I started my ‘gleaning insights from holy books’ challenge last September, but got derailed and ended up finishing it up in 2024. The next few posts will be excerpts I found interesting or informative from these ancient works.

I used Kindle Unlimited for the challenge, which I highly recommend for anyone wishing to extract notable quotes or stories from a book. There is a handy highlighter tool which allows you to quickly mark the parts you find interesting. These notes and highlights stay available even if you later cancel your subscription.

Let me start with the first text I read: The Quran. I am not going to give the specific location of these passages, because honestly I do not care. If you really want the exact reference, feel free to copy and paste the quote into google and you can probably locate it fairly easily.

Observe the ˹five obligatory˺ prayers—especially the middle prayer—and stand in true devotion to Allah.

I don’t believe the words ‘five obligatory’ are in the original Quran, but this is the principal passage from which the second pillar of Islam, Salat, is derived. I completed a challenge based on this practice. I found it to be a very grounding ritual and would like to install a modified version into my life going forward at some point.

Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀~ ~ ~
They wish you would disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so you may all be alike. So do not take them as allies unless they emigrate in the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them.

I found quite a lot of this in the Quran:  two injunctions that seem to be diametrically opposed to each other. It is similar to the Bible in this respect. Maybe texts this large that are compilations of smaller segments are bound to clash in this respect – I don’t know. I guess this is why depending on which passage you quote, you can say that Islam is a religion of peace, or a religion of piece – as in ‘there’s a piece of you here, a piece of you over there’ (pun borrowed from Bill Maher).

And whoever rejects the faith, all their good deeds will be void ˹in this life˺ and in the Hereafter they will be among the losers.

This word ‘loser’ was used quite a lot for a holy book. Maybe it was the nature of the translation. There seemed to be quite an attachment to being ‘the winners’ and ‘vindicated’ throughout the book. I find the attachment to ‘winning’ to be a major factor in causing suffering, so I avoid framing life in this context whenever I can.

As for male and female thieves, cut off their hands for what they have done—a deterrent from Allah.

There can definitely be progressive Muslims. In fact, Muslims in America are one of the religious groups most likely to be tolerant and accepting of the beliefs and practices of others. However, passages like this do their cause no favors!

Indeed, the worst of all beings in the sight of Allah are those who persist in disbelief, never to have faith.

Really? The worst of all beings are not the Hitlers and Pol Pots of the world. No, it is those that don’t believe in a deity? Give me a break (and this is from someone who DOES believe in transcendence)! The Quran and other holy texts like it can yell at its readers all it wants to, but that doesn’t make what it says true. You’d need actual evidence for that.

Inform My servants ˹O Prophet˺ that I am truly the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful, and that My torment is indeed the most painful.

The phrase All-Forgiving, Most Merciful or something similar was used in almost every chapter of the entire book. But what followed in the passage would often directly undermine this in its content. It was almost as if they had to keep saying this over and over again, because it is the only possible way you could believe it.

So whoever believes in Allah and does good, He will absolve them of their sins and admit them into Gardens under which rivers flow, to stay there for ever and ever. That is the ultimate triumph. As for those who disbelieve and reject Our revelations, they will be the residents of the Fire, staying there forever.

I find the Muslim concept of Heaven and Hell to be slightly superior to the Christian one since it isn’t entirely about belief, but also requires “doing good.” However, this dichotomous afterlife framework in general is deeply disempowering and frankly (to me at least) the most unlikely of all possible scenarios.

CONCLUSION: So, all in all, the Quran was a very uninspiring and heavy-handed tome, but sprinkled with the rare progressive idea or enlightening thought.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀~ ~ ~

For the second text I want to review today, we will switch gears and look at Shinto. I read an introduction and not the actual Kojiki, so this will be much briefer.

However, the reality is that Kami is an omnipresent existence in Shinto. Kami is present inside the water and the air. It blends in with Nature. It is an existence which does not need to be emphasized nor highlighted.

