Which matters more: the calm around you or the calm within you?

It is increasingly evident that our lives have grown restless and stressful. Why? There seem to be more and more stimuli packed into every twenty four hours.

Consider the most fundamental human needs. Let us begin. Tell me, what is most essential for life?

Let us start at the very beginning. When you first saw the light of day after leaving your mother’s womb, what did you do? You cried, most likely. Yet to cry, you first had to draw a breath.

With that first inhale, your life in this body on planet Earth began. From that moment, you have been breathing and living. At times you breathe quickly and shallowly, usually when you feel tense, under stress, or seized by fear. At other times you breathe deeply, gently, and with ease, and life seems to flow smoothly while you feel at peace. Through the breath you can learn a great deal and transform your inner state.

Why do we call something "good" or "bad"? What truly counts as good or bad is difficult to define, since it depends on timing and on the one who observes.

At every moment we surf the waves of life. We meet waves of contentment, sorrow, happiness, joy, anger, calm, fulfillment, emptiness, and confusion. If we look at our own voyage, we see there were both good and challenging swells, yet we still managed to ride them.

Another year behind us and another on the horizon. It is the season of giving. What do all these gifts truly mean? What do they mean to you, both the ones you give and the ones you receive? How joyful do you feel when you offer a gift or when you receive one? What delights you most in this "Christmas story"?

Perhaps this Christmas you can give your soul a gift by choosing joy with intention.

Good day. How are you? Do you have a few moments (at least 30 seconds) to close your eyes and sense from within how you truly feel? No? Where are you rushing to? Are you hurrying toward some other life? You are sorting out "important things", fixing, planning, chasing, hurrying... where are you going in such a rush?

What is a desire? Where does it arise from? What does desire truly mean? Is it not an inner impulse that surfaces as an image, a feeling, a thought? From what depth does it emerge and why has it arrived?

From which level of our being does a desire arise? Why do we want anything at all in life?