6 Ways to Light Up Your Corner of the World and Make a Difference

It's a natural result of being human to want to "make your mark" on the world. The majority of us have a wish to create some sort of impact and leave a lasting impression of ourselves. And while it is a partially egotistical pursuit, because we're craving to fill ourselves up with some feeling of self-worth, there's a lot more to it than that.

The desire to make a difference in the world is a wholesome one which I believe is born partly from our connection to one another. We're all aware of it, in my experience, even if it's only a mild awareness, but nonetheless, we all know we're connected somehow.

But, and this is where the ego comes in, most of us aren't happy with just doing good in our part of the world, we want to create some Earth-shattering difference that rings throughout the world until the end of time.

This isn't realistic, but it's not a bad thing either. We simply have the wrong idea about what we need to do both to "fill" ourselves up and to contribute to making the world a better place.

When I say make the world a better place, I specifically mean to create a healthier, more peaceful, and more enlightened society. That, to me, is the ideal we should all strive for.

So then, if we're not supposed to strive to turn the world on its head with our pinkie finger, are we supposed to settle? Not at all, we simply need to gain clarity about what really makes us feel "whole" and fulfilled and what creates positive change in the world: people living life cherishing (nourishing, health) their bodies and minds, practicing peace, and walking the path of greater enlightenment.

"But these are things I'm doing for myself, how am I supposed to help create a better world like that?"

In Buddhism, it's understood that before you can change the world, you need to change yourself. In fact, to take that further, it's precisely by changing yourself that you change the world. All you should focus on is lighting up your corner of the world.

Maybe once you've done that your light will continue to grow. But if it doesn't, that's OK. Spreading your light, however far it goes, will be enough.

We should all dedicate ourselves to lighting up our little corners of the world. If we did that, the world would never be the same.

6 Ways to Light Up Your Corner of the World and Make a Difference

Each of the below 6 points centers around some way of transforming yourself from within or creating some difference outside which originates in working on yourself from within, both with the potential to create positive change in the world.

You might not notice it at first, but live your life based on these principles and you'll see clearly how changing yourself from within can change the world.

1. Use and consume mindfully

By use and consume mindfully, I'm referring to the way you live your day-to-day life: what do you eat, how do you eat, how do you treat the food that you eat, what products do you use in your household, aside from food what do you put in your body, your mind? I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Each and every day we place things in our body as well as our mind. Most of us disregard not only our physical health but our mental health as well, and this strongly affects our ability to maintain peace and happiness and to be there for others and create better health, peace, and happiness for them as well.

Let your mindfulness practice guide you here. Don't seek to change things right away, just start by becoming mindful of the things you place into your body and mind each day. That will be enough to begin the process of change.

Changing the way you live with regards to consumption of products can have a far-reaching effect on the world, so it's a powerful way to create a widespread difference by just changing your own actions each day.

2. Develop Compassion

By compassion, I'm not referring to charity or philanthropy. I'm referring to a state of being, the way you look at and feel about others.

Can you feel others pain? Do you understand that everyone is experiencing suffering and that our actions are rarely at first what they appear to be?

These are the things that meditating on compassion can teach you.

Compassion has far-reaching effects, and along with loving-kindness creates what is one of the most powerful effects we can have on the world, even if it's only with those closest to us.

When someone shows you compassion, it's surprising. That's not a good thing, but it's natural. We don't naturally grow up to feel compassionate towards everyone, although we do show compassion naturally in certain cases and have the capacity to develop it for all beings.

To develop compassion as a state of being might not sound like it would have much of an effect on the world, much less you, but it affects literally everything we do in each and every moment, and that makes it powerful beyond measure.

We treat everyone we meet differently, and that has a profound effect on others, especially our loved ones. And cultivating compassion within ourselves completely changes how our mind works, creating a deep sense of peace because we're no longer at odds with the world around us, but one with it.

3. Develop and practice loving-Kindness

After compassion comes loving-kindness, the outward expression of having developed love and compassion for others.

In this, we see acts of kindness spring up everywhere we go. Again, this also isn't really about charity or philanthropy, but about treating those we meet in our everyday lives with love, compassion, and caring.

The effect this could have on the world if even a fraction more of the population practiced it is beyond comprehension. It would be a complete revolution.

Of course, these things are easier said than done, and we must go through pain and suffering in order to then use it to transform ourselves, but if that was accomplished we'd have the ability to change the world in a way that's never been seen.

This is how the world really changes. It takes each individual person to live with love and compassion for others, not a couple of people trying to fix everything. It starts with us and it ends with us.

4. Take care of yourself

Most of us don't take care of ourselves. It's really that simple.

It's not that we want to harm ourselves, it's that we have the wrong idea about how to go about getting what we want in life.

It's a natural condition to feel that you need to work to deserve peace and happiness. We feel that we need to sacrifice our physical and emotional health to get ultimate happiness at the end of the rainbow.

It's the idea that after 10 years of work you'll deserve to finally have a happy life. Take a second to look around you, it's a deep condition that affects nearly all of us at some point.

Realize that you deserve peace and happiness right now in the present moment. It's always been available to you, you've just never allowed yourself to receive this wonderful gift.

It's definitely not easy, but if you meditate and live with mindfulness you'll begin to uncover your inner dialogue, the dark hand of the ego which steers us astray.

If you follow your spiritual practice and live with mindfulness, you'll start to realize that there's nothing to "fill up" and that you were whole all along.

And that's when the "looking forward" turns into "appreciating the now".

5. Create something

This might not initially sound like it originates from you, but without the creativity and proper motivation, creating/building/making something that can make a difference in the world is no easy task.

Creativity is more connected with one's well-being and overall lifestyle than most think. If you don't take care of yourself and practice peace your creations will either lack the creativity necessary to surmount major obstacles or you won't be able to see the project through to completion.

You could create anything really: a solution to a problem in the form of an idea, technology, or some effort that positively affects people's health, peace, or gives them better access to important knowledge that positively affects their overall well-being. The possibilities really are endless.

Actually, in every moment we're creating something. The very difference we make in people's lives is something we create. Life is a constant exchange between giving and receiving (and the gift), and our kindness, compassion, and mindfulness are all things we create with our effort.

Whatever it is that you decide to create, make sure it contributes to a healthier, more peaceful, and more enlightened you as well as society.

6. Live as an example to others

No words will ever be as powerful as the example you set for others, especially your family, friends, and coworkers.

This really comes down to who you are (or what you do) each and every day and is one of the most difficult things you can do in life.

To live as an example to others requires integrity. Or in other words, you actually have to be the person you say that you are, because those closest to us always know if our public image is different than our private one. And those closest to us are always the ones we can impact the most with our example.

This doesn't require perfection, nothing does. On the other hand, courage is required because of the very fact that we're "imperfect". To be an example to others, first, you need to be willing to face yourself and accept your shortcomings.

We all have them, the difference lies in your willingness to accept them openly and embrace them or bottle them down and run from them.

The reality is, this is something you have to face no matter how you try to let your light shine. Our light exists in our darkness, without which we'd have no ability to shine.

