The Little Book of Mindfulness, Available Now (Free to Download)

The Little Book of Mindfulness - Available Now

It's been about 2 1/2 months since I set out to write my first book, and I'm happy to announce that it's now absolutely, completely, and 100% done and available for download.

If you're already a part of the Buddhaimonia newsletter you'll be getting a welcome email with a download link to the book- for FREE. Yep, you're getting The Little Book of Mindfulness for free.

Haven't signed up to the Buddhaimonia newsletter yet? No problem, just fill your name and email below and you'll get access:

Along with the welcome email that includes the TLBM download link, you'll also begin getting my new and exclusive email content series. About an email a week (then later an email every 2 weeks), this content series will guide you through the process of developing a daily practice which nourishes your mind and body, leads you to greater peace and happiness, and helps you realize your true potential. And it will direct you to some of my best content which covers the various topics that I'll discuss in those emails.

What was originally supposed to be a small book meant to introduce people to mindfulness in simple, clear, and straightforward language turned into a 15 chapter and nearly 100-page book filled to the brim with valuable information. Here's a snippet from the TLBM page which can be found here:

The Little Book of Mindfulness is literally filled with valuable information, tips and tricks, and insights:

1. The origins of mindfulness- I'll go into detail on where mindfulness came from and how it's traveled from ancient India to the offices of Twitter and other Silicon Valley giants, major hospitals and medical centers, and classrooms around the United  States.
2. What mindfulness is- I explain in simple English how mindfulness works, what it is, what it isn't, and ways to help you make sure you're practicing correctly.
3. The benefits of practicing mindfulness- It takes me two full chapters to explain all the reasons you need to start practicing mindfulness.
4. How to practice mindfulness- Detailed yet simple and clear instruction on how to actually practice mindfulness in a variety of ways
5. How to develop mindfulness- How to bring mindfulness into your everyday life as a daily practice and habit which nourishes your mind and body and helps you cultivate true peace and happiness.
6. My 11 Best Tips and Tricks for Beginning with Mindfulness
7. The 9 Most Frequently Asked Questions on Mindfulness and Meditation

Seriously, It's Free?

So why am I giving away for free something I've worked so hard on? The world is constantly changing, and being an author in 2014 isn't what it was even ten short years ago. But I mean that in all the right ways.

Everything is online and everyone has the ability to become a self-published author. It's a beautiful time for books, writers, and self-development in general. The format has changed from:

Get idea -> Send proposal to publishing companies -> hope you hear back (99% of the time you don't, and your career as a writer grinds to a halt) -> If you're lucky, you hear back, get a deal, begin writing manuscript, finish writing, and then go on tour promoting the book (and getting the book promoted for you by your publishing company).

Now it's:

Get idea -> write book -> build platform (by that I mean essentially build a blog -> format book for eBook / print publishing -> publish book -> promote book (probably have to extensively study content marketing, because you'll be doing this, and essentially everything else, yourself)

Self-published authors really are that- they do essentially every part of the publishing process, with the help of a number of key online resources, themselves. I now have great respect for any self-published author. This was a big undertaking, especially considering how many pages long The Little Book of Mindfulness turned out to be (and my next, Zen for Everyday Life, will be 150~...).

Sure, blogs don't typically give away books as large as the one I'm giving. But at this early stage of Buddhaimonia's growth, I feel it will be worth giving The Little Book of Mindfulness away for free in order to get myself out there and to start building a community of people on Buddhaimonia that can support one another.

I'm deeply grateful for anyone who has, or will, promote The Little Book of Mindfulness. If you appreciate the book, let someone know about it whom you think could benefit from it.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your support. I hope the book brings you peace and joy.

Matt

Get The Little Book of Mindfulness:

The Conscious Guide to Mindful Living: How to Transform Yourself, and the Rest of the World, from the Ground Up

The Ultimate Principle of All Human Development

Without a doubt, when it comes to doing the right thing and figuring out how we should live our lives a lot of difficult questions come up.

Should I be religious? Is religion a good thing? What is religion anyway?

What's spirituality? What's the difference between religion and spirituality? What's the difference between spirituality and self-development? Are they the same thing?

How exactly do I improve myself? Can I really change? What do I change first?

What's the most important thing in life to do? Is there a universal teaching behind all religions, for all people no matter what religion, tradition, or culture?

What the heck am I supposed to do? Why am I asking all these questions??

When the Buddha was asked to sum up the entirety of his teaching, the teaching of all Buddhas (or awakened beings), the most basic teaching about how we should live, and ultimately what all spiritual and self-development practice boils down to, his response was:

The bad things, don't do them. The good things, try to do them. Try to purify, subdue your own mind.

-Buddha

This might sound simple, but it's not. It's the very essence of all personal and spiritual development. 

But where do you go from there? How do you actually use this wisdom? Naturally, two questions come to mind: "how do I decide what's good and what's bad?", and "how do I purify my mind?" The answer to these two questions is the very foundation of what could be a universal practice based not on a particular religion, belief, or philosophy but on simply being human.

Is there really a universal principle behind all human development that you can key in on and use as a basis or foundation for a universal practice which isn't restricted to a particular religion or philosophy?

There is, and that principle is....

Consciousness

By consciousness, I'm referring to a complete awareness of yourself and what's happening around you. Specifically, a complete awareness of the effect that your actions have on you as well as on other living and non-living things and the effect that the actions and occurrences of the rest of the world have on you and on others.

This is really taking the principle of mindfulness and applying it to the world at large, so I call it mindful living, although it's sometimes called conscious living. Mindfulness is essentially the highest form of awareness, observation, and engagement available to us. It's the very expression of being fully conscious, so conscious living and mindful living are essentially the same thing.

Mindfulness is a complete and nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. Mindfulness is particularly mindfulness of yourself- your actions, thoughts, and feelings. So conscious or mindful living means to live in a way that you strive to be completely aware of the "action energy" within you and in the rest of the world.

There's a second aspect of mindful living that needs to be mentioned. To be mindful of something isn't just to be fully aware of that thing, it also means that you're fully engaged.

When you practice mindful walking, you're fully engaged or fully present for the practice of walking mindfully. No part of you is engaged in anything other than walking in mindfulness. This same principle is applied naturally when you strive to live mindfully, such as becoming engaged in better food consumption practices when you become aware of the effect that certain foods have on your body and on the environment.

