We Stand Stronger in Community

With the difficulty and isolation of the past few years that we’ve all endured, one of the things that people value and prioritize now more than ever is community. Naturally, humans need to feel as though they belong to a family, a tribe. Ironically, one of the things we can do that will benefit the tribe of humanity the best is to meditate because when we do so we stop acting from an egoic place and start to feel ourselves as part of the larger whole.

Meditation may seem like such a solitary activity, but it doesn’t have to be. Just like a yoga class where everyone is experiencing a personal benefit, albeit in tandem with others and therefore growing both personally and together, so too people who meditate in groups can also grow personally while also together with a group.

Through the Covid isolations, precautions which limit in-person gatherings, and lockdowns due to the pandemic, the human family has shown remarkable resiliency and ingenuity by learning to nonetheless find community through mediums like Zoom. Of course we’d all love to be in person with our yoga and meditation classes, and while some of these have resumed (I led a glorious retreat in-person retreat in Bordeaux this year), a happy byproduct of this forced online connection is that we’ve become more comfortable building a truly global community. My sweet mother-in-law in Utah takes harp lessons from her teacher in Scotland thanks to both of them becoming more comfortable with technology because of the pandemic.

It seems that it took the loneliness of isolating in our own homes to realize that we actually have such a ready and vast connection to the larger human family. For example, during my weekly live Yoga Nidra classes on Zoom, it’s commonplace to have people attending live and watching the replay from several different countries, continents, and time zones.

The power of meditating in groups is astounding and demonstrated by some unbelievable but true stats from peer-reviewed articles. One statistic shows that in communities where people have meditated as a group (groups of like 1200 people), the murder and homicide rates decreased by a whopping 28.4%. (Click here to read the article). Plus, the benefits of regular meditation practice has a ripple effect and doesn’t just stop when you stop meditating. And even with smaller groups who meditate together, there is an incredible power given to families or friends who all commit to meditate for a particular cause, like the wellbeing of a person, people, or the environment.

Individuals also benefit from meditating together. People who meditate as a close group of friends or family, whether in the same place or time or not, are more committed to doing a practice as well as feel a greater sense of purpose in the practice.

I’m beginning a meditation group for the month of January and I’d be honored if you would join. Will you join my global meditation community who will all be meditating every day during the month of January during my 31-Day Meditation Challenge? The challenge is simply to meditate every day for 15 minutes or more in any style and at any time you wish. You may not be in the same room, time zone, or even continent as the others in our meditation family but knowing that we are all around the world meditating at different times during the day will make a connection to us all that will likely be palpable.

If you are new to the practice of meditation, the energy of our global meditation family will buoy you up as you start this new healthy habit. Plus, I’ll be giving you resources, support, and instruction every step of the way. If you are already a regular meditator, your energy and experience will contribute to the power of us all.

To emphasize the important community element of this challenge, I’ll be hosting a live, online meditation on New Year’s day to kick it off. Plus, once a week, I’ll host a global meditation where we can all log in from different parts of the globe to see and meet each other as well as meditate together. This is in addition to the daily email you’ll receive with encouragement, interesting articles, and specialized meditations. This challenge will be powerful, positive, and fun.

I am so excited to do this 31-Day Meditation Challenge and I want YOU to be a part of our mediation group. The last time I hosted this challenge people joined from all over the world: The US, England, Ireland, Belgium, France, Spain, Canada, Columbia, Iceland, The Philippines, and many other countries. Where do you live? Join and represent your region, city, or country and join our global mediation community.

Also, do you know of others who you’d like to join with you? Invite them along and make your own meditation posse. Many past participants have taken it upon themselves to build their own meditation groups, friends and family who all register together to support and encourage each other in this worthy endeavor. I can assure you that you will grow together as a group or family if you do.

Please reach out with any questions. I hope you’ll join this global mediation community.

Laying The Foundation for Our Future

This is a wake-up year. Unfailingly, this year has impacted you both on an individual and collective level. The old can’t die quick enough and it takes time for what’s new to be born. What’s left is a lot of pain and discomfort. This pain is helping us to wake up to the truth that the world is changing and it’s asking you an essential question: are you going to wilt or thrive with these changes?

I know I’m not alone when I say that I just want COVID-19 to be over and for things to go back to normal. You know what I can’t wait for? I can’t wait to see people’s mouths when they smile. I can’t wait to give hugs again. I can’t wait to go to the movies. I can’t wait to be in a crowd of people without feeling worried that I’m going to get sick. I can’t wait to leave the house without a mask. Wait a minute … I can’t wait to leave the house, period!