Embrace it with mindfulness, stay with it, transform it, and live to tell others.

You can shine brightly...if you're willing to face yourself.

5 Tools to Help You Start Your Home Meditation Practice

Meditation changed my life in ways that I can describe in detail and other ways in which I have no words for. But more than something which has allowed me to get or acquire something else, meditation is my constant companion. Every day, I meditate. And every day I feel the peace that comes from sitting in silence.

I don't know what brought you to meditation. It could be the desire to get "more" from life, the feeling like there's really supposed to be more than this. It could be that you feel something's missing as if you were missing a puzzle piece. Or it could be that you want to achieve something and that you feel meditation will help you do that.

Whatever brought you to meditation, know that there's something deep within you that wants to reveal itself.

Also know that we generally, especially in the West, come at meditation wanting something, desiring to acquire something (and that's perfectly natural), but that your meditation will ultimately show you how to stop wanting that thing and just let it go, and that true peace and happiness exist in developing the ability to do just that.

With that said, I hope your meditation practice helps you find what you're looking for, even if you don't quite yet know what that is.

5 Tools to Help You Start Your Home Meditation Practice

With the internet has come a new way of life.

Learning is no longer only done in a classroom and communication has been transformed forever (and continues to be further transformed every day), and while desktop computers, laptops, and tablets are household items, nothing is more common than the smartphone, a device half the size of a small book all of which hold the power to access, at this point, some recorded form of nearly all the knowledge and information we as humans have gathered over the past few thousand years.

And while these changes haven't been all good, they have been very good and very exciting.

One of the most significant changes, to me, is the fact that now anyone can jump on the internet and access a wealth of wisdom from practically every spiritual tradition that's ever existed.

You can get access to teachings, meditation exercises, detailed instruction, and even watch and connect with teachers and communities of practice via a plethora of content formats and communication methods. That's something I couldn't be more excited about, and a movement which Buddhaimonia was born from.

So know that, even if you don't have access to a teacher and a community to practice with, you can still create a strong home meditation practice and follow a spiritual journey all by yourself with just a few simple things.

Sure, the reality is nothing is required to sit and meditate. But to take that journey without guidance, in my experience, can be extremely damaging as well as "waste" years worth of time, to say the least. And on top of that, there are other tools which just help enhance your practice and make things easier in general.

I hope this simple list of tools and resources can help you in your practice. ___________________________________

Download the "5 Tools to Help You Start Your Home Meditation Practice" PDF Guide, including meditation instructions, and start meditating today:

___________________________________

1. A quiet place to hear the sound of silence

The first and most fundamental thing you'll need is a quiet place. This doesn't have to be anything elaborate or fancy. If you have kids, it could even be your restroom if you just can't seem to find a moment to yourself anywhere else.

It really doesn't matter where, the point is just that you have quiet and peace with which to hear yourself think and be able to devote all of your focus to the task at hand- meditating.

Maybe you want to go all out? First and foremost, don't get hung up by thinking that creating some elaborate meditation space will make the difference in your practice. But with that said, creating a meditation space can help your practice.

Even the simple act of creating a dedicated space for your meditation practice can help you convince yourself in your mind that your practice is important and to prioritize it. But there's much more you can do:

1. Clear a space which will be used only for your meditation sessions. Don't let anything become placed here. If things start to pile up here, or you constantly have to move things out of the way before you meditate, then that's just one more excuse why not to do it. Take that excuse away before it can even come up by keeping the space clean and empty.
2. Set your cushion down and don't move it for the world.
3. Place beside it, on the floor, or in a shelf or stand of some sort, any symbols/statues/pictures which help remind you of, as well as instill, important principles in your meditation practice such as love, compassion, kindness, mindfulness, or equanimity.
4. Set a dedicated time for meditation and do everything in your power to stick to it. Don't schedule anything on top of this time, you need to act like it's important, even if you're just starting out.

A meditation space is a useful tool in anyone's practice. It's somewhere you can go when you're feeling strong emotions and need somewhere to cool off, a place where you can "find yourself" daily, and just somewhere important for practice in general.

Resources:

1. For more on creating a meditation space, check out my book Zen for Everyday Life. In it I detail practices for creating a "Zen space", building an altar like the one I mentioned in #3, and establishing a daily meditation practice from A-Z. You can download the first 2 chapters free by clicking here.

2. A meditation cushion for comfort

A meditation cushion isn't required, but whoa is it nice.

I meditated for at least a year and a half before buying a meditation cushion, usually sitting on either a folded pillow or the floor. Either, or a chair, will work fine, but if you plan on sitting in the full or half lotus position (suggested) I'd highly recommend getting a zafu (meditation pillow) and a zabuton (meditation mat).

The zabuton, or meditation mat, sits on the floor, while the zafu or meditation cushion is placed on top of that. The zafu is very comfortable during meditation, is made for the perfect height to allow your knees to touch down and create a stable tripod when in the full lotus position, and by sitting on the last 1/3 of the pillow you're able to maintain proper posture throughout your meditation, all very nice things. Plus, the zabuton, helps cushion your knees which creates the all-around most comfortable and least-distracting meditation experience.

This simple little cushion will quickly become one of your best friends. Plus, as a bonus, if you ever visit a community or monastery it will help to have your own pillow to use during group meditations.

Resources:

1. The meditation cushion (zafu) I use: buddhaimonia.com/cushion
2. Meditation mat (zabuton): buddhaimonia.com/mat. You can sit with just the zafu, but it's nicer to have than not have.

3. A book (or audiobook) for timeless instruction

I'm a product of the Internet age. By that I mean my path began online- buying books and audiobooks online, listening to dharma talks/lectures on YouTube and elsewhere, and reading articles on websites like Lion's Roar (formerly Shambhala Sun) and Tricycle. Most of the guidance I've received has come in one of those forms.

But I'm not unique. I'm only one of many "new/Internet age" practitioners, someone who didn't necessarily choose to practice in this way but who worked with what he had.

I plan on being a part of a physical community in the future, but as for my upbringing, it's been almost strictly through Internet communication or access to information online. Books and audiobooks may only take you so far, but they're extremely valuable tools on the path.

I prefer audiobooks (I have a membership with Audible.com), because they're super convenient and I find that I actually absorb the material better when listening as opposed to reading. Perhaps it's easier to be mindful of a person's words than it is of words on a page (unless it's an exciting fiction novel, which these are obviously not!). I don't know what it is exactly, but I'd suggest trying it out for yourself.

Resources:

Here are some of my favorite books for getting started:

1. Mindfulness in Plain English - The quintessential book on mindfulness, this book breaks down mindfulness in detail from many different angles. Always clear, always easy to understand, and thorough, this is a classic.
2. The Miracle of Mindfulness - This is one of Thich Nhat Hanh's classics. It does a great job of showing you what it means to actually live with mindfulness.
3. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - This is a classic among classics. If you're new to meditation, the book might be a little difficult to understand at first, but keep at it and you'll see how amazing this book is with time. It explains the basics of sitting meditation and following one's breath in incredible depth.
4. The Little Book of Mindfulness - You can also get my first book, The Little Book of Mindfulness, for free here.

