This experiment that I didn’t mean to run has yielded a realization I wasn’t trying to find: that it’s perfectly fine to put peace first, to put presence first, and if life doesn’t go the way I think it should go, then SO BE IT. Productivity does not lead to peace. Peace leads to productivity. "So be it" is my mantra these days.
Read MoreIs Meditation Working?
I was about to get dealt one of the most intensely disappointing experiences of my adult life and the utter disorientation and pain that ensued was enough to glue my butt to my cushion. I NEEDED practice, but the follow-the-rules-and-hope-it-helps approach wasn’t going to cut it. I needed it to be focused, purposeful, and measurable - I needed it to WORK.
Read MoreLeaving Home - Finally
The poles and roles we inhabit within our family systems become embedded into our belief systems and our identity structures. It doesn’t take long before we would be completely unrecognizable without them, and eventually we come to cling to them as the only way we can know who we are, how it feels to be us, and how to navigate the world and relationships with other people. But a funny thing happens in adulthood when we become aware of the niches we first inhabited within our families: it’s really hard to get out of them.
Read MoreWhat's ACTUALLY True about You
What's actually true about you has nothing to do with your beliefs... no belief about goodness will ever be able to stand in for your actual goodness.
It's when the fretful mind turns around and bows to something deeper than thought that we regain access to our extraordinary, built-in capacities.
Read MoreRelic of Self-Love
This evening, while sipping my customary cup of tulsi, nettle, peppermint tea, I'm doing something quite the opposite of customary: cleaning old files out of my computer. My new favorite Spotify playlist, "Deep Focus," and softly flickering candles are making the task somewhat less mind-numbing, but not much. Surprised, then, was I to come across something that instantly captured my attention: a "sticky" note with only one word visible at the top, "Sweetheart..."
A leaden rose of sadness bloomed in my heart as I began to read the letter I had written to myself long ago...
Read MoreNLP Demystified
Here's an overly simplified example. I was once driving with a friend and had to make some quick moves to dodge a car that was swerving right next to us. I may have shouted some things, so my friend gently touched my elbow and said, "Crystallin, what if there's a bee in the car?" Her brain was generating a reality where people are mostly reasonable beings, so their behaviors probably have reasonable explanations. My brain? Let's just say it was not quite so generous. Even if there was no such insect, witness the remarkable difference in our experiences: my friend was calm, amused, open, patient, even kind. I was a hot, steaming mess. Which would you choose?
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