MF 15 – Interview with Michel Dion – Headspace Meditation Practitioner and Leadership Expert

What this episode covers

Michel Dion is a CPA and PMP who spent his life in the business world. He has developed a website on project management, called Project-Aria. The name of the website is a mix between his interest for music and project management. He likes to live life fully and passionately. Yet, someone he discovered meditation and the power of the discipline in all dimensions of his life. Michel also recently published a book called Leadership Toolbox for Project Managers. In the book, he has included the importance of self-awareness and development of the leader as a person as part of leadership skills. This is a summary (not a full transcript) of the interview In this podcast we have a conversation about how Michel Dion: * Got started meditating because of too many thoughts and not sleeping much anymore at night. * Michel became an “accidental meditator“. * He is great at solving problems, but it started affecting his family life. He started seeing his friends get burned out by overwork, as well as develop depression. Now in his early 40’s, he couldn’t bounce back from the lack of sleep as much as when he was young. * He was attracted to start meditating after watching a BBC documentary , Michael Mosley’s Horizon: The Truth About Personality (BBC Two) in which Mosley tries mindfulness meditation based on scientific findings about our personalities. And see if he could influence his more pessimistic and insomnia prone personality. He wanted to see if he could change his brain less anxious. They found that the right side of his brain was more active than the left side, which also created an imbalance. A combination of cognitive training and mindfulness training was used to help him change his brain. See, “ Can Science Explain Why I’m a Pessimist? “ * Michel was inspired by these findings, and also wanted to learn this meditation, so he got the Headspace app by Andy Puddicombe , a former Buddhist monk. * He needed to start with guided meditation. Very useful, otherwise he would have felt lost. He doesn’t consider himself spiritual. * He also noticed more and more projects as he grew in his career, and he was never in the moment any longer. He’d be at work, as well as with his wife, and always thinking either about work or other things. He couldn’t be present any longer. Starting to lose focus. As a result of a regular meditation practice: * He found that the meditation helped him be more productive at work. * Better and more real connection with his wife and kids. * He found this important enough, that he mentioned meditation, requirement for self-awareness as a leader in the beginning of his book on Business, Project Management, and Leadership, rather than an afterthought. Taking care of yourself. At the time of this interview.. He still practices regularly using head-space, listens to podcasts (this one, and Tara Brach’s Podcast), and reads about meditation. * Michel is learning how to meditate without the assistance of guided meditation, or apps. He plans on adding unguided meditation to his practice. * Michel had to unlearn some preconceived notions and pressures about what meditation is supposed to be like. Typical misconceptions propagated: * “You can stop all thoughts!” * “Real meditators are always 100% peaceful and happy!

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.