4. A teacher you can listen to and learn from

If you don't have access to a teacher, don't knock yourself, it's not required (albeit the closest thing on this list to being so). You can practice on your own and learn from teachers "from afar" as I call it.

Today, you can listen to dharma talks online and feel as if you're right there with the other practitioners, listening to the teachings and then applying them in your life and practice.

If you don't have access to a teacher directly, I'd suggest studying teachers online (living and non-living) and studying their work in detail. It would be a very good idea to find a number of living teachers, as that allows you the affordability to listen to new lectures, books, and courses when they're released.

This won't beat learning from someone directly, but even with a teacher and a community the path is still very much about you going it alone (no one else knows what you're going through in any given moment, only you), so it's not as different as you might think.

I will warn you about one thing, though: if you go without a teacher (and a community), you'll have to cultivate a high level of discipline in your practice because without those two things it becomes so much easier to drop off.

Again, though, there is a middle point. As I mentioned before, the age of the Internet hasn't just given us unprecedented access to information, it's also transformed how we communicate. Because of this, you now have the ability to communicate more directly with teachers and fellow practitioners all around the world.

And I don't just mean directly talking with someone, as I mentioned above simply watching a lecture on YouTube or elsewhere is of immense benefit and connects you directly with a teacher's words.

The point is, even if you don't have access to a teacher directly, if you can get online then you have a world of resources at your fingertips

Resources:

Here's a list of some of my favorite living teachers and their websites:

1. Thich Nhat Hanh - Someone I've mentioned many times before on Buddhaimonia, Nhat Hanh (or "Thay" as his students call him) is the person whom I've read, watched, and listened to most of all. It also helps that he's written a trillion books and gives (or gave, before his recent stroke) lectures constantly, nearly all of which are on YouTube right now.
2. Byron Katie - Byron Katie is someone whom I heard quotes from on Twitter for probably 2 years before thinking, "hey, I should look him up!". Of course, I was wrong, because he is a she! And what an amazing teacher she is. To say that her wisdom is vast would be an understatement. I'd really suggest checking her out.
3. Jack Kornfield - Jack Kornfield is a former Buddhist monk and someone who has taught me quite a bit. I read his blog regularly, which includes a lot of great excerpts from his books. Another great one!
4. Ram Dass - Ram Dass was part of the first "wave" of teachers in the West of Eastern spiritual traditions alongside some of my favorites: Chogyam Trungpa and Alan Watts (both are unfortunately deceased, although both wrote and recorded A LOT in their day, all of which you can find online).

5. A community you can connect with

A community of practice isn't just valuable, it's priceless. This, just as a teacher, isn't required, but it's as close as it gets to being so.

A community which helps support and nurture your practice is one of the single most powerful aids to your practice. Not only does it give you people, or better yet friends, whom you can talk with and relate to, but it provides you with support during tough times, a place to have your questions answered, or at least explored together as a group, and a constant way of building and developing your practice.

A daily practice which doesn't involve being mindful of how you interact with others isn't much of a practice, and a community will help you with that in an effective way.

But what if you don't have the time or resources to join a community? My best suggestion would be to find a local community or meditation group which meets weekly and go to each weekly gathering. Meditate, interact, and come together with the different group members and build bonds.

Even if you only get the chance to meet with them once a week, you can still begin building deep bonds through your practice and great friendships as well.

Resources:

Check out the Plum Village (The Mindfulness Bell) as well as Wake Up sangha directories for groups in your area. These are both organizations founded by Thich Nhat Hanh, so I completely support and stand behind the practices of both groups (which are, usually, simply the practice of mindful breathing, short readings from his books, and the recitation of The 5 Mindfulness Trainings, all in a group setting):

1. Wake Up - Get Involved!
2. The Mindfulness Bell - Sangha Directory

That's it! Don't make it complicated by adding a bunch of bells and whistles to your practice. These are the fundamentals to begin not only a meditation practice but a spiritual journey of any kind.

I hope you found this list, and the resources, useful. And remember, I'm here for you! Post a comment or contact me here, I'll do my best to help!

___________________________________

Download the "5 Tools to Help You Start Your Home Meditation Practice" PDF Guide, including meditation instructions, and start meditating today:

___________________________________

10 Guideposts to Help You on Your Journey to Peace and Enlightenment

For as far back as I can remember, I felt like there was supposed to be, "more". Like there was always something missing. That spark, that thing that would make my life come alive.

I wasn't ever really sure what that meant, nor did I know how to find it, so I usually just brushed it off. As a kid, this usually manifested through my ego as the idea that I was supposed to do something extraordinary in the world.

Then, one day, I remember thinking, "what if everyone else has this same feeling, too?". It didn't make my ego feel very good, but it sure got me thinking.

It turns out, everyone else does have this feeling. Unfortunately, instead of handling it in a healthy way, most of us search for things outside of ourselves (a lover, a new level of power, or material possessions) to fill that "void".

But occasionally, someone breaks that cycle, gets fed up or goes through some heavy shake-up, and begins searching for answers differently than they did before. They slow down and really start to think about things. They turn inward. When this happens, they begin the journey.

The spiritual journey, the journey to wisdom, the journey to peace and happiness, the path of awakening or liberation, whatever you want to call it, it's the same- it's the path we begin on when we break the cycle of consumption and unhealthy methods of filling the "void" and begin looking within.

If you're reading this, the likelihood is that's where you're at. Maybe you're far along the path, maybe you've just started, or maybe you're just looking at the path into the forest and still find yourself hesitating to enter for one reason or another.

Wherever you're at, you clicked on this article because you've realized (to some varying degree) that all the typical methods we use to find peace and wholeness don't really work:

...We look for "the one" thinking that they'll complete us, and while a loving relationship is a beautiful thing, it will never fill you up the way you want.

...We strive for power and achievement to caress our egos and fill the void, but that path never ends because power and achievement can't fill it, and so we drive for power until we crack, have a realization, or die.

...We crave material possessions and treat them like puzzle pieces, thinking that, "once I get that", we'll have the missing puzzle piece to our life, and everything will be right in the world.

So here you are on the path. You feel alone and afraid, but a little excited. And while you're scared, your intuition is telling you to keep going. Something about this feels...."right".

We all come from different backgrounds, grew up in different environments, have had different experiences, and make different choices. At times, we can all seem very different from one another.

But we share a lot of common ground. If the world were a house, and we were all living in different rooms, we'd all be living on the one very same foundation.

We're all human, we all want to feel whole (or "fully alive"), and we're all on our own very personal journey.

And while that journey may look different from person to person, it's the same for all of us: it's the gradual process of peeling back the layers of yourself to find a progressively greater level of peace (and much joy) through understanding yourself and your place in the world.

10 Guideposts to Help You on Your Journey to Peace and Enlightenment

Despite our highly connected world, many of us still live our spiritual journey very much alone. That's a shame because it doesn't have to be that way (part of what I hope to solve in the near future with Buddhaimonia).