Shinto embraces a version of pantheism or animism. Though I don’t subscribe to either of these philosophies, my perspective is closely related to them, so I feel a kinship with a lot of Eastern religions that seem to adopt this concept in some fashion. I believe the most empowering belief in transcendence is much more of a visceral sensation or feeling than a spoken belief or argued thought.

One senses the existence of Kami and receives intuition through gratitude.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀~ ~ ~
One should check that the intuition is not expressed in a strong imperative tone, and that it is not detrimental nor threatening to others.

I powerfully resonate with this! Not suprising I suppose considering my New Years intention is choosing gratitude. I think I used to view gratitude as a response to intuition, but I think the reverse is the more proper relationship. However, these intuitive insights are not infallible and should be calibrated with humility and empathy.

It starts with the repetition of the words “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you”, said with a compassionate intention to the inner child as if to comfort a baby. This leads to the dissolution of core memories that are at the origin of issues, and enables to create a perfectly balanced state. This method’s advantage is that one is able to work directly on the core reasons of issues without wasting time.

This is an excerpt dealing with a process in Shinto of “cleaning” the mind.” Consciousness is divided into 3 phases: regular (surface) consciousness, sub-consciousness (deep), and super-consciousness (divine). By utilizing the 4 phrases above, one can bypass the subconscious and directly tap into Divine inspiration and healing. I am definitely interested in trying this out!

CONCLUSION: Shinto seems like a lovely, if somewhat quaint religious tradition. I’m fairly certain I would hit it off well with its followers and would love to meet some. Maybe I already have and just didn’t know it.

More reflections to come soon.

Namaste.

I haven’t done a monthly challenge since last Fall. Today is the first day of the second astronomical month of this year and the perfect time to get back into a challenge-minset with something that should not be a time sink. Affirmations are a great way to realign oneself with thier core values and identity when in the midst of a challenging circumstance.

I already have 12 affirmations which resonate with me saved on the Gratitude app. These are:

• I love and care for my body and it cares for me.
• I am worthy of beautiful endings and exciting beginnings.
• I will be my own best advocate.
• My mind is strong and disciplined.
• I am ready and open to receiving good things in my life.
• I am capable and calm in any situation.
• I am worthy of being loved, being happy, and doing what brings me joy.
• I am always finding something to appreciate around me.
• Every person I meet can teach me something; I am grateful for their wisdom.
• I am loving myself to the fullest.
• I am giving myself space to grow and learn.
• I am passionate about my goals and have a burning desire to fulfill them!

My challenge this month is very simple:

Say all of the affirmations OUT LOUD at least once per day!

This can be done all at once either by utilizing the Gratitude app or just remembering them on my own. I can also do a couple here and there throughout the day.

Some ideal times I think I will try to utilize are:

• First thing in the morning – This is often the point of greatest struggle for me right now. Once I have momentum, I have developed a lot of skills to maintain that momentum and increase it when possible and appropriate. However, getting out of bed almost invariably feels like a chore. My back is incredibly achy from being immobile for 8ish hours, and my mind is often cranky, espeically if I kept drifting into and out of sleep.
• Last thing before bed – I know that setting a positive tone heading into sleep is more likely to allow my to drift off sooner and enjoy more restful sleep and dreams. Sometimes when I have a lot of things to take care off at the end of a day, my mind can feel overactive and ill-suited for rest. Affirmations could be a great way to reestablish a sense of equanimity.
• In the car to and from work – Even if I just picked a couple to do during this time, I believe it could be very beneficial in grounding me. If I am driving at the start of my day, accept the day for whatever it will be. If I am driving at the end of my day, accept the day for what it was. Breathe.

This is a fairly simple challenge, but one I am looking forward to actualizing. If you are interested in creating some of your own affirmations, this blog post has some hints for how to craft them. You can also find plenty of ready-made ones online or in a variety of positive thinking apps.

