People that have in-depth conversations with me would probably say I am over-focused on properly defining words. In the recent past, I would have worn this as a badge of honor. However, I now think they may be right, at least in part. I still believe standardized and agreed-upon definitions is a prerequisite when having any kind of grounded philosophical discussion. However, I am attempting to be less triggered by others’ use of language I find to be imprecise or just plain wrong.

All words are of course social constructions. They can mean whatever we want them to mean. What matters at least in the moment is that both parties are understanding each other. To this end, I want to adopt a usefulness metric, by asking myself 2 questions:

1. Is a precise definition necessary in the context of this discussion?
2. Do I foresee a reasonable chance that we can come to an understanding in a relatively short time span?

In the majority of conversations, I feel the answer to at least one of these would be a ‘no.’ In these instances, my options are either to steer the conversation into less troubled waters, avoid using words that need defining, or provide a conceptual framework that is obviously not intended to be a denotation.

This last option I have played around with a lot of late. Specifically, I think defining a word in the context of an equation can be an incredibly useful device.

Here are a few I have used recently:

• Suffering = pain x resistance
  This communicates the lesson that our suffering is as much caused by the resistance we experience to the life we have or the emotions we experience as it is caused by the physical or emotional stimuli themselves. My ability to eliminate pain from my life is limited; however, I have a lot more direct control over my level of acceptance.
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• Happiness = # of things acquired / # of things you think will make you happy
  Viewing happiness as a fraction or an index gives us 2 nodes from which to increase it. A lot of people, myself included, spend most of their time trying to increase the top number. However, you can receive the same happiness boost by lowering the bottom number. Also sometimes increasing the top number doesn’t really affect happiness at all, because every time we do so, we add another thing to the denominator.
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• Achievement = skill x effort
  In order to develop skill, we need both talent AND effort. I observed a stark example of this my second year of university as a music student.

  I attended two senior recitals in the spring of graduating piano majors. One had a boatload of talent but always put the bare minimum effort preparing for her performances. The other had much less natural talent but put a prodigious amount of time into practicing her recital pieces. At the beginning of the year, the first student was able to perform adequately. During her recital at the end of the year, she again performed adequately (nothing special). The second student choked the first half of the year when trying to perform her selections, but by the time she did her recital, she was highly competent.

  Achievement requires taking the skill you have developed in an area and finding an effective application. So, you could actually give an alternative equation for it: talent x effort squared.

My goal is to create more useful concepts like these to describe the words I employ and leave a more thorough denotations for particular formats and venues.

Namaste.

There are two monthly challenges I need to evaluate: my most recent challenge with lifting small weights, and the one I completed before that which involved transforming my self-talk.

I don’t have a lot to comment on with regards to the weights challenge. It was a terrific way to get back into resistance training and I plan on continuing to follow the protocols I created going forward. As much as I love Bikram yoga, it is nice to complement that with an exercise that is more strength-focused and progressive.

The evaluation of my self-talk challenge is more interesting and necessary, so I will devote the rest of this post to that.

What I learned:

• Running is a great training ground for self-talk – I learned a lot about my thinking process during my long-distance runs during this challenge.
  

  I started out having all of these negative thoughts (e.g. judgment for pushing myself too little, judgment for pushing myself too much, guilt from years ago when I stopped running, anxiety about my jacked up left foot and ankle, etc.).

  After going through a couple notice/soften/reframe procedures, I started to counter the negative thought with a positive reframe that I had come up with the previous week.

  By the end of the month, my inner narrative had mostly died away and I just ran without any internal voices, which was incredibly peaceful.

• Cognitive journaling is helpful, but I hate it – Taking the time each night to write down the specific process I had used that day was great for accountability and locking in affirmations. However, I always resented the time dump for something I probably will never post publicly.

• I love posting phrases around the house – Having the walls peppered with personalized affirmations and empowering suggestions was dope. The only problem is they were a bit visually tacky.
• Using terms of endearment and physical gestures towards myself feels forced – This just didn’t feel like me. It never stopped feeling like an act. I’m not saying it didn’t ever help in some way, but I felt really awkward doing it even when there wasn’t anyone around.
• Softening is a revolutionary practice for me – I’ve done noting practices with thoughts and emotions a decent amount both through meditation and non-meditation practices. I’ve also used affirmations and reframes in the past. However, actually carrying out a dialogue with my inner critic is not something I’ve purposefully done before and definitely not to this extent. As someone with INTJ preferences, I felt this to be completely natural and aligned with myself.