But that's bad for another reason: when we walk our journey alone, we can often have no idea whether we're on the right path or not. If we get the sense that we're lost then that can be very demoralizing (even if we're not actually lost!), but it can also be very damaging as well.

In that way, you can look at this as a map on your journey towards greater peace and enlightenment.

No matter who you are, where you were born, what you've experienced in your life, or what choices you've made. If you've come to the path and need guidance, this can help guide you (even if just a little).

It's not meant to guide your entire journey- there will be curveballs, surprise turns, unseen forks in the path, and other challenges. But with these guideposts in place, I hope to remove some of that confusion and make your journey a little less dark.

Guidepost 1, The Basic Condition: The feeling that life could be better, or that something is missing, and the wish to change that

If the journey were a forest, this would be the entry way. Without this, the real journey never begins.

In Buddhism, this is called, "A natural bent towards awakening", and it's the feeling that there's something more profound to be experienced in life than the typical half-awake everyday drudge, sometimes truly enjoying ourselves, but always feeling like there's "something" missing.

This is all that's required to start out on the path. If you're here reading this, you already have it. Everyone has it, they just don't know the right way to treat it.

We live out our lives treating it in all the wrong ways, only finding peace when we finally let go of everything on our deathbeds.

So that's the bad, but is there any good? There sure is.

Because everyone has it, everyone has the capacity to set out on the journey to true peace and enlightenment. Throughout life, at all moments, the journey exists in front of you, ready for you to set out on.

Most of us think we've set out on the journey already, but we're really walking in circles. We're stuck going in circles 10 feet from the entrance because we have no guidance, looking for the answers in everything but ourselves.

But you can set out on the path right now. You just have to change how you're looking.

Guidepost 2, The Feeling: The intuition that the answers exist within you, not outside of you

This is really what it comes down to. This is where you decide to take up meditation lessons, Yoga classes, or reconnect with your spiritual upbringing. This is when you begin the journey to wisdom.

This is when you break the cycle and stop trying to fill the void with things outside yourself, and begin having the feeling that the answers may just lie within you.

But there is one requirement in order for this to do you any good: you have to act on it.

You can't just let this feeling go and shuffle on with your normal life. You've realized that this feeling isn't just a feeling, it's your intuition directing you. You already know there's something more, you just have to take the first step.

For many of us, it's fear (of what we'll find, of the possibility of finding something painful, or of what others will think of us) that keeps us from acting on this, but this is one of the greatest mistakes you could ever make. This is the moment that you can change your life forever.

It won't be easy, but it will be beautiful, and with some work you'll begin to arrive at what you've sought all along: to fill the void and find a sustainable peace and joy.

This step is nothing more than a subtle shift from looking outside of yourself to looking within. That's how it all begins.

If you recognize yourself in this place on the path, don't hesitate to begin sitting in meditation and developing mindfulness throughout your daily life as they're the foundations that will guide you.

Guidepost 3, The Courage: The understanding that tough questions first have to be asked to get those answers. And yet, the courage to face yourself despite that.

[Tweet "Without the courage to face yourself, you'll never get off the ground in your spiritual journey."]

Very quickly, you'll realize that your journey isn't so easy. Much of life we can bottle down our pain, numb ourselves, and ignore our problems, at least temporarily. But when you set out on your journey you give up that right, because what's required is no less than total cooperation.

On the journey to peace and enlightenment, no stone can be left unturned. What's required is a full-fledged opening up, like peeling back the layers of a piece of garlic.

Without the courage to face yourself, you'll never get off the ground in your spiritual journey.

The truth is liberating, but at first, it can be very painful and disappointing. It's because of this that most people never get past this stage, even though they often feel it's pointing them towards the truth, towards something greater.

Fear and comfort are powerful forces which keep many people from every realizing their true nature. And while the journey doesn't stop being tough here, if you can get past this step then you have a lot of amazing moments ahead of you.

Guidepost 4, The Blooming Lotus: The willingness to open up completely and be honest with yourself

So, you've set out on this new path, having seen that studying yourself closely and personally is the likely answer to your questions. But the courage to face yourself and the willingness to be honest with yourself are two distinctly different things.

You may have declared yourself willing to face yourself, but being honest with yourself is a difficult task, one which is often met with some push-back.

Resistance is natural, so the willingness to be completely open and honest with yourself is not something you'll likely start out with (I sure didn't), but it's something you'll eventually develop (with some fight!) and altogether required to develop to advance on your journey.

If you can get through this path, you'll often have some really beautiful things awaiting you. At this point, you've now busted through some major hurdles and have begun peeling back a number of those layers.

It hurts, but it feels so good all at the same time. Start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, because it's key from this point on.

Guidepost 5, The Clarity: Awareness (mindfulness) of yourself and your relationship to the rest of the world

You've been meditating for some time now. Maybe a year, maybe 2 years, it's hard to tell because some people take a short time and others take longer. This isn't a race, by the way, so don't bother keeping track.

Now, though, your awareness has begun to deepen and you've gained some relative clarity about yourself and the world around you. Still much to work on, but now that you have some clarity you can begin really putting some real work in.

This is a topic I talk about often on Buddhaimonia. Awareness in many ways is the path itself, it's the very foundation of everything. With our mindfulness, we discover not only ourselves and our place in the world, but we can learn to see the world with greater clarity as a result.

To be clear, you'll have many moments of greater clarity (moments of insight or awakening, or "satori" in Zen), so this isn't pointing to one single moment on your journey, but rather something to be aware of throughout it (in very much the same way as guidepost #10).

And while you shouldn't kick up your feet after a moment of insight, you should pat yourself on the back. You've taken a step "forward".

No matter how messy you feel your practice is, you're making your way. And it feels amazing.

Guidepost 6, The Understanding: A developing understanding of the way things are

Eventually, the path widens from learning about and understanding yourself to learning about and understanding the way of all things. The lines between you and the rest of the world begin to blur in a subtle way and certain distinct realizations begin to surface.

Ultimately, it all points towards the same one thing: a direct understanding of the way things are, the very nature of existence, which leads us to greater awakening.

This is when we begin to face such hard facts as impermanence and our own mortality, so it can be a difficult moment on the path. But equally, understanding these truths can also result in great peace and joy as well.

For instance, gradually realizing impermanence and the fact of our own eventual death as well as the death of those we love can lead us to cultivate a deep appreciation for life. So the path can start out very difficult but eventually lead us to a state of deep peace and equanimity.

Guidepost 7, The Freedom: The deepening ability to let go and live freely

With a greater understanding of ourselves and our relation to the rest of the world (through direct experience in our mindfulness practice), we eventually begin to develop the understanding that letting go of attachments is the way to freedom, and with time begin to realize this freedom.

As with the rest of the path, this is generally a gradual path with the occasional moment of acceleration (a moment of insight).

To arrive at this stage takes work, but it's where we truly begin to develop a strong equanimity, a quality most people are unfamiliar with but which is all we really want:

The capacity to live fully in the now- amidst our challenges, in the world as it is, within and among the craziness, but with an unwavering sense of peace and inner strength just as a tree stands tall in a strong wind.

