DavidJi is an internationally recognized stress management expert,  corporate trainer, Meditation teacher and author of the critically acclaimed DeStressifying, The Real World Guide to Personal Empowerment, and the amazing book Secrets of Mediation: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace and Personal Transformation.

Listen to DavidJi in this interview excerpt (interviewed by Diane Rey) from the Hayhouse World Summit on Health and Wellness.

DavidJi apprenticed under Deepak Chopra for over a decade as the Center’s Lead Educator and Dean of Chopra Center University.  DavidJi has personally taught hundreds of thousands of people to meditate.

Diane : I’m really happy about the interview today, this is going to be so fun.

David Ji, a familiar voice on Hey House Radio dot com.  So if you’re not familiar with David Ji’s work, you know, pull up a chair here.

David Ji is an internationally recognized stress management expert, corporate trainer, meditation teacher, and author of the critically acclaimed Destressifying: The Real World Guide to Personal Empowerment Lasting Fulfillment and Peace of Mind, as well as, The Secrets of Meditation: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace and Personal Transformation, which was a winner of the Nautilus Book Award.  Congratulations!
DavidJi : Thank you.

Diane : I didn’t know that. He’s credited with creating the 21 day meditation process, which has spawned hundreds of 21 day meditation experiences and challenges around the world. Often referred to as the velvet voice of stillness.

So Destressifying, I love the book, there’s just so much rich material that you can share and just really helping people find balance, helping people awaken, and step into the life they’re meant to live, and I’ve learned some incredible things from the book. So you really wanted this to be a guide book, isn’t that right?
DavidJi : I did, on the cover the subtitle is The Real World Guide, but it’s more than, I didn’t want it to be a book that sits on your shelf and you read once and you never go back to. So it’s got hundreds of real world applications to heighten your awareness, to increase your emotional intelligence, to really elevate your conscious communication, to help you discover your dharma, your purpose in life, and to help you meet your needs. And I spent a lot of time really going deep into those areas in a very, very conversational and easy to access way.

And that’s why I think the book has been received so well, and it’s been, every place I go, I was just in Minneapolis Airport and there it was on the shelf, and it’s in O’hare, and so as I travel around, I’ve never seen, you know, anything but the top best sellers in airports, and suddenly Destressifying is approaching that level.

So I’m deeply grateful for that.
Diane : It’s out reaching it’s tentacles, out across the globe, across the world. Well what I enjoyed so much about it, is that I think there’s so much real world information that we can apply and we can use, and we’re stressed out aren’t we?

DavidJi : We are a stressed out nation, and a stressed out planet.

Diane : Yeah.

DavidJi : Yeah, absolutely.

Diane : And we need help.

DavidJi : And a year ago the word destressifying didn’t even exist, and now it’s part of our lexicon.
Diane : You coined that, didn’t you?
DavidJi : Yes.
Diane : You coined the phrase. So the work that you did in that book, that’s been out in the world now for a little while, you know, helping people, that was really the culmination of everything that you had been teaching in your time as a Chopra Center lead educator, and putting together all of the curriculum.

So this was stuff that you had worked with;  groups, students,

thousands of people who came through the doors of the Chopra Center, you put it all together in this book.

DavidJi : Right. This is really time tested, you know, a lot of people say what’s the difference between your first book, Secrets of Meditation, and that’s really the secrets of meditation, is everything I ever learned about meditation from the greatest masters, to the current teachers in my life, and the ancient texts as well. But that I always found to be the starting point.

It all starts with awareness.  It all starts with that seed of stillness and silence, and then you have to live your life.  You can’t just sit in the cave and meditate forever.

and that’s why I used the word cultivating your awareness, as opposed to meditation practice.

So this was really, Destressifying was like, okay now that you sort of understand what meditation can be, let’s take it deeper and that’s why I used the word cultivating your awareness, as opposed to meditation practice. Because meditation is just one of the forms of cultivating your awareness.

And when I’m teaching the military or cops, or when I’m teaching high stressed business people, I teach them to heighten their awareness, which is not just while their eyes are closed sitting in a corner and meditating.

And that’s really what they then take into the real world.  It’s that Bhagavad Gita line, yogastha kuru karmani, establish yourself in the present moment and then perform action.

Online Course:  Secrets of Meditation

Book:  Destressifying Real World Guide to Personal Empowerment, Lasting Fulfillment, and Peace of Mind

Book: Secrets of Meditation: A Practical Guide to Personal Peace and Transformation

Mindfulness and present moment awareness is one of the tools discussed in the groundbreaking movie Beyond Belief produced by Jim Holknecht and Becky Hays