Four No-B.S. Meditation Tips from ‘The Rabid Monk’

Use these tips to meditate your way through four common stressors.

Brian Collins

Brian Collins. Photo provided

“I have to be the master, right? I have to be all deep and shit.”

This is Brian Collins, known as the Rabid Monk, in all his glory. Collins went from a kid growing up in Southie to a healing and spirituality guru with a practice on Newbury Street, helping clients with everything from cancer to migraines to stress for 15 years. Now, he offers wisdom and advice for free on his Facebook page, and co-owns Life in Synergy studio.

Collins’ practices aren’t conventional, and neither is he. He swears, often. He jokes. He makes fun of you for using the word sass. While some of his claims would make research scientists cringe, Collins’ brand of spirituality and meditation—one worlds away from sitting cross-legged on a yoga cushion—is a welcome break for those tired of New Age-y jargon.

“Meditation is release. Meditation is a freedom from your own mind. That’s it,” he says. “You have to get rid of that iron grip of the mind, the iron grip that says, ‘This is what it is.’ Do not place it into any one dogmatic ideology.”

Here, Collins gives four ways to put that advice to use in everyday life:

Scenario One: Yet Another T Breakdown or Mass Pike Traffic Jam

Instead of stewing about how late you’ll be, use your stationary time to think of something positive, Collins says.

“If you are frustrated, then create the energy of pleasure in your head. Replay a positive scenario that you have had in the past over and over for three minutes in your mind,” he recommends. “This personal life experience mantra will help to change your overall vibe and make a crappy situation more tolerable.”

Scenario Two: Work Stress

Whether it’s a tight deadline, a demanding boss, or an always-annoying co-worker, the office is rife with stressful situations. When dealing with the irritating desk-mate, Collins suggests looking inward.

“You have to realize that you can never change the other person,” he says. “If they are annoying, could you be producing annoyance energy in any way?” Take a minute to take stock of your own internal state and the vibes you’re putting off.

Scenario Three: Dealing with Rudeness

Next time your barista snaps at you or a stranger jostles you out of the way on the T, Collins says to analyze where in your body you hold that stress—maybe you make a fist or hunch your shoulders—and let it go.

Everyone has a specific storage bank in the body that stress makes deposits to when you encounter people that pull your ‘rude trigger,'” he says. “Next time you encounter a rude person, simply adjust this area by taking a long breath, hold it for a moment, exhale, and focus in on your storage bank and relax this affected zone.”

Scenario Four: The Seat-Kicker

It’s a rule of the universe that a child will kick the back of your seat on every long flight, ever. Collins insists the annoyance can be spun into a positive.

What I do is envision the kicks as a release mechanism,” Collins says, adding that this mindset may take a while to adopt. “With each kick, I see my tension subsiding versus increasing. I use the child’s actions to bypass a normal emotional response.”