Mindfulness with Ajani Charles | E037

Improving life and career outcomes through mindfulness.

In this episode of Financial Planning for Canadian Business Owners, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, and writer, interviews Ajani Charles, a mental health advocate that is here to discuss the benefits of mindfulness on life and individual wellness!

Episode Highlights:

  • 1:20 – Ajani Charles introduces himself and his profession.

  • 2:34 – What is Ajani’s definition of mindfulness?

  • 3:08 – How has mindfulness helped Ajani along his life path?

  • 5:10 – What mechanisms and toolsets help cultivate mindfulness?

  • 8:47 – Jason talks about how he discovered meditation.

  • 11:00 – How is limiting judgment at the moment beneficial?

  • 13:30 – Jason and Ajani discuss the ability of meditation to increase one’s capacity to do more.

  • 19:36 – Ajani discusses how people enter careers without knowing their motivations.

  • 20:50 – How is the brain structure affected by mindfulness?

  • 23:02 – What should people do to get started with mindfulness?

  • 25:49 – Ajani talks about Operation Prefrontal Cortex.

  • 31:02 Ajani dives into multiple mindfulness-promoting organizations that he works with now and in the past.

3 Key Points

  1. Before he started practicing mindfulness in 2014, Ajani felt unfulfilled about his relationships and was unhappy about his path.

  2. There exists a lot of self-judgment in those that are driven to perform highly, taking away from their present-moment awareness. Mindfulness can help them with that.

  3. Mindfulness and meditation can help bring to light things from our subconscious that are not usually available to us, such as motivations, suppressed feelings, etc.

Tweetable Quotes:

  • “Mindfulness is a non-judgmental present-moment awareness.” – Ajani Charles

  • “At the end of the day, we are all constantly our own ever-extending and ever-ongoing projects, right?” – Jason Pereira

  • “Flow states are states of present-moment awareness that are cultivated through activities that are no so challenging that they paralyze on with anxiety but not so easy that they induce boredom.” – Ajani Charles

  • “Our judgments of others are usually our judgments of ourselves expressed outwards.” – Ajani Charles

Resources Mentioned:


Transcript:

Producer: Welcome to the Financial Planning For Canadian Business Owners Podcast. You will hear about industry  insights with award-winning financial planner and entrepreneur, Jason Pereira. Through the interviews  with different experts with their stories and advice you will learn how you can navigate the challenges of  being an entrepreneur, plan for success, and make the most of your business and life. And now your  host, Jason Pereira. 

Jason Pereira: Welcome. On today's show, I have something different for you. We're not focusing on financial planning  per se. We're focusing generally on business owner wellness, which is, of course, linked to your overall  productivity and financial welfare. And for this, I brought on a friend and colleague of mine, Ajani  Charles. Ajani Charles is an accomplished visual artist and mental health advocate, and I brought him on  the podcast specifically to talk about mindfulness and how it can help support you in both productivity  and just general happiness in life. And with that, here's my interview with Ajani. Ajani, thanks for taking  the time. 

Ajani Charles: Yeah, thanks for having me. Very excited to talk about these topics. 

Jason Pereira: Well, we always have a good time when we talk about these things, because I don't know how many  other people in your life you talk about this stuff regularly with them, but I don't have that many so it's  great. So before we get started, tell us a little bit about who you are and what it is you do. 

Ajani Charles: Well, I'm a photographer, director, producer, and mental health advocate that can be summarized as  being a visual artist and mental health advocate. Everything I do is interrelated. I'm very passionate  about my career path, my vocations, and I'm grateful that we met. I view you as being not only a client  and colleague, but also a mentor and a friend. And I came to you a long time ago because I knew that I  was lacking in knowledge when it came to business and entrepreneurship, and I've learned a lot through  our conversations over the years. So it's an honor to be here. 

Jason Pereira: Thank you. I do view you as a friend and colleague as well, so very much appreciate that. And for those  of you who ever wonder who handles my fantastic photography it is the gentleman speaking on this  line. I'll get the boast that I share a photographer with countless hip hop stars, including Drake. I am at  the bottom of his client list, but nevertheless, and nowhere near as photogenic. But anyway, let's move  on. First of all, let's define mindfulness and what comes with it. And then I want to talk about your  history in that space and what brought you to it. And then we can explore the applications if it. So what  is, in your definition, mindfulness? 