This doesn't happen right away, you've developed it for some time now on your journey. But now your skill has developed to the point where things don't affect you the same way they once did and this quality of equanimity has become noticeable.

When someone passes, you feel sadness but aren't paralyzed by it. You can reflect clearly on the beauty of their life and find appreciation for everyone and everything else in your life through your direct understanding of impermanence.

When you feel anger, you can lean into it, smile at it, and come to terms with it- transforming it into something altogether different than it once was.

When you feel fear, you can see it clearly and make friends with it, understanding that it arises naturally as a part of life but no longer has control over you.

This is essentially what we wanted all along, the moment where we realize a deep and unwavering sense of peace. But the journey doesn't end here.

Guidepost 8, The Boundless Love: Greater love and compassion for yourself and for others

As you walk along the path, you won't feel love and compassion for all beings yet, but you will feel as if your love has started to expand to encompass a much greater space. You've now begun to understand that love is both boundless and the very energy which connects us.

In a way, the path of love and compassion can be seen as a separate path on the journey itself, as one can simply pursue that with mindfulness as a basis. I've touched on love before, but look forward to me talking a lot more about this path in the future.

Compassion is a partner with love as it's a natural progression on the path of love and a gradually developing compassion for all beings is a distinct aspect of all paths.

One thing to keep in mind is that by compassion, I'm referring to a state of mind rather than the act of giving or philanthropy. Compassion as a state of mind is the foundation. You feel compassion.

It's the expression of a growing understanding and love for all beings and a state of mind that's altogether transformative not just for ourselves, but for the world.

Guidepost 9, The Kindness: The compulsion to help (Love taking form)

This is compassion manifested into action. Think of it as the next stage on the path of love (cultivating love for all beings). In Buddhism, this is called loving-kindness, and many do work to cultivate this directly (although it's really a cultivating of understanding -> then compassion -> then loving-kindness).

You've worked on understanding the way things are- including those around you- cultivating love and compassion for others, and now the next level of your practice begins to compel you to express these insights in your daily life by showing kindness to those you meet.

This doesn't have to be anything specific or special, like donating to charities or offering your time to a shelter, this can be as simple as expressing kindness to everyone you meet as you go about your journey.

Without a doubt, while donating and contributing is helpful and necessary, to be compelled from within our very being to express kindness for all and to live out our lives in this way is nothing short of a revolution (although it looks average and ordinary to the naked eye).

Never forget how subtle and slight the shifts on the path are. At the end of the day, you'll simply be transformed from within and overflowing with a feeling of wholeness and joy.

You won't turn into a superhero, be able to levitate or leap small buildings in a single bound.

You won't eradicate anger, or fear, or sadness, or never think something bad about a person again.

But you will transform these feelings. You'll be able to face them and transform them with your very presence and be able to live with them without letting them control you.

You'll feel whole, at peace, and know in the deepest part of your being that no matter what happens, everything is right with the world in the most fundamental sense.

Guidepost 10, The Joy: Boundless joy in the simple silence of daily life

Amidst all this big talk of attaining peace and wisdom, it can be easy to lose track of things. What I mean by that is, it's easy to forget that the purpose of the journey is to find peace and happiness. It all boils down to that. We want to stop being tortured by our pain and feel joy in our daily lives.

The good news is, if we lose our way, the right type of practice will correct that very quickly, so it's often just a matter of switching up our practice in some way that works better for us or changing our perspective.

After developing awareness and love to a certain point you can't help but find joy in every moment of your life. You can literally do nothing but sit outside and listen to the rustle of the leaves, the sound of the wind, and watch as the cars pass by and feel completely at peace.

This last point isn't so much an ordered step on your journey as it is something to keep in mind throughout the journey.

It might sound odd that you can lose your way even after finding the path to peace and enlightenment, but you definitely can.

One of the best ways to keep this from happening is to keep your practice simple, while not restricting yourself. Don't think you need a bunch of bells and whistles- 100 meditations, complicated rituals, a crowded schedule of "spiritual activities", superfluous "symbols" of your practice that make you feel like you're more focused than you actually are, and the like.

Keep it simple. Use mindfulness on the journey and look for the guideposts as you go to keep you on the right trail.

And never forget- we all want the same thing, so we're all in this together. Reach out, connect with other like-minded people and you'll be surprised by what you find.

Journey to the Present Moment - The First-Ever Buddhaimonia Online Course

In Journey to the Present Moment, I take you through the journey with the light of mindfulness and equip you with the tools you need to live more fully and freely in the present moment with mindfulness meditation and realize greater peace, happiness, and meaning.

JPM isn't currently open for enrollment, however, you can sign up below to be notified when it opens up:

7 Steps to Overcoming Attachment and Letting Go with Meditation

Attachment, desire, clinging, and grasping. All of these words have been used to describe what we do when we hold on to things in an effort to find happiness and comfortable.

There definitely is an aspect of comfort on the path, because those things we cling to we don't just hold on to because we enjoy or think that they'll make us happy, we're usually afraid to let go of them as well.

So what does it mean to truly let go and live with non-attachment? That's a big topic, so I'd suggest reading this if you want to learn more about it, but suffice it to say that living with non-attachment means to live in a way that you don't grasp on to things around you in an attempt to find comfort or happiness from them, and in effect, realize true peace and happiness from letting go of those things.

It does not mean that you live separate from civilization, away from people, relationships, and any and all endeavors in a far-off jungle cave or something.

True non-attachment, true letting go, means living amidst these things just as you always have, but with a deep understanding of the fundamental truths of this world, such as our impermanence and interbeing, and therefore are able to exist in the world while not grasping on to anything in a sense of dependency (or needing anything to make us "whole").

What are some examples of attachment?

• The intimate relationship where the two people's image of one another is more important than the person themselves.
• The idea that you need a physical possession to be happy or at peace, and that without it, you won't find it.
• Desiring a result or outcome, such as the idea that getting a promotion will solve all of your problems and bring you lasting happiness.

See the pattern? To truly let go and live with non-attachment means to let go of ideas. It's all mental, not physical.

You can be in that relationship while letting the other person be free, wanting only for them to be free and at peace.

You can sit in that car, and enjoy riding it, without the idea that you need the car to be happy. If you lost the car tomorrow, you would be unaffected (aside from being without a car!).

And you can plan projects, create things, and work towards goals without thinking that you need to accomplish them to be happy and at peace (and without your sense of self-worth coming from your work).

No, the true source of peace and happiness exists outside of all this, beyond the reach of these many attachments, within the mind. And the only person that can discover this for you is yourself.

It's your journey, so don't become distracted by the many "bells and whistles" of life- the errands, rushing around, the "get this done", and "get that done". Don't ever forget what's most important: having a peaceful and happy life (and helping others do the same).

Making that a reality takes work, and yet most of us put more time into busy work and think we'll be happy "one day", but it never happens. Take action and prioritize your peace and happiness. It's the only way.

______________________________

Get the 7 Steps to Overcoming Attachment and Letting Go with Meditation PDF Workbook

Take the 7 steps to go and write notes from your meditation sessions with this PDF workbook guide:

______________________________

7 Steps to Overcoming Attachment and Letting Go with Meditation

I organized these 7 steps based on what I believe to be the best order to meditate on each topic. Keep in mind, though, this isn't set in stone, so you can mix up the steps and meditate on these topics in whatever order suits you.