What I plan to continue going forward:

• One-sentence daily journaling – I love the idea of a daily journal, but it has to be very targeted and brief if I am going to keep it up and feel the derived benefit is worth the time input. I would like to have a specific topic each month that I focus on (motivation, time management, socialization, etc.) and just give a one-sentence update from that day pertaining to that topic. To make this more meaningful, I could turn these entries into a blog post each month.
• Purchase some sort of digital wall display to upload affirmations – I would like a way to continuously be updating my pithy quotes that is simple but also classy. Maybe the way to do this is with a digital picture frame, or maybe there is a better alternative I will discover for this specific purpose.
• Incorporate this strategy into some of my meditation sessions – I have a lot of different meditation practices and techniques I cycle through on a semi-regular basis, and this would be a great addition to that list. It is similar to the RAFT technique, but with a bigger emphasis on challenging the thoughts that are arising as opposed to just noticing and releasing them.

I feel like I thoroughly understand the concept of self-compassion but still struggle to actualize it on a regular basis. This challenge greatly helped in that regard and I feel much more confident in my ability to utilize this skill after going through this experience.

Namaste.

I am already half-way through the monthly challenge I am currently completing. My laxity in publishing blog posts is not mirrored in my commitment to challenges and I am hoping to remedy the former starting today. School started up a week and a half ago and I am teaching 5 days a week until September. That on top of the stress of moving to a new city has compromised some of my intentions, but no more!

The challenge for this month is focused on forgiving myself today for the breakdowns I had 5 years ago by choosing to send love to that former version of myself. I realized I was harboring a LOT of bitterness at myself for traits I possessed in the past, some of which are barely present at all in my current state.

Several years ago, I harbored deep bitterness towards certain people in my life and was able to process exactly what I was bitter about, productively share some of this with these people, and consequently experienced a huge burden being lifted off of my emotional bandwidth. This article from Psychology Today proved immensely useful in clearing up a lot of the hang-ups I had with the concept of forgiveness and enabled me to realize forgiveness did not depend on the other person’s current actions or on what I felt about them.

I want to do something similar concerning the bitterness I harbor at myself related to what I went through 5 years ago. There are 2 main daily components to the challenge:

1. 10-min RAFTT meditation – This is in addition to my regular meditation. RAFTT stands for:
   • Recognize = identify the emotion, thought, situation, or experience that causes discomfort
   • Allow = accept the above without judgment; send it love
   • Feel = really sink in to the emotions that arise; feel them in your body
   • Tease out = disentangle the different components of what you feel, especially if there is a lot of resistance or confusion
   • Trust = believe I have the capacity to weather the storm and grow from it
2. 5-min breakdown reflection – Immediately prior to meditation, I want to spend some time identifying and processing the various components that led to my breakdown and the bitterness I feel at my former self for engaging in them.

As I have already been engaged in this for the past 2 weeks, I can share some of what I have dug up already.

• Focusing on destination over process
• Embracing a nihilistic worldview
• Deprioritizing social engagements
• Having reticence to spend money and time on enjoying life in the now
• Turning anxiety into guilt
• Being embarrassed to ask for help or be vulnerable
• Committing to figuring things out on my own
• Believing “coming back” from a depressive-addictive spiral was simple
• Believing the arrival of a new day would magically solve things
• Failing to budget time and money on loving myself
• Choosing limiting beliefs because of an attachment to “truth”

When I write an evaluation of this challenge next month, I will elaborate on some of these insights and share what I decide to say to myself to get to a place of forgiveness. An unexpected benefit I’ve already experienced is that I have been absolutely LOVING my meditations, both the targeted ones and the more general ones. They are the highlights of most of my days.

Namaste.

I have intended to add resistance training to my exercise regimen for quite a while now. Currently, I do the following on most days:

• 20 minutes of abs
• 10 minutes of stationary bike
• 50 minutes of Bikram yoga
• 10 minutes of push-ups, planks, +/- hyperextension exercises
• 10 minutes of running

On Saturday, I usually run 10+ miles. I feel like the addition of weights would help round out my regimen; however, when I have done this in the past, I’ve usually overdone it and ended up in incredible back pain for sometimes days at a time.