But I won't go into detail about that because for the most part, become fully conscious of something means you naturally become fully engaged in that thing. So your focus should simply be on increasing your awareness.

This is a gargantuan topic. I could write an entire book about mindful living, so this is really a crash-course on mindful living. I couldn't ever hope to cover all there is to mindful living in a single article. But don't worry, it's easy to understand the basic principles of mindful living.

Once you understand the basic principles of mindful living you can simply invite mindfulness and deep observation into each area of your life, one area at a time, and begin transforming your life for the better. Both for the good of yourself and for the good of the rest of the world.

How Mindful Living Can Transform You + the World

“Realizing the truth of our interconnectedness is paramount to achieving the highest levels of human development. ”

Why should you practice mindful living? We don't all agree on what the right thing to do is in every situation, some of us have conflicting beliefs, but this is OK. Because, despite this, by striving to live more consciously we naturally come to a number of universally agreeable truths and revolutionary realizations:

1. We're all one big family, literally interconnected in the most concrete way possible. - No matter how dysfunctional we may seem at times.
2. You're happiest when you do things for other people rather than yourself. - Despite our naturally self-centered nature.
3. What you do every single day affects an exponential amount of people in a very real way. - Whether we realize it or not.

I could go on, but let's stop there. Just these three points are completely transformative in themselves. They're earth-shattering really.

Wait, we're not supposed to be killing each other? We'd all get what we wanted if we instead learned to work together in peace?

You're saying you want me to do things for -other- people? And this is supposed to make me feel even better than when I buy something for myself? And you're saying this is going to give my entire life a sense of meaning?

Are you trying to tell me that when I buy an apple, drink milk, throw out my trash, say something to a stranger, shop for a friend, do work at my job, or anything else I'm not only affecting my own well-being in a concrete way but I'm creating a sort of "ripple" that expands out and can affect tens, hundreds, sometimes even thousands or millions of people in some way?

Yes, yes, and yes. Each of these principles is a great example of how striving to live more consciously can change your life, and on a larger scale, change the entire world as we know it.

Living consciously is the foundation not only of all human development, of your own personal and spiritual development, it's also the foundation for positive change in the world at large.

Most people don't realize it, but real change on a national and global scale most often happens when regular people (non-politicians) stand up for what they believe is right and take action. Whether it's something as simple as a peaceful march or something more active like creating initiatives to spur change, it's these activists that really make change happen.

We place so much of the responsibility for national and global change on our politicians (the term "leader" has been placed on them, when they're hardly if ever that). But while they might be fighting hard to create change, the reality is no one person, no matter what position they have, can create significant change for such a large group of people.

Real change on a large scale happens when people come together as one in peace. A leader might inspire the people, raising their awareness of an issue and being brave enough to stand up before anyone else does, but other people still have to stand up and take the call otherwise the leader will get nowhere.

When it comes down to it, mindful living is really about realizing our interconnectedness.

It's about discovering how we affect ourselves, how we affect others (both living and non-living things), and how others affect us.

Mindful living has two life-changing benefits:

1. It gives us the ultimate tool to transform our lives. With the ability to see deeply into our thoughts and actions we can differentiate the good from the bad and then change course for greater overall well-being.
2. It provides a concrete way to contribute to creating global change. If we as a group can realize the truth of our interconnectedness we can begin steering our entire race towards a more peaceful existence. We'd all realize that what we want is very much the same thing and that we're most likely to get that if we work together. Mindful living is about our greater responsibility to come together in understanding, compassion, and love for one another.

For anyone confused about self-development or spirituality and unsure of what to do or where to start, this is it. This is the ground of all human development. Work on this first and everything else will unfold on its own.

Living the Mindful Life

Mindful living is about taking the idea of mindfulness and expanding it outward to encompass the entire world. Meaning that both the world affects us in myriad ways and that we affect it in myriad ways.

Mindfulness ultimately helps us uncover afflictions, such as deep-seated anger or jealously, so that we can accept and simply "be with" ourselves and let the healing energy of pure awareness cure us.

This uncovering of afflictions, in the case of mindful living both done to us and by us, is the primary function of mindful living. By living mindfully we can see the effect we have on the rest of the world as well as the effect the rest of the world has on us (and the effect we have on ourselves) and from that discover what's right and wrong, good and bad. And that brings us back full-circle to what the Buddha said.

Mindfulness and meditation at large is also the primary tool we have in purifying and developing the ability to control (or subdue) our mind.

Just think of mindful living as one great big meditation. You're constantly meditating on everything. What you do when you wake up, what you're watching on TV, the general effect that watching TV has on you, where you're going, why you're going there, what all that rushing around is doing to your mind and body, what you and everyone else does on a day-to-day basis to contribute to climate change and pollution levels and how it might affect you, what food you eat, where the food you eat comes from, how it's made, what people had to do to ultimately get it into your hands at the grocery store, the effect ideas have on you and on others, the way ideas seem to exist, move, and develop in large groups as if there were a sort of "collective consciousness", and so on. There's so many things to become conscious of and meditate on that it really is a life's work.

Mindful living encompasses your whole life, but it isn't complicated. When striving to live more consciously, just keep these 3 things in mind:

1. What you do (and what other things do to you)
2. The complete effect it has on you
3. The complete effect it has on others

Because mindful living encompasses essentially everything you do and experience, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here's a few of the major categories you can start with to begin living mindfully and quickly creating a positive impact in your life and in the lives of those around you:

1. Your thoughts and feelings

This is the foundation. If you're a cave explorer, exploring the many caves that make up "you", then mindfulness is the headlamp which helps you navigate the vast and dark corridors. When looking deeply into what it means to live mindfully, we see that the effect we have on ourselves as well as the effect other things have on us leave an imprint. And this imprint, a limiting or negative belief for instance, can be detected with our mindfulness.

Deep and intellectual contemplation and observation also has a place in mindful living though, which together with mindfulness make up your left and rights hands in the act of living more consciously.

2. Physical nourishment

The next two categories make up all that is mindful consumption. Mindful consumption is a huge part of mindful living because it includes anything you consume physically or mentally. By physical nourishment I'm referring to anything you put into or place onto your body.

Food and drinks are the largest and most obvious piece of this, but this also includes physical fitness, hygiene products you use, and physical pleasures. Yes, that includes sex. It might be an uncomfortable topic for some, but there's making love, desiring sex for simple pleasure, and there's sex based on muffling insecurities.

