Manage to Engage

Today, we are on the precipice of awakening… and even the idea of that is probably going to stir some stuff up. So, let’s address the fears and the questions that the ego often wields to hold us back and the tools we have to get beyond those obstacles, both through short-lived shortcuts and long-earned practice. This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course ,...

Our conversation kicks off with a really insightful question about the nature of ego from one of the students who was participating in the live call: is the egoic process entirely in our conscious mind or our unconscious mind? Both? This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course , available at ClearandOpen.com .

As we continue to work our way through the Meditation for Awakening course, I want to talk about the importance of curiosity and exploration in a meditation practice. In a lot of ways, this is THE most important thing — but we need to be careful about not letting our curiosity lead us into the common trap of comparing ourselves to others in the process. It’s in the act of comparison that we create...

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been doing a deep-dive into Meditation for Awakening. And so far, we’ve been laying down the macro-level groundwork: what meditation is and isn’t, separating yourself from your thoughts, why most people practicing don’t actually get the greatest possible benefits of meditation, and the nature of “The Spiritual Instinct.” Simply put, we’ve been looking at thy W...

We’ve spent most of the last few weeks answering questions asked by the people who were originally on this coaching call, which is great, because those questions represent the fears and pre-existing notions that hold most of us back from awakening and enlightenment. Today we’re going to look at what successful meditation looks like and what happens when you give yourself over to what I call “The S...

Today, we’re going to sink our teeth into the meat of meditation: what the end goal of awakening, or enlightenment, actually looks like. And to start, we’re going to look at how my favorite Zen teacher defines enlightenment. This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course , available at ClearandOpen.com . I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating &amp...

We’re continuing our exploration of meditation for awakening, and today, we’re looking at what really holds us back: the ego. The ego is going to hijack your experience of meditation — and life, really — as long as it’s in the driver seat. We can’t kick it out of the car altogether, but we can demote it to the passenger seat by developing a better understanding of what “you” really are. This episo...

Over the last few weeks, we’ve gone through the basics of meditation. Now I want to shift into, more specifically, meditation for awakening — and the true goal or purpose of meditation. Meditation has never been more popular, but it’s also been perverted into a utilitarian tool for productivity in its most accessible forms. I liken the common meditation apps of the day to welding training wheels o...

Back in episode 301, I told you about my preferred way of teaching: by introducing students to a concept in totality, making them aware of the most advanced way in mind from the very beginning. I prefer this because, when I was a student of meditation, I was only shown part of the story, and I ended up developing some really bad habits. I don’t see any advantage to practicing from limitation. So,...

In the last episode, we talked about what the ego is and isn’t. Today, we’re going to reframe Ego as a verb. That may sound a little silly based on the cultural context of ego that we’re all familiar with, but I think it’s ultimately the most productive way to approach the transformative process of meditation. I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple...

In the last episode, we went over many of the things that meditation isn’t and why people often quit when they start approaching the reality of meditation: realizing that you are not your thoughts. Today, we’re going to delve into who you are if you’re not your thoughts, which we can’t do without talking about the ego — both the modern, bastardized conception of ego and the actual definition of eg...

Over the next few weeks, I am going to introduce you to meditation: what it is, and just as important, what it isn’t. Because there is definitely some confusion there.  I know that some of you already have a meditation practice, but I urge you to keep going — because there’s a good chance you were taught how to meditate the wrong way, or you weren’t provided the whole picture. How do I know?...

To wrap up this series on surrender vs submission, we’re going to look at two important footnotes: One is the phenomenon of the rebel, a character we all love to love, and the dangers that come with glamorizing rebellion — there is a fine line between a rebel and a consummate teenager. Second is one of the most common forms of resistance that you are likely to experience in life: your natural fear...

Now that we have a firm handle on the context of individual consciousness, we can dive into the content: specifically, the distinction between surrender and submission, how our society tends to conflate the two, and why this distinction is actually critically important when it comes to coaching, self-management, and growth. This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at...

In the last episode, we examined how individual consciousness evolved rapidly, from the invention of the printing press to the establishment of the United States of America to pioneering the school of psychology. Today, we are going to look at the shadow side of this nation’s obsession with individuality, which is very much present in our world today. This four-part series is an excerpt from the L...

Before we dive into the content of this course focusing on the dynamic between healthy surrender and unhealthy submission, we need to look at the context of the historical evolution of individual consciousness — how it evolved rapidly from the 1400s to the modern day and how our concept of individualism is still very much in flux, especially in the United States. This four-part series is an excerp...

About two-thirds of the time, your shadow, your addict, is sitting in the driver’s seat. This keeps us stuck where we are — and, if you’re listening to this, where you are right now probably isn’t where you want to be — and, inevitably, we end up driving right into a wall of reality that rebuffs us for living in delusion. To close out this series, I’m closing the loop on Learning for Change,...

The addict in us has ideas about reality that aren’t true — and they’re asserting that into our beliefs, the way we orient towards problems, and the way we engage with life . That’s why, for so many people, real change only happens after hitting rock bottom. But that doesn't always have to be the case. Today, we’re going to talk about embracing the addict to move towards something more productive...

What do overwhelm and opiates have in common? They’re both addictions that are far too common in our society today. One may seem significantly worse than the other on the surface, but the deceptive nature of our addiction to overwhelm is truly insidious — and don’t let it tell you any different. This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com . You...

We’ve been spending the last couple months going through a few classes from the Learning for Change course. Learning to orient yourselves to change in a healthy and productive manner is an important skill set for anyone who endeavors to go down the road of self-mastery, but it’s also a critical skill set for everyone in the world as we know it at the end of 2020, when this episode originally relea...

In the last episode, we looked at the first 2 of the 4 stages of relating to change — Ignoring and Dabbling — and how they correlated with the first 3 of the 5 stages of engagement. This week, we’ll examine the last two stages of relating to change, which will bring us full circle and parallel our conversation about discovering your one thing. This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning...

Sometimes in life (pretty often, actually), reality holds up a mirror and forces you to see a reflection of yourself. This doesn’t always come in the form you expect, it’s almost never when you expect, and it’s generally easy to shrug it off and just keep ignoring whatever reality is trying to remind you about. But if you do keep ignoring life, you will continue to experience suffering — beca...

We just wrapped up a series on The One Thing from the Learning for Change course. Over the next three weeks, we’re going to continue working through this course, focusing on the four stages of relating to change. We’ll build on what we learned about The One Thing, and you’ll hear from some people who are still grappling with what their one thing is and how it relates to their values. This series w...

We finish up this series on The One Thing by examining some tools that can be used to identify it, like writing your own eulogy or reverse engineering your one thing from your greatest achievements. If you’re willing to go deeper and commit to finding your one thing, you can sing up for the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com .

Last week’s episode brought up a big question: What is your one thing? Or what’s the question that you will dedicate your life to? But don’t worry if you don’t have a definitive answer to those questions yet. Even just thinking about the question with intention puts you closer to the right path. And today, I’m going to give you some questions and tools you can use to continuously re-orient yoursel...