Sacred Hours: The mindful art of unleashing hidden playfulness
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In this episode, Chandresh discusses something he calls sacred hours. Sacred hours is a concept that has become increasingly popular among Chandresh’s 1:1 clients and the Leela Gurukul students. It is changing how students show up in their creativity, personal fulfillment, and professional growth. In this episode, Chandresh explores the meaning and structure of sacred hours and how they can benefit you. In addition, Chandresh explores templates listeners can apply and use to create their signature style of holy hours while also discussing how to overcome challenges and distractions that may show up along the way. We hope this episode helps listeners cultivate their unique style of sacred hours so this practice can go beyond the “new year, new me” narrative, and become a new way of life.
Episode Transcript
2022 is gone and 2023 is here. I know, for many of you, 2022 was a year of bleeding and healing. It was a year that reminded you of your potential, reminded you of your longings. It invited you to feel your feelings. Now, as we say goodbye to the old, I hope we become available to a new playground, a new air of love, creativity, and hope. To those who feel a bit anxious, sad, perhaps a little more abandoned during this month of the year, I see you. I'm here to breathe with you. I'm here to remind you that this social noise doesn't matter, because that's exactly what it is, a man-made social noise. You don't have to fit in. You don't have to sing their song. Take a deep breath, look within, come back to your heart and remember, you have a choice to define your worth. As we begin the first episode of Leela Gurukul podcast and a new journey in Leela school, I'm sending you warm hugs, a cozy breeze, and a safe love that feels like home. I'm Chandresh Bhardwaj, and this is Leela Gurukul.
Namaste everyone, I hope you are feeling safe, relaxed, happy wherever you are. This is the first episode that I'm recording in 2023, and the first episode of Leela podcast you are hearing in this year, the new one. Those who are listening to me first time here, I welcome you. I'm grateful for you. I hope this podcast lives up to your expectations. To those who have been listening to this podcast consistently and sharing with fellow seekers, what can I say at this point? I'm forever grateful. You make this podcast what it is. I often feel if Leela was a stock in the stock market, you all would be shareholders. That's honestly how much I value you, and I hope the non-finance seekers got the reference. Now, before we go into today's topic, which I'm really excited to share, a quick reminder that in January, two big things are going to happen on the Leela School. Number one, for the first time, I'm doing a tantra workshop.
This is going to be approximately two hours of workshop happening on Friday, January 20th, 8:00 AM Pacific Time, 11:00 AM Eastern time. This will be interactive workshop where I'll talk about tantra, go into meditation, take your questions, and those who are interested in joining but can't join due to time reasons, I suggest you get the ticket, because you still get lifetime access to this workshop. After the workshop is done, this will be available to purchase on Leela website, but the pricing will be different. This is introduction price, so it's going to be the cheapest ever. I suggest join if you are inclined, interested, and resonate with the tantra teachings, and this is going to be exciting. Second big update is Goddess Rising program is going to be officially launching this month in January. Goddess Rising is by far my most vulnerable, personal, ambitious offering in the Leela school.
If you wondered about Goddess Kali, Goddess Saraswati, Goddess Lakshmi, Shiva, and the complex, mystical, beautiful world of the tantra Goddesses, this is the program for you. This is not going to be a textbook introduction. This is going to be introduction of the Goddesses in as personal, relatable way as I connect to them, as anyone could connect to them. I will create a separate episode on just the Goddess Rising for you to give a deeper glimpse and introduction into the world of Goddesses, but it's happening in Leela this month, and those who are on the email list will be the first one to get the offering, get the pricing that we are offering to the Leela graduates, and to the newbies. That's all for the offerings. Now, we'll move on to the topic of this episode, Sacred Hours.
What exactly are Sacred Hours, and why are we talking about it today? Now, Sacred Hours is something that I have started practicing personally for a few years, and that was just my own personal thing. I started enjoying it. I started loving it. It changed the way I showed up for everything in my life, spiritual, personal, professional. And then I started sharing it with my one-on-one students, and I started seeing significant change in the level of their anxiety, creative work, healing, transmutation of all the human emotions. I was impressed how I started as pure experiment turned out to be such an interesting life hack. And then I started sharing it among the Leela students. Thankfully, everyone so far has experienced some solid benefits. In this episode, I'm going to share the concept, the structure of Sacred Hours. What are the benefits? How can you show up for it, how can you maintain it, and hopefully, how it'll also change the way you show up in this world.