Protocols of challenge:

• Start each day with Turkish Get-Up – I will start with no weight and work up to a 5-lb kettlebell and stay there for the remainder of the challenge.
• Use 1-lb weight on new exercises – I want to always start out with as little weight as possible and ensure correct form before adding amount.
• Don’t skip weights – When leveling up to a higher weight, I want to choose the lowest increment (never more than 1-lb heavier) and shift back down if needed.
• Do at least 15 minutes every day – This includes non-weighted Turkish Get-Ups and all weighted activities including breaks.

I have compiled a list of possible weight exercises from the Livestrong and Healthline websites that are listed below.

• One-Two Punch
• Lateral Raise
• Superman
• Hip Lift and Extend
• Triceps Kickback
• Renegade Row
• Front, Back, or Overhead Squat
• Weighted Glute Bridge
• Lunge
• Floor Press
• Bent-Over Row
• Floor Chest Fly
• Arnold Press

Whichever of these I choose to do on a given day, I want to finish 10-20 reps at a time and do 2-3 sets per session. I can do the same exercises each day or shift to do specific sequences on specific days. I will allow myself the freedom to find the pattern that works best for me.

Namaste.

I have witnessed a few instances over the past couple months where someone used the ‘appeal to authority fallacy’ to dismiss someone’s claim. Usually, it was someone who wanted to not feel irrational holding something to be true that a consensus of experts disagreed with. When this was pointed out, they just fell back on ‘appeal to authority fallacy.’ I believe this is a misunderstood and potentially dangerous application of logic.

The first thing I would like to say is that just yelling ‘fallacy’ and throwing a label on it does not automatically make it illogical. You need to be able to explain both what the fallacy means and show that it specifically applies to the case in question. If you cannot do both of these, then by using the word fallacy, you are the one who is attempting to stifle rational discourse.

If you are someone on the receiving end of this, a good way to handle it is to just start asking questions. What does that mean? Why do you think that? How does what you are doing not commit the same problem? The last question deals more with hypocrisy, but can be a good litmus test to see whether the person actually cares about logic or is only using it when it seems to confirm what they want to believe.

Now, to be clear, the appeal to authority is a real problem and is used ALL the time, especially in advertising. The graphic below is a very basic example of this.

Just because an authority figure in your life tells you something, that doesn’t make it true – obviously! Also, someone could be an authority with respect to one claim, but not another related one. Again, this should be rather obvious.

I believe that appealing to valid authority is the appropriate and, dare I say, morally responsible thing to do most of the time. The natural question is: what is a valid authority? First, this is NEVER a single person, except for the remote possibility that they are the only expert in a given subject both past and present. No, what I consider a valid authority is a CONSENSUS of ‘experts.’ To me, what this means practically is: greater than 90% agreement by PhD scientists and peer-reviewed researchers in the field of study.

If you didn’t appeal to ANY authority (even the valid ones), that would mean in order to accept or believe anything, you would need to personally do all the experiments and research yourself. While I applaud someone who genuinely desires to do this, to make this a requirement of valid belief robs us of the ability to assimilate large amounts of information quickly by standing on the shoulders of all the giants that came before us. This frees us up to pursue new avenues of knowledge and personal growth, instead of continually reinventing the wheel.

I want to clarify an important distinction between belief and acceptance. We use a range of words to denote the level of confidence we have in a belief. ‘I know’ is stronger than ‘I believe’ which has more oomph than ‘I think’ which trumps ‘I feel.’ However, acceptance is on a completely different axis, or is at least operating from a different level. Namely, it communicates alignment with expert consensus on a particular topic.

For example, I accept a lot of things: anything where there is a greater than 90% agreement on among experts, in subjects where I am not an expert myself (which is pretty much every subject). This includes the spherical earth theory, the germ theory of disease, the theory of evolution, the general theory of relativity, etc. I listed scientific claims, but the same applies to historical claims as well. Some of these I would say I know are true; others I would say I feel are true, but all of them I accept to be true because doing so only requires I can show there is consensus, not that I can actually provide specific proofs as to their legitimacy.

