Send me a message Today on the podcast I answer the question, "How can I become spiritual?" Before really answering this question, we have to talk about what the word "spiritual" even means. To every person it can mean something slightly different. In this episode I lay out what spirituality means to me and how we all have the potential to tap into our rich inner spirit of love, gratitude, peace and bliss. Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual le...
Jun 15, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Send me a message The future is coming at us fast. If we look at the trend of where technology is headed, we can see robotics and software becoming smarter, faster, and smaller. In many ways, computers are smarter than humans, but a computer still can't design a computer better than humans can. They lack the creativity and the conscious awareness that humans have. So, if the seemingly inevitable merger of humans and machines does take place, will ai be able to expand our consciousness? Is the me...
Jun 03, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Send me a message To eat or not to eat, that is the question. During my travels throughout Asia and India, every guru, monk, meditation instructor and meditator told me the same thing when it comes to eating before or after meditation. In this episode, I'll share the wisdom I learned on my travels. And, I'll share what I have found both in my own experience, as well as the experience of people I've taught how to meditate. While there is no wrong time or bad time to meditate, here are few pointer...
Jun 01, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Send me a message Can I meditate while standing? Driving? Biking? Walking? Talking??? I get it. We all want to reach that blissed out feeling 24/7. So what's the best way to get there? Will standing meditation hurt or help? These questions and more will be answered in today's episode. I'll talk about the benefits to sitting meditation, why we sit, and what kind of effects standing will have on our practice. While we may not wish to stand while meditating, I also dive into the best way to turn ev...
May 29, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Send me a message Some people have such a loud voice in their head, that they are actually unaware they have a voice in their head at all. It's gotten so noisy and constant, that we don't even have the awareness to hear it because we are completely lost in our thoughts. In those cases, only when a person sits down to meditate and they actually turn their attention inward, do they discover the presence of this unrelenting voice. This voice is inside of us, and yet we cannot control it. It's like ...
May 26, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Send me a message Jealousy can be one of our most insidious emotions that can end lifelong relationships. Instead of feeling happy for others' success, we feel negative emotions for which we put up walls so as not to feel it, but really we're just closing ourselves in and blocking everyone else out. We can't fight our subconscious emotions because they are a part of us. But, we can use higher self, our conscious awareness, to work with our negative feelings and transform them into positive ones....
May 23, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Send me a message Most of us have a voice in our head that constantly searches for something to obsess about. It scavenges and scavenges endlessly. There is just no seeming endpoint for this thought-chaser. No matter what happens, our mind will try to label, judge and analyze it forever and ever. Why won't our minds just do what they're told?! This inner voice disrupts our inner peace and usually creates problems where none existed before. So how do we turn it off? How can use our minds more eff...
May 20, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Send me a message Is mindfulness about controlling our thoughts or suppressing them? What even is the difference? Are they even possible things to achieve? Are they even worthy of us trying? In this episode, I lay out the differences between these two approaches to dealing with our thoughts. But more importantly, I describe a third option for approaching our thoughts that is actually easy and way more effective for generating lasting happiness and peace from within. Please enjoy other episodes w...
May 07, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Send me a message When we meditate, where is the best place to put our focus? Within or out? This is a common question and the answer isn't as simple as one or the other. Mindfulness is about becoming aware of both. But if that's the case, how do we divide up our attention between the two? Sometimes we can be so lost in our mind that we are completely unaware of our surroundings. Other times, we can be so busy in our activities that our mental and physical health can suffer. So where should we p...
May 05, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Send me a message Meditation can often look like doing nothing, but that can't be further from the truth. Meditation is very active. It is the act of being between highly alert and highly relaxed. Being between these two states trains our mind and body to later do all the things we do when we interact with the world around us, and yet remain in a very peaceful state. Meditation is the literal training of our mind to be focused, patient, highly aware and highly peaceful. It trains our mind to tap...
