holistic living Archives

How to Be Mindful When You Don’t Have Time

17.03.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Meditation is good, but you don’t practise it.

You’re too busy, or you have too many things to do, or you’re always in a hurry to get somewhere, or you’re too tired at the end of the day.

And even when you do sit down to try and empty your mind, you feel a massive sense of guilt about everything else you ought to be doing instead.

(Oddly enough, sitting still for 15 minutes feels like a giant waste of time, while 15 minutes spent on social media doesn’t…

…because one forces you to pay painful attention to the messed-up inside of your head, while the other lets you take refuge in comforting distraction.)

Whatever your reasons, it all boils down to one thing:

You don’t have time.

So here are three ways to remain mindful even when you’re on the go — quick check-ins that will bring you back to the present moment and allow you to centre yourself before your next activity.

[Read more…]

What to Do Before You Burn Out

13.03.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

You know what it feels like. You dread going to work. You feel tired all the time. You get upset about little things like people not saying hello to you in the morning.

You’re far too busy and overloaded to get the job done right, so you’re just phoning it in. You find it hard to focus. You stare into space a lot.

You used to love your job and you worked very hard at it. Now it seems like work never ends. It’s all-consuming. You no longer have time for former friendships and hobbies.

You feel like you no longer care about anything anymore.

All you want to do is escape.

And you hate it.

Welcome to Burnout

What is burnout, anyway? Here’s my definition:

Burnout is what happens after a period when your energy expenditure has been consistently greater than your ability to recover, draining your reserves to the point where you have no energy left.

That is, you’ve been draining the tank for too long and now you’re running on empty.

[Read more…]

The Advantages of Optimism (and of Pessimism)

12.02.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Meditation helps us to see things as they really are, unclouded by our emotions and impulses.

Through diligent practice we learn to bring our minds under control, and so become more able to act wisely in the world.

That said, we humans do have a natural tendency to view the world through two major perception filters. Both of these can significantly affect our lives.

These two filters are optimism and pessimism.

And both of them can be good for you.

What Are Optimism and Pessimism?

Let’s think of optimism and pessimism as emotional lenses that affect the way we perceive the world.

Optimism can loosely be defined as a positive view of the world: the belief that life is generally good and/or that life will get better.

Pessimism is the opposite: a view of the world based on the belief that life is generally bad and/or that life will get worse.

[Read more…]

When Meditation Hurts

18.12.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

If you’ve read my previous entry you know the benefits of meditation: inner peace, deeper calm, greater joy, and enhanced asskicking.

So why aren’t you doing it?

I know all your reasons, because sometimes they’re my reasons too: Not enough time. Too tired. Can’t find a quiet space. Keep getting interrupted. Not in the mood.

But there’s another reason too, which seldom gets talked about:

If you’re completely new to the practice, meditation can make you feel worse about yourself, not better.

Meditation for People Who Can’t Empty Their Minds

08.12.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

People talk to me about meditation a lot.

But what they say generally falls into two categories. The first is a question: How do you do it? And the second is a statement: I can’t do it.

Today I’m going to address both of these concerns. But first let’s consider a couple of more fundamental questions:

Why meditate at all?

And what exactly is meditation, anyway?

Why Meditate?

You’ve probably heard about some of the benefits meditation brings: inner peace, deeper calm, fewer worries, reduced stress.

All of these benefits are real. Meditation stabilizes my emotions and clarifies my thoughts. It helps to make me a calmer, happier, wiser person, and my life is better as a result of it.

But to me the greatest advantage of meditation is probably the one least talked about:

Meditation makes you significantly more effective at kicking ass.

[Read more…]