Nothing is off-limits when it comes to really working on yourself. To ignore anything would be a disservice to yourself. Hey, I didn't say mindful living was easy...

3. Mental nourishment

This completes mindful consumption. Mental nourishment includes a lot of things, but they're ultimately the things we do for enjoyment: watching TV, connecting on social media, connecting in person, reading blogs, otherwise surfing the internet, reading books, reading magazines, playing video games, and the act of buying.

No matter who you are, nearly all of us spend time doing most of the above. So the question here is more: how much of what do you spend time doing?

Do you watch loads of TV with little reading? Are you on Facebook for two hours a day? Do you check your email 20 times a day? Do you sit in front of the computer for hours every day, eventually getting up with the feeling like you haven't really done anything the entire time?

Or, do you read books, blogs, and magazine articles regularly that grow and nourish your mind and connect often with friends and family in person? There's a big difference in the well-being of those two people.

Your scenario is unique to you. I don't know what you're life looks like, so you need to live consciously in order to find out what you're consuming on a regular basis.

For more on mindful consumption read The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Your Life Through Mindful Consumption.

4. Your time

This is a big one. You have a new 24 hours every single day, how do you usually spend it?

You might not think there's a problem with watching TV in the sense of mental nourishment (maybe you watch a lot of Discovery and History??), but when you then factor in the importance of and limited resource that time is it could be headed to the chopping block.

What do you do when you wake up? When do you wake up? When do you go to sleep? Do you feel tired every day? How long do you work? Do you get enough time with your kids? Do you get enough time to do what you really love? Is there something you don't feel you get enough time for or spend too much time on?

These are all questions you'll need to ask yourself. Not once, constantly. As I'll talk about later, and as you may have already noticed, mindful living pairs perfectly with someone interested in peak performance. You might find it a good idea to ask these questions every 6 months to a year as a regular evaluation.

5. Your words

Your words, along with your thoughts and actions, are one of the three major categories of yourself to be mindful of. This can be included in your actions, but it's often separated partly because of how powerful this category is. This is communication, and communication is powerful.

Becoming more conscious of what you say, what you don't say, when you say something, and how you say it are all very important. Our words can literally make or break people, make or break relationships, and make or break your goals and dreams.

The power of mastering your words can't be overstated, and becoming conscious of how you communicate is well worth the time spent.

6. Your work

What do you do for a living? Does it help the environment? Does it affect the well-being of other people? Is it negatively affecting your own well-being? Does the company support something important that you're against?

Are you doing what you believe you're meant to do? If not, do you know what you want to do?

These are all questions you should ask yourself at one point or another. If your answer to any of these questions is less-than-stellar then you need to reevaluate your living and see how you can improve the situation.

You'll often need to tread slowly and carefully here as adjusting your living is a big and often sensitive area (you can't just put your rent on hold...), but this is one of the areas that can affect your well-being the most.

7. You physical possessions

This includes becoming more deeply aware of both what you buy and what you already own. Most of us buy, and hoard, a lot of things we don't really need.

Taking the time to closely analyze as well as silently observe your interaction with your various physical possessions is important. Different things have different effects on us, so it's important to first see deeply into the effect that an object has on us.

Most of us aren't aware of the effect that simplifying our need for and reducing our total amount of physical possessions can have on us. Simplifying your life, starting with your behavior and actual ownership of physical possessions can be a surprisingly liberating experience.

The Tools of Mindful Living

Now it's time to take action. We've talked about conscious or mindful living as the foundation for personal, spiritual, and global transformation and better well-being, covered the basic principles to keep in mind while striving to live mindfully, and went over some of the various areas you can begin working on.

Now it's time to talk about the various tools which you can use to begin actually raising your awareness.

1. Mindfulness

We discussed this already, but mindfulness is always your master tool. Everything you do and everything that happens to you has an effect which leaves an imprint. This imprint is the reason mindfulness is your master tool.

Whether it's a deep-seated emotion, a limiting belief, or a wrong perception, mindfulness is a tool which can help you the remove all afflictions and find true peace and happiness in the present moment.

Mindfulness is the cornerstone of mindful living and should always stay your focus. If you lose sight of yourself then no amount of conscious of mindful living will make up for what you've lost.

2. Deep contemplation

But with regards to mindful living specifically, there's more to it than just mindfulness. You also need to take the time to contemplate deeply on the things you do, the things you use, and the things you buy.

Mindfulness can help you come in contact with the truth of our interconnectedness, but it's contemplation that transforms that observation into a measurable life change. If you observe the effect that eating a certain food has on your body, it's contemplation that studies the possible reasons and solutions and comes to a decision.

Sometimes, just picking a piece of your life and sitting down to delve deeply into it is productive as well. There's a number of uses for contemplation, but to keep it simple just look at contemplation as the piece that connects mindfulness and action.

3. Meditation on interconnectedness

If mindfulness is the direct facing of the issue, meditating on interconnectedness is turning away from it to walk up a 100 foot hill so that you can gain a better vantage point.

Once you have this vantage point you can see clearly the various ways you're interconnected to other living and non-living things, and from there, deciding what to do about it is generally pretty easy.

By using this trinity of tools you can begin raising your awareness and living more consciously. Improving your energy, your health, your sense of peace, bringing more joy into your life, and giving your life a sense of meaning.

As the foundation of all personal and spiritual development, mindful living can do all of those things and more. Mindful living is the ideal foundation for anyone interested in living to their full potential.

By living in a way that we're constantly mindful of our interconnectedness, we're able to realize our greatest potential. What we do to others, we ultimately do to ourselves.

There is no separating you from all other living and non-living things. Any thought that you might be able to operate separate from the rest of the world is a delusion. And the faster you realize this the faster you can begin truly living the good life.

When we realize that we live not only for ourselves but for each other, we truly shine.

I wanted to end with a few important notes which I've learned over the years of working to become more conscious in my own life:

1. It can be tough- Understand that mindful living isn't always easy. It will be difficult at times to follow through on what you find. Especially in your mindfulness practice, where you're liable to find some deep-seated emotions and beliefs which you rather not associate with yourself.
2. It takes time- Like mindfulness, a greater overall awareness of yourself and the world around you takes time to develop. Stick with it, as we talked about earlier it's more than worth it.
3. Work in groups- You can only do so much at once, and since mindful living is such a huge undertaking, you'll need to work on just a few areas at a time as opposed to everything at once. You'll find yourself much more productive if you do this.

