Brad4d Savasana

We make New Year’s resolutions because we know that we’re doing something that is no longer working. The reflection itself is pretty powerful because we’re recognizing that our behavior keeps us stuck in old patterns. The New Year gives us hope, but each moment of our lives can be that fresh start we seek. What’s most critical is having the humility to see these painful patterns and the courage to...

Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day” has often been quoted and recited for advocating “one wild and precious life.” Indeed, things come and go, so we shouldn’t waste our moments on things that serve little purpose. Oliver is imploring for us to pay attention to this moment. Find the detail of the grasshopper, embrace it, but don’t mourn when it hops away. That’s keeping our hearts eternally open to God’...

Each day, we all have the responsibility of taking care of ourselves and those we love. This might be our calling or it might just be a job. It’s up to us to find balance so that we aren’t sacrificing our calling so we can achieve worldly success. We must work each day towards our calling, which is our unique way to serve humanity.

So much of our communication messages are impulsive, distracting, or psychological imprints. We spend little time reflecting on the messages themselves and focus more on being heard. Spending some time in silence each day—or at least reduced noise—allows us to communicate with a little more intention. This means discerning what part of our message has purpose and which is just noise.

Many religious (even non-religious) believe that God is “up there” punishing us. What if we believe God is within us, loving us in the way you love a significant other? Many mystics in history believed this. When you love The Beloved, you do things to serve that love rather than do things out of fear.

Much of the U.S. culture thrives on excess. We speak more about the economy of our nation rather than the economy of our spirits. Spending too much on our outer life leads to a weakened inner life. We don’t often notice this because materialistic values sell so much better than minimalism. To find inner peace, we focus more on what we have within us rather what we want around us.

Lectio Divina is a contemplative practice that has been used for centuries. It uses sacred Scripture to guide and anchor you as you enter into silent moments with God. What’s important is that Scripture is proclaimed, not dramatized. If someone is reading Scripture aloud, the reader should refrain from performing it because the hearer will focus on the characterization rather than the words. The r...

All of us are afraid of something—spiders, heights, being alone, boredom. We can create so much drama when we busy and distract ourselves from our fears. Instead, we can be bold and face our fears, knowing that it can birth a new path.

For many years, I thought I was experiencing depression. I lost my taste for things I loved in the past. Yet I had this burning desire to spend time alone with God. It has no aim, no clarity, which can be frustrating. But it is a calling, and it’s up to us to respond.

The world loves to tempt us with distractions. Especially on social media, people and businesses are vying for our attention. They pull out various party tricks to try to win our eyeballs then eventually our wallets. How does anyone find peace in that? The Bhagavad Gita says we must break free from the pull of these sensory distractions that seek to gratify the ego.

When we experience trials in our lives, we often demand for things to return to the way they were. Some pleasure or security had been taken from us, and we want it back. But these trials and crises often serve to break us open. They’re a call for us to change something. Many times, they call for us to look within for what we seek outside ourselves.

Our lives can feel dry and stale when we rely on outer things to temporarily satisfy us. Rather than look to the world, we sink deeper into our roots and be nourished by our faith. This passage from Ezekiel reminds us to stay close to the river.

We can get overwhelmed by our circumstances so much that we’re blind to the blessings we take for granted. It can harden us so much that we refuse to see them, and this is when evil triumphs over us. If we can accept these challenges as part of life, we might notice that each moment something changes. Our faith grounds us and gives us hope that we will overcome our challenges and become stronger.

Finding out who you are can be a daunting task. It takes a lot of self-inquiry and humility. But then what? Do you just stay that way? We are always changing. Every moment, we change, the world moves, and there is a response. Rather than find out who you are, be curious about how you respond to each moment, particularly when you’re in hot water.

The Old Testament book of Wisdom has some beautiful teachings about how God sees the world and us. It reminds us of how God is patient with us in spite of our judgment and behavior towards others. Can you look at someone you hate and see God’s impenetrable spirit within him?

Believing in something, particularly a spiritual truth, is one thing. The spiritual path only begins there. We eventually need to walk the walk and live what we believe. This means what we think, say, and do all echo what we believe. It’s not about convincing others through words of fear or force. It’s about living in truth, even if it’s inconvenient or unpopular. We must experience and live it wi...

Experience scripture through Lectio Divina, which is a meditative practice rooted deep within Christian history. See if scripture speaks to you in a new way as you listen with a contemplative approach. I recorded this during my live session on the Insight Timer app, so if I sound like I’m talking to someone, I’m responding to some of the chat through the session.

Self-help media tell us to pay attention to our senses and get out of thinking. The Stoics tell us to be a little more rational with our thinking. It’s actually a little bit of both. We train our senses to give us useful information so we can make wise decisions on our life path. Eventually, we move beyond the rational mind and discover something greater—wisdom.

We all have a calling. We might not know what it is—I still don’t. But God does. Today is the feast day of St. John Henry Newman, who reminds us to trust that God has a purpose for us. “God knows what He is about.”

Our impulses are moments of mindlessness. They reveal our weaknesses and inner drives. Impulses are different from instincts, which concern our ability to survive. Impulses are based on emotions and patterns of conditioning. It’s critical for us to examine our impulses and pause before acting on them.

Prayer and meditation, over time, dissolves our sense of separation. Neuroscientists such as Andrew Newberg have studied what happens to the brain when people pray or meditate. Even when you are physically alone, you never feel lonely. Your mind can be trained to feel a sense of unity and connection even when no one seems near.

We often get too comfortable in life, and when we encounter a troubling situation, our lives are thrown into chaos. St. Basil reminds us that we’re just travelers on this journey. We must accept both comforting and challenging situations. The challenging situations help us grow and keep us humble, and the comforts ensure us that God is good.

We are advised to "believe our feeling" and stop thinking in a great deal of New Age rituals. We are encouraged to "sue our desires" even in self-help programs. Not so quickly, the Cloud of Unknowing warns. It's obvious that a lot of individuals today are chasing the illusive in addition to being insane. According to the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, the ability of reason is particularly cruci...

So many people find comfort in a religious house, particularly if it’s the religious house from their youth. Yet somewhere along their lives, that religious house locked its doors to them. Whether it was abuse or archaic rules, that house no longer beckoned them. Yet God beckoned them to return to him, and the doors to the house remained locked. God always welcomes the lost. Why do certain religio...

Why do we need to belong? Popular media and figures often talk about establishing our identity, but this tempts us to conform. It emphasizes division rather than unity. Look within yourself and ask why you need to belong. Perhaps those differences are more similar to those people who don’t belong to your group. Rather than conform to a group, cultivate virtues such as compassion and integrity. The...