Look at these 7 meditations as allowing you to gain various perspectives on attachment. Because of that, this is essentially the act of dissolving it from multiple angles.

It's like there's a force-field encircling an energy source, and you're attempting to weaken the force-field at various points to allow the light from the energy source to pierce through. The more you weaken the field, the more light pours through, and the more relief you feel.

Tackling these various perspectives allows you to weaken the field from all angles, and the collective effort is enough to provide much relief and can get you far on the path to letting go.

Ultimately, these steps work together so that you can gradually see into the true nature of attachment and realize how to let go and live more fully in peace and harmony with the world around you.

1. Meditate on attachment itself

The intention of this first meditation is to look at attachment itself very closely.

It's ingrained in our lives and in so many ways that it makes it very difficult to detect, but if you take time to contemplate on attachment, your attachments, you'll begin to see that attachment isn't "the way to happiness", but the opposite: grasping on to things is actually causing you pain and suffering and moving you away from peace and happiness (it's causing friction).

To do this, begin by thinking of all the things you've ever attached yourself to. I know...big list. Don't worry, though, you don't have to think of everything, just as much as you can bring to memory.

Next, make a list of each of these things and meditate on each and every one of them. Remember to get creative and use the examples I gave in the introduction because the things we cling to aren't always obvious to us.

One thing you should be looking for is similarities. What are the hallmarks of an attachment? A penchant for doing whatever it took to get that thing, even at the cost of your own health and immediate happiness, is often one such quality.

By looking closely at all those things you've ever attached yourself to or strongly desired you'll begin to notice the essence of attachment itself, and simply that will begin to loosen the hold it has on you.

2. Meditate on the effect attachment has on you

Now think about current attachments. Notice the way our minds build additional fantasies and images around our attachments that make them seem better or different than they are.

Take this time to really dig deep and delve into why you're attached to those things which you've noticed you're attached to now. Why did you originally go to it? What do you hope to accomplish or get from it by grasping on to it? Begin to notice how these attachments are ideas, not the thing itself.

This meditation is about seeing more clearly about what it is you're attached to right now, and that should lead to many powerful insights.

This meditation is valuable for a number of attachments, including an attachment to food and physical appearances.

For instance, with an attachment to food, you can begin to meditate on the "complete" picture of the food in front of you. Meditate on the almost unimaginable amount of work it took to get your entire plate in front of you.

Think of the preparation (farming, growing), the continued maintenance, the picking/harvesting, the processing, the packaging, the transporting, the prepping, the selling, and preparing, and the cooking.

It takes easily hundreds of hours of labor from hundreds of people to bring your food to your plate exactly as it is now. Meditating deeply on this has the ability to permanently rewrite an attachment to that food, especially if inhumane conditions were used in growing it and processing it for sale.

Whatever it is, delve deeply into the real effect the attachment has on you and on the thing itself and you'll begin to see ways in which you can break that attachment.

3. Meditate on the impermanence of all things

Next, contemplate deeply on the principle of impermanence.

It's the way of life, we all know it, yet so many of us are afraid to face that fact.

Most of us live our lives with our heads turned the other way, thinking that by doing so we can make it somehow not exist anymore. But impermanence is life, there's no escaping it.

This isn't a cause for sadness or grief, though, this is cause for celebration. To live ever aware of the impermanence of life compels us to appreciate the things around us and therefore find more joy in each and every moment of our daily lives.

To meditate on impermanence is easy: simply contemplate on the fact that nothing lasts forever. The trees, the buildings, the people, and all the other things we hold on to dearly will someday die. Think deeply about this fact, and imagine watching as these things wither away and pass.

Also, meditate on how everything lives on in a different form. If a carcass sits on the dirt, it eventually decomposes and sifts into the soil, becoming a part of it. In very much the same way, we and everything else around us live on in a different form after we pass.

4. Meditate on your death

Next, take the last meditation to the next level and meditate on your own impermanence: imagine your own death. This might sound a little intense, and it can be, which is why I put this a little higher on the list and only after meditating on impermanence for some time.

What would it be like to die and lose everything you're attached to? All your goals and ambitions, all your loved ones, and all your possessions? What would it be like to lose the very idea you have of yourself as an individual (the ego)?

Imagine your death in as much detail as you can muster, and imagine what it would be like to lose absolutely everything.

Most importantly, imagine what it would feel like to let go of all those things you cling to in an effort to create a better life for yourself: the favorable ideas of yourself, your accomplishments, your cherished memories, and anything else like it.

Take this meditation seriously, because it's one of the most powerful of the 7 steps.

5. Meditate on the interbeing of all things

Realize that nothing exists in the way you believe it does. What do I mean by this?

Think that flower exists in and of itself, independent of its environment and everything that comes in contact with it? That person? That tree? Even that idea? Think again.

Without dozens, sometimes hundreds and thousands, of other things to help support, nurture, and connect with it in some way that thing would cease to exist. Before you go thinking your attachment is this isolated thing, think again about the many things which made that thing a reality, and about the true nature of the thing you're attached to.

The truth of our interbeing is an interesting perspective to take on the idea of non-attachment because it's one that initially seems like it has little in common with it. But our attachment to things is very much connected to the truth of our interbeing in that our attachment to things is often us reaching out and trying to "complete" ourselves because we feel just that: incomplete.

Realizing your interbeing, interbeing itself as an "aspect" of the world as a whole, and how your interbeing means that you're just as "special" as anything and anyone else is also realizing your wholeness.

And that can be an altogether liberating realization.

6. Meditate on past attachments and whether they led to long-term peace and happiness or not

For step 6, meditate on past attachments and whether they resulted in long-term peace and happiness or not.

Remember, this doesn't mean think about, say, any relationship you've had. This means think about a relationship if in that relationship you thought you could never live without that person again (when you were with them). Remember, it's the attachment that's important, and physical connection doesn't mean attachment.

So, how did it go with that attachment? Only reflect on past attachments for this one, because present ones have a strong ability to blind us.

This meditation is pretty simple, and somewhat depends on you having had ample life experiences to reflect on, but is has a powerful ability to make it crystal clear how attachment leads to suffering.

Another step to this meditation, especially if you're an artist or use your creativity on a regular basis through work or elsewhere, can be to meditate on when you've done your best work and when you've struggled.

Generally, it's when our mind is clouded and we're attached to some specific idea of how we want a project to turn out that we struggle, and it's when our mind is free and empty that our best work pours out from us without effort.

7. Meditate on your attachment to attachment (Meditate on the ego)

This is the deepest level. Here, you begin to meditate on why you continuously attach yourself to things in the first place.

Understanding attachment is one thing, understanding why you continue to attach yourself to things is another. You won't necessarily need to meditate on both, but they both offer different and valuable perspectives that can be useful to you.

To meditate on your attachment to attachment, think back again to all those things which you've previously attached yourself to. Now ask yourself this question, "what did I hope to get from attaching/desiring/grasping on to that thing?" Do this for each attachment.