May 03, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Send me a message Being in pain can make doing the things we need to do feel almost impossible. When we're in pain, we're not thinking clearly. We are fixated on the pain and we are often mad that we are not feeling well. This is why meditation is most important when we are in physical pain. So how do we meditate in pain? Recent scientific studies have shown that meditation can actually lesson our experience of pain! And so often, it is our resistance, fear and mental turmoil that is often worse...
May 01, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Send me a message There are many people who have unpleasant experiences when they first try meditation. This is not uncommon. It's only natural that when we've lived our whole lives busy and always doing things, the first few times where we put away all distractions and turn our attention inwards can be unpleasant. There may be repressed emotions and negative thoughts for us to confront. This episode explores the causes of these negative experiences, how to overcome them, and why we must look at...
Apr 29, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Send me a message Today's question is really about using meditation for insights. Can meditation work to see a problem wholistically? And more importantly, how can we use meditation to gain understanding and wisdom into a particular problem. These are things Todd learned about firsthand when living in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayan Mountains in India, and he shares the answer to in today's episode. Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual les...
Apr 04, 2022•4 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Send me a message No matter what it is we put our effort into, we naturally want to see some results. And so the question really is, "How long do you have to meditate to see results?" Meditation is much like working out, in that the more effort you put in the more results you will see. However, as you'll hear in this podcast, there are some important things to remember when looking at minimums, maximums, and optimums. Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and ...
Apr 01, 2022•3 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Send me a message Today, Todd talks about whether or not we can meditate while focusing on nothing. The thing is, being unfocused is just our normal state of mind. We typically go about our days just responding to whatever we perceive and whatever thought pops into our head. We are a slave to our impulses. Learning to focus, by practicing focus, is taking control of our mind. It's using your intentions to guide your attention, not reacting unconsciously to every shiny thing that steals your focu...
Mar 29, 2022•4 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Send me a message Sometimes, when we first start meditating, sadness and other extreme emotions may feel like they're being stirred up. But, these emotions aren't created by meditation, they are revealed by meditation. Most of our lives are spent distracted. We're always so busy doing, we don't pay any real attention to our inner world. In this episode, Todd goes into why these emotions come up in meditation, how we can process what comes up in meditation, and why they are A-OK. Because they, li...
Mar 26, 2022•3 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Send me a message In this podcast, Todd explains the ins and outs of humming meditation, followed by a guided meditation. Humming meditation is an incredibly powerful meditation. The humming serves as a vehicle to transport you into the present moment. The powerful vibrations can open up breathing pathways and loosen up our muscles. Hum along or just let the frequencies from your headphones or speakers echo through your body. In this podcast series, Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and sp...
Mar 23, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Send me a message Meditation isn't about the time we sit down with our eyes closed. It's about how that time impacts the rest of our day and our life. While the benefits of meditation naturally spill out into our day, there are a few easy things we can do to bring even more mindfulness, peace and patience into our daily life. In this episode, Todd shares those tips and tricks for living our lives in a meditative state — present, aware, alert, and at peace. Please enjoy other episodes where Todd ...
Mar 07, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Send me a message Oftentimes, when we first try meditation, our mind is the biggest obstacle. It will tell us all the reasons why we should stop, it will try to distract us the whole time, it will think about what we're going to eat later or what we need to do. It feels threatened when we try to quiet it during our time in meditation. So how do we use our mind to help us meditate? In this episode, Todd talks about how to do just that. From simple ways of approaching meditation to how to other te...
Mar 04, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Send me a message Humanity has been through a lot lately. Pandemic, economic destruction, and war. Just one of those can be too much to bear. This doesn't even include the stress it puts on our families, friendships and mental health. Luckily, there are a great many and powerful tools at our disposal to heal from trauma, to reenergize ourselves, and to recenter ourselves. Today, Todd shares his easy, practical tips for overcoming whatever challenges life throws at us. From mindfulness to meditat...
