Mars resident practices, speaks about meditation and its benefits
Similar to exercises like running and weightlifting, it can take practice and consistency to get good at meditation and to fully understand and feel its benefits on the mind and body.
This is what Jackson Kerchis, who grew up in the Slippery Rock area and now lives in Mars, spoke about in his first TEDx Talk last year in Harvard Square. In 2017, Kerchis spent about four months studying Zen and meditation in a temple in San Francisco, California, where he developed his interest in the subject.
Kerchis would spend the ensuing years meditating every week, only breaking his streak early this year. He now gives talks to people, organizations and businesses about improving positive culture and workforce well-being — which relates to the topic in his TEDx Talk. He has spoken to agencies, including the Pennsylvania National Guard Association, Pennsylvania Land Title Association and the Pennsylvania Dental Association.
“Meditation, you are almost conditioning your attention muscle so you have a greater ability of awareness,” Kerchis said. “You're thinking about what you're going to have for lunch. It's that process of wandering off, bring it back. That's the work so you can better associate yourself with being present.”
Kerchis studied in San Francisco during a gap year after his graduation from Slippery Rock Area High School. He then attended college at the University of Alabama, where he further developed his interest in Zen. The college offered an initiative where students could create their own major, prompting Kerchis to pursue a degree in “happiness studies.”
His advice for people looking to get into meditation includes making a checklist, which he said has always helped him get things done, and making good deeds part of a person’s daily meditation habit.
“In the same way you study and practice and get better at anything, set aside time each day or each week to practice happiness,” Kerchis said. “That could be, ‘In the morning I'm going to wake up and take a walk, do a five-minute guided meditation and then send a text message to a friend who I haven't talked to in a while.’”
Kerchis also wrote a book, “How to Stick to Meditation,” which covers topics relating to meditation, forming habits that help with mindfulness and ways to practice happiness.
While Kerchis continues to speak on these topics as part of his day job, he said his experience presenting for TEDx was rewarding in that it boiled down his ideas and platform into an 18-minute presentation. He explained he was able to get on the TEDx radar through an acquaintance who booked speakers at Harvard Square and from there it was all about designing his message in an interesting and informative way.
“I have thrown myself into the deep end. It's what you say and how do you deliver it,” Kerchis said. “It's kind of crazy the amount of effort that went into it with the writing and rewriting and rehearsing. I had a coach who helped me go through it.”
Kerchis’ TEDx Talk is available on YouTube and can be found by searching his name under the TEDx Talks channel, or by searching “The How of Happiness (and Why it Matters).”