But staying inside actually gives us a rare opportunity, the opportunity to do some essential and overdue building. You see it all over the place. Restaurants are using this time of being shut-down to finally do that neglected remodel. Instead of touring, musicians are taking this time to practice and create new music. Writers are hunkered down, writing their next masterpiece. Personally, I’ve spent many months during this time at home to write, film, and build my exciting new Yoga Nidra course and Yoga Nidra teacher training.

This rebuilding applies to us personally as well. At a time when we would otherwise be too busy to take care of essential maintenance for body, mind, and spirit, this year has actually presented us with an invaluable opportunity to do some essential building for the future we want to see for ourselves.

And as much as I hope for things to go back to normal after COVID-19, I know that there’s no going back. There’s only going forward. Sure, someday we will be able to do things like give hugs again, and they’ll be tighter, longer, and sweeter when we do, but one thing this difficult year has taught us, is that we gotta get comfortable with being inside. Yes, that means being judicious about leaving the house and even being subject to a full-on lock-down, but with a little insight, we might see an invaluable and deeper lesson, here. The lesson is that regardless of a global pandemic, we must get comfortable going inside, getting quiet and tuning into our hearts, minds, and spirits. We need to go inside and meditate in order to discover that the changes we wish to see in ourselves and the world exist inside, not out.

Especially as we are on the cusp of a new year, what are the tools, resources, and practices that will help you to build a new future for yourself and therefore for the world?

Meditation is a simple but powerful tool that can help to moor you against the storm of life’s changes. It can elevate your state of consciousness to make you happier, less stressed, and more compassionate. Regular and consistent meditation practice has the power to change your stage of consciousness, your irreversible stage of cosmic understanding, and your basic ability to see the goodness of the world.

Now is time to lay the foundation of a new year and your future with the power of a simple but consistent meditation practice.

So, let’s do it together!

Starting January 1st, begins my 31-day meditation Challenge. This challenge is simple, effective, and fun. Join the challenge and become a part of a global sangha (a group of meditators) as we lay the foundation for this new year and new future with a more mindful YOU, the you that will change the world by becoming the person you are destined to become.

The challenge is simple: meditate every day for 15 minutes a day in any style you wish, any time you wish. That’s it. I’ll support you with plenty of instruction, tools, and encouragement along the way, including several guided meditation practices, including Yoga Nidra, the relaxing and transformational form of guided meditation I’m so passionate about.

If you’re newish to meditation, this is the perfect opportunity to develop a simple practice and feel the compounding benefits of a regular meditation practice. I’ll give you simple, step-by-step guides to help you start a daily mediation practice. If you’re an experienced meditator, please join our group and add your experience and spirit to help raise the vibe! If you’ve ever been at a mediation group or retreat, you’ve probably felt the exponential power of meditating as a group. Join this group!

I’ve absolutely loved doing this meditation challenge in the past. If you’ve joined me in the past for this, then hopefully you know how fun and beneficial it is and want to join me again.

With this meditation challenge, I’ll be providing:

• ALL NEW content, recordings, and meditations

• A daily email with encouragement, insight, poetry, and resources

• Weekly live, online sessions for 30-minutes to meditate together, for Q&A, and meet those across the globe who will be doing this. We’ll get to meditate together in real-time with others across the globe AND we’ll be able to celebrate and meditate on the last day of the challenge together.

When you register, you’ll receive a welcome email with all the information, including the specs of the challenge as well as a page of resources like meditation guides, guided meditations that you can listen to or download, and helpful pranayama (breathing) practices.

The challenge starts January 1 but you can start to meditate today and feel the compounded benefits of a regular, simple meditation practice.

Make a meditation posse! Several people in the past have decided to do the meditation challenge as a family, a work group, or as friends. What better way to raise the vibe of the people you work and live with than to be meditating together.

For me, I feel less incentive to complete challenges like this unless I’ve got some skin in the game. Every time I run a marathon, I think of the money I paid for to register and it motivates me to keep training and to run the damn thing. So, to help you put a little skin in the game, I’m charging $31 for this meditation challenge. But GET THIS, I’m committed to your success so, if you complete the challenge, if you meditate every day for 15 minutes a day, all the way through January, you can opt to get your $31 back, or apply it to other cool stuff. That’s right! $31 is an easy investment into a solid foundation for the new year and the new YOU.