Ajani Charles: Mindfulness is present moment awareness. Mindfulness is being here now and being aware and  cognizant of what is happening in one's immediate environment, in one's body, and throughout one's consciousness without judgment. That's a key point. Mindfulness is non-judgmental present moment  awareness. 

Jason Pereira: Yeah, we're going to come back to that point on judgment shortly, because that is a big, big, big matter.  So tell me about how your journey with mindfulness started and where you've gotten to with it. 

Ajani Charles: My journey with mindfulness came from experiencing a profound lack of mindfulness and profound lack  of self-awareness and self-acceptance. I experienced an existential crisis in 2014. And I've been on the  same career path since my early 20s and I wouldn't change my career path for anything. It's very  fulfilling and I love it. However, the way that I was going about my career and my businesses in 2014 and  before was incredibly unhealthy and misaligned with my many goals and values, which were not  explicitly articulated at the time. Also, my relationships with others, my relationship with myself, my  relationship to humanity was incredibly unhealthy prior to 2014. All of that came to a head in August of  2014, where I realized that the trajectory of my life was an unhealthy and unsustainable one. 

Ajani Charles: I was feeling very unfulfilled and unhappy about most of my, my relationships and I was seeking tools to  provide me with some insights about how I came to that point and how I was operating in the world and  who I wanted to be and how to move forward. So at the time, it seemed like a curse, but in retrospect,  that existential crisis, which brought every aspect of my life into question, was one of the greatest  blessings that I've experienced. And I still struggle with many of the things that I was experiencing at  that time, but I have so much more insight and perspective into my suffering in the present, and I know  that these things are temporary and I have support systems that didn't exist before. 

Jason Pereira: And one of the core messages there too, is when you say, "I still have those in my life," I mean, the  reality is that no one ever gets to full fulfillment. At the end of the day, we're all constantly our own ever  extending and ever ongoing projects. So talk to me about what mechanisms and toolsets are involved in  developing mindfulness. 

Ajani Charles: There are many ways to go about cultivating mindfulness, which again is non-judgmental present  moment awareness. In the beginning, I began a very modest meditation practice using the Calm app,  and I'm very fortunate to have gone on, to work with the Calm team on a number of projects. So initially  I was so scared of diving into my conscious mind. Physically, it was just difficult for me to sit for  extended periods of time and I had an aversion towards my thoughts, the sensations of my body, and  facing myself ultimately. So I began meditating a minute or two every few days, and it'd be very  inconsistent using the Calm app. Eventually, since I had stopped engaging in certain relationships and  activities such as drinking, going to nightclubs, et cetera, I had so much extra time that eventually I filled  that extra time with new habits, new relationships that were far more adaptive, and far more conducive  to my goals. 

Ajani Charles: And eventually those one or two minutes of meditation evolved into 10 to 20 minutes per day. So I've  been meditating daily with and without the Calm app every single day, with the exception of a couple of  days, since 2014. Also, one of my friends owned a sensory deprivation spa in close to the North York  District of Toronto. It has since closed, but meditating and sensory deprivation tanks, otherwise known  as flow tanks, for an hour per week for a couple of years, helped me. It fast-tracked me in terms of my  meditation practice. I was no longer scared of meditating for extended periods of time. After that, I  started joining different mindfulness and meditation communities, different spiritual groups and  learning about introspection, meditation, and other ways of cultivating mindfulness. One of them is the  Consciousness Explorers Club, which was founded by Jeff Warren, who is one of the instructors in the  Calm app, coincidentally, and through the Consciousness Explorers Club I realized that, oh wow, I can  meditate for two hours. 

Ajani Charles: So eventually, by aligning myself with people who are promoting and cultivating mindfulness on a daily  basis, I started doing the same. I also started learning about flow states, and flow states are basically  states of present moment awareness that are cultivated through activities, activities that are not so  challenging that they paralyze one with anxiety and self doubt, but not so easy that they induce  boredom. It's like the sweet spot where you're in the zone. That's what a flow state is. So once I started  learning about flow states I realized that I've been engaging in flow states since childhood as an artist  and also as an athlete. So once I learned about flow states, I started going about cultivating flow states  intentionally, practicing the different crafts that define my career path and businesses on a more regular  basis. 

