3-part meditation instruction

Most of our parents already taught us how to meditate, whether they intended to or not; the instruction is the mostly the same:

** This is a guest post from David Haas with the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, and I dedicate it to the loving memory of my father who passed away in September from cancer.
When your body becomes extremely stressed, it goes into what is known as "the fight or flight" syndrome. In this syndrome, you will do anything to survive. For example, a person who is trapped underwater may feel an enormous amount of energy surge through their body, allowing them to fight anything that keeps them from reaching air. The adrenaline rush allows you to accomplish incredible things.

If you haven't caught on to the title of this blog post, the theme today is slowing down. But wait, why would I want to slow down? Isn't the path of happiness and life fulfillment paved with success, achievement, and making forward progress? How can I write that book, build my business, support my family, or get going with career goals if I am not putting a TON of energy into getting things done (GTD)? Come on, moving slow is for lazy non-achievers. ...Right? 

Please join me as we explore in this post how slowing down might just be the key to achieving big goals.  

"If we do not slow down and learn to savor life, we will not rest in peace (RIP) until we are six feet under ground."  ~Ajahn Brahm

Many of us who grew up with a catholic/christian background are well aware of the teachings of original sin: that we are born into sin, and are sinners by default; that it's our nature. Take a look at any news broadcast (the bombings, the killings, the injustice) and you can see how tempting it is to come to, what appears to be, a clear conclusion.  

BUT are we throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater? Is it truly fair to say that "sinner" is every human being's default nature no matter what their dedication to morality? Does the "inner animal" always come out on top? Please join me in investigating if human beings, and our nature, are more than meets the eye. 

The German philosopher Heidegger spoke of "Man's thrown condition" as the human experience of being tossed or thrown into challenging life circumstances and situations without having a sense of ordering them or inviting them to come about. Typically, the "conditions" that we are prone to struggle with are finances, relationships (or lack of them), fears, careers, emotions (insecurity, anxiety, etc), health, loss, and life meaning.

As we go through these thrown conditions of life, many of us get the crazy idea that "my problems are my problems, and yours are yours," or "no one really wants to be bothered with what's going on with me." Given the commonality of these phrases, many of us are prone to isolate, especially men, and what we end up feeling is exactly what we were trying to dodge in the first place: our suffering. Please join me as we explore together, how to stay open, ask questions, form positive relationships, and seek the great wisdom of others, which are often the keys that unlock the doors of life.

New Years resolutions, some of us make a point to try every year with renewed fervor, and the rest of us have so many failed attempts behind us that we lose interest in trying.

If we have goals, they usually have the positive intention of improving the overall quality of our lives: "I'm going to lose that weight. I'm going to eat healthier. I'm going to improve my relationships. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to be more spiritual. I'm going to make a career shift. I'm going to get out of debt, etc." The challenge is, we are so often going to do something in the future tense, versus living it in the present tense.

Yet, against all odds, there are some people who transform from being full time couch potatoes into running triathlons,  desk clerks go back to school and become doctors, life time bachelors shift into becoming dedicated life partners, and even emotionally constipated shut outs have become warm hearted and open conversationalists.  So what is the defining factor(s) between those that make it and those who don't?  What are the keys to a successful new years resolution? Click "read more" and let's get to it.