If we’ve learned anything from this difficult year, hopefully we’ve learned that we gotta get comfortable with going inside in body, mind, and spirit. While we are weathering this storm of COVID-19 and practicing social-distancing, though we may not connect in body, we can still practice coming together in mind and spirit as we meditate together and lay the foundation for a great year and a great future.

Please join me!🙏💕💛

Will you please forward this to those you want in your posse.

You Take Care of Everyone, But Who Takes Care of You: Mediation as Self-Care

You take care of everyone. Who takes care of you? You do, that’s who. One of the greatest forms of self-care is a regular meditation practice.

“Just thinking about meditation stresses me out. I don’t need one more thing on my to-do list. Who has the time?”

But when we look at the data, who has time NOT to meditate? Yesterday, I shared a few scientific studies showing how meditation groups can change the world by reducing the crime rate and that by changing yourself through meditation you can change the world. But today I want to bring it home just a bit. Today, consider how much meditation is about taking care of YOU.

Studies show that regular meditators are more calm, less stressed, and sleep better. Meditators are also more productive, more creative, and learn faster. Here’s the kicker, though: meditators generally more content with their life than those who don’t. Wanna be happy? Meditate and learn that happiness comes from within. Plus, people who meditate in a group are more likely to stick with it and have a higher sense of purpose and satisfaction than those who meditate alone.

Get this…

Regular meditation has even been shown to dramatically improve your physical health. Scientific studies have shown that coronary disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, and high blood pressure have lessened or otherwise depleted with the help of meditation. Health insurance stats show that people who meditate regularly have a reduced likelihood of being hospitalized for coronary disease by 87 percent (... I pause for effect… ), and the reduced possibility of getting cancer by 55 percent (... longer pause… for larger effect… ). And people who meditate are psychologically 12–15 years younger. Those stats are crazy, but at least YOU won’t be crazy, thank you very much! (read the full article here)

Paul McCartney has crooned some immutable truths but never has he said it better than when he said, “In moments of madness, meditation has helped me find moments of serenity—and I would like to think that it would help provide young people a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world.”

(Drop the mic, leave the stage, raise the house lights.)

I heard this quote from a dear friend and very influential teacher of mine, Erin Geesaman Rabke, God bless her, who quoted one of her teachers, I believe: “Meditation is perhaps one of the most compassionate things we can do for other people because suddenly you’re not such a pain in the ass to be around anymore.” Amen.

So maybe you’re saying, “Ok, ok, maybe meditation could help but I would need some basic instruction, my mind wanders more than a drunken goat, and I could use a little encouragement to get going.”

This is where I come in. Come on, let’s do this together! (That’s a nicer way of saying the truth, that your nearest and dearest contacted me cuz they are concerned about your crankiness and well being and have asked me to stage an intervention.) So come on!!!

There’s no time like the beginning of the year to start something new. We are beginning a new year and a new decade. My 31-Day Meditation Challenge starts TOMORROW. Together we will transform our lives with simple, regular meditation practices. The challenge is to meditate every day for 31 days using whatever style of meditation you like for 15 minutes a day. That’s it! You got this!

Remember how I said that meditating in a group helps people to stick with the practice and have a higher sense of purpose and satisfaction than those who meditate alone? Well it’s still true and that’s another reason why you should join our merry group of meditators. One of the thrilling things about this challenge is that you’ll be doing this with a large group of people from all over the world. This will help increase your accountability and fun. We’ll even do a few live meditations where we will be meditating simultaneously with people around the globe. Cool! Also, you’ll be able to connect to each other for support and encouragement on our forum. We want you to be a part of our meditation community!

Not only will I and our community be helping you every step of the way, but if you call your mom and your best friends and let them know that you’re going to do the 31-Day Meditation Challenge and ask to be accountable to them, you’ll stick with it. Hell, invite them along for the ride and build a meditation posse, your sit crew. I know that whenever I want to make some positive changes in my life—I want to eat healthier, get more fit, save money—if I am accountable to other people I stick with the program. If I’ve promised my wife that I’m not eating sugar, I’ll walk by that incredible bakery that sells the best pain au chocolat in France and not even give it a second look. So tell your nearest and dearest that you’re doing this challenge and invite them along.

I’ll be helping you all month with encouragement and instruction via regular emails. I’ll give you some transformational and relaxing guided meditations to use if you want.

The 31-Day Meditation challenge only costs $31 and as an incentive, if you complete all 31 days of meditating for 15 minutes a day, you can opt to get your tuition back. This is easy and fun and you’ll see some beautiful and transformational changes occur in your life.

