1. Everyone Is Your Guru

Over the last 10 years, I’ve had hundreds of gurus and mentors, shamans, tribal chiefs, who have imparted so much of their wisdom to me. Many monks and nuns in Buddhism and other religions have shared their knowledge with me.

And the truth is, every single person I meet, every plant I see, every butterfly and ant, every rock, chair, table—everything—is my guru, my mentor, my spiritual teacher. Each one teaches me about my relationship with the universe.

My friends and family, my greatest difficulties, my biggest failures, these may be my greatest teachers.

2. Travel From Aloneness to Oneness

We live in a society that does not value the non-material. Even our science is considered materialistic because we focus on what we can measure, what we can see and feel. So instead of looking at the mind, we look at the brain. Instead of understanding emotions, we study brain chemicals.

We try to fit everything into a reality of objects, and in doing so, we create an illusory world of permanence and separateness.

In meditation, when we close our eyes, we shut out the material world. We turn our attention inward, and we are able to experience a universe beyond it. We see that the atoms in us were birthed in the stars. We begin to sense the deep connection between all life on this planet. And slowly, this web of oneness emerges.

Then there is no more loneliness. No more competition. No more fear. Because we recognize that we are everything, and nothing can truly harm our deepest self.

To sit in that space of wonder is to expand our consciousness beyond our wants, desires, and fears, to tap into something far greater. It is the realization that everything is just as it is meant to be.

3. Stop Living in the Past

So often, we relive the worst moments of our lives over and over again, the past, or the worst imagined futures. But we could choose differently. We could relive the best. Or simply be present and experience whatever is happening right now.

So many times, we are so focused on something negative that we don’t even see what’s around us. We are absorbed in the past or in an imagined future, and we miss what is right in front of us — a rainbow, children laughing, simple beauty.

Now is so much richer than anything our minds can imagine.

Let these negative emotions go. And you may find that what remains is gratitude, love, joy, and peace. Your life begins to change.

4. Start Accepting

The cause of suffering is the desire for things to be different from what they are. So what we have to do is start accepting — accepting what we have and where we are, and then turning our desires into actions.

Acceptance, positivity, and detachment from outcomes allow us to move through life with presence and calm.

But true acceptance begins when we look closely at what we don’t want to see, what we resist, what we struggle to accept. That is exactly what needs our attention.

We have to look into those dark corners and shine light on them with awareness and self-love, until there are no more dark corners left.

It takes honesty. It takes effort. But it changes everything.

5. Never Lose Your Childlike Wonder

Childlike wonder comes from seeing everything with fresh eyes. And we can get that back. We can experience the world as new in every moment.

But the only way to do that is to be fully present. Not comparing this moment to the last. Not comparing it to what we wish it would be. Just being here, without judging, labeling, or analyzing, simply experiencing.

We often stop really seeing things. We think, “I’ve eaten a million apples,” so we don’t look at it, taste it, or even notice it. This is how most adults live, disconnected from the moment.

And it happens because we are constantly comparing the present to the past.

To get that wonder back, we just have to practice presence. Notice how light reflects off objects. Notice how colors shift. Notice how sounds move through space.

No two moments are ever the same.

When we open ourselves to the world, when we stay curious instead of certain, that sense of wonder returns.

You can see it in babies, in children, in animals, that aliveness, that curiosity. It often fades in adults. But if you visit a monastery, you might see it again, that quiet sparkle in a monk’s eyes. A sense of awe at everything.

We can return to that.

It just takes being present.