Podcasts about stillness adventures

Pico Iyer, essayist and author of numerous books including  “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ” and most recently  “Aflame: Learning from Silence,” reflects on the death of Pope Francis and highlights the extraordinary impact Pope Francis’s life had, despite Iyer’s non-Christian faith. Pope Francis’s humility, simplicity, and actions, Iyer says, which exemplified his teachings had and continue to have a great impacted over Iyer’s spiritual life.  Paul Elie, religion scholar with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s”  shares his first hand impressions of meeting Pope Francis and particularly how humble and unpretentious the Pope was.  Elie says some of Pope Francis’s early experiences growing up in Argentina shaped his more progressive world views and reflects on the legacy that Pope Francis leaves behind on the world and on the Catholic Church.         Guests: Pico Iyer  Travel writer and author of Aflame: Learning from Silence, The Art of Stillness : Adventures in Going Nowhere, and, Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells, “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ”   Paul Elie  Senior Fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s” May 27, 2025       

A conversation between two very accomplished writers and thinkers: Pico Iyer & Father Cyprian Consiglio.The two of them, with the help of the audience, touch on the meaning of life and what happens after death (!), Narcissus and Goldmund, Henry Miller, Thomas Merton, the Trappist's life, Silence, the Monastic Life, the Apophatic tradition, Leonard Cohen, Vaclav Havel, Patrick Leigh Fermor,  Annie Dillard, Emily Dickinson, the Camaldoli Hermitage, Henry Miller (yes! again!), EROS as pre sexual and post genital, and much, much more...Books by Pico IyerFalling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of The WorldThe Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going NowhereThe Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai LamaBooks by Father Cyprian ConsiglioThe God Who Gave You Birth: A Spirituality of KenosisSpirit, Soul, Body: Toward an Integral Christian SpiritualityPrayer in the Cave of the Heart: The Universal Call to ContemplationMusic by Father Cyprian ConsiglioOn SpotifyOn YouTubeIf you want to read/buy any of these books we prefer you come for a visit to either the Camaldoli Hermitage bookstore or the Henry Miller Library bookstore. As much as Amazon, with their fast delivery and reduced price, helps to spread the word, small bookstores provide a service worth supporting! Thank you!Support the show

Pico Iyer is an esteemed journalist and essayist, and an explorer of inner life — for himself and in 21st-century society. For this episode in our Future of Hope series, he draws out writer Elizabeth Gilbert and “her sense of hope based not on a confidence in happy endings, but the conviction that something makes sense — even if not a sense that we can grasp.” Pico's questions and Liz's answers are all the more poignant given that both of them have recently suffered deep losses. These two friends delve into what it means to retreat into smallness, and grapple with a complex understanding of hope, as the world continues to overwhelm.Pico Iyer is the author of many books, including The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. His latest is A Beginner's Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations.Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of beloved non-fiction books including Big Magic and the global sensation, Eat, Pray, Love. Her novels include: The Signature of All Things, and, most recently, City of Girls.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

Digital Public Library of America's Director of Business Development & Senior Strategist Interview starts at 13:17 and ends at 46:40 Note: I will be discussing my Michele Kimpton interview Monday June 21, 2021, at 1 pm EDT on Clubhouse. Whether you are a current member of Clubhouse or want to join in order to participate in the discussion, click here. I've also created a club named The Reading Edge. Use this link to join! Links Digital Public Library of America DPLA Exchange SimplyE e-reader app “DPLA signs agreement with Amazon Publishing to make their books available to U.S. libraries” (press release) - May 18, 2021 “Amazon Publishing, DPLA Ink Deal to Lend E-books in Libraries” by Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly - May 18, 2021 “The best early Prime Day deals” by Brandon Widder at The Verge - June 16, 2021 The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer Nameless Season 2, Amazon Original Stories by Dean Koontz Next Week's Guest Ben Springwater, founder of Matter If you'd like brief daily updates on technology, books, marriage, and puppies, you can follow along with my Morning Journal flash briefing. From your Echo device, just say, “Alexa, enable Morning Journal.” Then each morning say, “Alexa, what's my flash briefing?” I post a five-minute audio journal each day except Sunday, usually by 8:00 am Eastern Time.  The Kindle Chronicles is now available at Audible Podcasts. The only thing missing are ratings! If you have time, please consider leaving one in order to help others learn about the show.  Right-click here and then click "Save Link As..." to download the audio to your computer, phone, or MP3 player.