Now, what are Sacred Hours? They are sacred, exactly what the name says. By sacred, I mean they are holy, spiritual, creative, personal. They open a gateway of healing. They open a space that you always had access to, but you didn't use the access. Do not confuse the Sacred Hours with productive hours, because I feel we are wired to be productive more than ever now. If it's not so-called productive, then we don't even feel like doing it. From dating to intimacy, to relationships, to meditation, to showing up for your work, everything has become about the result. As a kid, I used to hear this very popular quote from Bhagavad Gita, the holy text in the Eastern traditions, and it's a big, deep text, but one of the quote always was extremely popular, and that was to focus on the work and not worry about the consequences.
I never got it as a child, honestly. It was too simple, I guess, for my mind to understand, but now I totally get it. We are trained systematically by school, society, family, religion to keep doing things, to be productive, to get a certain outcome, a certain result. If it's not bringing you a direct financial, tangible result, the mind is not even interested in it anymore. But as a result of it, we have become exhausted, tired, anxious, angry, and then we have also stuck to useless, mindless browsing on social apps, because that's not accidental. They are created to keep us busy, to keep us scrolling. When I went through my own challenge with social media or just the way social noise was increasing, I knew I had to figure out a way out. One of my deep ambition is to understand tantra so deep, so that I can make it so simple, accessible to even someone who doesn't get tantra, to even someone who doesn't need to understand what tantra really is, and still get the benefits of it.
Sacred Hours was a result of just a deep understanding of how tantra wants us to live life. One of the fundamental principles of tantra is to indulge with awareness, and that's what Sacred Hours are all about. I call them Sacred Hours, because I do not want to connect to them with any other label. They have to be sacred. They have to be so personal, so intimate that it's just you versus you, you with your own consciousness. Now, Sacred Hours are your time to just be, to simply be.
There is an episode of Leela podcast. It's one of the most popular episodes here. The title is, I believe, The Roles We Play. In that episode, I talk about a king who was so powerful, so creative, great leader, warrior, and nobody could figure out his secret. When they spied on him, it turns out he has this own personal time where he shows up in this empty room, and nobody knew what happened in that room. Some people thought he's working with some political strategist there, or he's indulging with some woman there, or he's just doing some maniac stuff, maybe he's taking drugs there. They were all speculations, but they got to know it was just empty room, and he would do just very unexpected stuff there. Certain days, he's just sitting there, no words, no activity, just sitting. On certain days, he's crying. Certain days, he's laughing. On certain days, he's dancing. On certain days, he's writing. He revealed in the end that that's just his way of meeting who he is, beyond the labels, beyond the social titles, so it won't be wrong to say that was his Sacred Hour.
You got to figure out your Sacred Hour, how you show up for it. I'll share with you how they work for me, and hopefully it'll give you a certain look, and a model to understand and create a reference point. Now, first thing is, you have to understand what brings you a deeper bliss and joy beyond your work title, beyond your social title, and then you show up in Sacred Hour to indulge in those things. That's not a time to look into your phone, not a time to study for your professional growth, but that's a time where you simply show up, and simply be with yourself. Some of you may ask, is it a time for meditation? I think I want to say, no, I don't meditate during my sacred hours. In my sacred hours, I'll show up for solitude. I would show up for writing, for reading.
I would show up for just being there, honestly, just being in that moment. Most of the times, it translates to writing, but that's not the writing you see on social media, on Instagram. But that's the writing that eventually inspires so much of what you read on Instagram, so much of what you listen on the Leela podcast. Now, Sacred Hours, they work with that collective consciousness. You have to understand the flavor, the signature, sign of your Sacred Hour. For many years, in fact, probably from the middle school or high school till my college time and even later, I used to stay up all night. I would do all my work in the night, and that became the foundation of a lot of interesting things in my life. Of course, I wasn't the most disciplined and ambitious kid, but I did what I could. Don't ask me all the things I indulged in those late hours.
