Blog

More and more people are hearing about the positive effects of meditation on their physical and mental health and are trying it on for size.  I've talked to quite a few folks who are new to the practice, and I often hear some variation of the following comment: “I've been trying to meditate recently, and it really helps me relax, but I just can't get my mind to stop thinking.”  Which prompts me to think: “No, of course you can't, because that would be like trying to get a fish to stop swimming.” Continue reading “Whatever You Do, Don’t Think of a Purple Elephant: A Meditation on Meditation”

To put it nicely, our culture values speed; to put it more bluntly, it seems to be addicted to it.    Much of our technological innovation is focused on how to let us talk, move, compute, communicate, design, innovate, decide, share, build, and execute everything faster.   Products ranging from mobile phones to hotels to airlines advertise their wares by touting their ability to help us move more quickly and cram much more into our already busy days.   Many books have been written instructing managers in the fine art of keeping pace with an ever increasing rate of speed in the world of business.  We’re told that we have to go fast to keep up with the global marketplace, but I think it’s actually the other way around: humans drive markets, and the global marketplace is just responding to our insatiable craving for high velocity. Continue reading “The Lost Art of Slowing Down”

As modern, savvy, and reasonably well-educated human beings, we like to think that our opinions are based on truth and that we don't make a lot of assumptions.  But if we're honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we make one kind of assumption all the time, and it's an important one.  This one assumption is responsible for the vast majority of our misery and suffering. Continue reading “The Good, the Bad, and the–Nope, That’s It”

I graduated second in my class in high school, and at the time I was thrilled because it meant I didn’t have to give the Valedictorian’s speech.  I was shy at the time, and had no idea what I would want to say to so many people, nor what advice I could offer.  Now, with 14 years of hard-earned wisdom under my belt, I have more than enough to say and know exactly what suggestion I would give. Continue reading “Human Doing vs. Human Being”