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To watch the original video of this episode and/or become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com Do you ever wish that you could have a more tranquil mind? For a lot of folks who turn to meditation, this is often one of the big outcomes that they’re after. But there’s this common thing that happens. When people have been practicing meditation for a little while, it c...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. When we settle back and look at our minds, it’s not too difficult to recognise that our thoughts, behaviours, and actions are primed to move us away from pain and towards comfort. Even if sometimes our thoughts, behaviours, and actions are clumsy and maladaptive and end up entangling us in ever s...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to watch the original video and / or join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. ----------- A couple of questions I want to share with you that I’ve been playing around with a lot recently and that come lifted directly from my meditation practice are: “Is this skilful?” and “Is this wise effort?” I’ve been practicing asking myself these ques...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. One of the more challenging aspects of mindfulness, for a lot of people, particularly for those starting out in their practice, is the encouragement to meet each moment with acceptance. It is extremely common that the reason someone has turned to mindfulness in the first place is because they’re...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. When we practice mindfulness, what we’re really practising is clearly seeing the underlying nature of our moment to moment experience, as it truly is, rather than through the lens of our own stories, distortions and judgements. Regularly dropping into this level of awareness can, over time, be ve...

To watch the original video of this episode and/or become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com There’s a reason we take life so personally. And a way to NOT take it so personally. Enter the KitKat*(and no, it has nothing to do with taking a break)(although you really should be taking breaks)(but that’s not what this is about)(I digress)I know you’re busy. You reall...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. Imagine that you’re standing in the middle of a field on quite a breezy day, and the wind keeps shifting direction. For whatever reason, whenever the wind blows this way (👉), you feel really happy and connected to your wellbeing. But when the wind blows that way (👈), you feel unhappy and discon...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive all of additional content. What does wisdom mean to you? In almost every culture, wisdom is a prized virtue and, typically, we revere those we consider to be wise. Yet there are many lines of thinking about what constitutes wisdom. Ask ten different people and you’re likely to get ten different answers. For some, it’s abou...

How have you been relating to the day so far? Or the last hour? Has it been a pleasant experience or an unpleasant one? Or has it been nondescript, more neutral? And to what might you have been attributing the cause or the source of why you’re feeling the way you do now? At any moment, how we relate to our experience is defined by one of four levels of appropriation, what I call levels of mindful...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. So, yesterday I found myself in a particularly reactive state of mind. I’d had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it and much of the day was spent unconsciously rushing from one thing to the next. It wasn’t until later in the day that I really stopped to reflect how I’d been showing up, and...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. As you look out into the world, and as you interact with the people in your life, what do you notice about our general tendencies for how we relate to change? You’ve probably witnessed countless times how we’ll embrace and welcome any change that feels good and that falls in line with our prefere...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. Life is hard. Wow, there’s an opener for you. Bet you’re glad you clicked on this one! Seriously though, life is hard. Or at least it can be. I don’t say it to be in any way nihilistic. Quite the opposite. I say it in acknowledgement of a simple truth—that each moment contains within it the poten...

Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. One of the things I love most about being a dad is getting to share in the joy my eight-year-old son finds in simple pleasures. Small achievements. Imagined adventures. New discoveries. Lightbulb moments. Dots connected. It’s a real tonic. The other day, he finally got to stroke our cat, Sheldon,...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com In Buddhist teachings the sky is commonly used as a metaphor to describe the nature of our awareness. Just as the sky is often decorated with clouds—and tells us everything we need to know about the kind of weather currently moving through—our awareness is decorated with perceptions, thoughts, sensations, and emotions. As...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com One of the more pervasive factors that stops us from being truly present with our moment to moment experience is the tendency to place expectation on how things ought to unfold. If you take some time to meditate, surely you ought to feel more peaceful by the time you finish. If you treat people fairly, they ought to retur...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com There’s a common misunderstanding about the Buddhist approach to engaging with life, and it has even spilled over into the most modern of secular mindfulness practices. It’s an innocent misconception that has countless people trying to train their minds to think “I ain’t bothered” when faced with any of the infinite ways...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com What can looking around the space you're in teach you about having a more calm and settled mind? A great deal, it turns out. All these objects that punctuate the otherwise empty space that surrounds you are very much like your thoughts and emotions. They need an environment to exist in. Without space there can be no objec...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com Have you ever asked yourself, “Why does it have to be like this?”The answer is always…Every moment is exactly the way it is because it couldn’t possibly be any other way. Having the thought(s) that something shouldn’t have happened, or you could have done better, or a different decision could have been made, or they shoul...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com On the face of it, the path to a more peaceful mind is quite a simple one. As we practice being mindful, we repeatedly get to witness the mind’s tendency to generate thoughts, judgements, stories and compulsions that lead to unnecessary suffering. And it’s through this seeing - this awareness - that we learn we can choose...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com A cornerstone of mindfulness practice is the willingness to accept our present moment experience exactly as it is; to recognise it, acknowledge it and allow it to flow unimpeded, without grasping at it or pushing it away. But you don’t have to have practiced for very long to realise that some moments are just easier to ac...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com With whatever you’re looking at right now; to what extend do you feel you are having to make ‘seeing’ happen? Or are you just seeing? And with nearby sounds, how hard are you having to work to pull them into your awareness? Or are you just hearing them whether you like it or not? When you pick up a cup of coffee, how much...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com For most, the point of engaging in contemplative endeavours such as mindfulness and meditation is to get to experience the practice bearing fruit in our lives. Whether its generally to be more present, appreciative, connected or equanimous amid our ever changing, and often trying, circumstances, or specifically to be a mo...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com Are you being followed by the Thought Police? You’ll have noticed there’s no shortage of advice on how to master your mindset. But there’s a big problem with how a lot of it is given. And, more importantly, how it’s received. The message:→ Your thoughts are powerful→ What you think is what shows up→ Don’t allow yourself t...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com There’s a reason we take life so personally. And a way to NOT take it so personally. Enter the KitKat*(and no, it has nothing to do with taking a break)(although you really should be taking breaks)(but that’s not what this is about)(I digress)I know you’re busy. You really haven’t got the time for this. Buuuuut, if you’re...

Become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com Did you know that mindfulness has a best mate and its best mate is compassion? For thousands of years mindfulness and compassion have been described as two wings of the same bird. You see, in those moments when we feel genuine compassion, either for ourselves or for others, we're naturally in a very mindful state. And the...