Teaching What Matters
Preconditions: Exercise
This post is a compilation of past essays on exercise, fitness, and movement. I started the day with an hour of meditation and breath...
Preconditions: Nutrition
This post is a compilation of past essays. To live mindfully, we attend to fundamentals. Meditation, a good night’s sleep, a balanced...
Special Ops Fitness Tests
October 18, 2022 Two weeks ago, my son, 12, challenged me to try and pass the Navy SEALs physical fitness test. Minimum requirements: a...
Nocioception | Pain
Nociception: Physiological pain component, which consists of the processes of transduction, transmission, and modulation of neural...
Memories of the Past in the Present
Often, when we sit in meditation, memories of the past arise- these memories may be innocent, uneventful, painful, judgmental, positive,...
Interoception 2: Contraction
Interoception is the sense that answers the question: "How am I feeling?" in any given moment. It is one of our lesser known senses....
Hearing
Mindfulness is a kind of non-judgmental awareness we bring into every moment. We can pin our attention on just about anything. I enjoy...
Less Stupid
Last night, my son snuck into my room, grabbed my laptop from the desk by the door and slipped out. I checked my watch. It was 2:47 a.m....
On Guns
I was raised in the ghetto. Today we call it the “inner-city,” “the urban core,” “neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage,” “post...
On Love & Sex
I evolved from a passionate young man into a renunciate. I grew into celibacy. Many who walk the contemplative path arrive at this...
What's in Your Cart?
Each month, I fast for three or more days. Fasting triggers ketosis. When this happens, the body converts fats in the liver into ketones...
Cognitive Distortions, Fallacies, Heuristics & Biases
We co-create reality. Moment by moment, the mind secretes thought after thought. Some are positive, others negative; some are beneficial,...
Identity
There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me... it is without name. -Walt Whitman, Song of Myself Attachment is...
The Dark Night of the Soul
On Christmas Eve, I called my big sister from the airport in Houston on my way to Cozumel. I could hear a deep sadness in her voice. I...