Evaluate your work-life balance and be willing to make significant changes, even stepping back from demanding roles, if your job has become an addiction or is causing your family and personal sanity to receive ’leftovers'.
Reflect on whether your identity is overly tied to your professional role and actively cultivate a sense of self that is separate from your job, recognizing that losing a job can lead to a profound loss of identity if not balanced.
Pay attention to a series of negative events or health issues as potential ‘screams’ or warning signs that you need to slow down, re-evaluate your life choices, and prioritize self-care or significant change.
Recognize that physical pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional and arises from the mental narratives and reactions we add to the pain; use moments of discomfort to disambiguate the two.
Do not go into meditation expecting to feel a certain way, as desire for a specific outcome can hinder the practice and shut down the system.
View meditation as a training exercise for your mind and compassion muscle, rather than focusing on the specific feelings or experiences you have during the session.
To measure the true impact of meditation, practice it consistently for a while and then observe the overall changes in your life, rather than evaluating its effectiveness based on how you feel during each individual session.
Seek out and engage in respectful conversations with people holding different views, focusing on listening and understanding their perspectives rather than debating or trying to win an argument.
Actively question your faith and beliefs to understand not just what you believe, but why you believe it, ensuring your faith is personal and deeply rooted, not merely inherited.
Give yourself grace and be kind to yourself when building new habits like meditation; don’t strive for perfection, and if you miss a day or several, simply start over without self-criticism.
While it’s acceptable to shift or get up when discomfort becomes overwhelming or you’ve reached your limit, actively strive to push and explore your edge with physical and mental discomfort during meditation, similar to physical training.
When experiencing discomfort that is not physically harmful, sit with it during meditation to observe the nature of the pain, the thoughts it generates, and how it shifts and changes, learning about impermanence.
Recognize that distractions (like ‘whack-a-moles’) will always arise, but meditation helps you choose how and when to react to them, fostering intentionality rather than frantic responses.
Practice meditation to become less emotionally reactive and more focused, allowing you to respond to life’s challenges with greater intention rather than blindly reacting.
Embrace the understanding that while life will always be messy, meditation can help you maintain inner calm and prevent you from becoming a ‘hot mess’ yourself.
Read ‘The Five Love Languages’ by Gary Chapman to understand that individuals communicate and receive love through primary love languages (words of affirmation, acts of service, gifts, quality time, physical touch).
Reflect on what truly defines you and what you can’t see yourself without (your ‘glue and foundation’) to identify your unique ’lane’ or passion, which can guide your professional or personal endeavors.
Reflect on what actions or expressions from others make you feel most loved to identify your primary love language, which is how you best receive love.
Clearly communicate your primary love language to your partner or loved ones so they can express affection in ways that make you feel truly loved.
Systematically envision people (starting with an easy person, then yourself, a benefactor, a neutral person, a difficult person, and everybody) and silently repeat phrases like ‘may you be happy, may you be healthy’ to cultivate compassion.
Christians can adapt meditation by using Bible verses as mantras (e.g., ‘be still’), focusing on drawing nearer to God, and incorporating affirmations from scripture (e.g., ‘I’m fearfully and wonderfully made’) into a personalized practice.
Implement a three-minute meditation routine: one minute focusing on breath, one minute visualizing a happy place with sensory details, and one minute repeating a personal affirmation.
Understand meditation as a ‘bicep curl for your brain,’ a mental exercise that strengthens focus and attention, rather than an attempt to empty your mind.
Practice meditating or pausing before responding to situations, allowing for a more thoughtful and wise answer rather than a frantic or reactive one, as suggested by Proverbs 15:28.
If experiencing incredible pain during meditation that suggests potential physical harm (e.g., hurting a knee or spraining an ankle), move to a more comfortable position to avoid injury.
Instead of striving for perfect daily meditation, aim for a ‘daily-ish’ practice, meaning you try to meditate most days, giving yourself grace if you miss a day.
Explore the new ‘10% with Dan Harris’ meditation app, which offers guided meditations, live Zoom community sessions, and ad-free podcast episodes, by signing up for a 14-day trial at danharris.com.
Tune into Paula Faris’s ‘Journeys of Faith’ podcast, where she interviews well-known individuals about the role of faith in their lives, offering a platform for respectful dialogue on profound beliefs.
Consider sending the 10% Happier app as a gift for the holiday season to provide ‘sanity.’ Visit gift.10percenthappier.com to send it.
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