On this weekly episode, we discuss Fault finding is a universal habit, no matter who we are, where we live, or what our circumstances may be. We are taught not to point fingers at others, but this habit persists. Fault finding is a clever device of the ego. Why is it easier to find fault in others rather than addressing our own personal flaws? “In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.”Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. Have you ever tried to sit still for five minutes doing absolutely nothing? Does having nothing to do but listen to your own thoughts might feel anxious or uncomfortable. Are we machines who are meant to run non-stop day in and day out? The ultimate pleasure is being pleasure! In a world full of sex on TV, on social media, and even in how we interact day to day. How focus are you on being the ultimate pleasure for your partner? How you clearly communicating to your partner what is needed to allow you to climax? Come with me as we take a look Under The Armor. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joshua-broomfield/support

In this conversation with Rene Colson-Hudson, we discuss: 1. How she ended up in Deer Isle-Stonington. 2. How her role has expanded since COVID arrived (she explains the process of organizing, cooking, assembling and delivering over 5,500 meals). 3. How Healthy Island Project is meeting the current needs of our community. 4. How we can all support Healthy Island Project fulfill it's mission. How to contact Healthy Island Project: website: https://healthyislandproject.org/ email: healthyislandproject@gmail.com phone number: (207) 367-6332 Rene's book recommendation: "The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere" by Pico Iyer Link: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Stillness-Adventures-Going-Nowhere/dp/1476784728/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2MQCI9USJU520&dchild=1&keywords=art+of+stillness&qid=1608665217&s=books&sprefix=Art+of+Stillness%2Caps%2C184&sr=1-1

Absorption as a definition of happiness. “To bring that calm into the motion, the commotion of the world.” Traveling not in order to move around but in order to be moved. His friend Leonard Cohen. Stillness & silence as a recharging station for the soul. Pico Iyer is one of our most eloquent explorers of what he calls the “inner world” — in himself and in the 21st century world at large. The journalist and novelist travels the globe from Ethiopia to North Korea and lives in Japan. But he also experiences a remote Benedictine hermitage as his second home, retreating there many times each year. In this intimate conversation, we explore the discoveries he’s making and his practice of “the art of stillness.” Pico Iyer is a journalist and writer. He’s written over a dozen books including “The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home,” “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,” and “The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere.” He has two books on Japan upcoming in 2019: “Autumn Light” and “A Beginner’s Guide to Japan.” Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

Absorption as a definition of happiness. “To bring that calm into the motion, the commotion of the world.” Traveling not in order to move around but in order to be moved. His friend Leonard Cohen. Stillness & silence as a recharging station for the soul. Pico Iyer is one of our most eloquent explorers of what he calls the “inner world” — in himself and in the 21st century world at large. The journalist and novelist travels the globe from Ethiopia to North Korea and lives in Japan. But he also experiences a remote Benedictine hermitage as his second home, retreating there many times each year. In this intimate conversation, we explore the discoveries he’s making and his practice of “the art of stillness.” Pico Iyer is a journalist and writer. He’s written over a dozen books including “The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home,” “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,” and “The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere.” He has two books on Japan upcoming in 2019: “Autumn Light” and “A Beginner’s Guide to Japan.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Pico Iyer — The Urgency of Slowing Down.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Best-selling author and travel writer Pico Iyer discusses the benefits of bringing stillness into our lives. Pico, a lifelong traveler who has journeyed all over the world, from India to Ethiopia to Cuba to Kathmandu, realized our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. He says there has never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and give ourselves permission to be still. Pico walked away from a successful career writing for Time magazine in New York City, where he worked on the 25th floor and had a nice apartment on Park Avenue. "I was making a great living, but that's not the same as making a life," Pico says. In his book "The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere," he writes about the unexpected adventure of staying put and that sitting quietly in a room just might be the ultimate adventure. Pico also reveals how we can take our feelings of home with us wherever we go.

