#MyEthos: An Interview with Conor Creighton

Author, journalist, coach and meditation teacher, Conor Creighton has been travelling the globe as a reporter, a motivational speaker and a meditation teacher for nearly twenty years.

Conor is the author of two books, and has been published in the Guardian, the Irish Times and Vice Magazine. He’s won the Irish Travel Journalist of the Year Award, the Gwaertler Foundation Award and the Simon Cumbers Media Fund on three occasions.

He came to meditation in 2012, and quickly became immersed in the study of mindfulness meditation and vipassana meditation. Conor trained in India with the Dalai Lama, and at the Redwood Institute in San Francisco. He has sat several long retreats, and studied a number of meditation types.

Conor, what is your ethos?

I try to be kind to myself and to everyone I meet.

What brings energy into your day?

I find that beauty brings energy into my day especially those days where it’s a little harder to find that beauty and you have to search for it and then discover it.

What is the biggest challenge in your life right now?

I think the biggest challenge in my life right now is to practice what I preach. I write some beautiful lofty wise things that come to me in moments of insight but they aren’t always how I act in moments when i’m not insightful. So trying to bring the two of them into balance is the greatest challenge of my life right now.

Do you have a ritual you practice for achieving a positive mental state?

Every morning I wake up and I meditate for an hour and then I wander around the house and water the plants. That’s pretty much my ritual.

Where are you most at peace or in flow?

Whenever I can catch myself in a web of thoughts, or when ever I can pull myself back and just observe the strong emotions or feelings that are pulling me left or right.

And then I always notice that beneath all the madness i’m kind of always in flow. It’s just about remembering that.

Are you a spiritual person? 

I would say i’m a very spiritual person. I think we’re all very spiritual people.

Are you a happy person?

I think your purpose in life is to understand the stories that you have learned to believe about yourself and about the world around you and to slowly kindly unravel them and write new ones.

Is your life controlled or affected by fear in any way?

Fear plays a very big role in my life. It’s sometimes the thing that inhibits me and sometimes the thing that motivates me to do stuff. But I keep fear very close in everything that I do and take it as a sign that i’m moving closer to something true.

What do you love about yourself?

I think the thing I love most about myself is my ability to laugh at myself and I hope I never lose that.

What are you most proud of?

I would consider myself a total scaredy cat. As a kid I was afraid of everything. But despite this I think i’m also one of the bravest people I know. So I think i’m most proud of being a chicken shit who’s very brave.

Knowing what you know now, what would you tell a young Conor?

Meditate, meditate, meditate.

Who have you learned most from in your life?

I have learnt a huge amount from relationships, my parents and some of the most incredible teachers but the one person I’ve learnt most from in this life is Buddha. Neem Karoli Baba was a famous Indian spiritual mystic who died in the last century. When asked to sum up all his teachings he said love everyone and tell the truth.

What’s the next challenge in life that excites you?

The next challenge in my life that really excites me is attempting to love everyone.

#myethos is a series where we meet with creatives, pioneers and social-change makers who either have a unique connection to nature that has fuelled their life ethos, or who are using their talent as a medium for creating positive social impact by empowering others. Follow us on Instagram to hear about more upcoming features.