Namaste.

It has been ages since I posted. Toward the end of September, I fell into major depression again. Why that happened is not the purpose of this entry. One thing I will say about my experience with depressive states is that even though their incidence hasn’t decreased all that much since a few years ago when it was REALLY bad, their duration and my utter confusion in the midst of them has declined significantly. I sometimes tell people that I have become skilled at navigating these states more gracefully, and maybe that has to be enough, at least at this point.

A new year is already upon us in earnest! My new year actually started on January 12th and not on the 1st. Read an earlier post on my calendar here. Anyone who knows me well knows that over the past 5 years, I have struggled immensely with chronic pain and depression. In 2020, I dropped out of med school after experiencing two successive mental breakdowns.

Since that time, simply navigating daily life has often been a challenge. I still suffer from chronic pain which wasn’t helped a couple years ago by my major bike accident which basically tore off my left calf muscle. I still suffer from drop foot to this day. On top of that, I have been plagued with major identity crises and a general dissatisfaction with life.

One of the tools I have tried to use on and off in dealing with depression and shame is gratitude. I even did a monthly challenge on it a few years ago. I experienced more restful sleep and sustained a more positive attitude throughout the month – seemingly a great success! However, since getting off the challenge, I have hit some major roadblocks being grateful on a regular basis.

• Guilt/resentment – I have felt envious of friends or family that expressed thanks over something in their life which I lacked and didn’t want to be the cause of this for someone else. Also, if the blessing I was expressing gratitude for was not something universally available, I felt a bit elitist acknowledging it (almost like I was saying, “I’m glad I’m not them”).
• Fear of complacency – Sometimes I felt like being grateful for something implied a level of acceptance with the status quo that I internally rebelled against. “I’m grateful I have a job,” felt like settling for less than my potential.
• Lack of a “good” reason – By far, this was the biggest hang-up. I viewed gratitude as a response to something “good” in life. However, sometimes life just sucked! In fact, I found this to be the rule more than the exception. Then I would have this guilt attack:
  ⠀
  “REALLY! You can’t think of ONE thing to be thankful for?”
  ⠀
  I could, but that didn’t feel like genuine gratitude and came without the positive benefits I had experienced previously.

My intention this year is to choose gratitude. The wording of this combats the last of the roadblocks mentioned above. I choose to view gratitude as an intention and not a response. I don’t have to wait for something “good” to happen; I can choose gratitude when life is just neutral or even really sucky!

How do I accomplish this? Well, there is the shallow explanation and the deep explanation. Let’s start with the surface-level. I choose to view everything in life as either a blessing or a challenge. If a blessing, recognize the uniqueness of my life and experience and embrace the experience with gratitude without getting attached to it. If a challenge, acknowledge that all major growth and development occurs by overcoming challenges and be grateful for the opportunity to build resilience and character.

Now, this is all fine and dandy, and is simple enough you might see similar sentiments written on an inspirational card or in an affirmation deck. However, there comes a point of stress/pain/shame beyond which I find it impossible to keep up this “challenge mindset.” My chronic pain having a huge flare-up is a good example. I can manage it and it will subside some, but it will never go away. It doesn’t feel like a “challenge;” it is just a burden.

There is only so far this surface rationale for gratitude can take me. To go farther, I have to swim into the deep waters. These deep waters should not be trod in lightly, so I will save my extensive thoughts on these for a follow-up post. For now, just know that it involves adopting 2 empowering beliefs:

1. Nothing is lost in the universe. Everyone generally accepts this when it comes to matter and energy. As a science teacher, one of the biggest concepts I hope my students walk away with is that both matter and energy can be changed, altered, and transformed; but never created or destroyed. The empowering belief I adopt extends this principle to consciousness as well. I realize this is not a minor assumption – whole schools of philosophy are built around arguing this point, so I will reserve my exposition for later.
   ⠀
2. We reap what we sow. Again, everyone generally accepts this on a physical level: you are kind to someone, they are more likely to be kind to you in return. You work out, you are more likely to have greater fitness. The empowering belief I adopt extends this principle to the ongoing consciousness stream that is eternal (per the above assumption). How our current intentions and actions affect the flow of consciousness both in our current existence and beyond is what I call ‘karma.’ Again, a huge topic which I promise to address more formally.