Poet, photographer, and memoirist Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO sat down to chat with Cassidy Hall this past July when she was visiting Gethsemani Abbey. Author of several volumes of poetry including Unquiet Vigil: New and Selected Poems, Br. Paul is also the author of a newly published autobiography, In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk's Memoir. His memoir is a delightful and charming story of monastic life not only as a forum for deep spiritual exploration, but also as the foundation for a life devoted to music, art, and especially poetry. Cassidy and Brother Paul Brother Paul entered monastic life in 1958, when he was only 17 years old — back before the reforms of the Second Vatical Council, when the life of a Trappist was even more austere than it is today. His novice master turned out to be Thomas Merton, who eventually became an inspiration to Brother Paul not only as a monk, but as a writer. In their conversation, Cassidy and Brother Paul discuss his life story, his experience as a monk, as a writer, and as a lover of nature. He enthuses on his special love for the poet Emily Dickinson, and shares the poem of hers which convinced him that she was a mystic (#315). He also offers a 'sneak peek' of his current writing, sharing some poems he is currently writing. Through it all, in the heart of his rich and cultured life, silence has been his constant companion. There is a kind of silence which comes from stilling the mind, and you can develop that capacity, how to not fight thoughts so much as set them aside... if you want to be free, free your mind... instead of fighting the thoughts you just stand above them like on a bridge and watch the water flow by... but then there is a kind of silence that descends upon you, and it's like the presence... it happens on its own, and that's really special. You may get that, or you may not get it... it's not a matter of looking for it, because if you're looking for it, than you're thinking of something, you have an expectation and you're dealing with your expectation. — Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO Some of the resources and authors mentioned in this episode: Paul Quenon, In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk's Memoir Paul Quenon, Unquiet Vigil: New and Selected Poems Paul Quenon, Bells of the Hours Paul Quenon, Afternoons with Emily Paul Quenon, Monkswear Paul Quenon, Laughter: My Purgatory Paul Quenon, Terrors of Paradise Paul Quenon with Judith Valente and Michael Bever, The Art of Pausing Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere Dianne Aprile, The Abbey of Gethsemani: Place of Peace and Paradox John Eudes Bamberger, Thomas Merton: Prophet of Renewal Kathleen Norris, Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems Robert Morneau, A New Heart: Eleven Qualities of Holiness Jessica Powers, The Selected Poetry Rainer Maria Rilke, Selected Poetry Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons Volume One Gregory of Naziansus, Festal Orations Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire Gary Snyder, The Gary Snyder Reader Fenton Johnson, Everywhere Home The Grail Psalms: A Liturgical Psalter The opposite of faith is indifference. — Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO Filmmaker Patrick Shen, Brother Paul, and Cassidy Hall on the porch of Thomas Merton's hermitage, on the grounds of Gethsemani Abbey. Episode 32: Silence and Poetry at Gethsemani Abbey: A Conversation with Paul Quenon, OCSO Hosted by: Cassidy Hall Introduced by: Kevin Johnson Guest: Paul Quenon, OCSO Date Recorded: July 4, 2018

