It turns out there’s a wrong way to meditate. The ultimate goal of meditation, the desired end of mindfulness practice, is to reach a state of perfect equanimity where the most enlightened practitioner is able to greet all states of being, good or bad, with neutrality. The desire to cling to what is good disappears.… Continue reading I’m Doing It Wrong: Part I
To lose weight, you have to exercise. Right? My whole life, that’s what I heard. The doctors said, find exercise that you enjoy and can sustain, and you’ll have fitness for life. Calories in, calories out. Nevermind that it took literally hours of strenuous work to burn off the calories in a single modest meal.… Continue reading Huffing and Puffing
Any “Friday Night Lights” fans out there? ….Anyone? We breathe all day every day, and for a lot of people, the only times we notice it are during exercise, or when something is going badly wrong with our breathing. It is possible to feel gratitude for our flawless and blessedly uneventful breathing, not all the… Continue reading Clear Nose Full Lungs Can’t Lose Meditation
I’ve written before about patterns of thought that stand in people’s way as they consider whether to give up addictive substances. There are ways of looking at the problem that stand in your way, but below are some patterns of thought that I have actually found very helpful as I moved from addiction into sober… Continue reading 3 Thought Patterns that Help Release Us from Addiction
I’ve been breathing for a long time. I learned this to my surprise in about 2018. The only times I noticed the breath, and I wasn’t even really noticing the breath, was when I was smoking or exercising (which I did only briefly in 2002). When I started meditating, I held grimly onto the breath,… Continue reading 24/7 Friend
What a gift DNA is. The spark of life is a great start, proteins that can replicate themselves. But without a way to change and evolve, there would be no douglas firs, or great white sharks, or dragonflies, just molecules copying…somehow. Maybe that’s what life looks like on other planets. But we, the species of… Continue reading Under Pressure
I love metta meditations. I use them for everything – when I feel joy, when someone is going through something hard, when I really, really need to forgive someone and let that sh!t go. I really do think of them as a prayer, and it’s as close as I get to genuine spirituality. Metta is… Continue reading Metta Meditation