The key thread that gives these beliefs their real power is that greater karma is directly linked with greater difficulty. Live consciously when it is “easy,” get a little bit of positive karma. Live consciously when it is “hard,” get a lot of positive karma.

Viewed in this way, everything truly becomes something I not only can be grateful for, but WANT to be grateful for! As with all good ideas however, experience is the real test. My intention this year is to fully embrace this mindset and then observe the results.

Namaste.

Close to a year ago, I did a challenge that involved skimming a lot of classic philosophy texts from the very ancient to the contemporary. Some of the most enduring and insightful concepts that I gathered were from the books on the list that might fit easier into a religious studies course than a philosophy course. The 2 books I am thinking about specifically are the Upanishads and the Dao De Jing.

The Upanishads introduced me to the dialectic of the personal self and the universal self, which allowed a reimagination of one of my purpose statements in a way that deeply connected me to the universe and all conscious entities therein. The Dao De Jing describes the Tao: a term that eludes any frozen definition, but which denotes the highest principle of the Universe, or “that which exists through itself.” Both of these texts allowed me to better grapple with my understanding and application of panendeism.

I have no desire or inclination to become a Hindu or a Taoist, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t benefit tremendously from reading some of the principal texts associated with these belief systems. I figure the same could be true of the other major religions that exist as well. The next 40 days then will be a journey through 9 of the largest world religions or sects.

Two notable omissions from the following list are any Buddhist texts and, of course, the Bible, as I have already spent a large amount of time with these. Without further ado, here is the list of religions ordered by number of adherents, and the holy book I will be perusing:

• Islam (1.9 billion) – Quran
• Catholicism/Orthodox Christianity (1.4 billion) – Apocrypha
• Hinduism (1.2 billion) – Rig Veda
• Sikhism (26 million) – Shri Guru Granth Sahib (An introduction)
• Seventh-day Adventism (22 million) – Steps to Christ (by Ellen G. White)
• Mormonism (17 million) – Book of Mormon (An overview)
• Judaism (15 million) – Talmud (2 books: one, an introduction; the other, a biography)
• Taoism (9 million) – Lieh Tzu and Chuang Tzu
• Shinto (4-88 million depending on source!)- Introduction to Shinto (by Yoshikawa Katsumi)

Like previously, I am utilizing Kindle Unlimited, which allows free access to all of the above works. The Sikhism holy book and the Babylonian Talmud were too lengthy, so I chose introductions to each of these for this challenge.

There are 3443 total pages I want to read by the end of the challenge.
For weekdays (70 pg/day):

• 10 pages first thing upon rising
• 5 pages right before lunch
• 15 pages before leaving for home (or before dinner)
• 30 pages after finished with yoga for the day and before bed
• 10 pages right before retiring for the day

For weekends (125 pg/day):

• 10 pages first thing upon rising
• Average 15 pages per hour during PAT segments

Like I did with my philosophy book skimming challenge, I will provide weekly reflections on things I’ve gleaned from reading these texts.

Namaste.

This blog post will just be a quick update on this month’s challenge. I want to delineate a couple specific requirements I am putting on myself as part of the challenge.

