Sponsored by MindfulnessExercises.com A few years ago, I was meditating in silence beneath the canopy of a forest monastery in Thailand, questioning everything. I had left my job, relationships, and most of what I knew to live as a Buddhist monk in the Ajahn Chah tradition—eating one meal a day, sleeping little, and sitting with discomfort, doubt, and the…
“Fear is the opposite of love. Love is the absence of fear. Whatever you do out of fear will create more fear. Whatever you do out of love will create more love.” ~Osho I did not realize I was driven by fear for most of my life. I thought I was making choices from love by being good, responsible,…
“Avoiding your triggers isn’t healing. Healing happens when you’re triggered and you’re able to move through the pain, the pattern, and the story, and walk your way to a different ending.” ~Vienna Pharaon I thought I had figured it out. For a year, I had been doing the “inner work”—meditating daily, practicing breathwork, journaling, doing yoga. I had read…
“The most powerful thing you can do right now is be patient while things are unfolding for you.” ~Idil Ahmed⠀ I still remember my last year of college vividly. I was frustrated and disheartened after my application to study abroad was rejected. I had been obsessed with exploring the world through academia, convinced that further study was the best way…
“Shadow work is the way to illumination. When we become aware of all that is buried within us, that which is lurking beneath the surface no longer has power over us.” ~Aletheia Luna For years, I believed healing was about transcending pain. I took the courses, read the books, learned every energy-healing technique I could find, and became a…
“If you are continually judging and criticizing yourself while trying to be kind to others, you are drawing artificial boundaries and distinctions that only lead to feelings of separation and isolation.” ~Kristin Neff I was lying on my couch again, Netflix playing in the background, when I heard my husband’s footsteps on the stairs. Instinctively, I reached for my…
“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.” ~N. R. Narayana Murthy Anyone who had a Stretch Armstrong as a kid remembers that moment when you and a friend would test the limits of what good ol’ Armstrong could handle. You’d each grab an arm and slowly walk…
Tell me, is your jaw clenched as you’re reading this? Are your shoulders hunched? Do you feel tension throughout your body that mirrors the constant buzz of stress within your mind? I suspect we all feel like this far more often than we may even realize because, for many of us, it’s the norm. We push ourselves through one…
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” ~Unknown “Girls are mean!” I nodded knowingly as my boss struggled to explain the difference between raising boys and girls. I couldn’t speak to raising boys, but I remembered all too well what it was like when my daughters were growing up. Girls traveled in packs, always with a…
“The real meditation is how you live your life.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn I never saw myself as someone who would meditate. It wasn’t even on my radar until my wife suggested it while we were both working on our wellness. I chuckled. Like a lot of people, I assumed meditation meant sitting still, trying to clear my mind, whatever that…