Ajani Charles: So my day-to-day life involves cultivating mindfulness at this point. And I have lapses in mindfulness all  the time, and have many fears and insecurities that stem from childhood that still exists, but through  the cultivation of mindfulness, I'm able to navigate them more gracefully and I'm able to let them go  more gracefully than I thought was possible before 2014. 

Jason Pereira: Yeah. I mean, I'll share a little bit about my journey on this for the listeners too. I mean, I came into  meditation by way of the Tim Ferriss Podcast, and he would speak to a lot of top performers around the  world and talk about routines and almost universally they all talked about meditation in the morning.  I'm like, "Okay, I've got to explore this." And I used a different app at the time, it was Headspace. And I  couple of read a couple of books on it. 10% Happier by, I think it's, Dan Harris. Is that right? And then  another one specifically on a university professor on the subject. And they were both insightful and,  before I even started trying, took away some of the, "Am I going to do this right? I'm just sitting with my  eyes closed," that entire intimidation factor. 

Jason Pereira: And I will say that, after about three months of doing it, I actually started apologizing to people in my life  for having been such a jerk in some instances in the past, because we talked about metacognition and  the ability to recognize yourself in your own moment. But you also recognize just how poorly you were  handling things, because you're running on pure adrenaline sometime and you're just moving from  action to action. And maybe you know you're acting like a bit of a jerk, but you can't stop yourself from  that moment, this really gets in the way of it. And one of the other things that helped in that regard too, and this is a flow state type exercise, martial arts are particularly good at inducing flow states. And I  would actually say one of the things that makes Brazilian jujitsu incredibly addictive for anyone who  does it is the fact that when you're sparring in it, yeah, it's competitive, but you're not trying to hurt  each other. 

Jason Pereira: You're not crushing each other, as long as you've got a good partner. And I find that is one thing that  seems to induce flow states in everybody once they get to a certain level. And it literally became a form  of meditation for me to some degree too. So I just know that and I also know that when I go through  periods where I'm not meditating as frequently, which for me, sometimes I'll go weeks or months, I can,  after about two weeks, feel a physical change in myself that is not pleasant from the lack of it. And what  started off as a difficult exercise where I wasn't sure if it was doing it right, becomes an exercise where I  would rather spend more time doing it than less, because I get so much out of it. But anyway, that's  mine. 

Jason Pereira: I want to come back to the judgment part, because that's a big component here. A lot of our especially  highly driven people and business owners I think too, there's a lot of self judgment and pushing  ourselves to be better, harder. We're doing something wrong, we've got to fix it. Talk to me about the  concept of self judgment in this framework and how limiting judgment in the moment is actually  beneficial. 

Ajani Charles: Absolutely. First I want to say that one of the reasons the cultivation of mindfulness is important for  entrepreneurs and small business owners, especially entrepreneurs and small business owners that are  highly ambitious, is because the journey of entrepreneurship is going to put one through every emotion  imaginable and the highs and lows can be extreme. 

Jason Pereira: As every listener of his podcast has heard me say several times, it is the single most bipolar thing you  could ever choose to do to yourself. You're absolutely right. Some days you're King of the World. Other  days, you're like, "What am I doing on myself? Why did I do this? I could have had an easier life," or, "I'm  going to fail." Oh man, it is a roller coaster. 

Ajani Charles: Yeah, it's an absolute roller coaster, especially if you're high in conscientiousness and you're taking care  of your team, taking care of your clients, and possibly neglecting yourself in the process. Mindfulness  will help you to navigate all of that. The cultivation of mindfulness will help to regulate emotions and  will help the entrepreneur to notice the different patterns that they're engaging in and why they've  gone about cultivating certain relationships, and so on and so forth. And as far as self-judgment and  judgment of others is concerned, something that I've learned through my journey through the  cultivation of mindfulness in psychotherapy is that our judgments of others are usually our judgments of  ourselves projected outward. So, for example, if I view someone as being lazy, it's because on a daily  basis, I suppress the aspects of myself that are lazy and easy going so then that quality almost disgust  me. But it's because I haven't accepted it in myself and I would be better served to take more breaks.

Ajani Charles: And I'm highly perfectionistic. Workaholism is something that I've struggled with for a long time, and  mindfulness has helped me to break that pattern. Not consistently yet, but it allows me to notice when  I'm going on workaholic tangents and why I'm going on workaholic tangents. What is the source of the  discontent that's causing me to push myself far past my limits, both physically and psychologically? So I  would argue that the cultivation of mindfulness, whether it's through meditation, flow states,  journaling, et cetera, probably one of the most important skills that a small business owner can possess. 