• Print out new hierarchy document each weekend – I like to think about the upcoming week during PAT and print up a hierarchy of activities, tasks, and projects to focus on daily and throughout the week. However, this can often be neglected and I just reuse one from a previous week or wing it. Productivity initiation is made much simpler if I have a plan in advance of the tasks I want to complete and the order in which I want to initiate them. I will make doing this the first priority of my weekend.
• Look at and update hierarchy as needed each day – Usually, I take a glance at my google KEEP notes once at the end of each day to see if there is anything that can’t wait to be addressed. I commit to doing the same with my printed hierarchy each day, whether this is to peruse the day ahead or to tweak the schedule based on the current day’s experience.
• Spend 5 minutes on hardest or most dreaded task each day – I will do this the very first thing upon arriving home from work. I give myself permission to spend more than 5 minutes, but I want to spend at least this much time facing whatever it is I most want to avoid in a manageable way each day.

The other requirement I am giving myself this month is with regards to my former monthly challenges. Although I am getting very skilled at creating and maintaining commitments during a challenge, I am less skilled at navigating the aftermath. How can I ensure I will reliably incorporate aspects of the challenge into my daily life going forward?

For this month, whenever I think about a previous challenge I want to do one thing to honor it. This applies regardless of my written evaluation and intention about the subject. For example:

• Push-up challenge – Do at least one push-up between classes I teach during the day.
• Purposeful spiritual connections – Do at least one of these sometime during the day for any length of time.
• Constant smiling – Flash one for 2 seconds whenever I think about it.

Obviously, I expect much of the time when I do this, I will be motivated to do more. The focus is on initiation and momentum. One of the biggest aids I am developing to deal with low motivation during times of depression is to set lower expectations and quickly initiate tasks instead of doing too much meticulous planning or front-loading my agenda.

Namaste.

This next month’s challenge is quite simple in its concept. One of the most mentally debilitating habits I picked up when I first started experiencing major depression was procrastination. This developed originally as a coping mechanism. I was a perfectionist with regards to my own achievements. At some point in medical school, it became impossible to maintain my desired level of perfectionism, but I didn’t know how to find a middle path. I would try harder and harder and harder, and then distract myself with what was increasingly becoming my TV addiction, though I didn’t realize or acknowledge it at the time.

I still have a lot of healing work to do in the area of mental health, both with managing depression and getting to abstinence in the area of my addiction. However, I am trending in the right direction at this point. One of the habits I want to install in my life is the initiation of productivity. Not any specific productivity metrics, just choosing to initiate tasks that I would rather avoid either because they are difficult, confusing, or just require a little more physical or mental energy than I want to output at that moment.

There are 2 basic methods that can be used to initiate productivity: action-based methods and time-based methods.

1. Action-based – This involves taking a specific and simple action or series of action to begin a project or activity, but without committing to going any further than that at the outset.
   • Running – Lace up (figuratively – my toe shoes don’t have laces), throw a jacket on if chilly, and run down the driveway. If I do that, it’s a success!
   • Blogging – Log in to my website, create a new post, enter a title, and type one sentence into the text area. After that, I can stop and not write another word.
   • Finances – Organize 3 receipts/bills by date. Open up Microsoft Money and enter in one transaction. After that, I can close down the program and not think about money for the rest of the day.
2.  Time-based
   • Intensive exercise – Pick out one exercise (biking, push-ups, planks, etc.), set a timer for 1 minute, and start workout. Once the timer beeps, I can choose whether to stop or continue.
   • Big project – Set a timer for 5 minutes and start diagramming my plan of action for completing the project. After timer beeps, save work.
   • Karma practices – This could be meditation, check-in, skill practice, etc. Cast lots to pick one and do it for 1 minute.

One of the biggest hurdles for me in the area of productivity is just choosing to start things. I can put off even simple projects for months because of this resistance. Oftentimes, once I start I end up doing much more than I required of myself and enjoying it in the process. Of course, this isn’t always true; sometimes perseverance is needed.

I am not requiring any specific productivity metrics be met this month. However, I expect that if I look back after the month is complete, my metrics will be increased without me necessarily having that as the goal. Getting over the inertia barrier is my biggest obstacle in most cases.