I got to tell you, not all of those hours were sacred, but there was something so exciting, inviting about the silence of the night that I would do my best work in the night. Entire Break the Norms book was written in the nighttime, and that was fun, that was creative. But in the last few years, I decided to wake up early mornings, cultivate a deeper alone time, and that gave Birth to Sacred Hours. That entire terminology, structure happened in the early morning. Now, why I'm suggesting early mornings, because you have to understand the collective consciousness, the social noise out there. In Ayurveda, the Indian herbal system, they have a very interesting, helpful diet plan, where they tell you that your digestive system is the best from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM, because the sun is at its peak and the fire is at its peak, so eat your heavy meal during 12:00 to 3:00 PM.
But after sunset and early morning, keep it light. That's also true with how we show up, how we interact with the world around us. Ayurveda has a dosha system, and my dosha is very high pitta, which means high fire, so I usually do not meet people in the afternoon time. I just don't show up well during daytime. I'm at my best either in the late evenings or in the mornings, and so much of the Leela podcast was recorded in the late nights or early mornings. That's just when I'm at my best. I figured out that the more I extract from these hours, the better I can show up for myself and for you guys. First thing to understand here is, figure out what hours could be sacred for you. If you don't have an answer for it, I recommend start with early mornings or with late evenings or late night.
One of these two should work for you. How early? I mean, if I can be fully honest with you, as early as possible. Anytime between 4:00 to 5:30 AM, wake up and begin the Sacred Hours and I'll share entire structure with you. But for the time reference, between 4:00 and 5:30 AM is the best time. In the late evenings, depending on how you show up for your work and everything, I feel once you have your dinner, give a break of maybe one hour or 90 minutes, and then sit down for your sacred hour time. Now, Sacred Hours, while you may show up for them in the mornings or evenings, but they actually begin a day before. If I don't plan my day well today, I won't be able to show up for the Sacred Hours tomorrow, which means I have to make sure I eat my dinner on time, I sleep on time, so that I get enough rest to show up for the Sacred Hours next morning.
I call it relapse when I do not sleep on time, when I indulge in things, I should not be indulgent, and those are impulsive indulgence. I'm a human, I will probably indulge always, but I have to again figure out a way to indulge with awareness. First thing you figure out is your timeframe. Once you know that, define your why. Why do I even have to show up for it? Why it is so important for me to wake up at 4:00 AM or 5:00 AM and show up for the Sacred Hours? If you only show up because I'm telling you and maybe you find it inspiring, that's not going to sustain for too long. The Soul of Sacred Hours, the success of Sacred Hours lives in your why. If the why is clear, everything else will become clear. When I started switching from late night working to early morning working, that it was hit and miss every other day, and that started to feel frustrating.
And then I paid attention to my own psychology and I realized I don't have a why. I mean, I'm trying to build this discipline, because it feels good. A lot of people share great benefits of it, but I don't have my own why of it. I need to figure out why it's essential, at this point for me. As I started defining my deeper why, everything changed. Why should not be connected to the financial growth or just productive professional growth. The why has to be connected with something so deeper and personal that no amount of money can replace it, that no amount of other pleasure can replace it. Now, I'll share a sample routine of how you can show up. For this example, I'm going to use the early morning model, because that has been working really well for me, and I can probably explain that much better, because I experience it every single day.
First step is, a day before you start planning for it. Once you do it every day, you don't really need to plan every single evening, because it becomes a second nature to you. But you got to begin with wrapping up your day pretty early. Schedule your meetings and everything before 5:00 PM. If there's a dinner date, meeting, anything, wrap it up, so that you could sleep before 11:00 PM, 10:00 PM. Ideally, you should be in your room by 9:00 PM. Of course, everything I'm going to share may not happen every day, and that's okay. This episode, this conversation is not about you becoming a master of Sacred Hours. It's about becoming a humble student of Sacred Hours and doing your best, showing up in your best awareness, that's all. Plan a day before. For example, if you're going to write next morning, you should have your notebook, laptop, pen, whatever you need for writing ready on the table a day before, so that in the morning, you should not waste time on looking for the pen, laptop, the battery is not there.
