Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast

This is how I personally cope with general anxiety and dismiss intrusive thoughts.

The difference between Sharing and Complaining, Supporting and Enabling, and how we can maintain a calm composure and peace of mind while listening to other people grumbling about one thing or another.

If you wait until you "feel ready" to make some changes in your life, you'll be waiting forever because "ready" is not a feeling, it's a decision. The way to embrace change instead of resisting it, even though we are wired to avoid what is different, is to stop thinking of change as scary or dangerous, and start getting excited about it (because change is going to happen whether you are ready or not).

Our need to belong is natural, healthy, and necessary, but the craving for acceptance is egocentric, fragile, and unstable. That's why many of us feel stuck between wanting connection, but resenting social convention pressuring us to conform in order to belong. The Buddha's realization was that he wasn't even separate from the tree under which he was meditating; they were one. We all are. My invitation is for us to bring that level of awareness into every interaction, and to see everyone and everything as an extension of ourselves. You don't need to "prove your worth," and you certainly don't need to pretend to be something you are not in order to belong. 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.

The more consistently you take ownership of your inner world, the less you try to outsource your well-being. It starts by noticing how often you blame something or someone else for your misery, and you might also see how dependent you've become on something or someone else for your happiness. The peace we are chasing is not "out there" somewhere, it is patiently waiting for us to come back to ourselves and reclaim it from within.