The challenge this month then is to NOT PROCRASTINATE. Start doing whatever I am avoiding, even if I just do one thing or only spend 1 minute on it. Perseverance is optional.

Namaste.

I have been quite lax in blogging lately. I finished my month of daily yoga and reading over a month ago and am just now evaluating it. I did not start a new challenge this past new moon day (Sunday), and am not planning on doing anything official for the rest of this month. However, I am continuing to taper my TV show viewing time with the goal of starting abstinence in this area on my birthday, February 8th.

Without further ado, let’s talk about my challenge at the end of last year. I started it Thanksgiving day and the goal was to get me back into some mentally and physically restorative routines. Unfortunately, I contracted both an upper respiratory infection and a stomach bug in the first few days of the challenge, which got me off to a bad start, and which I let throw me out of conscious alignment.

For this reason, I ended up neglecting the challenge quite a bit up until the last week and a half. In the spirit of the challenge, I attempted to make up for the time I had missed and went above and beyond, completing my goal with Bikram yoga and getting pretty close with the reading intention.

With that recap, here are some observations I have about the challenge and myself:

• Make general and specific contingency plans for ailments – Coming off of my highly successful ‘Month of 30,000 push-ups,’ I had high hopes both for the challenge and for the ending of the year in general. These got derailed due to my double sickness and especially the worst raging headache I’ve had in my life. Sickness, just like depression, is a challenging situation that must be handled with tenderness and skill in order to remain in conscious alignment. I want to learn to give myself the freedom to achieve less during these times while still operating in a conscientious and productive mindset.
• Allow each new day to be a reset regardless of what happened previously in the month – I default to a strong all-or-nothing mentality quite frequently if I’m not careful. Prior to my major depression, this was a source of extreme motivation which I enjoyed. However, recently, it has only caused more depression and procrastination. Especially in the area of challenges, I want each day to be a new opportunity for engagement. I want to leave my self-judgment at the door when I start each new day and instead embrace the power of now.
• Attempt making up for neglected time, but don’t require it – If I am back on track with the daily specifications of the challenge, then it is appropriate to make plans for recouping whatever missed opportunities occurred earlier in the month. This is admirable and in alignment with the spirit of the challenge. However, this should never be the first priority. Every challenge is more about showing up on a daily basis than about completing a certain number of minutes or reps of something.
• Consider finding zoom partners for exercise – By the end of the challenge, I was completing a full hot Bikram yoga session every day, and I LOVED it! However, once the challenge came to an end, so too did the yoga eventually, even for a shorter window of time each day. I intellectually and viscerally KNOW the benefits of Bikram yoga and exercise in general, but still struggle (immensely at times) to consistently incorporate this without the incentive of a challenge. The other option, therefore, is to find more zoom partners to exercise with, like I currently do with my sister on Friday nights.
• Look into book exchanges and discussion partners – I absolutely loved getting back into some more physical book reading. There is just something magical about holding a real paper book in your hand as opposed to reading online. I completed an online philosophy book skimming challenge a year ago, which I enjoyed, but I still miss physically holding a book, even if I do have to get somewhat creative to avoid generating back pain or tendinitis from the activity. I think what would motivate me to continue this practice would be to find some family or friends to exchange books with and have regular informal discussions about them.

While not on an official monthly challenge right now, I am planning on getting back to posting a blog post once a week for the rest of this month. This shouldn’t be too difficult as I already have topics for the next 3 posts planned out (evaluation of purposeful spiritual connection, TV abstinence, and productivity challenge).

Namaste.

Consciousness focusing is a technique that can be used in reprogramming your mind to free yourself from emotional addictions. It is especially useful when you are emotionally “hot.” Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is another useful reporgramming tool, but is best utilized when a person is emotionally “cold” or accessing the more rational part of their mind.

