What Is The Best Advice Anyone Has Given You?

One of the best questions to ask yourself when you find someone you believe will be a good fit for you is, Will this person guide me to feeling empowered in my own life? Sometimes I’d even attempt to be their friend again. It would only take a few months before I’d become disappointed by their character defects. They would say something that was insensitive, or they’d invite their special students to a desert retreat to do drugs all night. This taught me two things. One, those people aren’t my teachers. Two, that’s not the kind of person I want to be. I was seduced by what they portrayed to the outside world, but I cared more about the type of person they were. Were they kind and did their teachings carry over into their personal life? Our life is unchartered territory, and we need help navigating through it. That’s one of the reasons I sought out teachers. And guide me toward learning to trust myself? The definition of guru is the one who brings the light. A good teacher guides you to find clarity so you can set a clear intention and learn to discern for yourself. The real guru lives within.

Strong For Surviving

It was the year before I started my podcast, and I had been thinking about a few ideas. Back then, podcasting was still new. I felt insecure about the idea, but I respected the teacher’s opinion and asked what he thought. In true form, his response was simply What do you think about it? He smiled as I began to list all the reasons why podcasting would be a terrible idea. I said, Someone else is already doing it better. No one will care or listen. Someone will come for me because I express my opinion. He responded, That is the worst case, and if that is the case, so what? Isn’t that what you are here for? He told me that we build our life raft with the materials of our lives. There is no high place that we get to. We use our experience to ground ourselves in everyday life. This is how we move from the looping nature of samsara. It turns out samsara is not a person, like I believed when I was thirteen.

The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Down

Samsara is the continuous loop of suffering. It is painful, perpetuated by desire and ignorance. Everything in life is a lesson. It’s part of our spiritual practice to make mistakes, learn, and move forward. Your teacher isn’t always supposed to make you feel better. They are just supposed to guide you to make the best choice for yourself. A good teacher will say, Hey, you see that pothole over there? That’s it. It’s up to you whether you choose to run over it or get stuck in it. A great teacher will say, Sometimes roads have potholes, which alerts you that you will encounter obstacles. I have failed at many things. I think back to what I wanted when I was a teenager, in my twenties, and even in my early thirties and think, I’m so grateful I didn’t get what I really wanted. If there is something you really want to create, something you really want to do, you will do it for yourself, for your own reasons.

Gone Too Soon

It’s in the unknown places that we evolve, grow, and connect, and where we feel radically loved. Just as we can’t do the same things and expect different results, we also can’t think the same things and expect ourselves to take new actions. Every relationship goes through cycles. You support yourself by being aware and being proactive at each peak and valley. If you remain engaged, it becomes easier to move through adversity. Know yourself, know your worth. Engaging leads to connection. Place your hand over your heart. What is the best advice anyone has given you? Who has been your greatest teacher? Who has been the biggest inspiration in your life? Ask four friends to choose one adjective that they think of when they think about you. Gather them all and create a sentence that makes you feel empowered. Being on the spiritual path will require you to get off your phone from time to time. The phone is our pacifier. Our ability to be alone with ourselves is atrophying. To feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment, however, we must be fully awake. I often think about what would have happened if I’d had a smartphone that day on the beach when I met the loving Best Grandma on the Planet. I wouldn’t have made eye contact. She wouldn’t have approached me and helped me make sense of my life. How many times have you missed a sunset? An opportunity to help someone on the street? A simple greeting that could set the tone for the rest of someone’s day? You can begin first by putting your phone in a separate room when you go to bed, or leave your phone at home when you go for a walk or out on an errand. Your heart knows only truth. On one of my high school ditch days, I decided to take the city bus to Sunset Boulevard. I walked past the Viper Room and headed toward San Vicente Boulevard. As I crossed the street, the sign at the Whisky a Go Go caught my eye. It read, Ignorance is Bliss. I lived my life by that motto for years. It was normal as a teenager to ignore what was present and problematic, but that motto served no one when I brought it with me into adulthood. I learned about the caustic nature of ignorance when I learned about the kleshas, which are the afflictions of the mind, described in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The origin vid, which is knowledge, reason, or understanding. And the prefix a denotes wrongful knowledge, or ignorance of a situation. This causes us to react in ways we may or may not understand.