This will begin to reveal a common theme, and therein uncover for you a powerful insight.

I mentioned the answer to this step at least once already in the article, but I won't spoil it for you here. If I just gave you the answer you'd get no benefit. That's because it's not about the answer, it's about your realization of the answer.

Sit- on a chair, on the floor, full lotus, cross-legged-, lay down, or walk. However you do it, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you meditate on attachment and the various truths of this life (impermanence, interbeing, death) which will help to gradually break down the hold attachments have on you.

If you take the time each day to practice, you'll begin to see with greater and greater clarity. And don't do it to get something, do it because you want to stop thinking you have to get things in the first place to be content with your life. Break the chain and discover where real peace and happiness exist.

______________________________

Get the 7 Steps to Overcoming Attachment and Letting Go with Meditation PDF Workbook

Take the 7 steps to go and write notes from your meditation sessions with this PDF workbook guide:

______________________________

The Zen of Waking Up Early: 8 Tips for Waking Up Early and Living Your Purpose

It took me a while to notice the connection, despite the fact that it was in front of me all along. I didn't start waking up early until I had some sort of idea of what I wanted to do with my life.

The truth is, you create your life's purpose, it doesn't just fall into your lap.

It's something you decide, not some other-worldly stroke of destiny which rains down upon you all of sudden, although creating your sense of purpose can sometimes feel that way because of how strongly it drives you once you've established it.

And another bit of truth: without this great purpose in mind, waking up early consistently is extremely difficult to do.

On top of that, for anyone in a semi-normal living situation (full-time job, additional responsibilities), that time in the morning can be the perfect springboard for you to pursue that great purpose. They really do go hand-in-hand.

Ultimately, it's your decision what you devote your life to, and it's largely dependent upon your level of realization. Have you realized how connected you are to the rest of the world? If you have, your life's work almost certainly includes giving back or contributing in some way (or at least living in a way that you don't create friction with all other living and non-living things around you).

If you've begun to realize this fact but have responsibilities that keep you from running off to pursue it (a position I was in), you can always make a change and shift your life in a way that allows you to contribute more, whether that's through helping bring peace, greater health, or greater wisdom to yourself and others.

This is the Zen of waking up early. This is waking up early without trying to wake up early. It's an effortless effort, putting yourself in as much of a position to spontaneously spring up from your bed as anyone could ever possibly be in. Driven by purpose, finding joy in your "work", and in the fact that you're giving back to others in various ways.

Of course, becoming an early riser doesn't happen without a lot of work, and still sometimes requires the occasional "jump start" so to speak even after finding your purpose. But you can, with some work, put yourself in a position where waking up early becomes a pleasure. A pleasure which you look forward to and do effectively because of your enthusiasm, and which helps move you forward towards your purpose.

8 Tips for Waking Up Early and Living Your Mission

As I mentioned above, this article might seem like a bit of a funky pairing, but the two really do go hand-in-hand. So this list is a combination effort: discovering your reason, creating your purpose, and setting yourself up to become an early riser in order to pursue that purpose.

1. Find your reason

You don't necessarily need to know what you want to do with the rest of your life, but you do have to find something that compels you to action.

Without this first step, you'll have very little chance of waking up early consistently. Sure, on occasion you'll feel a wave of excitement when things are going right, but when things start going wrong your drive (or motivation) is the only thing which will keep you going.

The path to peace and happiness at times might sound fluffy and whimsical, but it's largely not. It takes hard work like anything else in life, the difference is after a while you're pursuing it while (most of the time) feeling great about yourself and your life as a whole. And, when things do go wrong, they don't affect you the same way any longer because you're able to handle them skillfully.

Of course, I'm not talking about "scratch and claw", friction-creating effort, but rather an unyielding and continuous effort, the willingness to stare into the eye of the storm and not back down. And this is where your reason can help.

For most, this will simply be the fundamental desire to discover a "better" way to live. Tired of the emotional drainage, the exhausting days, the roller coaster of life has worn down on you and you've started to ask the question, "Isn't there a better way to live?"

Whatever your reason- to live better as a whole, to help those in need, or to be an example to someone- a lot of days you'll depend on it to get you up. The bad news is, sometimes that requires you go through some crap so that you get fed up and want something better for yourself.

The good news is, if you don't know what that is right now, you can discover it yourself without going through the hard times (if you're willing to be open and honest with yourself). It does have to arise naturally, but you can create the circumstances for it to do so.

How do you do that? It all comes down to the same one thing: self-inquiry. Developing greater self-awareness is the key, but in this case, I'm specifically referring to delving deep into your past self. This really involves one step done repeatedly while thinking back about different periods of your life:

1. Through each period of your life, think of the person you were, what drove you, and what you enjoyed/loved doing. What did you go through during that period of time? How do you think that affected you?
2. Do this for each period of your life, as far back as you can remember, until you're a young child (as young as you can remember).

Doing so can give you important insights about what drives you, what has affected you both positively and negatively throughout your life, and what you have a genuine interest (even a passion) for. By doing so you may discover more about yourself than you're ready for, though, so only venture on if you have a sincere desire to create a better life (You won't always like what you find).

I'd like to say you can wake up early consistently without finding your reason (for more than just a month or two), but the reality is this is a basic requirement for making early rising a long-term accomplishment.

Find your reason, find what fundamentally drives you, and it will pay off in more ways than one, including spurring you to wake up earlier and helping you find your passion.

2. Wake up with a purpose (create your morning routine centered around your reason)

A solid and well-thought-out morning routine can be nourishing for both the mind and body and places you into a position to be more productive and effective throughout your day, but it can also play an important part in your life's purpose.

With your reason in place, you can then begin to clarify how that will manifest and ultimately how you will create a positive impact on the rest of the world, which then becomes your purpose.

This point is all about your reason, your drive, manifested into physical action. And this can manifest in a number of ways, including:

1. Creating something (preferably something which helps improve the well-being of others)
2. Helping those who lack the basic necessities get the support they need
3. Teaching others a useful life skill

These are the most basic ways of contributing to a more peaceful, healthy, and enlightened world at large and the most common ways in which your primary reason or drive manifests itself. And this is what your morning routine should be built around.

Behind everything should be your daily practice of wisdom, the basis for which will bring you peace and happiness, but as I've talked about before that can be done while doing almost anything. As you go about your everyday life, whatever you do, you should do it mindfully to develop greater self-awareness and nurture peace and happiness within you.

Through this, you'll begin to realize that purpose is gained when we help ourselves and one another rise above the challenges of everyday life to greater peace and wisdom (and it will feel wonderful).

So then, what do you do? How will you contribute to that? If you know vaguely what your reason or drive is, that's enough to begin at least trying things out, even if you're not yet sure how you want to go about manifesting that reason into purposeful action.

Ultimately, this second step is about having a good reason to wake up early and using that reason to guide your life's purpose. Outside of that, it's up to you how you'd like to go about doing that.