Poet, photographer, and memoirist Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO sat down to chat with Cassidy Hall this past July when she was visiting Gethsemani Abbey. Author of several volumes of poetry including Unquiet Vigil: New and Selected Poems, Br. Paul is also the author of a newly published autobiography, In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk's Memoir. His memoir is a delightful and charming story of monastic life not only as a forum for deep spiritual exploration, but also as the foundation for a life devoted to music, art, and especially poetry. Cassidy and Brother Paul Brother Paul entered monastic life in 1958, when he was only 17 years old — back before the reforms of the Second Vatical Council, when the life of a Trappist was even more austere than it is today. His novice master turned out to be Thomas Merton, who eventually became an inspiration to Brother Paul not only as a monk, but as a writer. In their conversation, Cassidy and Brother Paul discuss his life story, his experience as a monk, as a writer, and as a lover of nature. He enthuses on his special love for the poet Emily Dickinson, and shares the poem of hers which convinced him that she was a mystic (#315). He also offers a 'sneak peek' of his current writing, sharing some poems he is currently writing. Through it all, in the heart of his rich and cultured life, silence has been his constant companion. There is a kind of silence which comes from stilling the mind, and you can develop that capacity, how to not fight thoughts so much as set them aside... if you want to be free, free your mind... instead of fighting the thoughts you just stand above them like on a bridge and watch the water flow by... but then there is a kind of silence that descends upon you, and it's like the presence... it happens on its own, and that's really special. You may get that, or you may not get it... it's not a matter of looking for it, because if you're looking for it, than you're thinking of something, you have an expectation and you're dealing with your expectation. — Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO Some of the resources and authors mentioned in this episode: Paul Quenon, In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk's Memoir Paul Quenon, Unquiet Vigil: New and Selected Poems Paul Quenon, Bells of the Hours Paul Quenon, Afternoons with Emily Paul Quenon, Monkswear Paul Quenon, Laughter: My Purgatory Paul Quenon, Terrors of Paradise Paul Quenon with Judith Valente and Michael Bever, The Art of Pausing Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere Dianne Aprile, The Abbey of Gethsemani: Place of Peace and Paradox John Eudes Bamberger, Thomas Merton: Prophet of Renewal Kathleen Norris, Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems Robert Morneau, A New Heart: Eleven Qualities of Holiness Jessica Powers, The Selected Poetry Rainer Maria Rilke, Selected Poetry Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons Volume One Gregory of Naziansus, Festal Orations Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire Gary Snyder, The Gary Snyder Reader Fenton Johnson, Everywhere Home The Grail Psalms: A Liturgical Psalter The opposite of faith is indifference. — Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO Filmmaker Patrick Shen, Brother Paul, and Cassidy Hall on the porch of Thomas Merton's hermitage, on the grounds of Gethsemani Abbey. Episode 32: Silence and Poetry at Gethsemani Abbey: A Conversation with Paul Quenon, OCSO Hosted by: Cassidy Hall

Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist, known for his outstanding travel writing. Iyer was a King's Scholar at Eton College, and was awarded a Congratulatory Double First in English Literature at Oxford University, then received his second master's in literature at Harvard. Iyer has known the 14th Dalai Lama since he was in his late teens, when he accompanied his father to Dharamshala, India, in the early 1970s. Iyer taught literature at Harvard before joining Time magazine in 1982 as a writer on world affairs. After his home in Santa Barbara burned to the ground in 1990, Iyer was left without any possessions. In 1992 he relocated to Nara, Japan, where he has lived since, with his wife Hiroko Takeuchi. Some of his notable books include Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home; The Open Road: the Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama; and most recently, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere.

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere This is an elaboration/review of the book by Pico Iyer. How do you slow down? What do you mean by going nowhere? And how can we slow down with our busy business and family life?