A Power-Packed Guide to Motivation: How to Motivate Yourself to Take Positive Action

Discovering the Power of Motivation

Wikipedia describes motivation as:

a theoretical construct, used to explain behavior. It is the scientific word used to represent the reasons for our actions, our desires, our needs, etc.

Like an old steam locomotive that requires a train driver to toss coal into its boiler, motivation is the very fuel that spurs us to action. It's a bit elusive though. Motivation isn't itself any specific thing. Everything we do in every minute of every day is motivated by something. And that something can be anything. 

For the most part, we're not concerned with motivation. We don't usually question what makes us want to eat Cheerios vs. Raisin Bran in the morning or what makes us want to be Batman vs. Superman for Halloween. But when it comes to things that affect our greater well-being we become extremely interested in motivation and how to affect it.

I'm constantly studying all things self-development. From surface things like work efficiency and productivity, which for me particularly means writing better and writing more in less time, to the deeper level of self-development, which is essentially what spirituality is. My research, experimentation, and overall fascination with all things self-development is really what originally drove me to start Buddhaimonia.

Over that time I've asked myself a lot of questions. With regards to motivation, there are two main questions I've asked myself: "what is motivation?", and, "is motivation important?" Discovering what motivation is was much easier than answering whether or not I felt it was important.

I did realize quickly though that motivation is always there in everything that we do. So it goes without saying that it's important. And so it was less answering whether or not it's important and more whether or not it's important to spend time focusing on it.

I've come to the realization that, while motivating yourself is at times useful (as I'll cover in the section on Everyday Motivation), in general once you discover what's most important to you and how to operate from a place of positive motivation you won't have to consciously motivate yourself much, if at all.

Positive motivation spurs you to action. It's natural and effortless. If you feel the need to motivate yourself it often means that your reasons aren't clear enough or that your motivation is misguided and coming from some negative motivational factor.

And so this guide will be part learning how to discover your ultimate "why" or motivation, part discovering the hidden forces which affect our motivation and learning how to shift yourself to a state of constant and renewable positive motivation, and part learning how to motivate yourself on a day to day basis. In the scope of life as a whole, all three are important in varying degrees.

How to Harness Motivation as a Force for Greater Well-Being

Is a powerful positive motivation pushing you forward? Or is a negative motivation holding you back from your full potential? Can you tell the difference? And if a negative force is motivating you, what can you do to change that?

To begin harnessing your motivation as a force for taking action and improving the quality of your life, you need to understand a few things. The first of those is that there's ultimately two kinds of motivation: positive motivation and negative motivation.

Positive Motivation

Positive motivation moves us towards greater well-being. The prime examples of positive motivation are compassion, love, and wisdom. Positive motivation moves us away from stress and destructive egocentric behaviors and brings us closer to so many things that bring us peace and happiness.

This is because positive motivation is in line with reality. What I mean by that is, if your motivation is greed and you've convinced yourself that you need lots of money in order to be happy, the fact that this idea isn't in line with the way that life is will be the very thing that tortures you.

You'll continue to amass riches only to find that the more money you have the worse you feel because the further you feel from peace and happiness. Not in a general sense, someone with money can be happy, but because you expected to find happiness by becoming rich.

On the other hand, motivating yourself through cultivating and expressing compassion for others will bring you peace and happiness because connecting with and helping others is one of the greatest sources of happiness that exists.

That's the way the world is. We're built to connect, work together with, and help one another. It's in our very DNA. And by doing so we experience a deep sense of joy.

But don't take my word for it. Think you're being motivated by some less-than-positive factors? Go out and do something for someone else. While and after you do it be mindful of how your mood changes.

This isn't some "it's not for everyone" kind of thing. When we connect, work together with, and help others we become happier.

That's just one example of positive motivation. The love you feel for your son, daughter, wife, or husband can also be a positive motivation. Love is the primary and most often seen positive motivation there is.

Whatever it is, we're always motivated by something. But when we're motivated by negative factors we need goals and ambition to drive us. Otherwise, our motivation eventually dies out.

With positive motivation we no longer need ambition to act. Our actions become effortless. What needs to get done gets done. No matter how difficult, we act with diligence and resolve as long as is necessary to get the job done and we obtain a great sense of peace and joy by acting from a place of positive motivation.

Negative Motivation

Negative motivation, such as greed or a thirst for power over others, distorts our view of reality. These motivations are rooted in egocentric ideas that don't match up with the way that life really is. And as a result, negative motivation moves us towards stress, anger, frustration, depression, and overall lesser well-being.

The path of negative motivation is like walking in a circle one mile so that you can slam your head on a brick wall. Over, and over, and over. Walk around. Slam your head. Walk around. Slam your head. You'll never get what you're looking for because your desire is misguided. And worse, you're causing yourself all kinds of pain.

You want what everyone else wants. You want the same thing the Buddha wanted when he set out on the spiritual journey that eventually led him to awakening. But you might not recognize its true form yet.

You might think the peace and happiness you want comes in the form of money, praise, or power over people. But that won't ever bring you peace or happiness. Just stress, anger, and frustration.

You need to look deeply into what motivates you. Take time to sit down and meditate on your ambitions and motivations. What do you want? Why do you want it? As always, your practice should guide you. Be mindful of what motivates you to action in your work and personal life.

This couldn't be more important. You could be motivated by a fear of someone, and as a byproduct, stay somewhere you don't want to stay, do something you don't want to do, or become someone you don't want to be.

You could find that you're motivated by money or to have power over people and that you've been running in circles for years. What's worse, most of us do these things for years without even noticing it.

We never take the time to sit back and really look at ourselves. To look deeply and mindfully is to shine a light of great healing on ourselves.

We should learn how to use this light every day so that we can open up the path to true peace and happiness for ourselves and for those around us.

The Source of Our Motivation and Overcoming the Destructive Nature of Our Self-Centered Mindset

The last, but still very important, point I'd like to cover in this section is the root of our motivation. We've covered positive and negative motivation, but you may or may not have noticed that the source of positive motivation is open and inclusive of all people while negative motivation is completely self-centered.

We're naturally self-centered. It's just human nature. Likely programmed into us over thousands of years ago, to be self-centered is the best way to protect our physical well-being. The paramount objective in life for humans since we've been around.