Jason Pereira: I think what people fail to understand about this stuff and think, "I don't have time for anything, let  alone this," and there's an old saying that says, "If you don't have the time to meditate for 10 minutes,  you probably should meditate for an hour," and the reality is what's counterintuitive about it, it's so  such a restorative procedure that your ability to basically get more done than in your previous state is  misunderstood. You can sacrifice 10 minutes and you'll be more productive for the rest of the day  because of it. And I remember two stories with this one. One was, in one episode of Jerry Seinfeld's  Comedians Driving in Cars and Getting Coffee, whatever it's called, he specifically talked about how he  discovered transcendental meditation after Seinfeld was over. He's finished Seinfeld because he was  burnt. He was completely burnt out. He said, "If I had discovered this, then that show could have gone  on for the 10 years," because he felt it was that restorative. 

Jason Pereira: The second story I'll give is, I think I've talked about this before, there's a business program called The  Strategic Coach with Dan Sullivan where he talks about how business owners have it backwards. We  work ourselves to the bone until we are so burnt out we need a vacation, but our productivity drops like  a rock towards the tail end of that. And then we take a vacation, we come back restored, and we are  super productive. And then we do it again. And he's saying, "Flip the model. Take the vacation to be  productive and before you hit that crisis moment, take another vacation." And it's not quite the same  message, but it's the same thinking. It's the restoration in order to be productive, and you are far more  productive if you are restorative. 

Ajani Charles: I totally agree. And intellectually, I know all of this and I meditate every day, I practice Jaffa Yoga and  other forms of yoga every day, and I still get stuck in neurotic patterns of workaholism and  perfectionism. And also, because of my mindfulness practices and practices that would fall under the  realm of physical exercise, my capacity to do more has increased. But what happens is, when I have  lapsed in mindfulness and I start pushing myself further and further, it's like now I'm a more effective  workaholic. So I'm starting to break out of that pattern at this point. But yeah, since business is  inherently competitive, all small business owners, all entrepreneurs have competition within the  markets that they're in. 

Ajani Charles: And I can say from the data that I've looked at it as far as the science related to mindfulness practices  concern and also based on my personal experiences that you become hard to compete with when you  engage in these practices. You're able to notice things about yourself, others, and you're able to see  opportunities that would completely elude you without the cultivation of mindfulness. It's the most  incredible competitive advantage. Had I known that my life and relationships would change in the way that they have through the cultivation of mindfulness, had I known that in my early 20s or as a teenager,  I would have started meditating every day then. 

Jason Pereira: Well, and I will say, it's good because mindfulness is actually starting to be incorporated in curriculums  at school. So I'm glad for that. And even when my own children who were very young. Actually, it's a  funny story. My son was three and a half years old when this happened, and when he was freaking out,  I'd always tell him just, "Okay, you're upset. Breathe. Take a deep breath. Breathe out. You're get to feel  better," and I just coach him through that. And he was a three and a half year old, so how much of it got  through? And one time, my wife was really upset about something and this three and a half year old boy  goes and grabs her face like, "Mommy, take a deep breath. Take a deep breath and breathe out. You're  going to feel better. Take a deep breath. It's going to feel better.' And I'm just like, "Okay." It's hilarious.  Three and a half, at least he's got some semblance of mindfulness. So I'm mission accomplished on that  front. Lots more life lessons to go, but it was quite amusing to watch. 

Jason Pereira: So let's talk about a couple other things. Actually, one more story comes to mind. This is funny. There's a  highly successful business owner that I know of that often enters into massive large-scale negotiations.  And essentially what happened, these negotiations were so crucial to him, he wanted nothing to let slip  with them, and to the point where he would literally go get blood tests done by clinics the day before he  went to make sure that nothing was off in any way, shape or form. He wanted to be level. He wanted to  be whatever it was. He had a routine that he would basically follow prior to, and mindfulness was part  of that, because he wanted to be the "Razor's edge" of focus when it came time for that crucial  moment. So it's just funny because, again, it's this counterproductive counterintuitive thing that it's  taking time to not work, it's actually going to make you so much better at work. 

