How much will you need to change before you're worthy of love and acceptance? In this episode, we explore this question and the different motivations there can be for real change and growth. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
“I am not I. I am this one Walking beside me whom I do not see, Whom at times I manage to visit, And at other times I forget. The one who remains silent when I talk, The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate, The one who takes a walk when I am indoors, The who will remain standing when I die.” -Juana Ramon Jimenez
In this episode, we discuss why sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do for another person is to let them struggle. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
Do you ever feel like you're accruing mental tension? Do you ever feel like meditation takes too much energy? Do you ever feel like you just want to "veg out" but you know scrolling through your phone or watching tv won't help you restore? Then this episode is for you! As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
The meditation teacher, Munindra-ji, used to say to his students "Sit and know that you're sitting, and the whole of dharma will reveal itself." Sometimes the practice is much more simple than we realize, and in this episode, we discuss why some of the deepest wisdom and insights come from just being where we are. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (6...
In this episode, we explore why the things that most frustrate you about yourself (or frustrate others about you) may also be linked to what you and others most appreciate about you. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
"You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home aga...
What if you could overcome your resistance to doing the things you most need to do? In this episode, we'll explore how to work with resistance when it arises so you can move toward the life you're trying to create. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
Self-loathing is pervasive in our culture. But it begs the question, who is doing the loathing and who is being loathed? In this episode, we'll take a deep dive into this question to explore how to let go of self-loathing. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
Many meditation traditions are goal-centric. That is, the meditation practice is used as a tool to get to a level of "awakening" that you're not already at. There is a different way to practice though, one that takes the endpoint as the path. In this session, we'll discuss what that can look like. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298...
Every day, a musician tunes their instrument. It changes, of course, because of temperature, air pressure, humidity, etc. This ongoing "attunement" is essential for the instrument to play at its best. It wouldn't be possible to play a song well with an instrument that was attuned a few days ago, let alone a few years ago. And yet, as humans, seldom do we tune our awareness to our own instruments--our minds and bodies. In this episode, we'll discuss the importance of attunement, how to do it, and...
As humans, it's inevitable that we will encounter pain in our life. Much of this pain is out of our control, but some of it we can influence and soothe. This is true in our meditation practice, as well. When pain arises in meditation--an itch, knee pain, etc--should we alleviate it if we can, or should we practice being with it? Listen on to find out. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and m...
At the heart of all contemplative traditions is the promise of freedom. But what does this freedom mean? Freedom from what? The answer to that: suffering. In this episode, we explore how one could actually find freedom from suffering, and how it could be experienced in a single moment, perhaps right now. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-82...
Have you ever considered starting a regular meditation practice? There are predictable outcomes and benefits that come with daily meditation, but many of us don't give ourselves the opportunity to experience them. In this episode, we discuss three benefits of regular meditation, and Cory will also discuss his 21-day meditation challenge starting May 5th, 2020 launching on Instagram (www.instagram.com/corymuscara) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/corymuscara). As always, if you'd like to get free a...
How has your sleep been lately? Same as usual? Off a bit? I've been hearing quite a bit of feedback from people about how they're sleeping more than usual. I've noticed it myself. In this episode, I'll share some thoughts about why this might be happening right now, and why it's a powerful opportunity to move toward the restoration your mind, body, and soul are most needing. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, ap...
"We hurry through the so-called boring things in order to attend to that which we deem more important, interesting. Perhaps the final freedom will be a recognition that everything in every moment is "essential" and that nothing at all is "important." By Helen M. Luke
We're all being impacted by this pandemic. With such a radical change in the ecosystem of our life, it's very likely some "negative" things are accumulating in the background: stress, fear, relationship tension, relationship grudges, grief, worry, the strain of isolation, poor sleep, etc. The more these things accumulate, the more they weigh us down, leaving us with a felt sense of not quite being ourselves. In this episode, we'll discuss why and how to start connecting to what we might not be a...
We all experience the rain of life. And no, I'm not talking about that rain. I'm talking about the rain of discomfort, stress, pain, uncertainty. These are the times when it feels like life is pouring down on us. But there are often hidden gifts in the rain that we must remember to look for. In this episode, we'll discuss what those gifts are and why we wouldn't actually want a life with no rain. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, bo...
There are two minds, your small mind and your Big mind. Most of our lives are spent in our small mind--thinking thoughts, caught in ideas, wracked with anxiety, or simply confined by the limited bounds of your "self." There's another way to live, and in this episode, I share with how I access my Big mind, even in the mundane moments of the day. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, te...
We often get in the way of our path to growth and transcendence by focusing too much on the endpoint. In this episode, we discuss how to not get caught in this trap. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
"Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging." -Bob Sharp...
Are you secretly attached to your busy-ness? To your worry? Your fear and your anxiety? You might not think so, but chances are, you love it. In a weird, twisted way. What would you have to experience without it? Have a listen to this episode a explore that for yourself.
When someone shares good news with you, how do you respond? Psychology tells us there are four categories of responding, and only ONE of them is effective. In this episode, we'll discuss what that is. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
In this episode, we talk about the Japanese idiom, Ichi-go ichi-e, and how it points to the celebration and appreciation of the unrepeatable nature of a moment.
What if life were simpler, easier? In this episode, I'll share a poem that might help you reconnect to that space within you that knows how to live more simply, more easy.
We don't get what we want in the way we think we will. Life gives it to us in a much more twisted (and obvious) way.
In this episode, we discuss a simple, calming, breathing technique. Anyone can do it, and it can be quickly effective. Take a listen and try it out. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
Concentration is a happiness superpower, useful in both good and bad times. In this episode, we'll discuss why concentration is so powerful and how to practice employing it in your life. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
There is a part of you that is inherently peaceful. In the meditation traditions, we call this "Big Mind." In this episode, I'll share a quote by the great teacher Ajahn Chah that will help us connect to this deeper quality of peace within us. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
Reports in Northern India suggest that people are able to see the Himalayan mountain tops for the first time in 30 years. Why? With shelter-in-place, there's less pollution. In this episode, we explore the different ways we're coming back into balance. As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298