This month’s challenge is inspired by my desire to engage in consciousness focusing. According to Ken Keyes Jr.,

Your most deep-seated beliefs were burned into your brain by trauma or repetition, especially at times when you were highly emotionally charged. The theory is, you can change them by working up high emotional voltage then pounding in the new programming with repetition.

Consciousness focusing works best after you have thoroughly intellectually convinced yourself it would be a good idea to get rid of the addiction, that you would definitely be better off without it. You don’t want any last minute reservations coming up once you raise your emotional voltage.

Consciousness focusing is probably most effective in a large sympathetic group where you don’t hold anything back when expressing yourself (including yelling and crying). However, it can also be done in a quiet way, just repeating your chosen phrase over and over to yourself meditatively as you sit, walk, jog or ride a bicycle.

Below are the highlights of this technique that I gleaned from the Handbook to Higher Consciousness:

1. Welcome the people and situations that can help you become clearly and strongly aware of your addictions.
2. Stop blaming the outside world when you are emotionally upset.
3. Whatever you tell yourself at this time is absolutely crucial so be sure to blame all of your uptightness on your emotional programming.
4. Be aware of the programmed automation of your biocomputer when you get emotionally upset.
5. Find the phrases and thoughts that generate the strongest emotions when you are upset; shout them as loud as you can over and over again.
6. Build up the voltage of your emotional responses.
7. Cry as much as possible – for crying helps you to reprogram faster.
8. Keep telling yourself that you programmed yourself many years ago and that you can deprogram that which you programmed.
9. Don’t let any person or any of your thoughts cool you down.
10. Develop the confidence that you can absolutely be the master of yourself.

I have wanted to utilize the consciousness focusing technique for quite some time, since reading about it and resonating with the concept. However, I found myself lacking a supporting spiritual medium to facilitate the practice. This is one of the benefits to having a religious or spiritual belief system that you regularly reinforce. It allows for a convenient on-ramp to connecting with your higher self.

This month’s challenge is about creating and sustaining that on-ramp, so that when I feel consciousness focusing would be effective, I have a prebuilt system of ramping up my emotional voltage that feels familiar and safe.

My objective, therefore, is to have regular daily communion with my higher self (call it God-consciousness, the Universe, or whatever helps me to plug in and connect). I am going to borrow from one of the pillars of Islam for this challenge: Salat (daily prayer), and set 5 times throughout the day to engage in communion.

• Before sunrise – Specifically, between civil dawn and sunrise, which is approximately 6:45 to 7:15AM right now.
• Midday (after the sun passes its highest) – Specifically, within 1/2 hour after solar noon, which right now is between 12:30-1:00PM.
• Late part of the afternoon – This one is more broad, but I would like to try to aim for between 3PM and 4PM.
• Just after sunset – Specifically, between sunset and civil dusk, which is approximately 5:30 to 6:00PM right now.
• Between sunset and midnight – This one has the most latitude, especially this time of year when sunset is so early. However, I am going to make a point of doing my last communion practice 15 minutes or so before retiring to bed for the day.

I want to “pray” for a minimum of 20 minutes each day, and a minimum of 2 minutes per communion session, though I want to keep track of the time informally so as not to have a rigid time structure affecting the practice.

The only other criteria I have is that I want to do all of my sessions outside on some type of mat. For now, a yoga mat will work just fine, though I might look into buying a special “prayer” mat as the challenge gets underway.

What I do during each session is entirely up to me in that moment. Chanting, bowing, thinking out loud, crying out, and repeating mantras are all great ways to engage the time, but none of them are required. The point is to focus on connection with my higher self/the Universe/God-consciousness and use whatever phrases or modalities accommodate this objective.

Namaste.

Last month’s challenge was a smashing success! There was only one day, a Sunday, that I didn’t complete at least 900 push-ups (I think I did 450 or so that day), and there were only a few days that I didn’t get in the full 1,000. However, the last week of the challenge I added 100 extra push-ups each day to make up for any that I missed previously in the challenge.