In the norm, I don’t think any of what I said is controversial. It only becomes so when someone is confronted with something they REALLY WANT to be true but a consensus of experts disagree with them. Then, suddenly, authority doesn’t matter at all! The appropriate question to these people then becomes, why do you believe in a conspiracy? Because that is exactly what it is.

Now, maybe there is good evidence of a conspiracy in a particular case which would invalidate the consensus, and if they can provide that – fantastic! But if not, don’t get sucked down the ‘What about this?” or “You can’t explain that” trap. In all likelihood, whatever evidence you could provide wouldn’t convince them anyway, since the real motivation for almost all beliefs IS appeal to authority. It just so happens that, in these cases, it is an invalid authority (e.g. “Half the population believes this” or “These 100 scientists agree on this”), and thus a genuine logical fallacy.

You can waste a lot of time researching things that don’t really benefit your life in any tangible way. If it is your job to do so, then that is a different story, and if that is you, more power to you on your journey of discovery! For the rest of us, trust the experts (not individuals but the consensus, assuming there is one), release your attachment to knowing, and embrace the myriad of things you can do right now that CAN greatly enrich your life and be a blessing to those around you… like standing on your head counting marbles, or petting dolphins on the moon. 😎

Namaste.

The challenge I recently completed was one of the simplest and yet most profound ones I have completed to date. It is one thing to be mindful in the context of meditation or yoga. It is an entirely different ballgame bringing that mindful awareness into the unpleasant, the mundane, and the crazy moments of our lives. This is what my challenge attempted to accomplish and I believe did so with smashing success.

What I learned this past month:

• Every moment is pregnant with liberation – I heard this phrase used while listening to the Ten Percent Happier podcast this past month. It is a beautiful reminder that liberation is always possible, waiting for us to open up to it. Happiness can be quite elusive, especially on a moment-by-moment basis. The pursuit of happiness in the long-term is manageable, but we have access to liberation at any time.
• Deep breathing and willing hands are key – When I started this month’s challenge, I didn’t always know what it meant to completely embrace the present moment and live one-mindfully. I’m still not entirely sure, but 2 elements that are almost universally involved are deep, audible breathing and an open hand posture. Half-smile is also extremely effective. When I started utilizing these techniques regularly, flowing with the present became much more understandable and organic.
• Starting with mindfulness feels right – Prior to this month, I would generally begin my daily meditation practice with breathwork, followed by lovingkindness meditation, and ending with some type of mindfulness practice. This was to prevent me feeling overwhelmed with random thoughts and emotions at the beginning of the practice. However, by starting with just a couple minutes of mindfulness, I could get into deeper meditation more quickly, but also with the knowledge I could kick it over to some other modality if I needed to.
• Lack of weekend parameters = fail – One of the biggest strengths to my challenges is their precision: having extremely clear guidelines of expectations. I did not do that with regards to weekend mindfulness, with the predictable result of being incredibly lax in this regard. There is a time and a place for leaving things open-ended; challenges do not fit that bill.

What I will continue to do going forward:

• Choose 1 activity for the week – For the most part, I found my experiences living one-mindfully very nourishing and liberating. That being said, going forward, I think just picking 1 daily activity per week, that I proactively choose to practice as an active meditation, will be more meaningful and require less maintenance.
• Begin every yoga segment with intention – I generally do about five 10-minute yoga sessions scattered throughout each day. I want to begin each of these with a sense of mindful presence, even if just for 30 seconds. Most of the time, this will end up lasting much longer, but having a lower up-front commitment ensures I will consistently follow through.
• Increase meditation time to 10 minutes daily – I’ve been doing just 5 minutes daily, and then 7 this past month, with one 45-minute practice on Wednesdays. My practices have become increasingly standard and enjoyable, and I think it high time to extend them and insert a bit more variety. There is a 30-week meditation challenge that I am joining with my Secular Buddhist sangha that should supply some inspiration.
• Embrace one spontaneous event during the day – Being on the lookout for opportunities to maximize downtime, utilize mindfulness, or notice critical thinking patterns makes both the routine and not-so-pleasant experiences much more survivable and meaningful. I want to commit to one unplanned mindful connection each day. If I don’t remember it during the day, then I will complete it the first thing upon starting New Day protocol that evening.