Ajani Charles: Right. And another important thing about mindfulness, it brings forth the subconscious mind, or what  Carl Jung refers to as the shadow, the aspects of ourselves that are suppressed or that are typically not  obvious to us and those include our motivations. And I find that many people choose career paths or  may launch a business without engaging in these practices, without truly engaging in any semblance of  introspection. I remember I once asked a friend, he was basically training to become a police officer, and  this is before 2014, before I started cultivating mindfulness intentionally. I've always been interested in  philosophy and I've always asked myself challenging questions, and I would periodically ask others  challenging questions. So I asked him, "Why do you want to become a police officer?" And by this point  he was already in the midst of training to become a police officer. 

Ajani Charles: And he thought about it for a minute, he said, "I'm still trying to figure that out." Police officers have,  based on my research and the work that I'm doing with them, Operation Prefrontal Cortex, which I'm  sure we'll talk about soon ... 

Jason Pereira: We'll come to that, yeah. 

Ajani Charles:... police officers experience the highest suicide rates and incredibly high rates of anxiety, depression,  and PTSD. That doesn't seem like a career path that anyone ought to jump into haphazardly or without  some deep introspection. But people do that all the time. They launch businesses without having  insights into their true motivations or why they're launching the business, or how the business could  potentially benefit them or humanity, or without thinking about if the business is a reflection of their  skills and talents. So I see this on a daily basis. People work for companies almost randomly. Why did  you choose this career path? Why is this the trajectory that you're on? Mindfulness will provide  individuals the space to ask and answer those questions. 

Jason Pereira: Yeah, understanding your own core motivations I mean, it's funny, that entire, "I'm still trying to figure  that out," I look at that as being almost a default experience for most people in university in Canada.  They get to a level, they do what they're supposed to be doing, or think they're supposed to be doing,  going through a program, and many of them graduated from a program without knowing what they  want to do with their lives still. We don't spend enough time actually picking our own direction. So there  are many other things I want to come onto, and then I do want to get back to Operation Prefrontal  Cortex, but one thing I want to touch on before we moved on to that is I want to talk about how the  brain structure is actually affected by mindfulness, because this is an utterly fascinating concept  altogether. 

Ajani Charles: Yeah, absolutely. So what happens through the cultivation of mindfulness, whether that mindfulness  stems from mindfulness meditation, loving kindness meditation, which is otherwise known as meta  meditation or flow states, is the amygdala, the fight/flight/freeze part of the brain, over time starts to  shrink, it becomes less dominant. And then the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that  oversees executive functioning, complicated decision making, and logic, that becomes more dominant  and starts to grow. So that's crucial for small business owners and entrepreneurs, especially in high  pressure situations. In high pressure situations, biologically we tend to overly rely on the amygdala. The  amygdala is designed to create safety, to get us out of dangerous situations. 

Ajani Charles: But if you're in a complicated negotiation or if you're in the process of making a sale, or if you're  recruiting someone, it may not be in your best interest to be relying on your amygdala to the degree  that it wants you to rely on it. And mindfulness can help entrepreneurs and small business owners  sifting clearly in such high pressure situations. The structures of the brain will actually change over time  in as little as eight weeks of daily mindfulness meditation. 

Jason Pereira: And it's like so many other parts of your body, your life, what grows strong is what you practice. And if  you're constantly responding in a fight or flight mechanism, you're going to be very strong at doing that  and very poor getting out of that. And the funny thing about that is that, of course, that amygdala is the  older evolutionary part of our brain from when we were very early on, whatever form of animal we  were before we evolved in the humanity, and the prefrontal cortex is the newer part, the ones that deal  with the more complex tasks and whatever that are more common to human society. These two things  do not play well together.

Ajani Charles: Right. 

Jason Pereira: The amygdala is often referred to as our lizard brain, getting back to that, and if we don't learn to  control it, we will be dominated by it like all animals are. So let's talk about getting started in  mindfulness. So what are your general pieces of advice for people getting started? 

Ajani Charles: I would say to start to aim low in regards to cultivating mindfulness, to aim low. Aim to meditate. If  you've never meditated before, aim to meditate for a minute. Sit down, meditate for a minute. Google  "how to meditate". Download the Calm app or whichever app you prefer. Look up guided meditations  on YouTube. Aim to meditate for a minute maybe once every few days and then gradually increase your  volume of meditation as you become more comfortable, because if you've never meditated before, it  can be very uncomfortable, very challenging, very confronting. Because all of your stuff, your deepest  fears and your insecurities, the physical sensations in your body that lead you to feel uncomfortable,  you're going to be confronted with all of that. And it could be overwhelming to face all of that for 10, 15,  20 minutes, right off the bat. So start small and gradually increase your volume of meditation. 