All that to say, I am confident that I performed 30,000 push-ups during the course of the challenge. It definitely is one of my favorite to date. I think this is a great example of the power of 30-day challenges. I gave a speech this past week comparing 30-day challenges to New Years resolutions. I don’t think anyone would give a New Years resolution of doing 1,000 push-ups a day and definitely not for a year.

However, when put in the context of 30 days, it becomes a challenging yet attainable goal, especially if you break it down into small chunks that are purposefully scheduled throughout the day. Honestly, I don’t have that much else to comment on with this challenge, so instead of doing a more formal evaluation, I will just give a few observations and intentions.

• It was easier during the week than on the weekend. The biggest factor in completing the push-up challenge was not how busy I was. Knocking out 100 push-ups was relatively easy to do, especially by the end of the challenge. The most difficult part was remembering to do them. When teaching at school, each bell that rang was a reminder to knock out 50+ push-ups. Without these reminders, it was easier to get behind.
• Chest-to-ground push-ups are not for me. Why? Well, I don’t really have a chest. Some of this is due to my kyphoscoliosis, but whatever the reason, touching my chest to the ground doing push-ups was not feasible. I did practice with this a little though during the challenge.
• I will continue the practice during the work week days. Doing 50 push-ups between each class period was awesome. It was a great way to get some exercise in during the day and feel physically refreshed without breaking a sweat or being a time drain. Just great!
• I will feel sorry for anyone that does a push-up challenge with me. I enjoy doing abs workouts with my brothers when we visit each other. Abs exercises have always been tough for me, and I find doing timed workouts or pyramids quite challenging. However, push-ups, especially now after doing 1,000 a day for the past month, are as simple as walking.

That’s it. I have already picked out what I think my next monthly challenge is going to be: hourly consciousness focusing. But more on that when I detail the specs.

Namaste.

This month, I am doing a less physically demanding challenge, which seems appropriate given my body has been feeling absolutely miserable the last few days. I want to get back to reading again, and with Thanksgiving now and Christmas around the corner, this seems the perfect time to start.

Also, I have been experiencing a lot of new aches and pains recently. Perhaps this is due to the extensive push-ups from last month, or my current sickness, or some unknown factor. Whatever the reason, getting back to daily Bikram Yoga can only help and is something I have been neglecting for too long.

Here are the details for the yoga challenge:

• At least 30 minutes each day – Official Bikram Yoga classes are 90 minutes long. The ones I usually attend or view on YouTube are close to an hour long. I am just committing to 30 minutes, though if I have time and want to finish the whole class that would be great.
• Turn space heater on for some of each practice – Bikram Yoga classes are performed in some type of hot room where the temperature is close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t currently have a membership to any studios or gyms with a hot room, so that is not an option. However, I would like to replicate the experience a little bit by starting and ending the practice with a space heater.
• Always start with Standing Deep Breathing and Half Moon Pose – Thirty minutes will not get me through an entire practice. I am fine picking up where I left off from the previous day, as long as I always start with these two introductory positions before doing so. They help prepare the mind as well as the body for the rest of the practice.

The reading portion of this challenge is rather simple. Below are the specifications:

• Plan on reading at least 1,000 pages during the month – This seems like a good number without being too ambitious. Any book counts as long as I am not reading it virtually.
• This comes out to between 33 and 34 pages per day – I plan on reading at least 5 pages when I first wake up, 5 pages during my lunch break, and 5 pages upon getting in bed at night. The remaining pages can either be spaced out throughout the day or read as a bolus after dinner.
• I can make up for days that I didn’t read the allotted number of pages – I want to get to 1,000 pages, and if this means making up for days that I missed, I will do that. However, the point of the challenge is to get into the habit of daily reading, so I am not allowing myself to “get ahead” by reading more than 34 pages during a day if I am already caught up.

I anticipate cultivating a spirit of mental and physical wholeness during this challenge.

Namaste.