to set up where you can start to forecast and get a sense of a normal amount of revenue coming in a month. For some, that can be really scary. For me, it's incredibly exciting. Like, I love that it doesn't feel stale and stagnant, right. That to have that risk, the. The benefit of, of sitting with that risk is that we don't have ceilings that. That. That it can keep growing and flowing. There's no floor, but there's also no ceilings. And so we get to live in that. And what we focus on, as we don't know is we focus on the offers and the offerings. We talked about this in a previous episode of the offering being this devotion to something greater. And I think there's a way to keep those offers. Yes, there's a different energy around the offers, but in a whole business sense, that they were doing it with integrity. And that the example, our business can be an example of integrity, of love, of truth, of goodness and beauty. And that's the essence of it, being a prayer is when people look at you and say, hey, this person is doing it right. I really resonate with this person. Maybe they don't even purchase from you. Maybe they don't even know exactly what you're doing. They might not even be your ideal audience, but they see you and they say, yeah, something feels good, something feels true. And that's probably a sign that you are, without much intention, that your business is a prayer. Your business is connecting. It's connecting others to their source in a myriad of ways. And if we can keep showing up with that intention, we can keep pivoting. I really believe something good will come from it. So when I've talked about this before, I made the connection to two main prayers. And then I heard of a book that talked about three essential pairs, and it includes the two that I originally intuited. And it adds one other prayer. And so there's a book by Anne Lamott called Three Essential Prayers, Help, thanks, and wow. And she's talking more in the sense of there is some words that we can ask for help, and there is a prayer aspect, a duality of communication in that way. And again, that's okay. And so when we just use this for our business help, we can't do this alone. We can for sure ask God or however you name thou for help. And I encourage you to keep asking for help, to continually ask for help every day, to stay in that humility. But we also need others, and we need to pay for that help. We need to invest for that help. And that exchange can be sacred. It really can't. And I've talked about this when I've discussed money before, that there should be an energy of yay for pay. Like, if you want to receive money with joy, spend money with joy. It's really pretty simple. But the issue is often we constrict. We want to receive, but we constrict over sending it. And so there's a way to get help and use the exchange of the currency, of the current of that money coming in and using it for good. And this is where the impact of business can expand so much wider, is that there's more energy, there's more current, there's more currency to flow to other places to grow the. I resist using the word empire, but to grow the In Some ways we all have our own kingdom or empire in a very archetypal way that it's impacting, that it gets to impact and we get to create that and do it in a really powerful and connected way. If we try to stay aligned, there's so many things that can go wrong. But if we can at least, you know, have that foundation of intention, I think it can do a lot of good in this world. And so we need teachers, we need coaches, we need mentors, we need courses. We need to understand that when we are also paying for other things, we're helping that person. We're giving back to this creator spiritual economy, right? That it's flowing through. I love knowing that I have resources to pay for a massage, to help that person do their gifts, to pay for YouTube editor to help that person share their gifts, to pay for an assistant to help her share her gifts, to pay for this person, to help them share their. Like everyone's doing this and if we can see it as a flowingness, we can ask for help. We can have this sacredness in this exchange. We're going to feel a lot better and it's going to feel a lot more easeful when we talk about actually bringing that money back into us. So a little sidetrack around the help, around money. But I think it's important to talk about because when we talk about making business a prayer, well, we might separate money from that. And I've been really, with even the. The encouragement of, of. Of elders that I know of, of seeing exchange, of finding the sacredness and exchange. And don't get me wrong, it could be totally unsacred and greedy. This is a line, right? It's a tool. And like tools, we can go both ways with it. But I think it's important to mention that here because it is about making the business sacred. And how can the exchange, both in and out be sacred, have the energy of that, of something greater? Whenever I make a. And I've talked about this before, I think, but when I make a big purchase or investment, I really slow down and I pray. I connect with God. I feel that into it. And I say, may this, you know, may this use in a way that may this teach me what I need to learn. May this show me what I need to be shown. May this energy go out into the universe. May it be in service. And. And I hit that purchase button and it's a really powerful practice. So powerful. Thanks. No, the second one. I'm not thanking you, but of course I'm Thanking you. So help. Thanks. Wow. So let's talk about thanks. Doing this work, doing business with the cliche attitude of gratitude to really before, I would do a lot of my Insight Timer lives or anything where I feel when I'm about to do something, when I feel like it's so aligned with who I am and is a representation of the risks that I took to be on this journey. And I would do this a lot with Insight Timer Live for years is before I hit start Live. I would close my eyes, I would remember the moments in my life that were pivotal in making really big decisions to make changes, to say yes in spite of fear. And I would remember those moments and I would feel myself where I'm at now. And I would just feel so much gratitude, like, wow. And we'll get to wow in a second, but thanks. And there is a wow to it too, so we'll talk about that. But even as I share now, I'm starting to connect with it. Just like, whoa, thank you, God. This is the manifestation of saying yes, of everything that I could have hoped for and wanted the opportunity to share myself, to share things that are important to me, that may help others and that do often help others. What a beautiful gift. So to continue to take those moments of gratitude, of offering, of opening, I'll do that with every podcast guest that you've had on, you've heard on this podcast. We'll take a moment before we record and we'll just connect in some ways. We'll pray in our own way and I'll say that to them when we do that, we just take a moment just to center and to open and hope for that. This makes an impact that's wider than just we can understand. And so continuing to appreciate the lessons, too. Thank you. Thank you that this failed. I learned so much about running workshops. Thank you that this didn't work. I just spent thousands of dollars on ads. I learned a lot. Thank you. Thank you for the lessons. Wow. What a beautiful, fun thing to learn. I think it's fun. You might not think it's as fun, but those challenges, those experiences, they can be our greatest teachers and what we