Just like all the water in the ocean can’t sink a ship unless the water gets inside the boat, all the negativity and toxicity in the world won’t bring you down unless you let it in. Mindfulness doesn't make other people less irritating, it makes us less irritable. So, if you are still irritable, then you still have work to do. Part of that work involves no longer waiting for the world to accommodate your preferences or reacting when things don't go your way.

It's in your best interest to increase your tolerance. Avoid wishing for things to be different than they are because comparison, attachment, desire, and resistance, are the causes of our anguish and suffering. All of life's challenges, difficulties, and hardships are part of the process. Don't be so quick to dismiss or resist them. In my experience, the obstacles I wish to avoid contain the valuable lessons I desperately need to learn.

Whether you are full of love and kindness or rage and judgment, that's what's going to spill out of you when life gets rough. So, be mindful of what you consume and fill yourself with, because that's what's going to determine what kind of day you will have, how you experience this year and the rest of your life... it's up to you, not anybody or anything else. So, what's in YOUR heart?

This is NOT about smoke detectors or scared birds, listen between the lines, it's not only about understanding other people, it's about understanding ourselves as well. Fear is a big motivator behind many of our actions, recognize it so it doesn't run and ruin your life. 

Focus on your health, and watch all the opinions that we tend to fret and argue about become trivial in comparison because nothing is more important. Please don't wait until you are sick to realize this!

If we don’t say YES authentically, we say yes resentfully. And whenever we say we "have to" do something, we identify as victims, instead of saying we CHOOSE to or, better yet, we GET to! 

Are we only compassionate to an extent and then turn cold? Do we have a sense of compassion for wounds we can see but not others? Where do we draw the line? Is there a line?  I believe compassion has no contingencies. The invitation is for us to open our hearts to understand why ALL people behave the way they do, and even empathize if they lack certain emotional capacities.

In times of despair, it is important to remember that our current situation is not our final destination. To get through the darkness, I have often had to use the mantra "This is a bruise, not a tattoo." If you find value in these videos, please show your support at https://www.buddhistbootcamp.com/support — Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love.

What is the meaning of Integrity? How do you define it? And do you have the courage to build your life around your answer?

Once we understand the difference between Judgment and Discernment, we understand the difference between Equity and Equality. Whenever I find myself thinking something is unfair, I urge myself to think again using a wider lens that doesn't place me at the center of universe.

We claim to fully understand what we have only partially experienced, and we dismiss other people's reality as invalid if it contradicts our own. That's our ego playing tricks on us until we argue and fight to prove that we are right by making someone else wrong. Yogananda called it "Feeling tall by cutting of the heads of other men." The entire concept that you are somehow separate from others is an illusion. We are here to snap out of our self-importance.