I am definitely interested in infusing my philosophical appointed time (PAT) periods with some extra doses of mindfulness. However, I don’t want to mandate this so as to allow for spontaneity during this more unstructured space. What this means is that I am just extending the invitation to myself to embark on mindfulness adventures, even if that is something as simple as making tea, taking a slow walk, or enjoying a luxurious bath.

Namaste.

Hands-down, one of the best books I have read in the past decade is Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, by Kristin Neff. The challenge this month is based on one of the exercises outlined in the book, and does a good job of blending all three elements of self-compassion: mindfulness, self-kindness, and a recognition of our common humanity. The exercise involves 3 aspects related to my critical self-talk:

• Noticing
  1. Verbalize my inner speech verbatim – I want to become more aware of my critical self-talk by simply externalizing it in a neutral way. For example, I might say, “I hear this sentence in my head,” or “This thought is arising within me.”
  2. Recall key phrases – More than likely there will be certain refrains that repeat on a somewhat regular basis and I want to become aware of exactly what these are. Maybe I’ll even write them down so I really see them.
  3. Pay attention to the tone of voice – I need to get to know my inner critic very well, and this means being aware of its quality as well as it substance. Perhaps it reminds me of someone who has been critical of me or just of a former version of myself.
• Softening
  1. Send compassion, not judgment – After I have fully processed what my inner speech is, the first priority is not to condemn myself for having these thoughts, but simply to tell myself, “Having those thoughts must be tough; hang in there!”
  2. Talk to my inner critic – I want to acknowledge the likely valid reasons this voice has for what it says (protection, improvement), but inform it that unfortunately, it often has the opposite effect of its intention.
  3. Ask him to ease off – I don’t want to do the same thing to him that he has been doing to me. After stating my concerns, I will politely request that it stop or at least lower its volume so I can process things effectively.
• Reframing
  1. Imagine what a very compassionate friend would say – The ultimate objective for my self-talk is to transform it into something positive and helpful. I can do this by thinking what someone else might say to help me or I might say to help them.
  2. Use a term of endearment – I want to play around with different terms I can use when talking to myself in this way, such as “Babe” or “Bro.” This also can be very helpful when compassionately criticizing.
  3. Utilize physical gestures of warmth – This helps to tap into my inbuilt caregiving system, so I can harness my biochemistry for assistance. Possible actions include stroking my arm, holding my face tenderly, and hugging myself.

This month’s challenge will have 3 components:

1. At least 2x/day notice, soften, and reframe – Follow the above procedure, though I don’t have to always do each of the steps. But align with the general format.
2. Cognitive journaling 1x/day – I will incorporate this into my new day protocol at the end of each day. Basically, I want to record some of the mental processes I went through during the course of the day, including the initial critical self-talk and my eventual reframe.
3. Type and print up 1 phrase every day – I want to find one word or phrase each day that really speaks to me or reminds me to become more aware of my inner speech. I have found in the past that posting inspiring phrases in my environment is incredibly impactful.

Being a supportive mentor instead of a demanding taskmaster is still a very novel concept for me. I expect that there will be times when I balk at this process, think it makes me weak, or have trouble justifying the effort. However, based on all the therapy and mindfulness practices I have undergone in the past 5 years, I truly believe this will ultimately be a wise practice, even if it feels pedantic at times during this trial period. The goal is to get to the point where this becomes my default programming.

Namaste.

One of the 3 universal truths that I mentioned when I outlined Buddhism in my last post is that of karma. My colloquial way of stating this truth is “We reap what we sow.” Like the universal truths of conservation and impermanence, everyone accepts this at least on some base physical level. We know that the sum of matter and energy in the universe is a constant: conservation. We know experientially that everything breaks down or changes: impermanence. We also know that the effort or lack thereof we put in today has a direct correlation with the result or lack of one we get out tomorrow: karma.

For some Buddhists, this is as far as they like to take any of these truths, and that is perfectly fine. However, I have found incredible value in pushing these a bit further out. I don’t just believe that matter and energy are conserved, but that consciousness is conserved as well. I don’t just believe that my conscious beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors right now affect my body and mind later in life, but that this effect carries on to the conscious mindstream even after “I” have ceased to exist.

