I recently had an opportunity to connect with Lobsang Chunzom, Buddhist Nun and the founder of Limitless Health Institute (LHI).
Photo: Lobsang Chunzom, Limitless Health Institute
We reviewed meditation, finding peace in chaos, and more. Self-care will remain top of mind this year, too.
Limitless Health Institute also created a series called Inner Essentials, which I’ve been listening to. They’re powerful meditations that resonate – especially now – as these are meditations that can help lead the way to wellness during this pandemic and beyond.
I’m grateful to be able to share these tips and meditations with you. Let’s Begin!
When did you begin practicing meditation?
Lobsang Chunzom: Meditation highlights the ability to bring meaningful thoughts to the mind on demand. At first, I would visit beautiful gardens, sit under a tree surrounded by fragrant flowers and contemplate spiritual ideas I heard in church. The idea of concentrating, as a teen, without having a busy mind was not so easy to achieve. As I continued to contemplate and enjoy quietude and peace, I wanted to learn more and more about the ancient techniques of meditation. Eventually, I realized that you need a teacher to guide you how to mediate. So I traveled to Buddhist monasteries across the world to gain more knowledge in the classics. The great masters that I found taught me that having the proper motivation for meditating is the most important element to have a successful meditation practice. Meditation is not just for ourself, but to benefit others. Around the same time, I was volunteering at hospitals in my neighborhood and started to make the connection between meditation and service to others. It was not until years after graduating college that my mind became used to meditating in a way that brought some physical and mental peace. Today, I design meditation training for youth to help them discover this link between their own peace of mind and how they help others find peaceful places to think calmly and become more mindful.
Do you have any tips (or meditations) to stay peaceful during chaos?
Lobsang Chunzom: To stay peaceful in the midst of a chaotic situation, we have to prepare every day to be ready before the trouble arises. Once a difficult situation has begun, it’s really too late to change what is happening in the moment. In everyday circumstances, if we are very conscious and aware of our actions, how we speak to others, and careful not to disturb people around us, we will find serenity within ourselves everywhere. The best thing we can do is to be conscious about how we respond to the chaos, and to do so with peace. This is the key to not experience disturbing situations in the future. There are many simple meditations that are great for developing our concentration while being mindful of others around us. In meditation, the mind moves through progressively finer levels of concentration, and practicing that over and over again gives us an opportunity to avoid creating situations that will disturb other people, and stop experiencing chaotic moments throughout the day.
[Meditation] Inner Essentials: What Happens Next?
Find a peaceful space and begin with this meditation.
What would you suggest to our readers about living from a place of peace when triggers knock us off course?
Lobsang Chunzom: Here are some practical words from a Master Shantideva, that I reflect upon when I try to keep balanced and calm anytime negative emotions are triggered:
“No matter what happens, I will never allow my joy to be disturbed. Feeling upset cannot accomplish my hopes, and only makes me lose the goodness that I have. If there is something you can do about it, why should you feel upset? If there is nothing you can do about it, what use is being upset?”
Is there someone that led you to the work you’re doing now – a mentor – spiritual advisor, etc.?
Lobsang Chunzom: Everyone needs a mentor. It’s important for us to find someone we admire, look up to, or want to learn from. Only then can we learn anything! We may gain a certain success in life, but to keep evolving and gaining more knowledge, a sweet relationship with a teacher is the best thing. To do this, we need to be humble and realize we need to keep learning more, as well as having someone to guide us. If we think we already know enough, it’s hard to learn anything, even if you have a good teacher.
The best thing is to find someone you can keep learning from for years and years; someone who has the patience to teach you the same lesson over and over until you get it! It’s hard to do this, and the trick is to keep looking at ourselves and consider what we can do to become a kinder and wiser person. If we do that, maybe we will see our teacher differently – because we put the work in ourselves. This can help us learn continuously – no matter how old you are, you can still learn from your parents, a partner, or even your own children.
What are the Top 4 Benefits of Meditation and why is it so important to make it a daily practice?
1. One benefit of meditation is a sense of purpose and motivation in what we do; we can see the good qualities of our goals and understand why we want to accomplish them.
2. Next, we can start to admire the good things that we want to achieve – we see how it would change our life or the life of someone we care for.
3. Then, we can work and make efforts to achieve our goals – meditation helps us stay focused on the work we need to do.
4. Finally, we enjoy becoming better and better at meditation, and more and more confident in our ability to make good changes in our life. An upward spiral.
[Meditation] Inner Essentials: Sharing
How can we become better at being an example of wellness and kindness?
Lobsang Chunzom: The first thing is simply wanting to become a living example – just having the wish to be that for others is huge! But we have to think why we want to be an example. Some people just want to be that example for accolades – many people want to give so others will notice them giving. Cut through your pride and ego to know and understand – to attain my own wellness I must help others have wellness first. We must become a living example; we don’t have a choice.
When we think of being a living example, get rid of ideas of jealousy, competitiveness, and pride – these are things that stop us from helping others. This idea can be practiced by having a state of mind that is free from feelings of envy, competition, and arrogance. Sometimes it’s fun to think of how other people are thinking, feeling, what they want to achieve, and relating to them in a way that looks at how they are thinking about you. Once we can see that others have the same desires and needs as we do, then we can act with care, affection, and compassion towards everyone equally.
Will you briefly share more about Inner Essentials meditation tools?
Lobsang Chunzom: Limitless Health Institute’s Inner Essentials is a series of powerful meditations that strengthens wellness, especially during this worldwide health crisis. The series offers classic meditations presented in an innovative way to help all people take care of the inner essentials of life. Each meditation gives participants an opportunity to sit back and enjoy meditating, and share with others who can benefit, too. The time we have at home gives us the perfect opportunity to experience a meaningful meditation practice that will center you in the present and prepare you for the future.
I understand that you also created the SelfCare Exchange designed for healthcare professionals and their families. Will you share more about the benefits?
Lobsang Chunzom: SelfCare Exchange is a global interactive network of people who need more self-care in their lives and do so by supporting each other through the journey. Our creative platform was further developed for healthcare professionals and their families in the current pandemic. We work with frontline workers to help them energize their physical wellness, resolve emotional challenges, and awaken clear thinking in the midst of a very challenging and difficult time. As they create more supportive relationships and a more caring environment at work or at home, their health begins to blossom, and they increase resilience to overcome challenges. SelfCare Exchange includes meditations as inner exercises to help professionals balance taking care of themselves and others equally with awareness of everyone’s needs.
[Meditation] Inner Essentials: Energy
Are you working on (creating) anything new for 2021?
Lobsang Chunzom: The Youth Ambassador program is something we are expanding in this year. The Ambassadors are young people who have shown exceptional motivation or promise in taking care of others, and become leaders to inspire other youth to do the same. They initiate service in the community and collaborate with youth and adults alike.
We’re seeing our Ambassadors achieve great success – our first Ambassador influenced other high schoolers to meditate, and he recently passed his bar exam to become a lawyer! Right now, one of our young people is organizing a program to help elders connect and express themselves during the isolation of the pandemic.
As people experience uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the changes in their work environment, we increased our online services to reach a larger audience and offer easier access to better opportunities for health and happiness.
From a healthcare perspective, we need to know when in-person contact is needed and when it’s not. For example, we can’t physically visit the elderly in nursing homes, but it is extremely vital for them to feel connected to others. This inspired us to launch programs in Elder Storytelling Empowers that connects elder communities as they share stories of their experiences and inspire each other in unique ways. That may have not happened without looking for these new ways to communicate and help each other.
Limitless Health Institute collaborates with other caring organizations to help people experience the link between their own health and happiness and how they care for others.