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere This is an elaboration/review of the book by Pico Iyer. How do you slow down?  What do you mean by going nowhere? And how can we slow down with our busy business and family life? Sean says, ” I still have the same day I used to have before. But somehow it's different. Now, I have more time.” ---------- In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: The Passage To Nowhere Part 2: The Charting of StillnessPart 3: The Internet Sabbath To read it online: https://www.psychotactics.com/losing-momentum/   ---------- 4 am is the most difficult part of my day. And it's not for the reason you might be thinking. It's not difficult because it's so early in the morning. For me it's quite the opposite. For close to 20 years I've been rising at 4, sometimes a bit earlier, without the need of an alarm. The sound and feel of 4 am is embedded in my system and I instinctively know when to wake up. Which is where the problem begins. Within seconds of waking up, I'm completely awake I feel as though my brain is a train leaving the station, and I, as the train driver need to keep up. Five minutes later, I've walked out of the door, across to the office next door and I'm already at work. At this time of the day, and without the need of any coffee or tea, I can start to write a book, work on a presentation or take on the endless flow of e-mail. So how do I slow down? That was the question I asked myself as we slid into our December break. We're all so alert, so full of this persistent need to work, to learn, to keep going at high speed. How do we slow down without losing momentum? And if we were to slow down, where would we get the time to slow down? This last question seems to cut right to the core. That we have no time to do what's most important to us. Which is why I started first listening to, then reading a book I'd bought almost two years ago. Yes, the irony wasn't lost on me. It took two years to get to the book, but as December rolled along I listened to it once, then a second time, before getting a physical copy from the library. The name of the book? The Art of Stillness: Adventures In Going Nowhere. A book by writer, traveller, Pico Iyer. And let me tell you my short journey about going nowhere in a hurry. We'll look at three elements of the book, and it's a very tiny book, spanning just 74 pages. When listening to it on audio, I think I was done with listening to it in a few hours. Even so, less is more. That's the agenda of the book and the lesson I learned. Here are the three things we'll cover: – The Passage To Nowhere – The Charting of Stillness – The Internet Sabbath Part 1: The Passage To Nowhere Sitting still is a way of falling in love with the word and everything around it. That's an interesting thought, isn't it? And within three pages of “The Passage to Nowhere”, author Pico Iyer makes you want to slow down, but not just feel like you're getting off the motorway, but instead coming to a complete standstill. A stillness so unusual that if you close your eyes, you can hear the computer gurgle, feel the caress of the breeze, even your heartbeat seems so much louder. Iyer, despite the Indian sounding name, was born in Oxford, England in 1957 By the time he's twenty-nine, he's got an office on the 25th floor in midtown Manhattan; an apartment on Park Avenue and 20th Street and a job that most writers only dream about. He covers apartheid in South Africa, the People Power Revolution in the Philippines, the chaos that enveloped India during prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination. He wrote extensively for Time Magazine and took long vacations in exotic parts of the globe. The very thought of going nowhere was an incredibly alien concept. And yet the constant excitement has a finite boundary If you listen closely enough to life, it speaks to you in a whisper. Pico Iyer found that he couldn't hear that whisper. He was racing about so much that he never had a chance to see where he was going, or truly enjoy what he was doing. He never had a chance to check if he was truly happy. Writers have a funny way of going to their core Some hit the bottle, others write endlessly. Iyer decided to retreat to Kyoto. Now I don't know if you've ever been to Kyoto, but it's one of the most amazing cities in the world. There is a richness in the palaces and temples of Tokyo that's hard to imagine, let alone replicate. Iyer decided to leave behind his dream life and spend a year in a small, single room on the backstreets of Kyoto. He craved a sense of stillness. In the early part of his book he talks about how not so long ago, our greatest luxury was access to information. There was no such thing as too many books because a book was savoured. Information was a slow drug. Today it's the freedom from information that we seek. The chance to be still is what Iyer calls the “ultimate prize”. “I'm not a member of any church, and I don't subscribe to any creed; I've never been a member of any meditation or yoga group,” say Iyer. And by the time I had hit this paragraph, it struck me that I was in a remarkably similar position; we all are, in fact. We're all rushing around, slightly overwhelmed at the amount of information we have to process and implement. We're not necessarily a member of any meditation or yoga group and yet there's this obvious desire to slow down until Pico Iyer takes it one step lower. We need to be still; go