Jim Collison Answers Questions Like These
Jim Collison's research into meditation and his personal meditation experience offers eye-opening answers to questions like these. Q. What's at the root of most visits to a doctor's office? Q. What do many people who do not meditate THINK they know about meditation that may be killing them? Q. How can plain, simple, easy meditation reduce visits to the doctor's office and save lives?
Take a quick look at Jim Collison's 72-year career. Starting in 1950 at age 17, he was a part-time, small-town newspaper reporter. At age 20 he was sports editor. Jump to year 2022 and his newest book -- "Simply How to Meditate: Meditation Made Easy for Beginners and Busy People" – is published.
What makes Jim an expert at researching, writing and communicating on topics he writes about? He's a tenacious researcher. For example? Back in 1963, as staff writer for the Mason City (IA) Globe-Gazette newspaper, he dug into the mystery of the "Mason City" name. His feature article revealed Mason City, Iowa, is the only city in the world named in honor of the Masonic Order. Then Jim wanted to know the answer to "Why?" He kept the file open, and 58 years later his follow-up article, "Why a MASON City?" was published in the Grand Lodge of Scotland 2021 Yearbook.
In 1968, Jim started a business to teach advanced reading to students and teachers in the upper Midwest. He wrote and published "Skill-Building in Advanced Reading" and "Mental Power in Reading" and pursued this career through 1977.
In 1978, with several other business executives, Jim started an association for employers. He was president of the association, Employers of America, for 30 years. He also headed the association's workers compensation insurance company. During that time, he doggedly researched the subject of employee handbook policies. Then wrote and published 'The Complete Employee Handbook Made Easy" that went through three editions and was successfully marketed throughout the United States. This manual was 300-plus pages and sold for $269…and generated the income and profits to support eleven employees for eight years.
Jim also started digging into a subject of even greater interest to him: Profit-making generation from employee suggestion programs. His persistence and pursuit of generation of cost-savings and new profits from employees' ideas resulted in Jim's writing "The Complete Employee Suggestion Program Made Easy," followed by "Hidden Riches: How You Can Discover Hidden Wealth From Employees' Ideas"
In 1982, Jim prepared and taught his Start on Success course at the local community college, a 10-session class for women wanting to start their own businesses. This course was developed and taught with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor for the purpose of encouraging women in North Iowa to achieve independence and opportunities in the world of business.
His expertise in employee management and his interest in business and football sports at St. John's University (MN) drove him, in year 2000, to research and write the book "NO-How Coaching: Strategies for Winning in Sports and Business from the Coach Who Say's 'NO!'" (Published by Capital Books in 2001.)
Where in all this determined researching, writing, and business success did meditation come into Jim's life?
Actually, very early. Jim started meditating when he was about 10 years old. Reciting the rosary as a Catholic child, child of two parents who were deeply dedicated to the rosary. (Yes, properly recited, praying the rosary is a recognized form of meditation.) Over the next 25 years, Jim's spiritual development matured, he left the rosary behind, and in his early 30s he dug into Buddhism and classical Taoism. In the early 1970s he discovered the Unity School of Christianity (Unity Village, MO) and Unity publications. He discovered Unity's approach to guided meditation and the use of positive affirmations.
Jim also became a lay minister, mostly speaking in United Church of Christ (UCC) churches, during 42 years.
During all these years his growth and experience in meditating matured and broadened.
In 2018, Jim decided he would create some exercise worksheets to instruct beginners to easily teach themselves how to meditate. The worksheets idea slowly morphed into a how-to book idea, which by early 2022 joined the meditation world. The book is "Simply How to Meditate"
The Unique Content in Jim's Book
Here's some unique content Jim put into his cutting-edge book:
It's the first how-to-meditate book that includes guidance for persons with aphantasia, the inability to see images in the mind. Aphantasics have no "mind's eye" It's estimated up to 3% of the population have no "mind's eye," which can make some kinds of meditation, such as guided meditation, frustrating for them. Jim's book, also, is unique for a how-to-meditate book because it is visually interesting. It's illustrated with 24 color photos of persons in normal, real-life activity. This is in contrast to other published illustrations of people meditating, which show people sitting in lotus positions, making meditation appear off-putting and boring to beginners and busy people. Also, his how-to book is unique because, through 16 practice activities, the learner is encouraged to create their own, personal affirmative mantras to repeat in the meditations. This contrasts with much of the other meditation instruction that has learners use "canned" repetitions, such as doing a "body scan" There is no body scan in Jim's book.