Do this with me. Invite your friends to join us and together let’s have an incredible 2020 and put an incredible beginning to an invincible decade.

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Mediation Under the Microscope: How to Change the World

Today on our walk home from the playground, I told my toddler that we are going to celebrate New Years in a few days. He me asked what New Years is and I told him that it’s kinda like the earth celebrating her birthday. “Papa,” he asked, “how does the earth eat cake and what does she want for her birthday?” I told him that the earth doesn’t mind if we eat cake on her behalf and that what she wants for her birthday is for us all to be more mindful. The earth wants us to meditate.

But let’s get real for a second—can meditation really make a difference in the world?

I know that those of us who are rationalists or scientifically-minded might be thinking that navel gazing is not going to solve the world’s problems. So I’d like to share a little bit of what the science says about how meditation can make a real difference in the world. It’s important to remember that first and foremost, science and meditation have the same purpose: both are simply methods of inquiry. Neither is designed to “prove” anything but rather to practice observing. Both practices point us toward our ground of Being, that of Awareness itself. But Awareness can change the world and many scientists have shown how.

In one such carefully controlled scientific experiment in Washington D.C., a group of meditators were shown to reverse the violent crime trend in the area by 23%. They wanted to show how easy it is to reduce crime and social stress by using meditation. The regular trend toward violent crime resumed after their meditation. These scientists weren’t alone. About 40 earlier studies already showed how meditation could create more coherence in society. Their aim in doing this D.C. study was to show key government officials and lawmakers the power that meditation can have to change the world. Citation

As scientists have continued to study this phenomenon of affecting the outside world through meditation, they have learned that the benefits come more from the quality of meditation rather than the quantity of meditators or time meditating. More focused meditation = better results

So how does that work? How can one, seemingly autonomous thing possibly affect another? Ancient wisdom may give us a clue. Perhaps you’ve heard the ancient Hermetic phrase, “As above, so below.” This same ancient wisdom is also contained in the Gayatri Mantra, a mantra contained within the ancient Vedic text, the Rig Veda, dating back to about 5 thousand years ago. The Gayatri Mantra states quite succinctly that everything comes from Source and we if truly understood this we would see that we are no different than the thing we seek. We are all a part of everything else and that one part of the world and Universe effects another.

Me and my twin brother, Chris, at my wedding, 2014.

In science, this principle is known as quantum entanglement. Dr. Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva conducted an experiment where they split a photon in two (a photon is an elementary particle which makes up the electromagnetic field atoms) and sent the now two different photons to different labs which were 14 miles apart. When they manipulated one photon in one lab, the other photon 14 miles away acted precisely in the same way as its twin, showing that it was still energetically linked even though it was in a different location.

And as a human twin, someone who was once one egg and split into two, I personally can tell you many fascinating stories that all could be chalked up to “quantum entanglement.”

In more ways than we might think, we are all like twins, like these photons, separate beings originating from the same egg, the same source. We all have the power to affect everything else that was also originated by that Source. Science is catching up with ancient wisdom that teaches us that changing the outer world depends on how we hold our inner world. Truly we must become the very thing we wish to see change in the world. Perhaps one of the modern world’s greatest authorities on changing the world, Mahatma Gandhi, said:

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”

But what if our inner world isn’t leading us toward a better self or a better world? If history teaches us anything, it’s that it repeats itself. Many of the negative things that happen in the world are the product of individuals and nations continually reacting mindlessly to global events with fear, anger, and selfishness. While these are all natural, human qualities, we do have the power to wield other natural but more-elevated qualities like compassion in order to respond to these same events.

To respond mindfully means to act from a grounded place of observation, often with compassion, and without reactive judgement about it. This does not mean being passive; quite the opposite. And at crucial times when it is our responsibility to respond powerfully to important world events— like climate change, dramatic political polarization, hegemony, and massive unequal distribution of wealth— we may do so from a place of grounded compassion and not from a reactive place of anger or fear, in order to break the cycle of negative reactiveness.

The first order of operations for any individual to respond positively to world events, is to first practice personal responsiveness by simply learning to draw inward and mediate. Before they can positively affect the world outside, they must do so inside. “As above, so below.” One individual can change the world and meditation can help break the vicious cycle of repeating negative events and can change the world.

This New Year, let’s give the earth a marvelous birthday gift. Let’s change the world for the better by changing ourselves for the better through meditation. Start meditating today and practice responding to personal and global events from a place of grounded and compassionate responsiveness. Together we can change the world for the better!

