Imagine this: It’s Saturday morning. 6:30 am. You are sitting at the beach on soft sand. It’s warm. You are surrounded by other people who are doing the same thing. And you’re sitting in silence for 20 minutes. You watch the sunrise on a beach in Sydney, Australia. Then you feel heard and supported as each of you has a chance to share what you got or learned out of that time alone with your thoughts. This has become my Saturday morning ritual and it’s just as amazing as it sounds.
In this week’s episode, I wanted to bring to you the founder of The Sit, Jason Partington who first thought of this free weekly meditation experience you can find on many beaches in Australia, and later on, even in Portland, Maine. Jason talks about how one day, he was watching the news with his two sons, and then they learned there have been 33 suicides in their local area.
We are constantly looking at the news. For instance, our eyes are so glued to what’s happening in Ukraine and Russia. We might have seen images of X and Y. Then there’s this thought of “someone else must be fixing this or taking care of this.” Well, what if there isn’t anyone? And what if you are that someone!
Jason’s story speaks to several points including that of legacy. He walks us through the difference between meditation vs. mindfulness, and he speaks of meditation as his pillar practice. So much is said during this episode that can save, change, or improve your life.
Share this with your strong friend, the one who appears as if she or he has it all together. Just let them know when you share this episode that you see them and will always be there if they need help or a listening ear.
Jason Partington’s Biography
It all started in December 2018 when Jason Partington launched the first Making Meditation Mainstream kite banner in the sand and began offering weekly meditation sessions at sunrise to his local community on Avalon Beach, Sydney. Jason was soon joined by his good friend Mike Britton, and then by 10, then 20, then 40, and sometimes up to 50 locals every week.
The movement has spread so quickly that people who experienced the power of the sessions also wanted to bring it to their local community. Undertaking the first leg of the journey, Making Meditation Mainstream now passes the baton to The Sit, a global meditation movement, connecting people in the community through the shared practice of meditation.
Highlights
Creativity: Jason provides training for the volunteers of The Sit on how to be creative with the delivery methods of his message. Through volunteers, he is extending and scaling his original vision – and all of that takes creativity.
Courage: Jason shared several examples of courage, including the courage to sit on a beach by himself when he first started this movement.
Curiosity: Jason shares how he feels like there are two “Jason's” inside of him. You've got to be curious who is leading your behaviors and your words on a given day? Is it your highest self or is it your other self?
Meditation: Jason found meditation and mindfulness when he was 28 years old, and he has been doing it for 23 years now. It was a life-changing moment that saved him.
Community: The Sit was born with the goal to bring meditation in a way that was available and accessible. And it is more about connection and community. It’s about going from out to in, and from “I” to “we.”
Freedom: Just It's about bringing it down to the basics of breathing, being in the present moment, being grateful, and all the good stuff without any religious content or any attachment to any other movement.
Introspection: We spend so much time of our lives in auto-drive and getting our reference point from outside of our world. But how much time are you actually spending internally, just in silence, getting an internal reference point versus screen time?
Healing: Meditation is the vehicle to that inward reference. It's healing, it softens us, and it connects us to our internal environment.
Compassion: If we cultivate compassion and kindness through the practice of meditation, we automatically and organically become kinder, more conscious, and we want to help other people. Then it becomes less about you and more about how you can help everyone around you as a community.
Legacy: One of the most important things you can leave behind to your children is your consciousness that they get to witness. As you normalize the meditation practice, it doesn't feel like it's a stretch for them. It also enables your kids to translate the art of meditation to their circumstances.
Mindfulness: The action of connecting within the silence of meditation cultivates more mindfulness in your world, which allows you to be more present and more conscious. It’s about being present without any judgment of any thoughts. You're not worrying about the past, you're letting go of the future, and just being in this moment now.
Practice: Meditating 20 minutes a day can have a massive, profound effect on everything in your life. There are a ton of resources available online to help you get started with your meditation journey (ex. apps, podcast, YouTube videos)
If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these episodes with similar themes:
Links to continue to learn from:
Website: https://thesit.com.au/ Instagram: @thesitglobal Facebook: @thesitglobalWant to grab your free copy of the Courage Makerspace (™) Playbook?
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