How You Can Use the Power of Meditation to Stay in the Present
May 16, 2023Pierre Labissiere, who is a Senior Consultant at Kroll with their Restructuring Administration team sat down with Kroll’s Marketing Manager Juan Normey to discuss Pierre's mental health journey, how meditation made all the difference, and talk about the ways he is passing on these lessons to his colleagues.
Pierre Labissiere, Senior Consultant at Kroll shares his journey with meditation and how it's impacted his mental health
Juan: Hi Pierre! So, to begin with, can you give me some context and some background about you, and your meditation practice?
Pierre: Yes. So, my background in meditation started about 2015, ironically enough, it really became a necessity for me because I was in a dark time in my life when it came to work life balance. I was working lots of hours, didn't really have much of a social life, wasn't really eating well or really taking care of myself physically. I was just kind of grinding it out at work and it got to the point where I was really just desperate to find some sort of relief to just feel better, whether it was physically or mentally.
So, I started looking towards things like getting to sleep earlier, drinking more water, trying to get exercise. But then I found meditation and I said, you know what? I have nothing else to lose. I was really in a depressive state and just wasn't feeling well and I was just desperate to try to find something.
After I began that journey of starting meditation back in 2015, I really saw a shift starting to happen within about 30 days and it was kind of shocking to me because I started to actually feel better about each day. I felt like I was having more focus with my work. I felt like I was becoming more intentional about what I gave my time and energy to, and it just started to make me feel better and was a tool in my overall toolkit to really help me.
J: Wow, thank you for sharing that with us, I know that a lot of people will be able to relate to that feeling of depression and not knowing what steps to take. How did you first find out about meditation?
P: So I actually found it through a Ted talk. I really enjoy watching Ted talks and I really love anything that's about making our lives easier or optimizing us as humans. And I found this meditation talk by Andy Puddicombe, who is the CEO and founder of the app ‘Headspace’. Before I didn't really think of anything of it. But then again, just really feeling bad mentally, physically. It kind of popped up back into my head.
And then I downloaded the app and just one morning at 6:00 AM at home before work, I tried it. It felt really weird at first. But I just said, you know what? Just give it 10 days. So, I just stuck out for the 10 days and it became a lifelong thing from there.
J: So, you did it by yourself, with the app?
P: Yep, did it by myself. And then from there I just started doing research into different types of meditation styles, whether it was transcendental, or other apps like ‘Insight Timer’ and just really looking into the world of mindfulness. After the first 10 days of my meditation journey, I learned that meditation is about being present. It was groundbreaking for me because it made me realize a lot of times, I was stressing out about things that I “thought” were going to happen. Whether it was deliverables at work or if it was worrying about things that happened in the past. And I just wasn't in the present. Being able to internalize that concept really changed my perspective on things.
"I think one of the things I found beautiful about meditation is that it not only helps you with your mental health, but when you're reducing stress in your body, it has a physical effect on you as well."
J: Did you go through any additional trainings for this?
P: So with that, I honestly just practiced and put in the hours and people started noticing my demeanor was different. I think one of the things I found beautiful about meditation is that it not only helps you with your mental health, but when you're reducing stress in your body, it has a physical effect on you as well. When we're stressed out and we're having negative thoughts chronically it can physically affect us in a negative way. When we're w working to reduce that stress by coming from a place of gratitude, and staying in the present, the physical effects on our body are just as prevalent.
I think people just started to notice that I'm just happier. I'm more content, I'm more focused, I'm getting things done and people just started asking me what are you doing differently? And I just started sharing that I'm doing meditation in addition to just all these other things.