To be selfless is a state of greater evolution and higher consciousness. It's a partially awakened state beyond our naturally self-centered mindset. This self-centered mindset is the root of all negative motivation and the cause of much, if not all, of our suffering.

We want money, power, fame, praise, approval, and a laundry list of other things so that we can fan our ego. But the ego isn't on your side. It doesn't have your best interest in mind. It's an absolute robot intended on "protecting" the foundation of your mind, even at the cost of your own well-being.

By living with mindfulness we can develop the ability to identify these self-centered motives. And once we do, we have the choice to change them. Change them to what? The true serving and nourishing kinds of ambitions and motivations: compassion, love, understanding, joy, and wisdom.

Before any work is done towards learning how to harness motivation, you need to identify where your self-centered mindset (the ego) has placed its claws. But this isn't difficult to do. In order to begin making yourself more conscious to this, aside from practicing mindfulness, you can keep these questions with you and ask yourself them from time to time:

Is what I'm doing just for me?

Is what I'm doing potentially harmful to others?

Am I acting with the best interest of everyone involved?

What's my primary motivation behind doing this?

Why am I really doing this?, or

Why didn't I do that?

How to Motivate Yourself to Do Anything in 4 Simple Steps

Back when I worked in sales we had bi-weekly meetings. On the surface, the meetings looked like accountability sessions with classes for training. But really, the purpose of the meetings was just to motivate us.

During those meetings we were supposed to talk about and learn various things, but we ended up just getting a motivational talk 95% of the time. Developing the ability to motivate yourself was one of the most important factors in being able to exist in such a rough business.

Most of us were aware of the shallow and temporary nature of the motivation one gets from something like a motivational speech or YouTube video, but we still needed it to stay focused at times.

If you need to motivate yourself with such things often times you'll find you're just banging your head where it's not supposed to be. But, without even knowing it, that's exactly what a lot of us were doing.

But while we fed off of these meetings, speeches, and other shallow forms of motivation, everyone in the office also read books like Think and Grow Rich and listened to audio tapes from people like Tony Robbins.

We did this because we were aware of the deeper level of motivation and these were the resources that could help us identify our source for deep or great motivation as well as harness it to become successful.

We typically identified this deep or ultimate level of motivation as our "reasons" or our "why". We'd constantly meet successful people both from our own office and abroad, and each and every one of them always said the same thing: you need to know why you do what you do and that reason should be clear and compelling.

When you think about it, you need to have a churning in your stomach. Not always literally, but sometimes. This essentially just means you need to have a strong emotional connection to that reason. This could be your son, your daughter, your wife, husband, or a combination. One of my friends was working for his recently deceased mother because he wanted to make her proud.

You might have noticed a trend here: our deep or ultimate motivators are people. Specifically, those people closest to us. Our loved ones.

Next, as an extension of that, you wanted something from the work that you're doing for yourself and for those loved ones. Those were an extension of your reason or why and essentially your ultimate goal or goals.

At the office, I worked at pretty much all of us were very money motivated. As was I, at that time. Instead of, "I'm working to put food on the table", it would be more like, "I want to become financially independent and be able to provide for my family anything they ever need. Money will no longer ever be an issue." That was a real dream to us.

And visions like that worked like a charm. As I mentioned, all of the most successful salespeople, who built teams in the hundreds and thousands and made 6-7 figures preached the same thing.

Years later, as I've had the time to experiment and confirm this in my own life, I've come to see that while there was a lot of misguided effort in that office they still held a lot of wisdom with regards to motivation The four steps to developing your ultimate motivation are:

1. You need to know why you're doing what you're doing. You need to find your reason or reasons. Is it your son? Think "if this person wasn't here, would I be here or have the same drive?". This is why you want what you want. The root cause of all or the majority of your motivation. If you don't feel you have this, don't worry. You can get. I mean the motivation, not the kid...

2. Dream true. Set compelling, ambitious, yet sensible goals. You need to dream true. Know what you REALLY want. Back in the office, we called it dreaming big, but I decided to change that. What people really meant when they said dream big was to dream true. This is the part where you take those people, yourself included, that you care about and ask yourself what you really want for them. This is essentially where you set your intention or major goals for your life.

3. That reason or reasons need to be crystal clear. You need to know EXACTLY what you want, not a general idea. There can be no doubt in your mind of what you want. This is the part where you formulate a vision. A clear formulating of your dream into a vision for your life in the future. This vision needs to be crystal clear. This means that if you live for your son or daughter, and you want to provide for him and teach him good morals, standards, and any important principles which are important to you to pass on to your son, then you know exactly what those are and how you're going to do it. Visualize the great man or woman your son or daughter can become and know that, while you can't control someone else, you're going to give your all to instill the wisdom you've obtained from your life into him in order to ensure that he has the best opportunity to find peace and happiness in his own life.

4. You need to keep those reasons in front of you every single day. This is what you live for. This reason or reasons need to be up on the back of your office door in the form of a dream board, they need to be in your pocket in written form to be read once if not twice a day or any other way that you know will effectively and constantly remind you. This is the fuel that powers the machine. Even the greatest dream can be forgotten easily if it isn't kept in front of you and visualized constantly.

Everyday Motivation

What if it's a smaller everyday task? Of course, this can seem unimportant, but even big dreams are a collection of smaller actions. Sometimes, especially on difficult days, you need to take motivation wherever you can get it, so here's a couple useful tips for generating additional motivation in a general:

1. Tackle small tasks first. This will build your confidence and make you want to do more. Motivation is very much like an old train. You need to keep tossing coal into the boiler in order to keep the train going. If you stop, the train stops. On any given day if you can learn how to generate a little energy or confidence you can build on that easily. You can use the path of progressive accomplishments to build temporary motivation during a tough day. This exercise is great for building confidence but it also gives you the motivation to do more. I've used this many times and it works like a charm.

2. Don't think so much. Oftentimes, the more you think the more likely you are to talk yourself out of what you're doing. Especially if it's something you already don't want to do. We can often be our worst enemy, and that's usually because of this inner dialog. Learn to do more and think less and you'll find yourself having become more productive as well as happier. And then sometimes, if you've been putting something off, you just need to shut your mind off altogether and do it. If you decided previously that something is the right thing to do, but you're having a hard time pushing yourself to do it, then put everything down, stop thinking, and get up and do it. Whether you need to walk, talk, call, type, or execute something, get up and start doing it without thinking.

