Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate
Speaker 1: for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure,
Speaker 1: reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier,
Speaker 1: healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help
Speaker 1: you do the same. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily
Speaker 1: dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story,
Speaker 1: offer a simple practical tip about how you or a
Speaker 1: loved one can stay a bit calmer in your life,
Speaker 1: and then we'll end each episode together with a moment
Speaker 1: of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what
Speaker 1: I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably,
Speaker 1: take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about a man named Joseph
Speaker 1: who I met in New York City. Joseph was in
Speaker 1: a facility that was really a one year vocational training
Speaker 1: program for men who had been rescued from the streets,
Speaker 1: and they were trained in a skill so when they
Speaker 1: left they would have a job to return to their
Speaker 1: families and their neighborhoods with. But the center also knew
Speaker 1: that a job alone was not enough. They were going
Speaker 1: to need tools to help them manage the stress and
Speaker 1: the pressures and the temptations when they went back to
Speaker 1: their neighborhoods, went back to their families that would help
Speaker 1: prevent them from returning to their life of often substance
Speaker 1: use disorder. We had been invited to come and teach
Speaker 1: transcendentle meditation to the men in this program, and there
Speaker 1: was one man there in particular that I remember, Joseph,
Speaker 1: who when I heard his story, it had a very
Speaker 1: transformational effect in my life and I think about him often.
Speaker 1: So Joseph had a master's degree in philosophy from Yale,
Speaker 1: and he did what any self respecting philosophy student would do.
Speaker 1: He got a job on Wallt's for you in a
Speaker 1: brokerage firm, and he had a very successful career, and
Speaker 1: he had a wife and two children and a great
Speaker 1: job working in the Twin Towers. So this is where
Speaker 1: the story changes. On September two thousand and one, Joseph
Speaker 1: left the Twin Towers his office to run an errand
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes before a plane hit, all of Joseph's colleagues
Speaker 1: were killed. The trauma from that, the guilt from that,
Speaker 1: the anger from that absolutely devastated Joseph. And while he
Speaker 1: was never a drinker in college, he started to abuse
Speaker 1: alcohol to mask his pain, and he started drinking so
Speaker 1: much that he got violent. And even though the parent
Speaker 1: company for which he worked offered him a lot of support,
Speaker 1: therapy and everything, Joseph didn't take advantage of it. He
Speaker 1: continued down his downward spiral. His wife and children laught,
Speaker 1: he lost his job, he lost his house, and within
Speaker 1: eight months Joseph was homeless and he lived that way
Speaker 1: for ten years and then he entered this shelter slash
Speaker 1: vocational program. For Joseph when he was at Yale, one
Speaker 1: reason why he became a philosophy major is he was
Speaker 1: really interested in the deeper values of life and he
Speaker 1: had a firm conviction that deep within every human being
Speaker 1: there was a field of common good. And he got
Speaker 1: his job and never found a way to have that experience.
Speaker 1: Fast forward and I'm talking to Joseph and he's loving
Speaker 1: his meditation and I asked him why, and he said,
Speaker 1: he feels more relaxed, more focused, But he said there's
Speaker 1: something more that connection that he was looking for his
Speaker 1: whole life. He found in the meditation, in the transcending
Speaker 1: and the transcendental meditation. And he said, isn't it interesting
Speaker 1: that something I spent my whole life seeking that it
Speaker 1: took me ending up in a homeless shelter where I
Speaker 1: would learn a meditation technique that would give me the
Speaker 1: experience of what I had been seeking for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: And I thought to myself, powerful experience for Joseph, but
Speaker 1: a powerful awakening experience for me. Before meeting Joseph, I
Speaker 1: would have just walked by and not given a thought.
Speaker 1: But I realized now that every homeless person has a backstory.
Speaker 1: Every homeless person was once a six month old kid
Speaker 1: crawling across the kitchen floor, and that traumas often brought
Speaker 1: on at an early age, shaped and distorted joseph life
Speaker 1: and others lives, so they end up homeless. All homeless
Speaker 1: in New York City at one time, we're veterans with PTSD.
Speaker 1: I thank Joseph for making me a more compassionate person.
Speaker 1: And I realized that compassion isn't something you can artificially manufacture.
Speaker 1: If I'm stressed, if I'm angry, if I'm agitated, if
Speaker 1: I'm irritated I can't be compassionate, but I'd like to
Speaker 1: live that way. So the first step in compassion, I realized,
Speaker 1: is being compassionate towards oneself. And first and foremost for
Speaker 1: that is meditation. A meditation that gives you access to
Speaker 1: that field of common good, that field of silence, that
Speaker 1: field of peace that lies within everyone. It's not a
Speaker 1: religious thought, it's not a philosophical thought. It exists within everyone.
Speaker 1: And from that basis we can live a compassionate life.
Speaker 1: All right, let's end this time together doing something that
Speaker 1: I think should be a feature of our everyday life,
Speaker 1: and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds
Speaker 1: of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break, just take
Speaker 1: a moment. It turns out when we do that it's
Speaker 1: good for our health as well. I'll be right back,
Speaker 1: all right. Thank you for joining. This is Bob Roth.
Speaker 1: Keep calm, Thanks for listening today. I hope you heard
Speaker 1: something that inspires that uplifts you and that you can
Speaker 1: incorporate into your own life. Until next time, remember, meditate,
Speaker 1: be kind, and be true to yourself. Hey, all of
Speaker 1: you out there, I'd love to hear from you. You
Speaker 1: can send me your stories, your questions, or anything else
Speaker 1: on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: or Instagram at hashtag meditation Bob. You can also send
Speaker 1: me an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing from you.