courage to open to the whole show

Working with the Hard Stuff: Courage to Open to the Whole Show

There is a Taoist teaching that life is made up of 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. The more we see that both are a natural part of the fabric of life, the less we contract against the difficulties or hold on tightly to the delights. We can hold our challenging situations in a wider perspective that includes the blessings as well. In Buddhist philosophy, real happiness comes not by avoiding suffering but by understanding it deeply. In our willingness to be with it instead of protecting ourselves from it, we’re not adding another layer of contraction and fear to what is already here. We can then learn to meet our pain with compassion, fearlessness, wisdom and clarity. In learning to cultivate more …

letting in love

Letting in the Love

Here are two lovely clips in conversation with Linda Graham, author of Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being, from 2013's Awakening Joy course. I hope you enjoy them. Letting in the Love In this conversation with Linda Graham I share my practice of letting in the love from all around us. This practice re-trains the mind and heart to shift the way we hold ourselves towards worthiness and seeing the goodness inside. Linda responds by showing how we can become reminders of that for each other. She also shares her personal main practices for awakening joy. To watch this video on Youtube, please visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOiXop4jqPo You Have a Choice In this video Linda makes the point that who we are is not …

gratitude for gifts we've been given

Gratitude for the Gifts We’ve Been Given

We can practice gratitude towards ourselves by having a positive attitude about what we’re doing in the world. We all have our mental or written “to do” lists. But we typically measure ourselves by what we haven’t done and feel lousy or behind. This pattern of thinking makes us feel small or inadequate. If at the end of the day, we instead look at what we have accomplished or the kindnesses we’ve extended and let ourselves feel good about it, we have a different feeling about ourselves. Life is no longer seen as a burden that is always demanding more of us, but rather as a series of activities that engage us. What have you done today that you feel …

loving the truth

Loving the Truth

The most direct way to access true happiness is to bring more consciousness into our lives. In order to do that, we have to be willing to take an honest look at our experience. This can often be a challenging endeavor. It’s been said that self-awareness is usually bad news. But the alternative is going through our lives unconsciously. That route almost guarantees repeating habitual behavior based in greed or aversion that will likely lead to more suffering for others and ourselves. We might think that ignorance is bliss but in the long run, as we are willing to face the truth, we can wake up and create genuine well-being for ourselves. Something deep within us loves the truth. We are …

the power of mindfulness

The Power of Mindfulness

Why do I call Mindfulness, bringing a non-judging awareness to our experience, “The Basic Tool of a Joyful Life”? Because it has numerous benefits that directly result in greater well-being. Mindfulness purifies our negative mental tendencies and develops our wholesome thought patterns. Here are a few ways it works: Weakening the Power of Our Demons With mindfulness we can see clearly the demons that usually contract our minds in confusion. In many classical myths when a hero or heroine discovered the name of a demon or monster they could conquer it. In the same way, seeing clearly and naming our disturbing mind states—“This is anger” or “My mind is confused right now”—is actually the first step in weakening their power over …