Lobsang Chunzom of Limitless Health Institute: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And Support Each Other During These Anxious Times
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It’s always good to have a big toolbox of methods that can reduce anxiety, so when the time comes you can pull out the one that works today. It is also good to have some sort of training and practice to carry out the instructions to reduce your anxiety, so you can activate them quickly and effectively. Our minds need training just like our bodies, to be able and willing to actually execute the guidance you have received.
As a part of my series about the things we can do to develop serenity and support each other during anxious times, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lobsang Chunzom.
Venerable Lobsang Chunzom is a Buddhist nun and a worldwide teacher of meditation and philosophy in the Je Tsongkapa tradition. She is the founder of Limitless Health Institute, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with other caring organizations in NYC to help people experience the link between their own health and happiness and how they care for others. The LHI workshops she designs and facilitates are used worldwide. Chunzom has been a licensed Creative Arts Therapist for 30 years, specializing in dance/movement therapy. She has extensive training in ancient meditation techniques, including a 3-year meditation retreat in silence and solitude. Chunzom has degrees in movement therapy from NYU and UCLA and has provided therapeutic services in hospital settings as well as created programs to help substance abusers, incarcerated youth, and families in crisis.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
There is always a new story that comes to surface when someone asks about your backstory, and a different memory arises depending on what’s happening today. Recently, after 20 years, I connected with a good friend from college to catch up and check in. After talking for a few minutes, it felt like it was just yesterday we were training in the gymnasium. We are both established in our careers, have successful businesses and yet we were inspired sharing ideas of doing a project together. Today, we are collaborating, and we have impacted each other’s lives and business in a positive way. What does a story of reconnecting with a colleague have to do with what brought me to my career path?
When we started Limitless Health Institute it was just a bunch of city hospital workers that wanted to expand our opportunities on our own, give career opportunities to specialized practitioners of health and education and create programs that are easily accessible to everyone. The path of LHI was always about professionals encouraging each other be successful, without competition we serve more people.
What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?
There is a very famous saying that holds true even today which is, ‘practice what you preach’ or ‘walk the talk’. Coming from that point of view and being in the health business, we provide the same services to our staff as we do for our clients.
At Limitless Health Institute, we design experiential educational programs for health and happiness, which includes staff training. Our SelfCare Exchange program encourages healthcare professionals to network together and share healthful advice to connect with people experiencing the same challenges. We also provide weekly supervision meetings aimed to inspire each other, celebrate the good work done, and turn problems into creative opportunities.
What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?
As leaders in the industry, we must be a true example of the system we are promoting –and at LHI we follow the principle that in order to succeed we have to make other people successful. In our work we like to have fun doing good things, so we take every opportunity to acknowledge the small successes people have throughout the day to establish an encouraging environment. This may seem like simple advice, but it doesn’t take a lot of effort and is a good habit to have in life. Just by keeping an eye out for the amazing little things people do and showing gratitude more often, everyone will perform much better.
Many people have become anxious just from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle.
The fears related to the coronavirus pandemic have only heightened a sense of uncertainty, fear, and loneliness. From your experience or research what are five steps that each of us can take to develop serenity during such uncertain times?
Life is uncertain, and when we look for solutions outside of ourselves to remedy problems after they have arrived, fear will kick in thinking the situation is out of our control. The deeper question we all think of from time to time is, do we have the power to influence the experiences we have before we have them? When you plant a seed for a tree to grow, it takes water, sunlight, fertilizer, and time to turn from seed to tree. This basic principle of cause and effect can help us navigate and overcome the unpleasant emotions that arise when we think something negative is going to happen. We can make favorable events happen even when it appears to be happening to you and not from you.
People have many different fears about many different things. Fear is fear and is not inherently related to any event for every single person every time! Believe it or not, that is the key to having a good state of wellbeing in all challenging times. Whatever we want will remain unattainable if we disturb the chances for others to achieve the same kind of goals. For example, the quality of my peace of mind is dependent upon me helping others have peace of mind, especially when they need it the most.
