By: Scott Thill 

Following the breath is the practice which the Buddha is said to have used when he attained Enlightenment. It’s usefulness as a method is significant.

Following the breath is a practice that can be used to increase our awareness of our bodies, feelings, and minds. It starts with relaxing and settling the mind, which leads to great benefits, strengthening our Buddhist practice and ultimately leading to Awakening.

It’s best to find a quiet place, but that isn’t always easy in the modern world. Being in a place that’s slightly more disturbed makes things a little more difficult, but not impossible.

It’s best to have a stable posture, ideally the full lotus or half lotus. But, sitting on your knees is okay too and plenty of people who have back problems sit in chairs or lying down.

We being by noticing the breath. We notice whether our breaths are short or long, hard or soft.

By Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness 

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. -Bruce Lee

In our society, the mind’s generally seen as a good thing. Gaining knowledge is very important, and what other way to do so than to use the mind and its practically infinite capabilities?

I have nothing against the mind, and neither do the spiritual teachers we’ll hear from here. Like them, I recognize that the mind’s an important instrument for the expression of consciousness and the gaining of knowledge, and it can take us far if we know how to use it.

By Lissa Rankin 

When Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project spoke at World Domination Summit this past summer, she said that the key to happiness is to be more of who we are. In order to know who we are, she suggests that we ask ourselves a few key questions. Try writing down your answers to the following questions.

1. Who do you envy and why?

Gretchen says that when someone has something you want, that’s very useful information about who you want to be. Rather than focusing on the negative aspect of envy or the judgment you might put on yourself for feeling that way, focus on being grateful for this additional information about what you value and care about.