People always ask me what the biggest shift was during my time in Burma. Obviously, there were many shifts, and some I can’t even put into words. But my knee jerk response is that I became my own best friend. In spending so much time with myself, in a demanding...

There’s a song by Colin Hay called “Waiting for my real life to begin.” In it, he says: “Any minute now, my ship is coming in. I’ll keep checking the horizon […] And you say, be still my love Open your heart Let the light shine in But don’t you understand I already...

Meditation is not about just being with your breath. It’s about all of the things that pull you away from just being with your breath. One of the overarching intentions of a meditation practice is cultivating a mind that can be at peace despite inner and outer chaos....

"What do you want to do every day for the rest of your life?" How could you possibly know this? “What do you want to do every day for the rest of your life?” This is often used as guiding question to figure out what you should commit to, but I’m not sure how you could...

Committing to a regular meditation practice of 10, 20 or 30 minutes might feel intimidating. For many people, it becomes an all or nothing event: “Well, I can’t do 20 minutes today, so I guess I’m not meditating.” How about you start by just committing to 1-minute?...

Personally, I find it difficult to create a sense of calm and peace before a big event or opportunity. There’s too much energy in the body and any sort of trying to temper it seems to create more agitation. Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a similar situation. Maybe...

In the mindfulness world, there’s a big emphasis on how we use our minds to influence our wellbeing. Because of this, we sometimes neglect the role of the body and how it can be used to influence our wellbeing. One way to observe this is by noticing your posture...

The questions you ask yourself create the running narrative in your mind. For instance, if after spending too much time in a bad relationship, you say to yourself, “why am I such an idiot?”, then you’re going to get a series of answers to that question, and chances...

Is there a wrong way to meditate? Yes. If you’re creating more distress for yourself during the meditation process then you’re not meditating. Now, a key point here is that we’re not talking about the experiences that are arising. Simply by choosing to sit and...

When I first started training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I got my ass kicked. I would practice 1-3 hours a day, 5-7 days per week, and each time I trained I would get tapped out by people I was grappling with. Rear naked chokes, arm bars, kamuras, all of it. This went on...

Wherever you are right now, look at an object nearby. Maybe your phone, a coffee mug, your computer. Now, expand your awareness so that you’re in touch with the space around the object. The object has an outline, and outside of that outline is space. This is true with...

In the world of mindfulness, the encouragement is to not immediately run from discomfort if it arises in your experience. This is important on the path of finding ease within dis-ease, and making friends with the parts of ourselves we’re most suffering from. However,...

I recently listened to a podcast that interviewed Larry King. I was fascinated by the amount of curiosity, interest and eagerness to learn that Larry described bringing to his interviews in his 60-year career. I think this is a great mindset for one to bring into...

We all have things we’re working on. “Baggage” if you will. As you enter the stream of personal growth, there may be a feeling like you need to fix everything, change all of your negative conditionings, fully heal from all of your trauma before you can really start...

New research in psychology, specifically by Dr. Stephen Maier, shows that Learned Helplessness is not learned. Instead, the state of helplessness is our default response to a threatening situation—curl up in a ball, protect ourselves, get quiet, and do nothing. As...

People often ask: “How do I practice non-attachment?” Well, non-attachment is actually not something that we can practice. If you want a piece of cake, trying really hard to not want it, isn’t going to serve you much, nor will pretending that you don’t want it. You...

There's a story made popular by Jon Kabat-Zinn about how hunters used to catch monkeys in India. They would cut a coconut in half, hollow out one side, and drill a hole in the center that was just big enough for a monkey to put its hand through. After this, they drill...

Wendell Berry wrote: "It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work. And when we no longer know which way to go, we have come to our real journey." If you're at a point where you no longer know what to do or where to go, listen and...

Live in alignment with your personal ethics, whatever they may be. If you don't, it's impossible to find real peace. You can lie to other people about who you are, but you can't lie to your heart.

How often do we look toward the external world for comfort? New shoes, car, food, partner. Even when we're bored, the first thing we do is reach for our phones. We try to fill space, to find ease in dis-ease.  It's an interesting phenomenon, though: The more at ease...

Often when we find ourselves stressed, agitated, and overwhelmed, we're caught in a negative cycle of "what if." What if I lose my job? What if he or she breaks up with me? What if this person passes away? When you notice your mind caught int his way, take a trip to...

People say wisdom comes with age. Let's explore that. The logic of this sentiment seems to be that, with age, one has had more experiences in life, which have garnered insight into how to most skillfully navigate life. I can get on board with that. However, I know...

On his death bed with Tuberculosis, Henry David Thoreau remarked that there can be as much peace in disease as there is in health when the mind conforms to the nature of the body. On the deepest and most subtle levels, it's not the nature of our experience that...

Impermanence can be scary. Our brains are wired to hold onto experiences and develop predictable scripts to explain ever changing phenomena. We tend to fight impermanence, but it's like fighting gravity. You can't win and it will just create more suffering. In...