nowhere. The chapter on “The Passage to Nowhere” clarifies the issue It's not about sitting at home and never going anywhere. Travelling opens up our minds, often makes us better, more interesting people. Stillness isn't about a location. You can sit in the middle of a Mumbai street, cars honking and be perfectly at peace, though admittedly the goal isn't about how far you travel but how alive you are. Stillness it seems is the ultimate adventure; one I'd been on, but certainly not on a daily basis. So as we slid into summer in this part of the world, I took my chance. In December, Auckland goes to sleep. Around the 20th of December, all the Christmas parties are done, kisses exchanged, and the city goes into hibernation. And it's not just Auckland. The entire country goes into an enforced vacation until mid, even late January. It was my chance to go on a trip I'd never gone before. I started to meditate I tried sitting in a Lotus position on the floor. I can do it quite easily as I sit on the floor most days at some point or the other. But I didn't feel comfortable sitting for long periods of time. My next try was sleeping on the floor, and despite the warmth of the season, I felt a bit chilly. So I climbed into bed, pulled the duvet over and that was my Goldilocks moment. I soon discovered that trips require a bit of planning. I scoured iTunes for suitable meditation music until I found the one that suited me best. I wanted to see what this trip to nowhere was all about. Stillness like anything in life requires momentum When I first tried to clear my mind, the momentum of the day cluttered it with thoughts of an even higher frequency. I might be sitting and doing nothing, and have no perceptible thought in my head. The moment I meditate, the thoughts, random thoughts burst through trying to shout over one another in an attempt to get my attention. But then the momentum dies down around the 30-minute mark. By the 45-minute mark, it becomes addictive, this meditation stuff. And that's what takes us to the second part of this review: The Charting of Stillness. In this section, he talks about his friend and songwriter, the late Leonard Cohen. He also talks about Matthieu Ricard, a Frenchman who was called “the happiest man in the world.” What made this Frenchman so euphoric? Let's find out in the next part. Part 2: The Charting of Stillness When you look at Matthieu Ricard, you don't see a molecular biologist. Because even if you and I have not a clue about what a molecular biologist looks like, Matthieu Ricard doesn't look the part. And that's because he's wearing the robes of a monk, and has this endearing smile. The University of Wisconsin was deeply interested in that smile They attached 256 electrodes to the skulls of hundreds of volunteers and put them all through a 3 ½ hour continuous functional MRI scan. The researchers were searching for positive emotions at first. In later experiments they looked at areas of compassion, the ability to control emotional responses and interestingly, the ability to process information. The subjects were similar in most respects, except some had engaged in ongoing stillness, while others had not. There was a marked difference between those who'd practiced the art of stillness vs those who hadn't Those who'd gone through stillness for about 10,000 hours had achieved a sense of happiness that was beyond any records in neurological records. Their happiness factor was literally, quite off the charts. And Matthieu Ricard explains that happiness is a muscle. That like a muscle it can be developed. His philosophy is based on how Buddhists explain the nature of the mind. And you don't have to be a Buddhist to understand the concepts of the blue sky. If there are clouds, there is blue sky behind them. All you need is patience to sit still and the blue shows up again. This blue sky analogy was interesting Don't get me wrong. A blue sky is, at least to me, the most boring kind of sky. I love clouds, all kinds of clouds. My niece Marsha are even members of the cloud appreciation society. So the analogy kind of bugs me, because I think all clouds, without exception, are incredibly stunning. Even so, the analogy of the blue sky is pretty solid. We lead a life based on our terms, travel places I want to go. Even our websites aren't built with some keywords in mind or driven by client's demands. We do the things that most interest us instead of being governed by what competition does. Still, there are clouds. Clouds of irritation, envy. They roll in quietly going from a nice, fluffy cumulus to a menacing cumulonimbus. Theoretically, I want them to put those 256 electrodes on my head and I want them to find happiness, compassion, no desire to react to emotional triggers and the ability to process information in an unusual way. It was a journey I was willing to take. As I meditate under that duvet, I start off all busy in my brain and then I get on the road to stillness. There are days when I don't quite feel like leaving the room and heading to work, it's that addictive; that cool. And yet there's the obvious objection, isn't there? Who has time to stand still, or lie still. To me, at least 30-45 minutes was an intrusion. While on vacation it's fine, because I truly do nothing, we're now back to work and that's a chunky 45 minutes out of the day. There's so much to do. How are we supposed to tackle yet another slice of the day slipping away for yet another