From Path to Peace With Todd Perelmuter NewsletterHello my friend,With focus, we can choose what we focus on. We can focus on disturbing thoughts and emotions, upsetting events that may happen, which we have no control over, and unfortunate events that happened in the past that we cannot change.Or, we can focus on the blessings in our life and the positive changes we can make that are in our control.…
In meditation, we can become aware of awareness itself. The first step is simple. Close your eyes and begin by noticing your thoughts. Don’t try to change them. Just observe what the thoughts are, the nature of the thoughts, how one thought jumps to another, how they arise and how they fade away. Really look at what a thought is. As you observe your thoughts, notice something deeper: you are…
The Key to Observing Thoughts Most of the time, in our day-to-day lives, we are lost in thought, pondering various ideas without actively observing them. We are not consciously witnessing or listening to our thoughts. If we were to ask ourselves what we were thinking about a minute ago, most of the time, unless we've been fixated on something all day, we'd have no idea. The key to observing our…
Imagine a person standing with their arms stretched out to both sides. Someone is standing on each side of this person pulling their arms in opposite directions with all their might. This is how most of us live. We’re living in a constant battle between two opposing forces. It’s a state of constant stress — the tension from our mind almost being torn in half. On one side is what we crave,…
If you pull out your phone to avoid your emotions, you are not ready to pull out your phone. Everything you do on your phone will be neurotic, dependency-based, and ultimately destructive.Imagine you find out your car is in need of repair. It’s starting to make a weird noise. Instead of having a mechanic fix it, you fill up the gas tank with sand. This is what we are doing…
Most of thel problems in our lives are generated by our thinking mind. When we’re depressed, we are constantly thinking dark, negative thoughts. When we’re anxious, we’re constantly thinking insecure, anxious thoughts. When we’re caught in the drama of life, we are usually retelling that story of drama in our minds, again and again. To be free from this compulsive thinking is to be free from much of the suffering…
The Golden Globes and awards season is here. I didn’t watch the Globes, but I do love the modern art of cinema. Few artforms are so captivating, moving, immersive, powerful, persuasive and empathizing. For two hours, you can experience what it is like to forgo identification with the self and identify with the characters in the story instead.While this escape can become addictive (because dissociation with our ego is extremely…
In my last newsletter I talked about 3 ways to win at life’s game of telephone, and how to stop letting other people plant thoughts in our head. Today I want to talk about how to trust ourself and follow our heart.Whether it’s our own thoughts or the words from other people, it’s just noise. That which goes beyond words is what’s true. People have been developing opinions for thousands…
Q: Dear Todd, I feel like in my case, the subconscious patterns, regardless of which life they come from, seem to be more powerful than the conscious ones. Becoming fully aware of them after many repetitive cycles is one step. What would be the next step to 'overcome' and rebuild them? TODD ANSWERS: Subconscious patterns are deeply ingrained mental habits, so we need to treat them accordingly. Like any habit…
Is mindfulness about controlling our thoughts or suppressing them? What even is the difference? Are they even possible things to achieve? Are they even worthy of us trying? In today's episode, I lay out the differences between these two approaches to dealing with our thoughts. But more importantly, I describe a third option for approaching our thoughts that is actually easy and way more effective for generating lasting happiness and…
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