When you work in a company, you hear stories from a lot of people.

I became to think that other people were better than me, and as I carried out tasks following the system, I felt like I was gradually disappearing.

Therefore, I started meditation to spend time for myself.

I did various types of meditation.

All kinds of meditation helped me. However, out of those, I liked self-reflection meditation most.

This was because it allowed me to think and get to know about who I am as a person.

I was able to examine the image of myself at work etc., and the life that I have lived.

Through this, I learnt that I had made a suffocating fence and trapped myself within it.

Self-reflection meditation gave me a chance to find ‘myself.’

I was able to find whatever that was deep inside of me, as well as ruminate about what I wanted.

I have realized who ‘myself’ is,’ and am currently living life according to it.

Question

You must come up with a fresh episode every week to continue broadcasting. Not only that, your program has been loved for long time. That means people have high expectations and you need to satisfy them. I’m curious how you can overcome such a big burden every week, and how you manage your stress? Can you please share your own stress management tips?

Answer

In the beginning, I used to exercise. But I have no time for exercise nowadays.

Some people tell me that my workload should be reduced since I now have more staff under me. But I became busier as more staff came to work. I was given the new task of managing people.

This is a kind of job in which we need to work together as a team, so it is important not to hurt each other’s feelings.

It wasn’t so easy giving good explanations about the need for doing a certain task and persuading them to do it.

Of course, I often got stress. But in the meantime, I came up with a new habit. I became forgetful. I easily forget things. This might be how I deal with my stress.

Especially after big issues hit me, people around me are more concerned and ask me, “Are you really okay?”

But they are not big deals to me.

I don’t need to consume my energy in things that have already happened.

What’s next on my agenda is quite obvious so I need to sort it out quickly and move on to the next.

As I experienced many of the big issues, they rather helped me to have peace of mind.

We do preparations for recordings. Often times, the actual products do not show how much we had to prepare for them. I say to my staff, “We did our best so it’s not our fault.”

Then, people working together become more helpful.

If we really did our best without regrets, we could accept the outcomes, no matter how those outcomes came out because that’s the most and best we could come up with.

An episode is aired, and then we prepare for the next one. If we found something to improve, we could work on that and move on to the next project.

I used the term ‘forgetful’ but I mean I try to quickly forget about what has already happened and that becomes a driving force to move on and move forward to the next job.

Source: Contents Korea, Speech by Director Kim Tae-Ho

Life is about taking the right direction, not speeding up.

One day, there was a mass ‘springbok’ death in Africa.

Springboks are animals that usually form in big flocks of hundreds and graze in the arid grassland in Africa. They are as speedy as 94km/h so cannot be easily hunted by savage beasts, even speedy ones like cheetahs.

But one day, the springboks died off in a mass death.

Scientists have studied their habits and behaviors to understand this phenomenon. They have found a surprising fact from the study.

Springboks are naturally born with great appetites. But since they usually graze in flocks, they face competition. The ones at the back speed up to get ahead of the ones in the front to eat more grass. Then, those in the front speed up even more not to get taken over. In this way, hundreds of Springboks lost their purpose and desperately ran and ran until they fell into a river or fell off a cliff. That’s how they ended up dying in a mass death.

The ‘Springbok Phenomenon’ refers to people who are busily following others blindly, not aware of the direction in their lives.

When you live chasing the lifestyles of others, you sometimes forget your own purpose and direction in life.

Sometimes, your life might seem to go more slowly than others’ or might not be as good as theirs. But you never need to be impatient. You never need to waste your time making meaningless comparisons and feeling bad about them.

Look at nature. There are millions of beautiful flowers. The blooming periods differ from one another but their beauty never changes.

Keep this in mind:

Life is not a matter of speeding up to the destination, but taking the right direction.

1. Meditation is not instant gratification

A single meditation session may uplift your mood and bring your mind at ease.
However, if you do not remove the roots of that mind, the effects will only be temporary.
It is when you meditate step by step that the root cause of the mind will disappear.
You will then be able to live with a true mind, which is the fundamental purpose of meditation itself.

2. Meditation Requires effort and patience

The life you have lived so far is incomparably longer than the duration you get to reflect on while meditating. This means that when looking on at your life, often it will require much patience and effort. The effects of meditation are directly related to how much time and passion you invest doing it.

3. Do not follow that somebody, follow the method.

When you are solving difficult mathematics, it isn’t the help of others that allows you to solve the problem, it is the formula. The meditation method may be a simple formula but the effects and changes people undergo are different for everyone. The meditation process I undergo is unique fir each person so don’t compare yourself to someone else.

4.Be honest with yourself.

There are people who cannot be honest with themselves when they meditate.
Be truthful to your current state and the process of change will occur.
If you are having difficulty in knowing yourself, it may be helpful to consult with a Helper the meditation center.
Helpers are meditation experts who have spent numerous hours meditating and consulting with many people.
When you honestly express what you feel in your mind, it is easier to meditate and you will be able to find and empty out more minds.

5. Meditate anywhere, anytime

Meditation can be done anywhere and can be easily incorporated into your daily life.
On your way to work, when you’re getting ready for your day, during lunch, on your promenade, in front of the stop light, at the grocery store, there is no place where you can’t meditate. When you meditate to clean out your mind, you can see what minds still reside within you and you can better understand how you are spending your time by reflecting back. It is through this process that you can change and develop.