Your stories about your past, your current circumstances and fu­ture only exist in your mind, not in reality. And once you fully get this, you can more confidently release your grasp on the need to think all the time, start to take your mind less seriously and laugh your way to freedom.

Any place we live must accommodate a number of activities: socializing, sleeping, cooking, eating, bathing, relaxing. But what about quiet alone-time? Renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell insisted we all need a place to "simply experience and bring forth what [we] are and what [we] might be."

The practice of mindfulness entails a careful examination and surgical dissection of what is being presented by reality from what is being projected by us. When we are simply imagining something and we attend with a quiet mind, our projections tend to vanish like mist under a hot sun. On the other hand...

Practicing mindfulness in everyday tasks can transform mundane experiences into moments of awareness and appreciation. By consciously engaging in activities like washing dishes or driving, individuals can enhance their sensory experiences and emotional well-being, ultimately fostering a deeper connection to their daily lives.

People whose “drug of choice” is food have a tendency to cope with stress by over-eating, often bingeing on foods. Unlike drugs or alcohol, it isn’t possible to steer clear of temptation — we all need to eat, several times a day...

Living amid the busyness of our high-tech and low-touch society takes us away from fully experiencing our day-to-day lives. We often live on autopilot, doing without experiencing. We can be quick to judge, react, resist, run away, or retreat when things don’t...

Mindfulness meditation is a wonderful way of turning our attention toward spirit. Mindfulness pays attention to what exists, here and now. It shifts attention away from memory, imagination, ideas and concepts...

We often consider feelings as existing with only positive or negative values. Besides positive and negative feelings, there are neutral feelings. We want pleasure, we don’t want pain, and we relax when we feel indifferent. When a pleasurable feeling arises or is anticipated, the response of most...

We spend our lives immersed in a flood of thoughts, unaware that another dimension of consciousness is available to us. It is a dimension in which we come to know ourselves as something other than thinkers. By taking a step back, we become the witness of our thoughts. This subtle but radical...

While we live, we’re doing something in every moment. That doing may be sleeping and dreaming, or laughing or playing, or sitting very still in meditation, or writing or stretching. Life consists of action (or stillness) moment to moment. So even if...

Your adventure begins with a close look at how you might acquire some, if not all, of your beliefs. I could ask: Are you hypnotized?  Imagine that a stage hypnotist has hypnotized you. The experience will seem quite real, even if it’s a pure hallucination. Imagine you’ve been...

When we arrive back home after a mountaintop experience, often we are required to deal with the maddening routines of life. Laundry has to be done, dishes have to be washed, professional work needs our attention, lawns have to be mowed, pets need to be cared for, and our families need our attention; all of these...

by Marie T. Russell. Summer has gone... and Winter will be arriving... yet Spring will return. The seasons pass in nature, as in our own lives. The winter of doubt and fear does pass away as we become aware that there is no one to blame for the dark times we went through -- not even ourselves. These are simply the processes of life, the changing seasons as it were.