Your Nervous System Relaxes Around People Who…
How I Stopped Overthinking and Found Inner Peace
“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” ~Dan Millman
For as long as I can remember, my mind has been a never-ending maze of what-ifs. What if I make the wrong decision? What if I embarrass myself? What if I fail? My brain worked overtime, analyzing every possibility, replaying past mistakes, and predicting every worst-case scenario.
Overthinking wasn’t just a bad habit—it was a way of life. I’d spend hours second-guessing conversations, worrying about things beyond my control, and creating problems that didn’t even exist. It felt like my mind …
4 Ways to Get Better Sleep for Increased Spiritual Wellness
“Happiness in simplicity can be achieved with a flexible mindset and nine hours sleep each night.” ~Dalai Lama
It happened again. I got up after being awake all night, wondering where I’d gone for the past nine hours. I remember laying my head on the pillow, exhausted, happy to finally close my burning eyes. My body settled sweetly into the mattress, and I thanked the universe for our heavenly bed.
Just moments away from slumbering bliss, I said my prayers and did my usual practice of releasing energy from the day and honoring my blessings. For the
365 Days of Wonder: The Magic of Starting an Awe Journal
The news: everything is bad.
Poets: okay, but what if everything is bad and we still fall in love with the moon and learn something from the flowers. ~Nikita Gill
My dad died when I was thirty-one. I wasn’t a child but barely felt like an adult. He had reached retirement, but only just. Mary Oliver got it right when she wrote, “Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?”
A few months later, I pulled myself out the door and off to work. The December weather and my heart were both raw. Then I saw it: a single …
Why I Don’t Want to Become Enlightened Anymore
“Being free isn’t actually that easy.” ~Unknown
I’ve always been an achiever. I’ve worked hard to reach goals: I was good at school, then got a good job, and ended up making good money. My colleagues valued my clear view of the goal, my ability to break down the big task into parts that one can work on, casting it all as individual problems that one can solve. I was diligent, hard-working, and reliable. An employer’s dream employee.
At the same time, I’ve always had a wish to be “free.” Not so much from outer constraints, but from inner ones—depressive …
To the Dreamers Reading This, I Want You to Know…
There I was, eating cereal and watching a CNN documentary about Kobe Bryant—yes, I mix deep life reflection with Raisin Bran—when his old speech teacher said something that made me pause mid-chew. He described Kobe’s approach to life as giving everything—heart, soul, and body—to his craft. No halfway. Just all in.
I sat there thinking, “Yes! That’s it!” That’s the very thing I try to convey to my students in class, usually while making wild arm gestures and accidentally knocking over a marker cup. I believe in that philosophy with every fiber of my chalk-dusted being.
High Risk, Deep
…
A Gift from Guided Meditation: 1 Year of Peace, Totally Free
If your mind’s been racing or your body’s been tense, I get it.
Life doesn’t always slow down when we need it to, and sometimes, even five quiet minutes can feel like a luxury.
That’s why I’m excited to pass along this gift from a meditation app that’s helped millions in Europe and is now making its U.S. debut.
To celebrate the launch of the Guided Meditation app, our friends in the Netherlands—where they’re the #1 meditation app—are offering the Tiny Buddha community something special: one year of free, unlimited access to their full library of meditations, music, sleep …
When Trying to Be “Good” with Food Makes Us Sick
I was around five the first time I remember getting in trouble. It was nearing Christmas, and I wasn’t buying into the whole Santa story anymore. A magic man spends all year making toys, then drops down chimneys and delivers them all in one night? Nope. I may have only been five, but I was insulted that people expected me to buy that ridiculous story.
Feeling rather proud of myself for figuring it out, I demanded that my mom tell me the truth. And when she finally admitted Santa wasn’t real, I felt vindicated. But that wasn’t enough. I needed …
How to Stop Living to Please and Stay True to Yourself
“When you say yes to others, make sure you aren’t saying no to yourself.” ~Paulo Coelho
Have you ever felt like no matter how much you give, it’s never enough? Like your worth is measured by how useful, accommodating, or strong you can be for others?
This invisible burden is what I call the Good Girl / Good Boy Wound—a deep-seated conditioning that tells us our value lies in pleasing others, even at the cost of losing ourselves.
For generations, we’ve been taught to shape ourselves according to the expectations of those around us. Girls are often encouraged to be …
Feeling Stuck, Anxious, or Lost? Choose Your Free Guide
If you’ve felt stuck lately, you’re not alone.
Since I launched the (very delayed) Best You, Best Life bundle on Monday, I’ve heard from so many people who are going through a lot right now—emotionally, mentally, and energetically.
Maybe you’re stuck in survival mode—going through the motions, numb and disconnected, longing for joy and meaning.
Maybe you’re overwhelmed by anxiety, dread, or the constant feeling that something’s wrong—even if you don’t know what it is.
Or maybe you’re a deeply feeling person who’s taken on everyone else’s pain, and now you’re not sure where you went.
Lately, I’ve …
How Avoiding Painful Emotions Can Lead to a Smaller Life
“Being cut off from our own natural self-compassion is one of the greatest impairments we can suffer.” ~Gabor Mate
Most of us avoid experiences not necessarily because we don’t like them or want them, but because we don’t want to feel how we will feel when we go through that experience.
Our lives become altered by the emotions we don’t want to feel because we don’t want to move toward the thing that could bring strong emotions like fear, shame, sadness, or disappointment.
We don’t want to go to that party because we’ll probably feel awkward and embarrassed.
We …
5 Powerful Mindset Shifts to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” ~Lao Tzu
We carefully pick out what we wear to the gym to make sure we look good in the eyes of the other gymgoers.
We beat ourselves up after meetings, running through everything we said (or didn’t say), worried that coworkers will think we aren’t smart or talented enough.
We post only the best picture out of the twenty-seven selfies we took and add a flattering filter to get the most likes to prove to ourselves that we are pretty and likable.
We live in other …
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