appreciate, appreciate. So again, thanking all of it, Thanking the opportunity to give, thanking the opportunity to pay, thanking the opportunity to receive income. Just having this gratitude, it evokes a different sort of energy around your business. And that's. We're really talking about an energetic quality in this. That's why it's hard to give you practical things. In some ways, these are practical, but we're talking about a felt sense of when I come to your website that I'm going to feel something about it and you. And it's not the branding, it's not even the words. I really believe it's not even the words. It's like this is an expression of you and your energies being felt through it. I felt that when I was preparing for my interview episode with Prashanti Paz and just going through a website and just feeling something really potent and this quality that I don't feel on a lot of websites. And so I think it comes back to, you know, as we're doing this in our spiritual practices, continuing to connect and then bringing that into our offers and our offerings. Wow. Yeah, wow. That's the third prayer. And how does wow figure into our business? It's the moments that take our breath away where there are no words. Even though I'm trying to explain words, use words to explain them. It might be the moment that we feel this deep, fulfilling sense that we are on the right path, that we are doing the right thing. It may be a session with a client where there's some deep contact and it's unclear who is giving and who's receiving more. In that moment, there is this powerful, almost otherworldly flow that is happening. It's when something works in your business that feels almost like a magic. Like, oh my gosh, this thing actually worked. I set up this, this email sequence and someone actually purchased something that there can be a beauty to that. Like wow. Wow. Maybe that, that's not as deep as an example, but maybe, I don't know, but it's more so, you know, even as I was connecting with thinking of my thank you prayer before an Insight Timer live and just like remembering and connecting to that, like wow, this has all brought me here. Look where I'm at. I could not have dreamed this. I did dream this up. But to think it actually unfolded in the way that it did. It wasn't exactly how I would have scripted it. Probably would have had things happen a little quicker in the play, but so much gratitude. And with that gratitude it almost evokes a wow. Like who's. Who's writing this script? Who's really leading this business? Who is really leading this business? And if you can slow down and ask that question to yourself, who is really leading this business and just sit in that question on a day to day basis and follow the threads that present themselves and trust and lean into the fears. What a journey. And that's what it's About. It's not about getting to that income level, although it will be a signpost that you've made at certain places on this journey. It's good to know if you're trying to get to Seattle from San Diego, it's good to know that you've passed Los Angeles. It's good to have a sense of, oh, okay, yeah, we've made it this far. But it's never about getting to Los Angeles. No one wants to be in Los Angeles. Just kidding. I know there's some people from LA listening, but it's about recognizing that, okay, I've made this mark, I've gotten this far, but it's about continuing to go and enjoying that beautiful road trip up the 101 on the California coast, man. Just enjoying that, enjoying the ride, enjoying the journey. I'm missing California. California's my spiritual home. Alas, enjoying the ride because it's not about getting anywhere. And that is in essence of continuing to come back to our energy, to our being each day as we engage with the work, as we practice, as we fail. Right? If you can stay connected to your. Something greater, however you name it, however you relate to it, it's probably why you're doing this. It's probably to serve that in some way. If you can just keep that connection as you do your business as much as you can, as much as you live your life. This is why, this is really. It's like if you could just, you know, stay connected to God all the time, then beautiful enlightenment, bliss. Ah. But no, really continuing to keep that as a reminder for your business. It doesn't. You don't have to shut that out and then go into business that, that we get to do this work. And I believe it can happen in, in all work. I think of Michael Singer and some of you know, Michael Singer, great spiritual teacher, wrote the Untethered Soul and then wrote the Surrender Experiment. And in the Surrender Experiment, you hear how someone is living this and running literally a billion dollar, I think, medical device company. Something in the medical field that he is, is and I think still is one, this incredible spiritual teacher and running this huge company. And Michael Singer has said that he, he doesn't go into, okay, now I'm in business Michael Singer and now I'm in spiritual Michael Singer, even though he's doing such radically different things that he just sees it all as his Surrender Experiment, that it is all in that service. And he might not use this word, but I would say it's all in a prayer energy. So maybe that's helpful. Maybe that's not I'd like to offer a prayer if you would find some space to let this resonate. And if you're driving, don't close your eyes. If you're making dinner, you can still make dinner. But just let these words connect with you in whatever way they want to connect with you. And this is from A Course in Miracles. And if the masculine pronoun for God does not resonate with you, please insert whatever does. I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent him who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do because he who sent me will direct me. I am content to be wherever he wishes, knowing he goes there with me. I will be healed as I let him teach me to heal. And one final prayer. Just one line from the prayer of St Francis and adding this in. I've not said this before, but I'm going to try it on this podcast. The first line of the prayer of St. Francis is, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Just wondering how this sounds, how this lands. Lord, make my business an instrument of your peace. Felt pretty good to me, so maybe play with that. Just saying that line, Lord, make my business an instrument of your peace. Again, if you don't like Lord, whatever that might be, make me an instrument. Make my business an instrument of your peace. Because I think we need more bigger peacemakers, peace that can be had on a wider scale. And we have an opportunity to be that change, to make our business a prayer and to do this work as wholeheartedly as we can. That's all I have today. Friend. Thanks for listening to this 30 minute talk. Hope it's helpful sending you so much love and support. Know that I am rooting for you with every cell of my being. Thanks for being here. We'll chat soon. And before you take off, if you like this episode or like this podcast, please consider taking a moment to leave a review. It really helps the podcast grow. And if you are someone wanting to use meditation to share your gifts, I have a free course called Meditation Script Mastery. You can click the link in the podcast description and get you set up with learning how to create unique meditations that you can share with your students, your clients, and you can share with your friends. So thanks again for listening and I'll see you next time.