Ajani Charles: Also, socializing and sharing your experiences with like-minded people will increase your probability of  sustaining your mindfulness practices. So finding other small business owners, entrepreneurs,  colleagues that are interested in meditating or that already meditate. Seeking mentors online that  cultivate mindfulness on a daily basis can be a hugely beneficial. And then there's also indirect virtual  mentors through the apps that I mentioned before. 

Jason Pereira: Yeah, and there's several quite valuable ones out there. I will also say this much, from personal  experience, I honestly felt like first while doing it, it was an exercise in failure, non-judgmental failure  because it's remind yourself not to judge yourself for that. Because the exercise is about clearing your  mind, first and foremost. And, of course, you can enter your thoughts into that and ponder them, but  first and foremost, it's about trying to create clarity. And it is amazing, until you sit down and try to clear  your mind, you don't realize just how busy your mind is. And even I remember someone saying, even  Tibetan monks doing this stuff for a long time, maybe they go 30 seconds without a thought. Because  you'll sit there with your eyes closed and thoughts will come from everywhere, and it's about learning to  push them aside and focus on the core. 

Jason Pereira: So do not expect this to be, as much as it sounds easy to sit down, close your eyes and breathe, do not  discount that it will be a learning curve like anything else. But once you cross a certain threshold, it's  something that becomes less, not so much frustrating as rewarding, and it doesn't take that long if you  commit yourself to it. So those are my words of guidance. Now, let's talk about the various initiatives  you're involved with, because you're involved with a number of community initiatives, many of them  around mindfulness, and let's bring light to some of these because they are valuable organizations. So  let's talk about Operation Prefrontal Cortex first.

Ajani Charles: Right. I'm the Art Director for Operation Prefrontal Cortex. So we were founded by Julian Christian Lutz,  who is professionally known as Director X, and his longtime friend, Danielle Adams. We're a mindfulness  and meditation organization and program designed to reduce gun violence, police violence, and mass  violence in Toronto through mindfulness and meditation. And that organization came to fruition  because Julian was hosting a New Year's Eve party, a suit and tie New Year's Eve party in the King West  District of Toronto at a very nice venue. Someone ended up pulling a gun out on the dance floor,  shooting someone. The bullet went through that individual's back and hit Julian. Surprisingly, he was  able to get on a flight the next day and there wasn't any damage done to any of his vital organs. He's  considered by many to be the most prolific music video director in Canadian history so that would have  been a major loss had he been killed or paralyzed. 

Ajani Charles: In any case, once he worked through the trauma of that he started thinking about the variables that  would contribute to someone coming to a party and discharging a gun on the dance floor. And through  his interest in science, he started reading different studies on the neuroscience of meditation, the  neuroscience of violence, how meditation can mitigate violent impulses in the brain, and so on and so  forth. And he learned that most violent individuals, their brains are highly deregulated. Their amygdala,  their fight/flight response has gone haywire, and their prefrontal cortex hardly enters the equation. And  that's why many people who are very violent, they blackout and they simply default to lashing out  violently. And he learned that, that propensity comes from living in or growing up in environments that  are traumatic or that involve a great deal of abuse and neglect. 

Ajani Charles: So mindfulness of meditation can change the violent propensities in the brains of these individuals. And  the other component is changing the structures of the society that we live in so children aren't growing  up in environments wherein they're neglected or abused. In any case, our organization is in the process  of collaborating with the City of Toronto to implement our mindfulness based police program throughout the Toronto Police Services, and hopefully through other police departments in the GTA so  that police officers are meditating. And we aim to also bring our mindfulness based programming into  the Toronto District School Board and other school boards. We've partnered with an organization called  Mindfulness Everyday, and they're already in the Toronto District School Board. They've been teaching  mindfulness to students of all ages, teachers, and many other communities for over 20 years so they're  well versed and they oversee much of that programming. 