Best Questions About Meditating
Jim Collison's meditation experience and research into meditation offer eye-opening answers for better health and enriching living. Imagine what Jim's varied career in researching, writing, publishing, association management, and insurance executive bring to conversations on questions like these:
Q. What do many people who do not meditate THINK they know about meditation that may be killing them?
Q. What's the underlying, root cause of most visits to doctors' offices that meditating could resolve?
Q. What are two best-kept secrets about health-boosting meditation?
Q. How is nearly everything an opportunity to meditate?
Q. How can a person easily turn some of their everyday moments into health-boosting meditation?
Q. What is "love medicine" and how does it make us healthier? What's one kind of meditation people can do which releases "love medicine"?
Q. What are the five most important health benefits of meditating?
Q. What's the "elixir of life" a person experiences while meditating that doesn't cost anyone a single penny?
Why Jim's Favorite Color May Matter to You
By Audrey Jo Sparks
Jim Collison is the living essence of the color blue in all its tints and shades.
How is this significant for understanding Jim's knowledge of and guidance for meditation for beginners and busy people?
We search for the color in a person's character to determine how much we can trust their direction in this fast-paced world. We look for the colors that help us move into a sense of peace, help us find the footing needed to maneuver the rocky path beneath our feet.
Jim is more than the author of "Simply How to Meditate" He offers us the color of character that provides such direction in our pursuit of meditation. The color of blue.
The color blue represents serenity and calm, intelligence and responsibility. Depending on the tint or shade, it may also evoke a sense of peace or power. Not only does blue radiate from the very being of who Jim is, but it also seems to have relentlessly blended physically throughout his life.
Raised in Blue Earth, MN, Jim learned strength and diligence through witnessing a father who lost his sight at a young age but continued, undaunted, to become a successful chiropractor. He learned compassion and empathy from a mother whose life mission was to serve those who had less. Jim has found a true calling in the strength of giving, whether that be through the numerous books he's researched and written, volunteering in his local community, or addressing, head-on, issues of inequality.
Jim began building the tools needed for a strong meditation practice from an early age. If you were to have a conversation with Jim, you might hear about his days spent climbing bluffs that overlooked the river circling his small hometown to marvel at nature. The blue of the water and the blue of the sky provided a deep sense of connection that he would dream of incorporating into his adulthood. He may reflect on his days as a journalist working undercover for the Waterloo, IA, NAACP.
His personal growth would provide the patience required to maintain forward movement in his endeavors during those years. During this time, he would build a more profound sense of connection to the people around him.
In conversation with him, you will also hear about his love of his family and friends and be enthralled by the comforting way he describes each of them.
But eventually, the conversation will drift to the moment when Jim found his true calling of simply loving.
After a life-altering experience, Jim found himself in a space requiring calm and peace to recover. During these moments of almost forced meditation, he found the answer to a nagging question. "How do I continue nourishing the loving relationship I have with the persons I love the most?"
For Jim, that answer was simply to love.
Jim's journey manifests a deep connection to himself and those around him through his meditation practice and the love that flows because of it. Leaning on his early encounters with prayer, Jim has discovered that he has always utilized meditation in some form. Now simplified, his meditation has grown to fit into an ever-changing and busy world. The rat wheel will not stop turning.
Jim has discovered ways to grasp the available moments of calm essential to finding a center within. In his book, "Simply How to Meditate," he shares his discoveries.
These days Jim spends his time enjoying a slower pace living not too far from his first Blue Earth home, now in his dream home with the soft blue siding and a screened-in porch overlooking a crystal blue lagoon. At his front door, you'll find a Peace Pole with a base surrounded by ice blue glass. When the door opens, a man who is the reality of blue with his calm demeanor, sharp intelligence, a deep sense of responsibility to his family, friends, and community, and peaceful gaze will greet you.
So, you might read other experts' bios that go on about the many accomplishments to entice you to find confidence in their character. If you want that, Google Jim Collison.
You won't need to spend much time searching to discover just how talented he is.
This column shows the human side of Jim, the color of his real character that has enabled him to accomplish so many things while also maintaining the fortitude needed to understand that we all need a moment to breathe and reflect.