activity? This takes us to the third part: The Secular Sabbath as it's called in the book, but which I've changed a bit to the “internet sabbath”. Part 3: The Internet Sabbath What happens if you don't check your e-mails one day? The elves come in, check your e-mails and your inbox is clear the next day, right? We know the price of not being on top of things. Pico Iyer takes time to talk about the sabbath, but he stresses he's not stepping foot into any religion. Instead he talks about a secular sabbath. About a day every week, when you completely free yourself of work. And incredibly, you get off checking stuff on the Internet. All this talk of meditation and taking time off gets some people a little upset Iyer talks about the time he was on a live radio show. The woman calling in was clearly upset. “It's all very well for a male travel writer in Santa Barbara to talk about taking the day off,” she said. “But what about me? I'm a moth trying to start a small business, and I don't have the luxury of meditating for two hours a day.” Two hours is clearly an exaggeration on the caller's part but the point is clear We don't have time to meditate and we don't have time to stop checking e-mails and the internet. Yet it's precisely the people who are most under pressure that need to give themselves a break. Iyer suggests the poor, overburdened mother could ask her husband, her mother or a friend to look after the kids for thirty minutes a day. That would bring back a touch of freshness and delight to share with her kids and her business. As you hear Iyer's words, it's still hard to accept that you can just walk away from the day I struggled with weekends. My 4 am wake up time doesn't respect weekends and until late 2015 I'd be at work on Saturday and Sunday. “I'm only here for a little while”, I'd say to myself, but I'd often be doing something or the other until 9 or 10 am. On the weekends I was supposedly spending 10 whole hours at work. Whether it was productive work or not is completely debatable and here's why. One weekend, my niece Keira came over and I was lying on the sofa. She said, “Seanny's always tired”. That was my moment of clarity. The weekends weren't helping me at all. So I stopped coming to work on the weekends. We have courses on Psychotactics and their Friday assignment is my Saturday. For many years I'd say, “I need to check the assignment on the day itself.” Instead, I just told clients that if they finished their assignment by my Friday evening, I'd check it. If not, I'd be back on Monday. I expected pushback from clients. To my surprise I got none. Many in Silicon Valley observe an Internet sabbath every week All devices are turned off from say, Friday night to Monday. Kevin Kelly, is a spokesperson for new technologies and the founding father of Wired Magazine. Kevin takes off on month-long trips without a computer so as to get rooted in the non virtual world. “I want to remember who I am”, he says. Even so, Kevin Kelly's methods seem a bit far fetched. Instead you can simply turn off your Internet connection for a day. My wife, Renuka and I go for a walk every day for an hour and a half. We try and get about 10,000-15,000 steps a day. On Sundays however, we don't take the “workday walking route” Instead we find another route and take a physical book or a diary in which to write or draw. I try and avoid the iPad or any kind of device that will get me back on the Internet. It's a constant challenge but it's completely invigorating. The simple act of putting the phone off and turning it on, 24 or even 48 hours later doesn't increase your workload by much. However, it does dramatically improve your ability to be more calm, more resilient in life. What's been the result of all of this meditation and calmness? Like Iyer, I stayed away from meditation for all these years. I convinced myself that my mind was blank enough when going for a walk or painting. And truly it was. But conscious meditation is different for me. It almost always brings a rush of thoughts; of things that need to be done. Renuka tells me I'm sleeping better and my breathing is less shallow. Instead of reacting to events, I seem to let them pass like clouds, expecting that blue sky will show up shortly. But easily the biggest change has been the morning train. Remember the train that starts in my brain and races out of the station at 4 am? Well, it doesn't do that any more. I now wake up, meditate and then go to work. I still have the same day I used to have before. But somehow it's different. Now, I have more time. Resistance seems like an overbearing force in our lives We want to achieve a lot, but as soon as we get started, resistance kicks in. But did you know there are ways around resistance? Resistance loves a loner. If you're working alone, you're just setting yourself for an encounter with resistance. Resistance loves to play the game of winner. We need to put resistance in second place. Here's how to go about the task of winning the resistance game.

I happened upon an amazing book that you need to read: The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. Here we learn from Pico and others, inlcuding Leonard Cohen, that the grandest adventure is when we connect with ourselves. So this Sunday, may I offer up a contemplation, an exercise? Can you tune in and be more aware? Ask yourself, How are you? What are you feeling? Check in once or often throughout your day. See what you experience.