Ajani Charles: And we also have a program for first responders, and based on the research that we've done and based  on similar programs in other parts of the world, we strongly believe that getting students, teachers,  police officers, and first responders to meditate on a daily basis will significantly reduce the gun  violence, mass violence, and police violence in Toronto. The gun violence in Toronto has been increasing  steadily since 2016. It's becoming a real problem. There have been very shocking shooting incidents in  public areas in broad daylight. At this point in Toronto's history, almost anyone can get hit by a stray  bullet. It doesn't matter how affluent you are or what neighborhood you live in. So we're deeply  concerned by this and the science shows that meditation works when it's practiced frequently, that it  renders individuals of all ages, less violent, less impulsive. Based on my personal experiences, there are  no downsides, so we'd like to see all the populations that I've mentioned meditating on a daily basis.

Jason Pereira: Where is the downside taking the time to clear your thoughts and take a deep breath for 10 minutes?  Where is the downside? There is no downside, other than the sacrificing of a small chunk of time. And  the potential upside, I mean, put aside the science for a minute, we can all use the time to catch our  breaths. I think we can all agree that, that five minutes to 10 minutes to think to yourself is a value to all  of us. You throw the science on top of it that shows that it is super beneficial to you, and meanwhile the  counter argument being that people who are under immense stress and have these all these difficulties,  it technically actually "temporarily lowers their IQ" making them actually less able to make proper  decisions. There is no downside. 

Jason Pereira: Not only am I a consumer of this belief in that I practice it, but also I espouse to it all the time because,  again, what I'm pushing to do is, tell me what you have to lose here? You're not going to lose anything,  but you might gain. Valuable, valuable initiative. I'm glad to see you working on it. Any other? I know  you're involved in a ton of stuff. Is there anything else you want a profile while we're talking? 

Ajani Charles: Yeah, absolutely. I'm a journalist for Thrive Global, which was founded by Arianna Huffington, who I  view as a colleague and a mentor. She founded it in 2016 after experiencing extreme periods of burnout.  There was one point where she burned out so badly that she passed out at her desk, broke many bones  in her face while falling, and had a seizure. So Thrive Global was birthed from incidents like that, and the  platform exists to help executives and entrepreneurs to avoid burnout and other forms of neuroses. So I  write for Thrive Global and do research for those articles. I joined an organization called Project Healthy  Minds in the United States, which helps individuals find the mental health resources that they need,  especially if they lack in support within their communities or within their business or work  environments. We were recently announced publicly on NBC's Today Show with Carson Daly a few  weeks ago. The rapper Logic is one of our partners, and he's one of the most well-known mental health  advocates in the United States. 

Ajani Charles: So I'm grateful to have joined the Project Healthy Minds team as a content creator, creating visuals  through photography and filmmaking. As I mentioned before, I've worked with Calm. And I recently  wrote an article on mindfulness for the Toronto Star. So very grateful to represent Toronto and to share  this message of mindfulness and introspection with the masses. And I have other things in the works  that I plan on sharing with audiences in the future, but those are some of the most important mental  health projects that I'm involved in. 

Jason Pereira: Well, I think most people are fortunate to find one passion in life, you've clearly found two, your arts  and your mindfulness work. Not just mindfulness, but your mental health advocacy. So Ajani, I thank you  for this time. I thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Where can people find you if they want to  learn more? 

Ajani Charles:Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was a great conversation and I feel renewed and inspired  by our talk. I'm available on LinkedIn. Look me up, Ajani Charles. My portfolio is www.ajani.ca. All of my  social media handles are Ajani Photo. A-J-A-N-I P-H-O-T-O. @AjaniPhoto. 

Jason Pereira: Well, thank you yet again. Take care. 

Ajani Charles: Thank you. Take care. 

Jason Pereira: So that was my interview with Ajani Charles on mindfulness. I hope you enjoyed that. And I sincerely  hope you took everything we said to heart and if you haven't ever done this, please do so. I mean, like I  said, when you commit yourself to it, plenty of upside, both as a business owner and frankly as a human  being. So take the time. Once again, if you enjoyed this podcast, always leave a review on iTunes,  Stitcher, wherever you receive your podcasts. And until next time, take care. 

Producer: This podcast was brought to you by Woodgate Financial, an award-winning financial planning firm  catering to high net worth individuals, business owners, and their families. To learn more, go to  woodgate.com. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify,  or find more episodes at jasonperiera.ca. You can even ask Siri, Alexa, or Google Home to subscribe for  you.

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