It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a writer in possession of a blog, must be in want of publishing a book 🙂 I went the self publishing route and did it. My mini guide to healing love addiction is now available on Amazon.
Gee, how things can change in a week! What has been my emptiness practice over the last 9 months is what now a lot of people have to do daily. Monk life! How are you holding up, fellow nomads? What are you up to?
Constant news reading, empty supermarket shelves and growing number of cases around must be impacting everyone’s mental health. In times like these I remind myself that positive action – deepening or establishing a spiritual practice, helping others, physically or online, creating and sharing positive messages is what we can do.
A local Buddhist centre have been streaming their meditation sessions online. Ram Dass’s team made his meditations available online (for example, his talk on fear). “Tricycle”, a Buddhist magazine, have put online tools to help cultivate the right mindset. Other than rewatching all BBC versions of Jane Austen novels (my reliable anti-depressant), I have doubled on my meditation and yoga practices and I chant with Krishna Das (free on Amazon Music or Youtube).
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I mentioned this book before – it is how I discovered Wayne Dyer. It came recommended by Tim Ferriss. I don’t follow Tim, but occasionally get sent links to his podcasts or blog posts, and one of his posts that I read mentioned this book.
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I discovered Wayne Dyer through Kamal Ravikant. I discovered Anita Moorjani through Wayne Dyer. Synchronicity at work 😊
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My emptiness practice appears to be over, for now. I’ve realised that the opposite of emptiness is joy, so I am trying to fill my life with as much of it as I can. My daily to-do list actually says “have fun at least once today” 😊
Joy does not require big spending or extravagant events, unless this is what is unfolding in your life, in which case congrats and enjoy! 😊 My sources of joy lately are much more simple.
Synchronicity is back at work. I wanted to finally learn more about manifesting and I found out about Wayne Dyer. An American self-help teacher, with ideas from Zen Buddhism, his talk above is full of interesting ideas. The meditation in the end is something I do now before bedtime. What do you think or know about manifesting?
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I’ve been mini-retired for 6 months. Retirement is a great way to practice emptiness. Six months of non-doing and facing uncertainty is when I usually hit the psychological threshold and the monkey brain spirals into anxiety. You know the script – oblivion, irrelevance, destitution, tear-stained faces of hungry children, homelessness, failure. Urgh.
I need to find a job because selling my time/ energy is the way to pay bills that I know. I am still working on learning how to manifest abundance in other ways. However, looking for a job when you are empty inside is an interesting challenge. Good empty. Content. At peace. You sort of don’t want anything.
My mind tried to put on its usual “you are lacking ambition, what is wrong with you” record. But I don’t let it do things like that anymore. Instead it dawned on me – what if not wanting anything is not the sign of lack of ambition, depression or confusion, but rather an achievement? What if this means that one has achieved what Buddhists call the state of no desire, where whatever option materialises is equally attractive, possible and ok? What if not wanting anything is the next level in the emptiness practice?
It all depends on how you define success I guess. Money and title, possessions and achievements, doing and pushing, or peace and content. I dance my dance, take my curriculum, being in awe with whatever comes. Important threshold achieved, let’s see what next. Universe, I am open for business.
Through Ram Dass’s satsang (community) I’ve discovered this beautiful kirtan (devotional song) by Krishna Das. From what I understand, in bhakti yoga (devotional practice) one dedicates themselves to their guru and by practicing devotion finds unconditional love and wisdom. At the same time, guru = self = God. A guru is just a method, like meditation or psychedelics.
Translation of the lyrics below – I dare you not to cry while listening! My Guru, make me your instrument – show me how to serve you!
This is the reason why we put off working on things that we know are important, why we procrastinate, why we settle. We are not afraid of failure, we are afraid of success, however crazy this sounds.
 | lolkin on “Love Yourself Like Your Life… |
 | Island Traveler on “Love Yourself Like Your Life… |
 | SmilaZ on The joy of missing out |
 | Anthony Garner on “Dying to be me” b… |
 | beth on “Dying to be me” b… |
