making your home work
As we dive into the holiday season, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, rushed, even irritated by family members and others around us. I’d like to encourage you to try a mindfulness practice. Here’s the practice: This is the practice. As you can see, it’s basically the same for all three (related) mental patterns, and it …
I heard a saying from India,“All you need are two chapattis a day.” It doesn’t literally mean you should subsist on two pieces of bread a day, but is a reminder of how little we actually need. I’ve found this saying useful lately, as I’ve had urges to eat delicious food, buy more clothes, and more. It stops me and …
There’s a big part of all of us that doesn’t ever want to face our fears. The fears operate in the backs of our minds, affecting our lives in so many ways: we procrastinate, lash out at others in frustration, hold ourselves back from connecting with others in a meaningful way, stop ourselves from finding our purpose …
The more I work with people who are struggling with habits or life problems, the more I see how fears are holding us back. Fears stop us from building healthy and productive habits. Fears cause us to procrastinate, keep us from finding work that is meaningful (or doing that work if we’ve found it). Fears keep us from …
I have to confess that in recent years, I’ve often lost my minimalist way. The reason is that I get caught up in an obsession, and then I let myself give in to impulses. For example: None of this is very minimalist, and I don’t have any justification for any of it. Much of it is still cluttering up my closet or garage …
I have a friend who doesn’t realize how much he dislikes so many things — much of his life is spent avoiding things he doesn’t like, or trying to rush through things like exercise, or annoyed by people who do things he doesn’t like. We all have aversions to things, more than we probably realize. It’s not a problem to …
Whether you’re in the U.S. or not, the results of yesterday’s election can bring up some strong feelings — maybe outrage or depression, maybe elation and shock, maybe contempt for others. In this crazy emotional time, I urge you to try a compassion practice. Perhaps, like some people I know, you are angry about the …
The more I talk to people about their struggles, the more I realize that we all have some sense of dissatisfaction with ourselves. I have it, and I’d be willing to be everyone reading this does too. Consider some of the ways we’re dissatisfied with ourselves: This is a constant condition, and even if we get a …