3. Practice mindfulness. Moving on from the last point, one of the ways we become unmotivated is that we talk ourselves out of things. This is the inner dialog I mentioned in the last point. We always make things bigger in our heads than they really are. By practicing mindfulness you'll begin to quiet your mind and give yourself a healthy tool which allows you to get out of the trap of your mind and fully into the present moment to do whatever it is you need to do. The importance of this fact on productivity can't be overstated.

4. Have fun. Don't overlook this point. Two people can do the same thing and one will find joy in it while the other will find it boring. And this is simply a matter of effort. That is, making the effort to enjoy what you're doing vs. convincing yourself something is monotonous and boring. Don't take anything for granted, even the smallest task. Appreciate every little thing in life and find out how to enjoy the daily tasks that you wouldn't normally find enjoyable. Trust me, this is a big deal. And, it works. The first place I'd start towards making this possible is the last point: practice mindfulness. Be fully present for whatever it is that you do whether it's rebuilding your patio or completing a project. Also, look deeply into what you do during your work. See what you typically overlook and draw a deeper connection to the work that you do. What does this have to do with motivation? Finding joy in your work or practice can generate huge amounts of motivation. In fact, if you love what you do, this can often be all or most of what you need.

Aspects of Motivation

I wanted to end with a few last notes about motivation. I talked about these earlier but I want you to keep these points in mind when thinking about motivation:

• Motivation is your fuel. It's progressive. That is, if you accomplish even a small or simple task then you'll develop the motivation to do more and often larger things. Learn how to get yourself going in the morning with varying tasks and you'll learn how to generate motivation for the rest of the day. For this reason, a strong morning routine can really help you start each day off right.
• The deeper the motivation, the better. The deeper, the greater the motivational factor, the more motivation that's generated and the more often it's going to work. Even the best motivational factor (love for our son or daughter, for instance) won't motivate you 100% of the time, so you need more than just your "why" in place, but that is by far the single most important thing you can do towards keeping and building motivation.
• Sometimes your primary motivation won't be enough. Your ultimate "why" is the most powerful force you have towards keeping motivated. But you'll need more. YouTube videos in the morning (there are some great ones), music that pumps you up, pictures that generate specific emotions, thinking about various aspects of your dream/vision, the eyes of a child at a shelter you volunteer at, or some little confirmation that you're on the right path. It could be any of a million various little things. Whereas your major motivation pulls you like a great locomotive, minor motivational factors are those things which can rehabilitate you and fix up any damages on the locomotive after a rough day.
• Motivation can be positive or negative. Negative motivation is what we naturally gravitate towards and it's self-centered nature causes us much suffering. Positive motivation is what you should work on developing and is effortless because it moves you towards a purer and more selfless form of motivation. Keep something in mind, though: there's a strong positive in negative motivation. To be mindful of a negative motivation is to receive a great insight into a major affliction which is holding you back. So don't beat yourself up if you begin to notice that you're motivated by something negative. Not only is it perfectly normal, but noticing this is a huge step in the direction of positive change.

Whether you have goals or not, we all have intentions. We all plan or intend to do things each day, week, month, and year of our life and motivation is the underlying factor which propels us to take action.

Compassion, love, joy, and wisdom are all extremely powerful motivating factors which move us as well as those around us towards greater well-being. And these motivating factors are more powerful than any of the traditional negative motivational factors such as greed, power over people, or approval.

Look deeply and mindfully within yourself in order to identify your deepest motivations. And, if necessary, begin to steer yourself in a new and more conscious direction. Harnessing motivation as a force for good, like so many other things in life, is ultimately about becoming more conscious.

Devote yourself to living mindfully, both in the present moment and mindful of your actions at large, and you'll develop the ability to wield motivation as a powerful force for action.

You are the Special: The Power of Believing in Yourself and How to Cultivate Self-Confidence

You are the most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe. And you are capable of amazing things. Because you are the Special. And so am I. And so is everyone.

The Power of Belief

Warning: "The Lego Movie" spoilers below. But it's was so awesome that you probably already saw it. Right?

"Believe in yourself" is an old adage you've likely heard a million times in your life. My favorite recent use of it is in "The Lego Movie". In the movie, the main character Emmet finds an ancient relic called the "Piece of Resistance" and becomes attached to it.

Because of this Emmet is believed to be the chosen one. Referred to as the "The Special", he's the master builder foretold in an ancient prophecy who will defeat Lord Business and bring peace to the Lego universe.

But just before discovering that he's the prophesized chosen one, Emmet's faced with the depressing realization that everyone around him sees him as a "nobody" and that he essentially has no special traits, skills, or talents. Once things get going, though, Emmet realizes his potential and comes up with a number of great ideas which help the protagonist group make advances towards defeating Lord Business.

That's when Emmet finds out that *Super Spoiler Alert* the prophecy that foretold of the chosen one was really just made up. Emmet's then once again faced with the realization that he's a nobody and that he never really had special powers or was some magical chosen one.

But when he realizes that everyone is still depending on him to save them he conjures up what courage he has left and, as a result, is led on a crazy journey that eventually helps him discover his ultimate potential and come to the realization that he's not the special, everyone is the special. Everyone has the ability to do amazing things if they only believe in themselves. 

The movie's major message is that belief in oneself is the key to accomplishing great feats and that we can develop belief in ourselves by realizing that we all have the same special potential.

(Spoiler end)

A healthy spiritual practice, one which nourishes your mind and body and helps you cultivate peace and happiness, requires introspection. This is one of the major purposes of mindfulness. We can use mindfulness in order to look within ourselves and find the cause of our ill-being or suffering. And one of the ways we often suffer is through uncertainty. Uncertainty in ourselves and uncertainty in our life path.

Many of us are too uncertain of ourselves or our direction in life to get anywhere or do anything. This lack of belief in ourselves and in anything else for that matter keeps us frozen in place.

But worse, life itself is always moving. It's constantly changing. So while we've frozen in place, because the rest of the world is moving without us, we're not staying in the same place. We're slowing falling. Life comes and goes in an instant. And if we aren't taking positive action towards nurturing our well-being then the opposite is occurring- our well-being is slowly degrading.