If you're going to create art or read something, you should have ample of books, all the tools and resources readily there, so that you don't have to waste time in looking for it. These are just helpful, handy tips that just make your Sacred Hours a no-brainer, and you simply show up to play, that's all. Now good sample is, once the evening is all set, and you sleep on time, and you wake up on time. What I usually do, the first thing for me is to show up in my meditation, and that may or may not be part of Sacred Hour. If you want to count it in, go for it. I personally don't, because meditation is something I've always done, and if I count that in my Sacred Hour, then my mind says, oh, it's done. You already meditated. If you skip the other sacred part of your hour, that's fine.
This is why I define and keep it in a separate department. First thing I do, the first and foremost thing, sometimes I don't even wash my face, and I straight away show up in my morning meditation. It started with a longing to just experience that deeper bliss, to experience that deeper truth. And then it became something that was just non-negotiable for me, and that is the first thing I do. It just centers me, it helps me connect with the devi consciousness. It helps me connect with my own inner courage and truth, and that kick-starts everything. Once that is done, maybe I'll make my coffee. I never used to drink coffee before, but that has started its relationship in the last two or three years now. Second step would be get my coffee, and then yes, sit and start the Sacred Hour process.
It's different each day. It could be just a reading on certain mornings. It could be just a writing on certain mornings, or on certain days, just a self-reflection, maybe reflecting on bigger picture of life, reflecting on something that's not even part of my living model, something that is just very unknown, something that is very untouched in my life. I avoid thinking about work, business, the material stuff out there, and I keep myself open and available to just one element, creative. That could even include listening to a certain kind of music that can set me in that space. It definitely includes being in a vibe, in an environment where I'm not disturbed. If you are showing up for it in the early mornings, the chances are nobody can disturb you. Also, keep your phone away and if the phone is there, have discipline that you only use it for specific purpose, and that should not be for the browsing.
I save certain posts on my Instagram. During the writing moments, I go back to them on Twitter, on Instagram. I always save certain posts, certain musings that just inspires me. I do go there for reference sometimes, but once I read them, I keep them away, that's all. Sometime, it's a clip of 30 seconds, right? A Reel or a Twitter video. I'll watch it for 10, 20 seconds or a minute or two. I have never watched a video in the Sacred Hours, because videos by nature, it just takes you in a different space. It's like watching TV. Even if it's the most productive video you're watching or most creative, I just don't want to indulge in that noise, early morning. I want to stay with the words. I want to be with the silence, and that's just my process. But if for you, maybe you are a singer, composer, and for you indulging in the music, sound early morning, that's your jam, that's your Sacred Hour, go for it.
I also avoid doing things that are super specifically related to my professional growth. For example, let's say I'm creating this Sacred Hour podcast, so I'll not use my Sacred Hours to do research or create outline in the Sacred Hour. It's very clear to me that Sacred Hours will not have direct relationship with my work, Sacred Hours will not have direct relationship with my personal friendships, relationships. They are all separate. Sacred Hours are just an unknown space, unknown energy. Now, you could begin the Sacred Hours by showing up for it for one hour, two hours. I would recommend minimum of one hour is a good start, and then keep increasing it. Ideally, two to four hours will be game changer. I'm not able to do two to four hours lately, because the Goddess Rising program is happening, and other stuff continues to happen in Leela.
But that's my vision also, my hope also that I can show up for Sacred Hours for at least two to four hours per day, per morning. Once the Sacred Hours are done, I go for a walk, and that just resets my system. Now, all of this has to wrap up for me before 8:30 AM, because the work has to begin, and I do not want to complain or be negative or blame the working of the capitalism, because the blame game doesn't serve me, doesn't serve anyone. I aim to wrap up everything by 8:30, so that I can show up in my studio in the Leela space at Sharp 9:00 or 9:30 AM maximum. By doing this, by cultivating this discipline, it pushes me to maintain my day in a very structured way, because I know that if I relapse, if I sleep late, I'll wake up late, or if I wake up early, I'll be grumpy, not in my full energy. That will affect the Sacred Hours.
I may get late for my work, and that's just not fun. I know we live in times where discipline is the least sexy thing to talk about, but I'm here to tell you all the boring things, and one of the boring things that we must do is maintain a disciplined daily routine. Waking up, now you know why waking up around 4:00 or 4:30 AM will be so game changer, because you could wrap all of this up before 8:30, before 9:00 AM. Now, some of you may... I don't have a boss, but some of you may be working for an employer, and you need to show up in a certain hour. In that case, you have to figure out how can I show up best for my Sacred Hours? Saturday, Sunday could be an open window, right? Maybe two other days, just two more days, and Saturday, Sunday, so that makes up for four days out of seven days, and that's also significant contribution to your Sacred Hours.
