Life rarely gives us a moment to stop.
There is always another responsibility, another message, another deadline, another problem waiting to be handled. For first responders, military personnel, entrepreneurs, and anyone living under constant pressure, that feeling can become even stronger. The body may leave work, but the mind can remain switched on.
On a recent episode of A “Healthy Point of View” podcast, Sam Tejada, CEO and Founder of Liquivida®, sat down with Ishan Shivanand, a monk, meditation teacher, researcher, and author of The Practice of Immortality, for a conversation about meditation, breathwork, emotional regulation, resilience, and what Ishan describes as the “still point.”
For Ishan, finding that still point is not about escaping life. It is about learning how to return to yourself before life overwhelms you.
Your Mind Never Stops — This Monk Explains How to Find the Still Point | Ishan Shivanand | Ep. 183
From a Monastery to Modern Research
Ishan grew up in a monastery in Rajasthan, India, where he spent nearly 20 years. Meditation and yogic practices were not something he encountered occasionally; they were the environment in which he was raised.
He eventually reached the level of an acharya, a teacher who has not simply learned a practice but has made it part of his own life and can guide others through it.
That distinction became important to Ishan when he began working with universities and researchers.
He noticed that many people were studying yoga and meditation academically while being far removed from the traditions in which those practices originated. He compares the difference to a story about duck soup. The first person receives the actual soup. The next person gets the “soup of the soup,” and eventually someone is left with little more than hot water.
For Ishan, the point was simple: meditation should not only be something you read about. It should be something you experience.
That belief eventually led him toward research into Indian knowledge systems, including meditation and yogic practices, and their potential applications in areas such as mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Looking Beyond the Traditional Mental Health Model
One of the central themes of the conversation was mental health.
Ishan pointed out that modern healthcare systems can be effective at providing acute care, particularly when someone is experiencing an immediate crisis. But he questioned whether existing systems are always equipped to provide accessible, long-term support and rehabilitation.
This is where he believes practices such as meditation, breathwork, and yoga can have a place.
Rather than waiting until someone reaches a crisis point, Ishan advocates teaching people skills that can help them understand and regulate their emotions earlier in life.
He believes those skills could be taught much earlier, alongside the traditional subjects children learn in school. Knowing geography helps a child understand the world around them, he explained, but learning how to navigate their own emotions can help them understand their inner world.
For Ishan, that is the foundation of emotional regulation.
His work has included studies and programs involving areas such as insomnia, anxiety, depression, veterans, and people recovering after cancer treatment. During the conversation, he described results from research conducted with different groups, while also emphasizing that more research is needed across other conditions.
His larger point was not that meditation should replace medicine. In fact, he specifically described meditation and medication as potentially complementary, particularly when looking at long-term health and overall wellbeing.
From Diagnosis to Resilience
Another important part of the conversation was the problem of self-diagnosis.
Ishan described seeing people rely on social media tests and online content to label themselves with mental health conditions. At the same time, some people who genuinely need support may be less likely to speak openly about what they are experiencing.
His response was to change the way he approached the work.
Instead of leading with a diagnosis, he began emphasizing resilience and compassion.
That approach can also make it easier for groups such as veterans and first responders to participate without feeling that they are admitting weakness or attaching a label to themselves.
The goal becomes broader: learn how to handle stress, understand emotions, develop resilience, and build compassion.
It is a shift from asking, “What is wrong with me?” to asking, “How can I become better equipped to deal with what life brings?”
The Missing “Full Stop”
For Sam, the conversation had particular relevance to first responders.
After 12 years in the fire department, he understood the effects of long shifts, sleep deprivation, constant stress, and the difficulty of switching off after work.
Ishan described meditation as a way of creating a “full stop.”
His analogy was music. Notes create the music, but the pauses between those notes are just as important. Without the pauses, everything would run together.
Life needs those pauses too.
First responders may spend hours operating in a state of hyperfocus and heightened adrenaline. The problem, Ishan explained, is when there is no transition afterward, when the body returns home but the nervous system never really gets the message that the emergency is over.
Meditation can create that space.
It gives someone an opportunity to leave work behind and actually be present at home.
Ishan also challenged the idea that meditation or yoga should be viewed as something reserved for a particular type of person. He pointed to the historical connection between yogic practices, warriors, meditation, and self-regulation, arguing that the ability to regulate yourself is particularly valuable for people who regularly operate under pressure.
So, What Exactly Is the Still Point?
This became the heart of the conversation.
Ishan describes the still point as a moment when we disconnect from external influences and, even temporarily, from the constant stream of internal thoughts, emotions, and unresolved issues.
It is a place of quiet.
But his explanation goes beyond simply “clearing your mind.”
He compares it to a whale coming to the surface of the ocean to breathe. The whale’s life is in the water, but it still needs to leave the water for a moment, take a breath, and return.
People need something similar.
We spend so much time immersed in our responsibilities, problems, thoughts, and emotions that we can forget to step outside of them. The still point becomes that moment of returning to ourselves, a place where we can pause, reset, and reconnect.
For Ishan, it is also where a person can find greater clarity and what he calls the “higher self.”
Meditation Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
For someone new to meditation, Ishan recommends guided meditation because it gives the mind something to follow. For experienced practitioners, self-meditation can become more natural.
He also shared a simple breathwork and meditation practice during the podcast.
The exercise begins with body awareness. With the eyes closed, the practitioner moves their attention from the head, to the heart, to the navel, and finally to the feet.
Then the awareness moves back upward.
Ishan combines this movement with breathing, visualization, and focus. Participants are asked to identify a powerful quality within themselves, perhaps compassion, courage, love, or willpower, and visualize that quality as an energy moving through the body.
The exercise brings together several elements of meditation: breath, awareness, visualization, and, in more advanced practices, mantra.
Ishan recommended practicing for five to ten minutes, particularly before sleep, as a way to begin developing a rhythm.
Stop Being the Milk
Ishan’s book, The Practice of Immortality, uses an unusual metaphor to explain his philosophy.
He compares human life to milk.
Milk has a limited shelf life. But from milk, you can produce cheese, and from milk you can produce ghee, something with a much longer life.
For Ishan, that transformation represents what can happen within human consciousness.
He describes the deeper part of ourselves as something that is already there but needs to be discovered through practice.
“Stop being the milk, start becoming the ghee,” is the essence of his message.
The book combines stories from Ishan’s life in the monastery with meditation practices. Each chapter includes a practice, allowing readers not only to learn about meditation but to engage with it.
Bringing the Still Point Into Everyday Life
Perhaps the most practical message from Ishan’s conversation with Sam is that finding stillness does not require leaving modern life behind.
Ishan himself wrestles with that question.
He left the monastery to bring the teachings into the wider world and preserve their original essence. He described his hope of becoming an “urban monk”, someone who can live within modern society while still maintaining the inner discipline of a monk.
That idea brings the conversation back to where it started.
You do not necessarily need to escape your life to find peace within it. You may simply need to learn how to pause. To breathe. To become aware of what is happening inside you. And, even for a few minutes, find your still point.