There is a text, Advice for a Good Heart, from the 1100’s by a scholar and meditation master named Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, that gives practical steps to increase our capacity to achieve happiness by taking care of the happiness of others. a) make resolutions for the future: wake up with the decision to devote time in the day to take care of someone else first. b) accustom yourself, while doing things for yourself through the day, to help someone else also get something done. c) engage in small acts of kindness to get rid of habitual selfish actions. d) destroy the habit of cherishing only our lives over the lives of others. e) be thankful for your hard work as you lay down to sleep at night. Think about all the goodness of the day and dedicate it within your own mind, that every day has happiness.
There is nothing so satisfying as ending the day thinking about the good stuff we do and knowing that that goodness will determine the good of what comes next, and then there is no uncertainty.
From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to effectively offer support to those around us who are feeling anxious? Can you explain?
We can always try to help someone relax by being relaxed ourselves, and ready to listen and witness someone going through a very hard time. We can help them to focus on long exhales, while they count the breaths. It’s important to make sure the outbreaths are long enough, and the inhale comes naturally. Breathing with a focus on the exhale prevents an excess build-up of prana, or inner winds, that comes with anxiety. For example, some people experience the physicality of an anxious thought by feeling a tightness in the chest when the thought arises. Feelings of nervousness or anxiety can occur anytime, even in meditation! Practice breathing out until the lungs reach their natural pause, and then breathe out just a little bit more.
Count up to 10 breaths without thinking of something else; if you think of anything besides your exhale, then start over again at 1! If after about 5 minutes you cannot reach the 10, shift your focus to the thoughts passing through your own mind. Don’t try to control the thoughts, or analyze them, just observe the thoughts as they progress, one by one, through your mind. Once you recognize that the thoughts are racing through your mind, jumping quickly from one thought to another, you can acknowledge that those negative thoughts are moving very quickly. After watching them rush by for a while, decide on one good thought and freeze it: stop it and watch it.
Once you become experienced with this kind of watchfulness, sometimes you can follow the anxious thoughts back to the moment before the anxiety was consuming you. If the thoughts move quickly, you can go back and recall an image of peace, support, and comfort. At this point be persistent, and keep your journey focused on a place that eases your anxiety. It’s important not to be judgmental of what comes up, just sit and watch, relax and let it come. Follow the thoughts that whisper peace. And if no peaceful thoughts arise then make a plan to help someone have some peace of mind!
What are the best resources you would suggest to a person who is feeling anxious?
It’s always good to have a big toolbox of methods that can reduce anxiety, so when the time comes you can pull out the one that works today. It is also good to have some sort of training and practice to carry out the instructions to reduce your anxiety, so you can activate them quickly and effectively. Our minds need training just like our bodies, to be able and willing to actually execute the guidance you have received.
At LHI, our Inner Essentials meditation series offers guided meditations that aim to address many of the challenges we have all experienced since the pandemic started. We try to train leaders to think about different methods of teaching people how to put the knowledge and resources they have to put into practice, to make use of what they have learned in their real life.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
This body of leisure is more valuable
than a jewel which grants every wish;
And now is the only time
that you have found such a life as this.
It’s difficult to find, and easily destroyed
like lightning in the sky.
Think this over carefully,
and come to realize:
All the activities of the world
are eventually blown in the wind.
To take the essence of this life,
you must strive night and day.
This quote is from “Song of My Spiritual Life” by Je Tsongkapa (1357–1419). This text is also known as The Short Book on the Steps of the Path. This ‘Life Lesson Quote’ speaks on the fragile and fleeting essence of this life and how to carefully get the most out of this life; do activities that help people around the world. Any kindness done, with the knowledge of how today’s actions create the future, then the great fortune of this life has been found.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
It would be fun if every person who is looking for a new job helps someone else in their industry find new job, as well as share information and resources. Then we could live in a world with no competition and enjoy producing a multitude of resources for everyone.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Instagram: limitless.health.institute
Website: www.limitlesshealthinstitute.org
Email: [email protected]
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Lobsang Chunzom of Limitless Health Institute: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.