When asked about the ‘key’ to successful meditation, Chris Cannon of Liberation Thai Yoga Massage responded, “I’m not an expert on meditation either.”
Coming from a practicing Buddhist and certified SomaVeda Thai yoga practitioner, this perspective might seem ironic. But it seems that Cannon’s attitude has a lot to do with his success as a teacher of holistic medicine in Savannah.
“I was trained under a lineage that worked under five different schools in Thailand. So it was a mix of all [different techniques],” says Cannon. “I have a decent amount of freedom for doing my own thing. I’ve found one of the things that helps me and my clients is to speak out loud to help them … come back to the moment.”
But what exactly is that “moment” within the context of meditation?
“The whole process of [meditation] is to realize that you’re out there and you should come back here. If you’re not with yourself then you’re not in the present moment. You’re with another thought that’s either in the future or in the past, and those feelings are useless. They don’t do anything for us at all,” says Cannon, who spent a large part of his life searching for a beneficial path to follow.
After he finished high school in Augusta, Ga., Cannon “did the same thing that most of us do” when initially seeking fulfillment. “I clouded my judgment with … partying, and did it so much that it affected my decisions. But things that did always stick with me were writings about self-improvement and how to become a better person.”
Cannon started to look into energetic healing, but surrounded by friends who weren’t interested, he eventually lost steam.
It wasn’t until roughly three years ago that Cannon started to revisit the things that seemed like “a better approach to life.” He met a girl who inspired him to quit smoking and he began working out excessively. But despite these changes, Cannon admits he was still in a “really destructive state of mind.”
“I started to do more yoga, change my diet, and read more … about Buddhism. And that wasn’t about my health — it was because I cared. [Buddhism] started to reinforce every decision I was making.”
Cannon says that now he’s found a career in something he’s “always been good at — touching people, or listening to them talk.”
And the community has been receptive to his work leading guided meditation sessions, teaching smoking cessation courses, and practicing Thai yoga. “I’ve been really fortunate … to be surrounded by people who are … overflowing with love and compassion and generosity.”
Cannon believes it has something to do with positive verbal affirmation. “I don’t know if it’s because I set my direction differently than in the past, but I think it was that because I said that I was going to be nice to people. Like, really said it out loud.”
The benefits of that decision, Cannon says, have been overwhelming. “It was like one reward after the next. That’s not why I kept doing it, but it certainly helped. And so now, I have all these extraordinary friends that only wish good things for me. When you’re in the presence of like-minded people, you don’t even have to say anything. You can just feel.”
And how exactly does Cannon feel about leaving Savannah?
“Atlanta isn’t tragically far away, but it’s a big adjustment. I’m used to walking everywhere and seeing people around all the time,” he says.
With the move comes more driving and more noise, something Cannon doesn’t seem too excited about. “But if I can’t deal with the hectic nature of life, how can I tell [my clients] to stay with it? I can’t. I have to practice what I’m preaching. It’s the only way I can do it.”
Cannon will be accepting clientele in Atlanta as well as taking smoking cessation courses to practice mindfulness. “The more you put [mindfulness] into practice, the more natural it becomes,” says Cannon, who used to smoke two packs a day but now guides other smokers to quit.
The best time to quit, Cannon says, is when your stress level is highest. “[Stress] is always there. If you can quit when … that stuff is happening, it won’t be so easy to go back to it when your guard is down,” he says. “It’s very rewarding to help people remove something from their lives that, I know from experience, sucks. It also reinforces my own decision to quit smoking.”
Despite Cannon’s move to Atlanta, it’s clear that his positive energy will leave a mark on the community. Thanks to his active and humble searching for a more fruitful way of living in Savannah, we can still learn a little something about being mindful even in his absence — even if we aren’t “experts” on meditation.
