Make Sure to Check Your Map

There are twenty-two days left until we complete this journey together. Even if you are starting today, have a sense of what you would like to build to. I suggest my clients meditate twice a day in the morning and in evening. I suggest they do the two minutes of silence three times a day, and throughout the day, sprinkle in micro practices.

I actually track how much I do practice. Week by week, or day by day I look to do just a bit more than I did yesterday. Occasionally I take a full day off, but for the most part I am consistent regardless of how I feel.

You are not your emotions. You are not your body, and you are not your drama. The outer world ts the world of the changing, There is something in you that is changeless, that has been the same from birth, all the way to now - and will continue forward and beyond death. This is the self we connect with in practice. With experience we can practice even when distracted. With sickness or challenges we just keep doing our gentle kindness based practice. We rely on living practices. If we have not done a practice for more than seven days it is dormant.

Activating the three pillars daily (and certainly within each week): Connecting with community, doing practice, and study. Here are some good resources:

The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron

A Gradual Awakening by Stephen Levine

The Art Of Being and Becoming by Hazrat Khan

You Will See It When You Believe It by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The Way of Zen by Alan Watts

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

Each of these teachers is on my mountain. I suggest collecting books and knowing who your root teachers are. Study them as though they are priceless letters from your grandmother written directly to you.

Twenty-two days left. Create a little heat. Now is the time to consciously change your life. Do it gradually. The day will come when you realize you feel less anxiety, more peace, and the ability to change the world for the better. Peace.