Cultivate self-awareness to recognize your own lack of acceptance towards others’ authentic beliefs, allowing hardened negative beliefs to soften and making way for reconciliation.
Intentionally return to and “sit with” highly triggering or activating environments, observing how challenging emotions and negative thoughts arise in your body as a practice for healing and growth.
Actively look for and engage with a local or online community of people who share your spiritual or meditative practice, as this provides support, normalizes the practice, and fosters accountability.
Regularly sit still, watching your breath and observing thoughts and sensations as they arise and pass, which can reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and increase overall well-being.
Recognize when you are caught in a cycle of unproductive, endless thinking (“think hole”) and understand that more thinking will not solve it; make a quiet mental note of the “think hole” to help break the cycle and allow for a different kind of action.
If you have personally benefited from a spiritual or meditative practice, adopt the Bodhisattva vow to generously share its goodness and lessons learned with others.
When sharing practices like meditation, strive to create communal spaces that honor, meet, and see every individual, regardless of their diverse belief systems or backgrounds.
Tailor your language and approach when communicating teachings or complex ideas to different generational and cultural backgrounds to ensure better understanding and absorption.
When introducing new practices (e.g., meditation) into traditional or religious contexts, identify and highlight existing teachings or scriptures that align with and support the new practice to facilitate acceptance.
Notice when your awareness is fixated on a thought or feeling, and then gently let go of that fixation, returning to a prayer word only if the mind is pulled away, rather than repeating it continuously.
When experiencing an intense hunger for meaning or a void, actively seek a practice or path to channel your devotion and find support.
Offer suggestions and feedback to podcast hosts, app developers, or content creators to help them address deficiencies, improve their offerings, and better serve their audience.
To ensure a company sees your tweet, tag both the individual and the company’s official handle (e.g., @DanBHarris and @10percent) in your message.
When facing a specific challenge like grief, seek out and listen to dedicated podcast episodes or resources that directly address the issue, such as the Joe DiNardo episode on meditation and grief.
Download and explore meditation apps like “10% with Dan Harris” for guided meditations, live community sessions, and direct access to coaches to support your practice, utilizing any available trial periods.
Subscribe to, rate, and suggest topics or guests for podcasts you appreciate to help them grow and continue producing valuable content.
Create Google alerts for topics like “meditation and mindfulness” to automatically receive relevant articles and stay informed about your areas of interest.
If deeply committed to a spiritual or wisdom tradition, consider immersing yourself fully, even by traveling to its origins, to deepen your practice and understanding.
Actively participate in reinventing traditional religious or spiritual practices to make them relevant for contemporary needs, focusing on universal desires for meaning, joy, and reduced suffering, while leaving behind limitations.
When introducing new ideas or practices into a community, identify and leverage existing cultural values (e.g., seeking truth widely) to facilitate acceptance and integration.
Study how others have successfully engaged their particular neighborhood, community, or cultural context to introduce new practices, and share your own learnings to contribute to a global network of shared knowledge.
To learn more about Thomas McConkie’s work and teachings, visit lowerlightsslc.org or listen to the “Mindfulness Plus” podcast.