Where does belief in oneself come from? Where does a lack of belief in oneself come from? How do you overcome a lack of belief in yourself? What does it mean to believe in something? Is it important to believe in something outside of yourself? What's the point? These are questions I've asked myself in the past.

We don't believe in ourselves or in our life path. We're uncertain of what we want to do, what we're supposed to do, and we don't think we're good enough. This is the story for so many of us and for many this story is played out until the day that it's too late.

If we could only cultivate true self-confidence or self-belief. A self-belief that comes from the right place, as opposed a false sense of confidence or power due to having money, possessions, or power over people, then we could do so much. We could do amazing things. If we only open ourselves up to the canvas that is life we can paint a beautiful picture. A picture that people for years will come to see and be inspired by. But that then still begs the question, how do we actually cultivate belief in ourselves?

How to Cultivate Self-Confidence

There are two ways I'm going to cover that allow you to develop belief in yourself. Keep in mind that this list is in no way exhaustive. These are simply two of many different ways to build belief in both yourself and in your life path. These are two of the most powerful ways available to us.

Also keep in mind that the second point is intended to go straight to the heart of where belief in ourselves really comes from in order to develop a healthy self-belief as well as gain clarity in your life path.

1. Developing belief in yourself through the path of progressive accomplishments

The first, the path of progressive accomplishments. This little technique teaches you the value of simply taking action, however small, and it works as a sort of "spark plug" for the rest of your life.

The path of progressive accomplishments is about starting small and moving up gradually. Pick something small which you've been putting off. Maybe something you've had sitting on your to-do list for a while. Making a phone call, talking to someone in person, cleaning something up, scheduling something. Whatever it is, don't make it crazy. Pick something small that -this is key- you've been putting off.

Then, do it. Do it now. Literally. Stop reading. Get up and do that thing right now before you finish reading this post. Don't think. Stop thinking! GO!

....

OK, done? Good. That was the most important step of all, congratulations.

What's next? It's pretty simple. You can pick another thing today or take it slow and do one thing each day. The important point is that you build up. By that I mean if you're doing one thing each day then tomorrow, if possible, pick something a little harder than what you did today.

That won't always be possible, but it's OK. At least pick something of the same level as what you did yesterday whenever possible and build up from there.

You'll quickly run out of things you've put off, however, start with those first. Action already works as a spark plug for your life, but taking action on things you've put off for a while is like taking adrenaline. Not that you want to live your life jacked up like that, but putting yourself into such a state really builds self-belief and gives you the confidence to move onto bigger things.

That's the ultimate point of this exercise- to build your self-belief or self-confidence to the point where you realize that nothing can stand in your way. Nothing is too big. And that you're good enough.

Eventually, you'll want to move on from the things you started off with, such as calling someone you really didn't want to have to call and have put off, to submitting the information for your business license to get your dreams moving. It's not meant for you to stay focused on small tasks, even if those do a lot at first to build belief in yourself.

And remember: whatever it is, when you decide to do it then do it immediately. The more time that goes by the less likely you are to do that thing. The most important lesson of this exercise should be that action really sometimes needs to be taken with an empty mind.

If you've previously decided that it's the right thing to do then erase everything from your mind for a moment- literally, just blank out- get up, and start walking, talking, typing, or jumping into whatever it is.

2. Developing belief in yourself through developing belief in some thing

Depending on your beliefs, this one might sound a little funny. How do you cultivate belief in yourself through believing in something other than yourself?

But for many, it's the belief or faith in something greater than themselves that is the very thing which gives them confidence. By knowing that they're part of something larger and that everyone else comes from and returns to the same source, they know that they're just as special and capable as anyone else.

No matter what your spiritual or religious affiliation is, belief or faith in something greater than yourself which you yourself are intrinsically connected to instills in you the feeling that you're worthy. And the foundation of belief in ourselves is the belief that we're worthy.

My favorite example is that of a wave. Imagine waves rolling through the ocean. In this reality, the one we can all physically touch, we appear as waves. Each of us is a physically separate wave. If I'm a wave then I can see and recognize the wave in front of and behind me as separate from myself. But we aren't just waves. At the very ground of our being, the ultimate reality, we exist as water. And, in this vast body of water, we exist as one.

There is no separating the water of one wave and another. They're the same body of water.

Knowing this, you can draw confidence from the fact that within you is a great power. The entire universe is within you. All the great teachings of the universe and the ultimate potential are within you.

But you have to practice to not only become mindful but to stay mindful of this truth. If you don't keep a consistent and healthy practice then you'll just forget about it altogether and become disconnected. You can only draw from this as a source of power if you stay constantly connected to it with a regular practice.

What does this actually look like when put into practice?If belief in yourself comes from believing that you're worthy, and believing that you're worthy can be discovered by coming in touch with the ultimate truth of our limitless potential, then through adopting a spiritual practice and living deeply in each moment of our lives we can realize this truth and instill belief in ourselves.

When you meet someone you admire, identify deep in yourself the same qualities as simply not yet having blossomed. When you go about your daily life, strive to see everything more deeply in order to become mindful of your interconnectedness and similarities. Living deeply means simply striving to see more than what's on the surface, so there are many ways to live more deeply and mindfully.

This type of belief in oneself takes longer to cultivate. But when built, it's like a fortress. Nothing can shake you. Nothing can turn you away from your intentions.

Be the Example

I wanted to end with a quick note. The world needs more people who believe in themselves and who are willing to stand up for what's good. Get out there and be the example. Strive to make a positive impact in the world. Let your practice be your guide and show others the way to peace and happiness by living it.

The world, more than ever, needs you to stand up and believe in not only yourself but in something greater than yourself. Use you skills and talents to make a difference. Whatever you've got, use it. You might think you don't matter, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

The world changes when people stand up and take action. You have the ability to do so as much as anyone else. Why? Because more than money, more than power, and more than luck, belief is what matters. Belief in yourself to create positive change and belief in something greater which empowers you and connects you to the world around you.

Vitruvius: Emmet, you didn't let me finish earlier...because I died. The reason I made up the prophecy was because I knew that whoever found the Piece of Resistance could become the Special. Because the only thing anyone needs to be special is to believe that you can be. I know that sounds like a cat poster, but it's true. Look at what you did when you believed you were special. You just need to believe it some more.

Emmet: But how can I just decide to believe that I'm special, when I'm not?

Vitruvius: Because the world depends on it.

