Gabriel Rodriguez-Nava

I began practicing zen meditation in the early 2000s, but my formal practice didn't start until 2009 with my teacher Charlie Knowles. At that time I was working in journalism and was experiencing the stress and anxiety of being in an industry in decline. Things didn't get better, but vedic meditation gave me a daily dose of respite that allowed me to build the patience and perspective I needed to make my next move.  A couple of years later, I took an opportunity at Netflix, where I had the joy of working with a diverse and international team distributed in several countries. It was joyful, enriching and inspiring, but as it's well known, the entertainment industry also comes with high stress, emotional roller coasters and the need to have difficult conversations. These are all situations that take high levels of emotional intelligence to navigate, but the good news is that EI can be developed. I've found that Search Inside Yourself can be an incredibly effective program to do this. It's no surprise it's been one of the programs with highest employee demand at Google for almost a decade; when applied, these tools can actually work in the workplace!