After losing two friends and an uncle to suicide, Zen priest Ittetsu Nemoto made it his life’s mission to support those struggling with depression and suicidal behavior. My Soul Drifts Light upon a Sea of Trees follows three of the hundreds of people Nemoto has counseled as their lives are transformed by his holistic, community-based approach to suicide prevention.
In the first couple of weeks of The Great Lockdown, I have spent too much time on the news feeds obsessively reading the news and feeding my fears of uncertainty and missing out. Once the panic subsided, I have cut the news intake to preserve my sanity. I now try to check the news no more than once a day and sometimes forget to do so. I started collecting positive news in the midst of the pandemic. Here are some that caught my attention. Add links in the comment if you have others to share. Stay safe and stay sane, fellow nomads! Continue reading
that moment when you’ve worked very hard on something and suddenly someone jumps up front and center just as the last piece is put in and it’s photo…
credit.
I’ve seen this chart on Professor Scott Galloway’s Linkedin page (I listen to his Prof G show and Pivot podcast with him almost exclusively now) and it is the best visual summary of our mindset options during this pandemic. I’ve spent a few too many weeks in the Fear Zone I must admit, but since I’ve been in the Learning and Growth Zones and it’s been one helluva ride so far!
Source: Ram Dass Fellowship (Facebook)
Who is up to what these days? I volunteer with the Hear Me App where I talk to folks from all over the world who need someone to talk to. And everyone is struggling, myself included. I’ve spent the first several weeks of the quarantine in a slump – no energy, no motivation, not eating or sleeping well, obsessively checking the news. Since, I’ve worked on bringing back the structure, the routine, drumming up exercise, making sure I sleep enough and trying (trying!) to stop eating biscuits and chocolate. I am far from “normal” but I am making progress. Baby steps…
These are sad, uncertain, worrying times. It is normal to feel down, anxious and depressed. I bet no one, no one is feeling ok. We are stuck with ourselves amplifying everything we might have been running from before. Life choices, decisions, behaviours, beliefs – everything is under review. Everything is being questioned.
We have to focus on what we can control. We can not control the virus, the news or the death stats. We can control how healthy and safe we and our loved ones are, we can keep our body, mind and spirit in shape and we can use this time as a practice to work on becoming aware of and burning through “our stuff”, like Ram Dass teaches in his Dharmic Fire talk. As Buddhists see it, suffering is a fodder for growth if you don’t try to run away from suffering. Out of mud lotus flower springs.
Connect, support, help, give, be kind, be creative, be mindful. Above all, give yourself a break, practice self-compassion and self-care. Baby steps. Tiny progress. We are all in this together. Stay safe, fellow nomads.
Paul Stamets, the biggest world’s mushroom enthusiast 😊 fascinates me. His passion for mushrooms and fungi is awe inspiring. He already has a Ted talk that has been viewed more than 6 million times and now there is a documentary featuring him on how awesome mushrooms are and how we can use them to feed, heal and protect the world. Ethical Superstore sell a mushroom growing kit… just saying! Enjoy!
I consider Ram Dass to be my guru. He has been one of my most important spiritual mentors. His teachings led me to psilocybin, further study of Buddhism and radically changed how I see myself, other people and reality, and how I live my life.
He has left his body last year, just before my 40th birthday. “Becoming Nobody”, the title of his last documentary, which is also the essence of his teachings, has been finally released worldwide. What a beautiful being he was! You can watch it on Gaia with a free 1-week trial.
Trailer here:
I love physics because it’s weird 😊 I’ve watched two awesome physics documentaries (on Amazon Prime) called “Everything and Nothing. The Amazing Science of Empty Space” and “Order and Disorder: The Forces that Drive the Universe”.
My mind has been blown when I learned that emptiness or vacuum is not empty, it is teeming with micro Big Bangs – matter and antimatter appearing for the briefest amounts of time and almost immediately annihilating each other. It is like energy is playing hide-and-seek with itself, shape-shifting, never standing still.
Continue readingI am envious of those who, unlike me, can stay productive and positive in such uncertain times. I missed a blog post last week because I’ve been struggling.
Psychologists call what many of us are experiencing grief. I’d add uncertainty and emptiness. That feeling you have when you are in between jobs, careers, houses, partners, life stages, when things are not going as you hoped or planned – it is that but multiplied to Nth degree. The feeling of being lost, stuck, a mix of dread and agitation, anxiety over uncertainty and growing impatience. Anxiety and excitement rolled into one…
How to not freak out and overdo it and instead practice patience and non-doing, while letting your life unfold? “Infinite patience produces immediate results.” Below are the words of encouragement from Lissa Rankin which I stumbled into in her book “The anatomy of a calling”. Keep going, don’t give up, you can do it – it is on its way.
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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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.
Nomad of the Universe 