Both of the concepts mentioned above are part of the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth. I don’t talk about rebirth much because the dialogue can quickly devolve into rank speculation about the nature of reality both past and future. However, skillfully understanding karma I think can be incredibly empowering while also keeping one centered in the present.

To address the question posed in the title, my simple answer would be: is it skillful? If so, it is an empowering belief. If not, it is superstitious nonsense. In the context of karma, what is and is not skillful will obviously vary from person to person. With that in mind, here are some applications of karma I find to be unskillful:

• “What goes around, comes around” – I don’t fundamentally disagree with this sentiment, but I think it is often applied far too narrowly and usually with vengeful overtones. Corollaries to this would be “he’ll get what’s coming to him” and “served him right.” I find the anticipation of or pleasure in someone’s comeuppance to be ruminations that take us away from a place of lovingkindness and equanimity.
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• “A person’s degree of success or happiness in their current life is directly linked to a previous life” – To the degree that we should judge anyone, I believe it should only be related to their current actions, beliefs, and attitudes in THIS life, not some hypothetical former existence. Also, this sentiment stinks of determinism, which, at least in its extreme form, I would counsel everyone to run away from at a thousand miles an hour! (No offense to Sam Harris, Robert Sapolsky, or Alex O’Connor – I love all of you!)
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• “Good karma is a result of good deeds done for others, while bad karma results from intentional harm caused to others” – No, no, no! This may be one source of karma, but not the only one, and not the most fundamental one. The reason I react so forcefully to this popular idea is that it implies a rigid distinction between myself and others. I believe one of the most skillful and empowering things a person can do is work on deconstructing this division, either by eliminating our sense of self or expanding it to include as many people and things around us as possible.

So, if I don’t subscribe to the above classic understandings of karma, then what does it mean to me? Put simply, that there are eternal implications related to how I show up to each and every moment of my life. Also, that the more difficult, challenging, or painful the circumstance is in which I find myself, the greater the potential for positive karma. I don’t get hung up on exactly how this manifests or what exactly the nature of consciousness is, only that it DOES manifest and its vehicle IS consciousness.

For me, especially in the context of major depression, anxiety, and shame, this belief has been one of the most empowering beliefs I have ever adopted. I want to be frank: this belief definitely has some costs associated with it, principally related to explaining what I do and don’t mean by the word karma with other people that may be unfamiliar or even antagonistic to the idea.

However, at this point, the benefits FAR outweigh the costs. I think that is what acting skillfully or living truthfully is all about. What about you? Do you have an idea of karma that actually limits you? Are you rejecting this concept solely because it is unfamiliar or requires some maintenance?

The question I hope you ask yourself is, “Is this belief skillful?” The answer may be no, and if so, that is cool. But if the answer is yes, whether on this topic or anything else, don’t let aversion to change cause you to avoid a belief that could supercharge your life.

Namaste.

When I was a Christian, I found that people used the label to encompass everything from just vibing with the personality of the Christ, to believing in a series of historical claims like the resurrection of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, and other miracles, to following a certain series of moral teachings. There could be several different people that all used the label ‘Christian’ but didn’t really have any common beliefs at all. I decided to create a definition that included the overwhelming majority of self-described Christians but also had a specific and definite meaning. To read my earlier musings on this, click here.

Virtually all of the people that I encounter face-to-face in my everyday life are not Buddhists, and many don’t even have a good conception of what Buddhism really is. I want to start a series of blog posts that I can point people to for a fuller explanation of what Buddhism means to me. This will be the first blog post of many unpacking the basic understanding and principles of this philosophy of life.

In a nutshell, a Buddhist is anyone who accepts the 4 noble truths and seeks to follow the 8-fold path or circle. Here is my abbreviated formulation:

The 4 Noble Truths:

1. The Truth of Suffering – Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.
2. The Truth of the Cause of Suffering – All suffering is caused by attachment.
3. The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering – Suffering can be managed gracefully and ultimately be eliminated.
4. The Truth of the Way Leading to the Cessation of Suffering – The path to end suffering is the eightfold circle.