Mar 01, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Send me a message Meditation isn't just for chilling out. It is a powerful tool that trains our minds to be present, focused, aware, peaceful and joyful. It's not about the time we spend sitting down with our eyes closed in meditation. It's about how that time improves the rest of our lives. Gaining insights into ourselves and our own mind is one of the greatest ways meditation can improve our lives. The more we observe the nature and quality of our thoughts, the greater wisdom we develop about ...
Feb 28, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Send me a message With so many apps and gurus out there today, the number of types of meditations have exploded. There are ancient ones and brand new untested ones. So how do we know which ones are the best, which ones are a waste of time, and which ones may even have negative effects? In this episode, I go into depth about the two most common types of meditation, mantra and breath meditation. Breath is where we simply observe our breath with our entire focus. Mantra is where we repeat a mantra ...
Feb 25, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Send me a message Do these thoughts sound familiar when you've began to try meditation: This is taking forever! How long til I feel something? Am I even doing anything?!?! Our normal, thinking mind will grasp at anything to latch onto, and so most of us will have had thoughts like these. But meditation is a very profound practice and benefits can be gained right away. In this episode, I talk about what can be expected from your first session, and all the benefits that be gained thereafter. I als...
Feb 22, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Send me a message Buddha often speaks of the middle path. You can think of it as the Goldilocks path — not too hot, not too cold. But this doesn't just apply to food. It applies to our spiritual path as well. We don't want to be too lazy and get no results, but we also don't want to be too rigid so that we either burn out or we become too extreme about it that it becomes detrimental. In this episode, Todd talks about finally finding his spiritual middle path in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. ...
Feb 19, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Send me a message Sometimes (all the time), we are our own worst critic. We talk to ourselves in ways we would never tolerate anyone else speaking to us. We believe our own criticism and we have a hard time believing our own — or other people's — praise. Today, Todd talks about this baggage from our past that we carry with us, and how to set it down. The past can never be negative. It was what it was. It happened in the past and it no longer even exists. If we learn from the past, if we use what...
Feb 16, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Send me a message We all want to be happy. But how do we get it? What makes us happy? And how do we get that long lasting happiness we all seek. In this episode, Todd reveals the true secret to lasting happiness. And it's not what we usually think it is. So much of the things we seek to bring us happiness are actually nothing more than temporary pleasures. After these pleasures are over, they're usually followed by craving, longing and pain. But there is a way to find lasting happiness and Todd ...
Feb 13, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Send me a message Many of us try futilely to control every aspect of our lives. But control is an illusion. We can do our best to create a perfectly calm life, but life may have other plans for us. While we can't always control our circumstances, we can control how we experience and react to them. That is where mindfulness comes in. In this episode, Todd dives deep into the nature of our chaotic lives, and more importantly, how to free ourselves from the inevitable chaos. In this podcast series,...
Feb 10, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Send me a message The way we approach meditation is not like how we approach everyTHING else in our life. Meditation is approaching noTHING. So, unlike everything else, in meditation, there is nothing to achieve. There is no future outcome that we desire. There is only the here and now. We do it for the sake of doing it. It is only in this way that all the benefits of meditation can come. Today, Todd talks about the proper way to incorporate meditation into our busy lives, some incorrect assumpt...
Feb 07, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Send me a message How de we control our thoughts when it seems impossible? How can we transform our mindset? Todd Perelmuter explores these and other questions in today's podcast. Find out why we become self-loathing, what the causes are, and learn easy techniques to stop and prevent self-loathing. In this podcast series, Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date. If you have e...
Feb 04, 2022•4 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Send me a message Should I sit up straight on the floor? Can I use a chair? Can I lie in bed? Do I have to be super rigid and strict or is it ok to do it on the couch? These are some of the many questions that come up when starting out in meditation. Here, Todd Perelmuter shares his tips for starting out, the best postures, what not to do, and how to find out what may be best for you. I share meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free liv...
Jan 21, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 24
