Dale Berkebile

Trained and Certified in The 5 Mindfulness Trainings, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). I'm a life-long learner, high-level visionary, business misfit, and 20+ year business owner. Love is my religion. Integrity and Enlightenment are my jam. I’m a music junkie. I love live music, punk rock, and vinyl records. I’m an outdoors enthusiast, like a good Captain-n-Coke, and I am a family man with a foul mouth. I've been doing personal development since 1999, studying & practicing meditation and Taoism since 2014, and studying & practicing Buddhism since 2018.

KaBoom! My Motivation for Meditation 4-Years Ago & Today!

What is your motivation for meditation?

It is funny, I started writing this article on February 5th, 2021 and while doing it I’m reflecting on what my motivation for meditating is and what it was. You see today on Facebook, a 4 year old memory popped up and it was stating what my motivation was for meditation in 2017. I thought it might make for an interesting article and so here we are.

What is MY motivation for mediation today?

Well, things have changed quite a bit since 2017. Today, I’ve moved on to MINDFULNESS (the lifestyle of awareness) to describe what I do. MEDITATION is only a small part of the lifestyle I have created from the seeds I planted and nurtured for the last 8 years. My motivation today is tied to something new I’ve learned about from my Buddhist teachings over the last 3 years. Today I am working towards being a Bodhisattva.

A Bodhisattva? What the hell is that?

I’m sure many of you are asking this right now. Ha!

Well in the buddhist world a Bodhisattva is a person who is on the journey of enlightenment, not for themself, but to help all beings reach enlightenment.

Tricycle Magazine has an article where they describe this a bit better. Their article, What Is a Bodhisattva? gives a quick answer of (It’s an ordinary person who acts like a true adult.)

So basically, I am motivated to master my craft, as well as I can, in order to help as many other beings join me on this journey. You see in Buddhism we are seen as interconnected and you are I, and I am you. If I neglect you and do not help you live your best life, then I am also not living my own best life. I want you and I, and every living being to live their best and most fulfilling life.

My motivation today is to continue to read everything I can get my hands on to learn deeply what it means to be a wonderful person living a wonderful life. This is not about achievement, wealth, and fame, but living with purpose and a very intentional life. My purpose in life is to challenge people to become innovative leaders so that we can change the world together. This purpose has come about (at least in a written down and memorized state) over the last 4 years and I now use it as a filter for much of what I do in life.

In 2017, I started down the path of evolving my business. What I didn’t realize then was I would also pivot my business a bit to live my purpose. I now started a new side business focused on helping others reach their fullest potential in life. Today, I have this site branded Hellagood Life to describe what I want to help people achieve – a hellagood life, and I also have an 8-week training course to do that. The course is called the SELFCARE Mindfulness Course and in January 2021, I started officially training people on mindfulness and helping these students to reach their fullest potential.

There is an old saying I have been pondering for about a decade – how can I change the world? What I found as an answer surprised me, it is… “by changing ME”. Yes in order to change the world I must change myself first and I have been doing that for close to a decade maybe two, but less focused on bringing the world with me in the previous decade.

You know the old saying… BE the change you want to see in the world. I hope I am doing that and helping others do it because that would be a life worth living!

And What was my motivation for meditation in 2017?

Here is what I wrote back then as I did an exercise to reflect on WHY I was doing my daily meditations. I hope you find it interesting and try this exercise yourself.

EXERCISE FOR YOU TO TRY AT HOME:

Ask yourself…

“Why am I doing meditation?” or
“What is my motivation for my meditation practice?”

…and then see what YOU come up with.

Here is the full post (not just the screenshot). On February 5th, 2017 I wrote…

Motivation for Meditation?

It is funny when your meditation app asks you what your motivation is for doing meditation. “Deep thoughts by Jack Handy…“

Today I thought I’d write my meditation motivations down. So here goes…

1. Self preservation, self development, self control. Over my life I have always been someone that can go zero-to-60 at the drop of a hat. Rage and anger are not the most effective forms of communication OR collaboration. Realizing that… MY RESPONSE to things that happen to me, can change not only my world, but the world around me was a big breakthrough. I thank my wife for this life tip. Meditation helps keep every day more calm and focused which adds self control – don’t sweat the small stuff. As someone that has studied a ton of self development concepts for at least twenty years, meditation takes some of those concepts and turns them into daily habits. These daily habits improve who I am as a person. Over the last 15 years I rarely exercised, got out in nature, or spent much time outside in the sun. This weighed on me and affected my health. Then the fight to build a highly successful business took its toll and in some bad years pushed me to the breaking point of depression. Meditation was one of the tools I used to break out of the bad place I was in. Daily meditation offers positive vibes daily so negativity can not build day-to-day and this is the self preservation part.

2. The second reason I meditate is for my family. Just because you love someone, doesn’t mean they don’t drive you crazy sometimes. Finding ways to cope when Jax is driving me crazy is huge. He just wants attention and sometimes I want to “work” or “do what I want” (then I find this is just me being selfish because I want “my time” instead of “our time”). Meditation helps me deal with daily family issues like this one. As a matter of fact sometimes we do meditation with Jax when he is frustrated or at bed time. This helps refocus, but is also family bonding time. So really it is another copping tool to stay healthy, exercise the mind, and build stronger relationships. I truly feel that meditation is helping my close family and slowly it may even be benefiting my larger family and my relationships with them. Win!

3. Lastly, I feel it is helping me be a better person, not just for myself, my health, and my family, but for the world at large. As an example my focus on the Facebook group… BE THE CHANGE is all about spreading positivity and kindness in person and online. In the craziness of the world today, this can be a daunting task. But as I mentioned with all the benefits listed above, it also added sustainable positive energy to continue to take this to the world and inspire others to do the same. It has allowed me to get a better understanding of the Tao Te Ching which allows me to work on eliminating EGO. In doing this, I don’t have to be RIGHT to win, I just have to BE. This kills many arguments and fights and attracts positivity into my life which in turn allows me to push positivity back out to the world.

So why am I doing meditation?

For myself/health.

For my family.

And for you and the rest of the world. By changing myself, I hope I can inspire, motivate and change the world around me for the better.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, or thoughts, let me know.

Well, even in 2017 I guess I was seeking to be a Bodhisattva, but didn't have a word for it back then, but now…

Yes, now my motivation is to invite others to join me on this path of awakening, joy, coping better with stress and suffering, and way more sustainable happiness.

You might also like our article: Finding Happiness Through Daily Meditation.

Want to try adding mindfulness and meditation to your self-care routine? Click below to get details about this free introduction to Mindfulness & Meditation mini-course.