Maybe you decide your purpose is to create beautiful artwork that tells a story. Maybe your purpose is to write books and material that help people learn how to handle strong emotions skillfully, or maybe your purpose is to prepare your children for their day ahead, not just physically through getting their breakfast and lunch ready and to schedule out the day, but also mentally through pre-planning activities and thinking through important lessons you'd like to teach them.

Whatever your purpose is, your goal is simply to light up your corner of the world. It's honorable to want to change the entire world, but it's unrealistic to think we can all have the same impact that, say, Gandhi did because he and others who have had a similar impact also had timing on their side, among other ideal conditions

But, you can be a Gandhi (or anyone else exemplary). By "a Gandhi", I'm referring to expressing your own unique light in a way that helps yourself and others find greater peace and happiness.

All you need to do is spread your light as far as it will reach. Whether that never extends beyond your immediate family or expands to encompass a nation or the world, that will be enough.

3. Remind yourself why you're getting up early just before bed

You might think it will just be enough to have that reason and have manifested it into a specific purpose to get you up from bed in the A.M., and many times it will be, but it can really help to remind yourself before bed of this cause and of the things you have planned for the next day to give you a sort of "jump-start" on the night of those tough days.

This is one of the points that's helped me the most, especially after a tough day. This is half pre-planning your day, and half becoming present, because you need to know at least to some degree what you have planned for the next day to do this and you need to be present to realize you're about to lay down for bed and when you awaken it will be time to do your thing.

When we lie down for bed we're often daydreaming of other things, and so when we wake, we're very much disoriented and unaware of where we are or what we're doing. I've found that by reminding myself why I'm getting up early I'm much more conscious when I wake up, and that helps not only get me up but keep me from hitting the snooze alarm.

4. Reward yourself

This can be really helpful on those especially difficult days where you have a lot to do, but you just don't feel like doing it (or anything else for that matter).

The reality is, no matter how much you love what you do, sometimes you just can't get yourself up. Whatever the reason, I've found rewarding myself to be a nice little tool to keep in my toolbox for those days when something is just trying to hold me down.

Thinking of simple, even silly, ways to reward yourself can help give you that extra spark when you feel you've had a tough day and are worried you won't wake up the next day, or are having a tough week and are having a hard time waking up each day.

Emotions can be like a wave, and sometimes you just don't have control of the boat. In that case, thinking of simple ways to reward yourself will help breathe some life into you.

This is a temporary technique that I don't suggest you use often (you don't want to convince yourself that you're working to get something each day, your desire to give back, create, and/or contribute should be the source of your drive itself), but when used sparingly it can be really helpful.

5. Don't think you have to wake up every single day

Understand that you don't have to wake up early every single day. We're not Superman (no one is, he's not real!), so eventually we all have to rest. And sometimes, after an especially tough day, sleeping in is the wise decision.

I just finished moving (sort of, still unpacking!), and considering it was essentially me and my wife Edith's dad doing everything I ended up completely exhausted by the end of it. And just when I thought it was over, I realized we now had to unpack everything we had just moved, then go to the store to get the things we were missing, and set up the internet, oh don't forget to feed the kids...you get the idea.

There was no way I was waking up early that day. Or the next. I feel great now, but the point is when you put yourself through something like that it's unwise to push yourself up in the morning. You'll just be falling asleep constantly, ineffective at everything you do, and negatively affecting your health in a number of ways. So there's no point to it.

It's nice to think, "I'll just keep myself from getting into situations like that", and maybe that's possible if you don't live a half-way normal or busy life, but for those who do it's just not always plausible.

If you understand this point you won't be so hard on yourself, which is a big reason why we don't make positive change in the first place. 

We think we have to be perfect and that, in this case, if we miss waking up early on a particular day that we've failed. But that isn't true.

I was especially hard on myself when I first worked on becoming an early riser. If I woke up late on a particular day, I'd be talking down to myself for most of the rest of the day. I made myself feel very defeated and very discouraged.

After some time I realized that missing a day didn't break my stride, and the very next day I could get back on and keep rising early just as I had. Then after a while longer, I began to realize both the benefit in letting go of the idea of having to rise early every day as well as the benefit in sleeping in on occasion when I felt especially exhausted after a long day.

You don't have to do anything every single day to make it a habit, just shoot for doing it 90-95% of the time and you'll be just fine.

6. Meditate for longer periods of time

This might sound odd, but it's helped me a lot.

Meditation has a restful quality to it, particularly sitting and practicing mindful breathing, the most basic and often practiced form of meditation.

Sitting there in silence, with proper posture to encourage healthy breathing, not moving your body an inch, and revitalizing your body through mindful breathing all help make meditation a very restful exercise.

I've found that the longer I meditate, the less I need to sleep.

Again this might sound crazy or odd, and there is a limit to this of course, but I've found it to be unequivocally true.

Another thing about meditating more often is that you're more conscious more often. This helps in a similar way to point #3, as it helps you become more conscious when you wake up, instead of a half-asleep zombie (apparently my natural just-awakened state).

On top of that, taking your meditation practice to the next level has far greater benefits than simply helping you improve the quality of your sleep and making it easier to wake in the morning. Because of that, this point to me is incredibly powerful for anyone intent on becoming an early riser.

How long should you shoot to meditate for? More would be the best answer I could give you, but I know personally that sort of answer is just frustrating because you don't know what to shoot for. I would challenge you to work your way towards meditating for at least 30 minutes a day, if not 45 minutes to an hour. Once you reach that goal, I'd shoot for meditating for this length twice a day.

7. Place the odds in your favor (develop a night routine)

It's important to make it as easy as possible to fall asleep as well as to get good quality sleep. Without the right quality and quantity of sleep, trying to rise early is a relatively fruitless effort. This means a couple of things:

1. Lights off (blue light- electronic devices) two or so hours before bed.
2. Leave your emotional "baggage" before your bedroom door (what I call the "Arriving" technique).
3. Develop a nightly ritual to bring your mind and body at ease and greatly improve the quality of your sleep

(You can read more about points 1, 2, & 3 here).

You can develop your own lights off routine and nightly rituals to help improve the quality of your sleep. An overall nightly routine will help enhance your morning routine and can work seamlessly with it. Whatever you do, make sure to have a nightly routine to help support your morning routine.

8. Ease into rising early (as well as to living your purpose)

To finish up, I'd really suggest easing into the whole thing slowly. Rising early can be a big change for most people, and it's not easy for anyone unless you've done it for years.

I worked backward in increments of 30 minutes at a time for more than a year and a half (maybe longer) before I got to my current wake time of 3-3:30 A.M.

I started at 7 A.M., then 6:30, then 6, then jumped to 5-5:30 which is where I rested for a good 6 months or so, then moved down gradually until I hit 4 where I rested for nearly a year. All-in-all, I took a year and a half to 2 years to get to where I am today, so it takes a real long-term effort to become an early riser, even if your goal is simply to wake up at 5 or 6.

But following what you could believe your "purpose" should also be a gradual process, and many times with full-time jobs and other responsibilities, we have no choice but for it to be a gradual process.

Take it slow, go easy on yourself, and know that you have to be in it for the long haul.

Your best effort will be more than enough.