Don’t Take it Personally
Is it about you?The Practice:Don't take it personally.Why? Here’s an updated parable from the ancient Taoist teacher, Chuang-Tzu: Imagine that you are floating in a canoe on a slow-moving river, having a Sunday picnic with a friend. Suddenly there is a loud thump on...
Open Space Mindfulness
This is the fourth and final post in the series on developing mindful presence. Here's Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. In Part Three we did a little mindfulness meditation to "tune-up" our mindfulness and concentration skills. Now we are going to distill that...
Rick’s Picks: Man vs. Machine
Rick's Picks is a new series of posts highlighting the very best content online. This piece from FiveThirtyEight explores a classic contest of man vs. machine, carried out on the battlefield of the chess board. Seventeen years ago in New York City, brooding chess...
The Neurodharma of Love
Most of our greatest joys and sorrows happen in our relationships with others. Imagine then: what if you could guide your mind to forgive, heal, and find greater happiness in your connections with others? The remarkable truth is that you can. Check out this sample...
Mindfulness Tune Up
This is the third post in the series on developing mindful presence. Here's Part One and Part Two. Steady mindfulness requires overcoming the natural – and evolutionarily adaptive – tendency of mind to scan endlessly and think of new things. So the basic capacity to...
Rick’s Picks: Norah Jones Sings “Don’t Know Why” on Sesame Street
Rick's Picks is a new series of posts highlighting the very best content online. Norah Jones sings "Dont know why 'Y' didnt come" - starring Elmo - during the "letter of the day" segment on Sesame Street season 35 episode 4081. I have fond memories of my children...
Self-Directed Brain Change
I think you might like this sample from my audio program - Self-Directed Brain Change: Rewire Your Neural Pathways for Happiness and Resilience - a step-by-step program for retraining our neural structure out of "sheer survival" mode and into one of greater...
Why Develop Mindful Presence?
This is the second post in the series on mindful presence. You can view Part One here. So why should we go out of our way to develop mindfulness? Mindful presence feels good in its own right: relaxed, alert, and peaceful. Not contending with anything. No struggle. In...