The 8-fold circle:

1. Skillful Understanding: Recognize the 3 universal truths and the 3 marks of experience
2. Skillful Thought: Avoid the 3 poisons; master the art of living
3. Skillful Speech: Is what I am about to say an improvement over maintaining silence?
4. Skillful Action: Don’t cause pain (5 precepts); take every opportunity to alleviate pain
5. Skillful Livelihood: Ask 2 questions: What do I do? What does it do for me?
6. Skillful Effort: Nurture the 4 heavenly abodes; notice the 5 mind hindrances
7. Skillful Mindfulness: Purposeful, present, non-judgmental awareness
8. Skillful Concentration: Meditation practice (both passive and active)

I could easily spend several posts on each of these tenets to fully flesh them out. I intend on doing just this on and off over the course of the next year. However, if I wanted to get down to brass tacks, I would say the following:

• Everything is impermanent – I am not the same person today that I was 10 years ago, or 1 year ago, or 1 week ago, or even 1 minute ago. In fact, this is true with everything and everyone in the world around me.
• Because nothing lasts, becoming attached will always result in suffering – This just logically follows. The most obvious form of suffering due to attachment can be seen with addictions, but the same principle is true with any physical or emotional attachment. It even applies to being attached to our conception of the self.
• Curiosity and compassion allows us to recognize and start releasing attachments – I can’t ultimately free myself of attachments by just replacing them with different ones. I need to just start becoming aware and then releasing them, and this is best facilitated by blanketing our lives with curiosity and compassion.
• Utilize middle path – This is an ongoing process and it works best if we find a pace and expectations that are appropriate for the level of consciousness we are currently operating from. Embrace the mystery of the journey without getting fixated on a particular destination.

Traditional formulations of the eightfold path will use the word ‘right’ instead of ‘skillful.’ I will sometimes use this as well, but in the context of what is right or effective for me. I find very little use in rigid delineations of what is right and wrong or good and bad.

A better question: is the action, thought, belief, or behavior I am participating in skillful? Does it allow me deeper connections with myself and other people? Does it allow me to navigate life more efficiently? Does it promote wholeness, compassion, and equanimity? If so, whatever label someone wishes to put on it, that is what I want to do.

Namaste.

This downtime challenge, along with my current one-mind challenge and my new year’s intention of choosing gratitude, has been one of the best things I have initiated this year. Instead of viewing downtime as an unfortunate time-waster and a pipeline to mindless distraction, I chose to view it as an opportunity for presence and skillful action. I feel like the underlying theme of my life this year has been showing up to the small, sad, or silly moments of life with radical acceptance, curiosity, and optimism.

My downtime challenge was incredibly simple in its goal. I’m learning that crafting simplicity is almost always much more effective in the long run than just sheer effort. Basically, I wanted to change the way I viewed downtime and proposed doing so by observing myself for a moment and then choosing a skillful action depending on the situation.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE CHALLENGE:

• Enjoyment in mundane, everyday situations is always possible. You might need to put a little extra effort both in the moment and in mental preparation the night before, but it is well worth it. You can make life interesting even in situations where it doesn’t naturally seem so.
• I can exert a sense of control even in situations where I don’t have it. I don’t have control over how fast the printer spits out pages or how long a staff meeting is going to last, but I can always control the mind style or point of view I choose to bring to the situation. Perception may not be reality with regards to material objects, but it is most certainly true when it comes to mind states.
• I have less fear of unknown situations. As someone that has used the excuse of chronic pain to avoid a lot of novel and untested experiences, I know that a lot of this avoidance boiled down to a fear of the unknown, which – yes – my chronic pain exacerbated. If I build up the skill of intentionally navigating downtime, this becomes much less prominent.

WHAT I WANT TO CONTINUE GOING FORWARD:

• Allow some more downtime into my life. I want to lighten up a bit with how much I try to maximize time efficiency. I am going to allow myself to be more spontaneous, knowing that I can handle the “dead” time that may be part of the package.
• Approach more situations from a perspective of maximizing my presence and participation instead of how much I accomplish. I want to embrace my thoughts, feelings, and desires more instead of just being a slave to “getting the job done”. I am choosing to view the journey as not just something that is important, but really the ONLY thing that matters. I will reach destinations along the way, and I can celebrate these, but the journey is where it’s at!

I feel like my current goal of living one-mindfully is an organic continuation of intentional downtime and is squaring the results I gained from this former challenge.

May you show yourself love by bringing your whole presence into the small, the sad, and the silly moments of your life. May you be at peace.

Namaste.