Yoga philosophy and executive composure advisory.
How you relate to your experience is your experience. Appearing is always already happening. Experiencing is, most basically, an ongoing stream of appearing, the basic occurring of which is not subject to our will, and is that within which we exercise our will. There is always more appearing—always more that shows up that we did not author and cannot have pre-decided how we will feel about. We…
Is "embracing discomfort" the key to making progress in life, personally or professionally? Not universally, no. We want to be mindful of not creating new compulsions—including a compulsion to ‘embrace discomfort’—lest we become trapped by them (e.g., mistaking discomfort for progress, instinctively/reactively rejecting ease or comfort—even in our relationships). This can end up reinforcing the…
Whether we like it or not, our unwanted thoughts and painful emotions determine so much of our lives— but only because we avoid them. COMMENTARY: Our discomfort determines so much of our lives—but only because we avoid it. We cultivate the capacity to remain with discomfort so that our lives aren't fully determined by habitually and unthinkingly avoiding it—so that we have choice (even if our…
Whatever our claims about such concepts as reality, self, consciousness, G0d, etc., these claims themselves only ever appear within experiencing. We do not encounter these concepts (or anything) outside of experiencing. Experiencing is always already happening; we don’t go anywhere to find it, and we don’t “construct” it from some private interior space. Experience is a continuous stream of…
In yoga, what you do is far less important than how you do it. COMMENTARY: Any practice—postures, breath control, meditation, mantra, devotion, inquiry—can be taken up as part of the attempt to secure oneself against discomfort, to become complete, pure, in control—invulnerable. And in that case, the practice only reinforces the very problem it was meant to solve—just as a stronger desire for…
Managing emotions doesn’t require controlling them. Managing emotions just requires becoming aware of them before becoming consumed by them. Managing emotions, in other words, requires awareness. COMMENTARY: This is simple, but not easy. And it’s simpler for some people—and some emotions—than for others. (And it is always made more difficult by craving some version of total emotional control.)…
The practices of yoga are simple. You alway already have the only thing you ever need: your attention. Everything else is nonessential. COMMENTARY: In yoga, we cultivate awareness so that we may become aware of—before becoming consumed by—the automatic habits of thinking, feeling, acting, and perceiving that prevent us from seeing how our efforts to acquire peace might be reinforcing the very…