Accumulated stress makes your physical body vulnerable to bacteria, viruses, and infections. It also makes us susceptible to mental health issues. To get back into the body and reconnect your energy circuitry, you need to learn pragmatic practices of relaxing and allowing the energy in the situation to move you emotionally or physically.
In long-term relationships, we tend to focus on our partner’s limitations or the restrictions they impose on us rather than helping them heal or break free from them.
Intimate attraction isn’t rational; the desires of our bodies are formed over thousands of years, extending back to our most distant ancestors.
How can you navigate divorce gracefully and with compassion – for yourself and all those affected – so that you’re free from regret and self-recrimination?
There’s a tricky relationship with time that we experience when we are lost in thought or the swirling hyperlinked pages within cyberspace. Time can race, it can slow, and it can stop altogether. But curiously, this experience collapses into the present moment as soon as we experience touch.
Accumulated stress makes your physical body vulnerable to bacteria, viruses, and infections. It also makes us susceptible to mental health issues. To get back into the body and reconnect your energy circuitry, you need to learn pragmatic practices of relaxing and allowing the energy in the situation to move you emotionally or physically.
The one thing that weaves through everything in the universe is consciousness. It is the thread of continuity unifying all. To witness and identify the explicit, self-arising quality of life is to touch upon this deep truth.
Consciousness is what the fabric of reality is actually made of.
We appear as but single threads woven through this vast fabric of consciousness, and because we are made of the same stuff as the rest of this fabric of reality, we can know the rest as consciousness. To realize and deeply understand this fact allows us to transcend the apparent duality of subjectivity and objectivity at the root of any feelings of separation from all.
“We must surrender our hopes and expectations, as well as our fears, and march directly into disappointment, work with disappointment, go into it, and make it our way of life, which is a very hard thing to do. Disappointment is a good sign of basic intelligence. It cannot be compared to anything else: it is so sharp, precise, obvious, and direct. If we can open, then we suddenly begin to see that our expectations are irrelevant compared with the reality of the situations we are facing.”
― Chogyam Trungpa
"Absolute warriors, ideal warriors, don’t struggle. Their actual inspiration comes from the situation as it is. If the situation becomes more and more overwhelming and powerful, that much more energy goes along with it. It’s like judo: you use the situation as your power rather than trying to fight with it."
- Chögyam Trungpa
For many men, spiritual retreats oftentimes take the form of camping, hunting, sailing, and meditation intensives.
The masculine, as consciousness, relishes being free—from everything.
The beauty within empty spaces and desolate places soothes the masculine soul.
The concept of freedom is encoded into our western culture as one of its paramount values. It’s a masculine ideal that resonates in the heart of most men I know, and when you get a taste of it, it’s really hard to come back to the regular world of form, filth, and family.
Stepping into your purpose may bring up fear and internal resistance, because the patterns of your life don’t want to die.
Finding our purpose reminds us of the gap between their current state of happiness to the happiness they want to be, but focusing on the gap is what sustains the gap.
Purpose is an essential aspect of masculine being. Men thrive on knowing where they’re going and why they’re going there. Being lost and confused, not knowing where you’re heading, feels terrible for men. The sensation of being lost cuts against the grain of who you are, and it’s one of the leading causes of depression.
Losing your sense of purpose and direction in life can be a dangerous period to navigate alone. If you find yourself in a dark place regarding your purpose then please reach out to either myself or others in your circle—this is not something that you have to bear alone.
This being said, I want to talk to this masculine aspect of purpose and the question of why you’re here on this earth - this is best discovered in solitude.
Spirituality and sexuality are vital elements of our human experience - and each can illustrate the highs and lows of our species.
Spirituality spans human history and highlights our search for meaning and understanding of our connection to the universe. It also has led to war, persecution, and discrimination.
Sexuality can be one of the most profound and meaningful experiences people have, or it can be a source of suffering, abuse, and power.
I honor the potential of the human heart, enchanted by sex and spirit, calling us to live with integrity that witnesses the sacred in all aspects of life.
All men experience major life transitions.
There’s no way to get out of life without experiencing death, disability, or loss of someone we love. Life is a never-ending stream of these transitions and challenges.
It’s natural for humans to experience stress whenever we encounter change—but we make these major changes even more difficult if we feel that our survival is at stake. We see a profound amount of depression and suicidal ideation that men endure alone.
It’s precisely at these times of crisis and overwhelm that the potential for breakthrough and freedom becomes possible—but how?