The Truth about Karma and How to Use It as a Guiding Force for Personal and Spiritual Development

Karma what?

Just about everyone's heard of karma. Ask anyone you meet and, the likelihood is, they know what karma is. At least, they think that they know...

Most people think karma is fate, or something closely tied to it. You've probably heard someone say "She must have some bad/good karma!" or something like it before. It's talked about as a sort of invisible currency. If you do the right thing, good things will come back to you as reward. If you do the wrong thing, bad things will come back to you as punishment.

It's also talked about as if this currency stays with you until things are "evened out". That is, negative karma stays with you no matter how much good you do until it takes its full effect. But neither of these things are karma. There's a mass misunderstanding about what karma really is. And this misunderstanding does us no good.

I love this simple and clear explanation of karma by Barbara O'Brien of the buddhism.about.com blog:

The word "karma" means "action," not "fate." In Buddhism, karma is an energy created by willful action, through thoughts, words and deeds. We are all creating karma every minute, and the karma we create affects us every minute.

It's common to think of "my karma" as something you did in your last life that seals your fate in this life, but this is not Buddhist understanding. Karma is an action, not a result. The future is not set in stone. You can change the course of your life right now by changing your volitional (intentional) acts and self-destructive patterns.

"Karma" is a Sanskrit word meaning literally "action", "word" or "deed". In Buddhism, karma refers to intentional thoughts, words, and actions and the energy created by those thoughts, words, and actions. The awareness of karma existed before the Buddha, but the Buddha is said to have clarified our overall understanding of it.

But as with a lot of Buddhist wisdom, due to its scripture originating in ancient and now essentially "dead" languages (Sanskrit and Pali), it's easily misunderstood. At least initially. And especially for someone who hasn't received formal teaching. This likely contributed to the widespread misunderstanding of karma. But there's more to it than just that.

While karma doesn't literally mean that if you do something good then good things will inevitably come back to you, like some invisible tracking system that links bad people to punishment and good people to rewards, it does mean that by seeking to do the right thing in any given situation you as well as those around will become conditioned for peace and happiness in a very real and concrete sense. Likewise, through negative actions you condition yourself as well as those around you for suffering now and in the future. Knowing this, we can see why karma could be easily misunderstood in this way.

Our wrong perceptions about what will bring us peace and happiness affect everything we do. This included. We think that we need a nice car, big house, a closet filled with designer clothing, and a personal staff ready to serve us to be our happiest. Or maybe we don't take it that far. Maybe we just think "I'd really like a house on the beach and a few simple things and I'm good!". But this is still falling into the same exact trap.

If we think we need -anything- outside of ourselves in order to be happy then we're misguided. It's because of this false view that we desire to transform karma into a sort of cash machine based on ethical and spiritual behavior. But if we arise at the understanding that all we really need is to live deeply in the present moment with mindfulness and discover our true nature in order to find the peace and joy we starve for then we'll be able to detach ourselves from this false view.

Karma is simply an energy. It's our own intentional thoughts and actions. It's the energy we generate with these actions which affect us now and in the future in a very real sense. It's not a system of reward and punishment and it doesn't doom us based on past mistakes. Karma is unbiased. It's impartial. And it's ours to control.

Watering the Garden of Your Mind: How to Use Karma as a Guiding Force for Personal and Spiritual Development

Think of karma as an energy that you're creating in every moment. Every intentional action and thought generates "karmic" energy, and this energy is felt by us every minute of every day. It's not housed for future rewards or punishment. By doing the wrong thing, you condition the mind for anger, discontent, dissatisfaction, and the like. By doing the right thing you condition the mind for peace, joy, harmony, and the like.

These qualities, typically referred to as "mental formations" in Buddhism, are like flowers and the seeds they sprout from. When we're born, anger, discontent, dissatisfaction, peace, joy, harmony, as well as dozens of other mental formations are born in us. See these mental formations- these future emotions, feelings, and qualities- as seeds.

Now imagine these seeds resting in the garden of your mind, your consciousness, constantly being either watered or neglected based on your intentional thoughts and actions. Depending on what thoughts, words, or actions you have, speak, or take you either water the bad seeds or you water the good ones.

These seeds eventually grow into buds. And each time you water one of these buds they grow. If you water one of these buds enough they'll blossom into a flower- a powerful positive or negative force in your life. But it also works the opposite way. If you neglect and refrain from watering a flower it will wilt and eventually shrink back to a bud. And as long as you don't water the bud, it won't grow. The energy we give to these flowers is our karmic energy.

By living with mindfulness we can observe this karmic energy which has conditioned our minds over the course of often many years and begin to change how we act and react in our daily lives. Mindfulness gives us the ability to choose which flowers we water and which we don't. Without mindfulness, we don't have the ability to see ourselves clearly enough to make these distinctions. Mindfulness shines a light on the garden of our mind and allows us to take hold of our lives.

So in order to use karma as a force for our own personal and spiritual development, a force for great good, you need only shine the light of mindfulness on your life in order to identify your karmic energy and work to heal any karmic energy holding you back. 

In other words, karmic energy that holds you back can be false views, limiting beliefs, and deep-seeded negative emotions among other things. Any negative forces that you're creating through your intentional activity are creating negative karmic energy and need to be corrected in order to find peace and happiness.

If the seeds and various flowers are mental formations such as anger and joy, and the water is your thoughts, words, and actions, then by seeking to think, speak, and act in good, positive, or "right" ways and avoiding thinking, speaking, and acting in bad, negative or "wrong" ways you'll ultimately rid yourself of negative mental conditions and be able to find peace and joy in every moment of life.

By living in such a way, free from mental stresses, worries, and other mental "baggage", merely being alive and able to smell the fresh summer breeze or see the clear blue sky can be fulfilling.

Know that you have the ability to change your own life. Sure, there are factors outside of karma, outside of your own actions that affect your life. But if you deepen your understanding of what true peace and happiness is, you'll discover that no matter what's going on around you, you have the ability to experience life fully.

Karma shows us that we have the freedom to decide what happens to us. Karma isn't this ever-present force which punishes our wrong actions and rewards our good deeds with earthly pleasures. It's the very energy of intentional action in our lives which is wielded by us.

No matter what happened in the past, or what you're going through right now, you can change your life if you just decide to. You're free to experience the greatest things in life. But it's up to you to take action. You define you.