The Core Questions of Existence: Suffering, Oneness, and the Illusion of Separateness Why does a flower blossom? Why does a tree grow? Why are we here? Does life want to live? Does life want to just reproduce and survive? And if so, why? For what benefit? Or is it all just random chaos? God created the universe because it was bored. Because it could. Because it wanted life to enjoy…
Mindful Insight Why Do We Get Hurt When People Say Mean Things? When someone says something mean to us, we are affected by it because we are identifying with the ego. We are reacting from a state of mind, which is unstable and easily perturbed by the words of others. When we are firmly rooted in the present moment, we realize that words are just vibrations in the air, and…
When the Toxic Person is Your KidThere is no secret recipe for raising perfect kids. There are countless influences in the world and not all of them are positive. A parent can not control everything a child hears, sees, and experiences.Sometimes, despite our best efforts, kids can fall into drugs, a bad crowd, disrespect, and a refusal to listen. Parents are not robots, and it’s normal to get frustrated and…
Boredom may feel like a natural emotion or viewpoint, but nothing could be further from the truth. Boredom is born out of a resistance to the present moment. It is not a natural state to be bored. Boredom does not naturally arise out of a beautifully still, silent moment. Has any wild animal ever been bored?Core Reflection"Boredom arises out of a comparative mindset conditioned by living in time. When we…
At A Glance Morning vs. Evening Meditation: Key Differences Feature Morning Meditation Evening Meditation Primary Benefit Sets focus, clarity, and emotional balance for the day ahead Decompresses daily stress, relaxes mind for deeper sleep Best For Early risers, busy professionals, overcoming morning anxiety Overthinkers, insomniacs, winding down after work Mind State Fresh, calm, unburdened by daily events Processing thoughts, letting go of accumulated friction A lot of people have both…
Lately, it seems about a million new types of meditations have been invented and popularized. I get asked about a lot of them and while I don’t address every single one, Humming Meditation is one that seems to come up time and time again.Unlike a lot of other new-age types of meditation, using the voice in various ways — such as chanting, singing, or saying a mantra — has been…
Send me a message It's easy to get stuck in a loop of negative thinking. Overthinking, complaining, replaying old pain. Some of us live there for years. This is the simplest gratitude practice I know for getting out. Think of one thing you love. A person, an object, anything at all. Then ask what made it. And then what made that. Keep going, and gratitude stops being something we have…
Core Reflection"Suppression and repression only feed negative thoughts more energy. Distraction and escape just keep them bubbling under the surface. To fully heal, we have to look at our pain, explore it, and shine an even brighter light."Usually what happens when we have those unwanted, intrusive, misery-inducing thoughts, is that we are trying to suppress something that is clearly there and trying to express itself. Suppression and repression only feed…
Hope is a funny thing. We like it, we crave it, and we feel we need it. But when things don’t go as we hoped, we suffer. Getting our hopes up and to have them crushed, over and over again, can be agonizing.The Paradox of HopingSo, what are we to do?The problem with hope is that wanting it causes our feelings of hopelessness. When we focus on what we want,…
Stop Outsourcing Your HappinessWhen we expect others to make us feel better, we become the outsourcer of our own happiness. And while it can be very healing to have close people in our lives who we can share our problems with, sharing can all too easily turn into dumping. When we dump all our problems onto others with the expectation of them making us feel better, we are not valuing the…
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