Every person’s greatest longing is for happiness. Each of us, in our own meandering way, wants to answer the voice within that echoes, “Please love me.” We often do our best to fulfil this longing with too much or too little food, by giving away our power, sexual exploration or working too many hours. For a time, pain is alleviated. Yet once familiarity or routine sets in we, once again, yearn for happiness. How Happiness is Created Enduring happiness is created […]
I often talk with people weary from upholding a bright and cheery exterior that clashes with inner emptiness and longing. Many are successful in career, people who have studied and worked hard. Bright and inquisitive, they appear positive, upbeat and engaged. Yet inside they suffer, overwhelmed by this gap of extremes. The burden can seem an internal crucifix, a mental bind that turns people to alcohol, prescriptions, eating disorders and addiction. Am I the only one who feels this way? I […]
Feeling overwhelmed, unbalanced and in need of a digital detox with no holiday in sight? Here are five ways to clear your mental cache and get your digital habits on a healthy and balanced track. No. 1 GET REAL and GAIN PERSPECTIVE. Electronic devices are tools, potentially valuable, potentially destructive and length of on-device time is not indicative of productivity: You could be online for three efficient, balanced hours and accomplish much more than the meandering, digitally exhausted version of […]
Each day we are inundated with media messages as well widely accepted societal and workplace norms that are counter intuitive to our soul’s wisdom, lowest common denominators that go against our deepest inner knowing. Living within this out-of-balance world destabilizes our mental health and emotions. Photoshopped models set impossible and unrealistic standards of beauty and spur painful inner conflict that can lead to eating disorders; highly processed foods filled with preservatives deplete brain function; conspicuous consumerism and being sold product […]
I did a detox this summer that wasn’t meticulously planned. Rather, my cleanse slowly seeped in after a tentative encounter with a BOSU ball. The detox was from yoga. Rather than a standard fare of teaching yoga and meditation, I delighted in not speaking and simply being told what to do by instructors. I journeyed into kickboxing, circuits, boot camp, barrecore, jazz aerobics, cardiotone and Pilates. During a solo outing, I was in awe of another gym goer walking in […]
Subtle awareness evokes a soul-aligned joy: knowing your friend or partner well so that mere glance says “All is well, I’ve got your back.”; feeling how symphonic pauses and rhythms can create suspense; allowing aromas and oils to nourish skin and soothe emotion. Great spiritual masters encourage subtle understanding and experience and for hundreds of years, during daily puja (worship and prayers to make connection with Divine), the five senses are honoured. This daily worship becomes a multisensory and ever refined […]
We all experience fear and anxiety. A feeling of being afraid is an assembled experience that assesses threat. While fear is more immediate (being fearful of barbed wire or a coiled snake), anxiety is often associated with worry in the middle of the night or fretting about the future (when no immediate threat is present). We often associate anxiety with an earlier hurt or trauma, yet the threats of old often have little relevance to the current moment. As such, […]
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. – Albert Einstein The greatest challenge of modern life, within a war collectively waged, is not environmental degradation, global warming or poverty. It is addiction to thought. Consider how much mental and physical energetic drain is siphoned daily due to thoughts. Thoughts of insecurity, judgment, worry, fear, anger and, yes, hatred. When thoughts go awry and into patterned entrenchment, […]
If you regularly circumvent meditation in favour of just about anything other than, well, meditation, here’s some great news: There’s no need to sit with rigid spine, in due diligence, paying penance for all the sits you’ve missed. Here are six easy– and enjoyable–ways to meditate without even trying. ENJOY BEING–THEN DOING. Rather than doing a hike, be in nature with air, trees, sun and stream. Rather than doing a concert, be with the artistry and sounds. Over time, too […]
Spiritual maturity will not be charted on a spreadsheet nor have percentages tallied in its favour. Yet tangible symptoms of spiritual maturity do lend themselves to a well-lived life. Here are ten signs of spiritual maturity to help you savour the moment and inspire you to learn more. You are selective about how to spend your time. What is time well spent? You seek mutually nourishing relationship. Also, rather than attending an event and being drained through obligation, you now […]