The bottom line is, I cannot give you a specific reference point. You have to cultivate it. You have to understand your flow. When do I show up in my best? What distractions do I deal with? What's my work commitment? What are the elements I want to indulge in my Sacred Hours? Those are for you to figure out, for you to play with, and it won't happen in a day or two, but I assure you, within a week or two, you'll just know your flow, you'll know your jam. You'll start to notice the force is fading away, and the flow is happening, and you become so obsessed and in love with your Sacred Hour structure that everything else will automatically take a back seat. Now, keep in mind, you also have to be very honest with your distractions.
I often talk about when we are feeling lonely, hungry, and tired, we do weird things. Figure out when do you show up for your weirdness? That's the kind of distraction you want to understand. I don't want you to suppress it or run away from it, but understand it. Something that can help you to sit, to root, to be there, focus on that. Any distractions should not have a place in those Sacred Hours. If you are someone who moves a lot, who cannot sit still, and sacred hours want you to sit still, then I would recommend schedule tiny breaks, maybe five minute of a break every 45 minutes. That could be great. Again, figure out your way. One of the challenges that will show up at one point in your Sacred Hour process, you'll probably find it not good enough, not fun enough, and that usually happens when your why is missing.
First and foremost thing you have to do before you do anything is define your why, that why am I doing it? What benefits I'm really going to get? Why I should maintain it? There's a book called Start with Why. It's not a spiritual book. It's a business life book, but it teaches you a lot about understanding your why before it becomes your reality. Another book that would be really powerful to build your Sacred Hour is Atomic Habits, and another book is The Mountain Is You. It's not about Sacred Hours, but it's about understanding the self-sabotaging behavior, and I do recommend it. Secondly, there will be certain days you are going to feel anxious, stressed out, and you may not want to wake up. You may not want to do the Sacred Hour, because you can't focus, you are distracted, you are angry, and those are the days that you must show up for your Sacred Hours.
The anger, anxiety, stress, they are not the real problems, they're the real symptoms. When you show up for your Sacred Hours, maybe you'll have more compassion for your anxiety, and stress. Perhaps they can lead you to understand your journey, your trauma, your pain point in a much better way. The only time I recommend you can skip your Sacred Hours is when you are physically unwell, if you have a fever, cough, cold, something severe. Take care of your physical health. But anything else, emotional challenge, weather fluctuations out there, work fluctuations, do your best that you will show up, if not for seven days a week, then five or four or three, even one day a week at the worst. But maintaining it, contributing to the consistency of it will make you respect yourself so much more.
You'll realize the transmutation that we talk about in tantra all the time, that transmutation will start to happen effortlessly, because clearly, we have so much scattered energy, and Sacred Hours become that energy reservoir. They help you to transmute your energy. They help you to be creative, playful, productive, and above all, all the chasing habit that we have, we chase relationships, chasing money, chasing a certain outcome, that's going to come to an end, or at least slow down, because you realize by not chasing, and by being, by coming back to my center, you are changing everything. In nutshell, plan your evening a day before really well, sleep early, wake up early, start with quick meditation, 10, 15, 20 minutes. Then move to the Sacred Hour process, minimum of one hour, then gradually increase it. After the Sacred Hour is done, you are free. If you have time, go for a walk, maybe go for a workout, yoga, anything. But let that Sacred Hour define something that you haven't touched before, or something that you were longing to do, but now you can do this.
All right. I'm going to end my talk here. I hope this was a helpful episode. I'll see you in the demystifying tantra workshop, and in the Goddess Rising. Be safe, be well, guys. May the teachings of tantra continue to guide you and heal you. I hope Leela Gurukul helps you to unlearn the old, and embrace the unknown, mystical possibility unfolding for you. To support this podcast, share it among the seekers who are ready for the next step in their spiritual path.
Useful Links
Find Your Source of Happiness - 21 Day Challenge
Private Guidance Program with Chandresh
