Meditation Saved My Life (with Jon Dwoskin)
Losing half your relatives, losing your mother, losing your father, getting diagnosed with cancer yourself: that’s not an easy path to walk as a young adult. Jonathan Dwoskin was forced to grow up real early, real fast — and, along the way, he managed to find support and develop some tools that allowed him to not just overcome trauma but literally save his life.
The first tool that helped Jon recover from trauma was therapy. His mom and pretty much her whole side of the family died within about 10 years, and it was physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting. Then his step mom suggested therapy, and he started developing even more healthy coping mechanisms.
The next tool that transformed Jon’s life was meditation — and Jon very literally credits meditation with saving his life. The mindfulness practice made him more present in his own body, it helped tune his intuition. And as a result, one day, he just knew something was off. So he went to see a doctor and got screened for cancer, but the doctor said he was fine. He came back 30 days later, still not feeling right, and this time the tests came back positive; he had cancer. But through this intentional awareness, Jon was able to catch the disease and put an end to it in the very early stages.
Now, as a coach, Jon brings these same practices to leaders and executives… but, sometimes, he has to sneak it in. There’s still a bit of a stigma around practices like meditation, especially in the business community, but the results are undeniable once you experience them. So he starts with data and some creative rebranding — he introduces it as quiet time — until the people he works with can feel the difference.
I am so grateful to Jon for sharing this story, for sharing his meditation practice, because I think a lot of people still look at meditation as a New Age oddity, or exclusively part of ancient spiritual tradition. Meditation is just intentional self-awareness, and it’s not some secret tool only available to some of us. It’s profoundly powerful, and it’s quite possibly the most valuable free resource available to any of us.
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Lessons for intentional living:
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