31-Day Meditation Challenge

I truly believe in meditation and I consider it one of my most important missions in life to invite you to be your best self through the power of meditation. So, to make meditating fun and accessible I’m offering a 31-Day Meditation Challenge during the month of January. The challenge is to simply meditate at any time that works for you during the day, for 15 minutes a day, every day for 31 days. Many people have taken this challenge and have extended it to 60 days and even 6 months.

For the novice meditator, I’ll give you plenty of guides and even guided meditations you can follow all month through emails and a support page on my website full of articles, recordings, and helpful links. For the experienced meditator, just do what you normally do but by joining our group you’ll be part of a cyber sangha. Either way, I’ll be giving you regular support and encouragement throughout the month. We will even have the chance to meditate together with some live, online meditation sessions.

The challenge costs $31 and as an incentive to finish it, for everyone who succeeds, you will have the option to get 100% of your tuition refunded to you. Dead serious. Many people have even recruited their family and friends to enroll to create their own meditation tribe for added support and accountability.

Join me!

A Radical Start to 2020

Will You Do Something Radical With Me?

Once I was on my way to a yoga class, stressed out because life had totally thrown me a curveball and I was completely unprepared for class. I was traveling to class with a friend and complained out loud, “Life has been so crazy this week that I have done exactly zero planning for this class and I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to say to these people!” She turned to me and told me something life-changing. She said, “ I don’t know why you haven’t figured this out yet but people don’t come to your classes because of what you say. They come because of who you are.” I sat quietly absorbing her words for a moment before blurting out, “Well, who the hell am I?!”

Since that moment, through practice and deepening life events, I’ve started to discover a thing or two about myself, a journey that I’m sure will never end. So far, along the way, I’ve discovered something crucial about myself that might be obvious to you. I’ve discovered that, and I’m not overselling it when I say it, the secrets of the Universe lie not outside of us but inside of us and we all must learn to go inside to discover who we are to uncover them. In fact, one could sum up most practices like meditation and yoga as simply practices that un-layer all the things that obfuscate what’s already inside of us. They are practices that help us to come to know ourselves, and that when we know Self, we know the Universe.

To this end, each one of us is on a hero’s journey. Our destiny, similar to heroes like Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter, is to ultimately discover that the secret to our power already exists inside of us, albeit perhaps in some latent, unrealized form. For us, we don’t need to fight Darth Vader or Lord Voldemort in order to discover who we truly are. Actually, what we must do to discover the truth is even more radical, more daring. We must be willing to sit, close our eyes, and journey inside. We must come to know ourselves through practices like meditation. I know, I know. For some of us, it would seem easier just to fight Lord Voldemort.

The world doesn’t need another Luke Skywalker or a Harry Potter. What the world desperately needs is for you to be your best self, totally alive and in love with the world.

Philosopher and theologian Howard Thurman said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman

We come alive when we come to know ourselves and share whoever that is with the world. Above the temple gates at the Oracle of Delphi is inscribed the immortal words: “Know thyself.” I can think of no better way to know yourself and come alive than through a regular, simple meditation practice.

This is the reason I’m hosting my 31-Day Meditation Challenge, starting January 1, 2020. It’s meant to join a group of people together to help all of us start this next year decade from a place of grounded Self-knowledge and to share in global responsiveness, to empower ourselves with visions of what’s possible in our lives for the coming year and decade, and ultimately to source and share our eternal essence: love. This challenge helps and encourages you to start a simple, daily meditation practice of 15 minutes or more, using any style of meditation you like. If you've done this challenge in the past, I'm offer all new materials!

When you join, I’ll give you plenty of styles you can choose from including many of my recorded Yoga Nidra practices where all you have to do is lie down, close your eyes, and learn to wake up. We’ll even have some live, group meditations. All month long, I’ll support you with emails and with encouragement and information.

This challenge is perfect both for the novice as well as the experienced meditator. The challenge costs $31 and as an incentive to complete the challenge, if you meditate every day for 15 minutes or more, you have the option to get a 100% refund of your tuition. This will be fun, engaging, and necessary.

Consider inviting other people who you’d like to be in your meditation tribe to join because hey, this is going to be a party and it’s nice to have a team for accountability and added encouragement.

Over the next 7 days, I’m going to be sending a few more emails that offer thoughts and ideas about the importance and some stunning statistics about meditation, all to hopefully encourage you to continue or start a regular and simple meditation practice.

Please join this radical meditation movement. Start this new year and decade with some grounded mindfulness. Please join my 31-Day Meditation Challenge.

My Decade Playlist

What a year! What. A. Decade! (As I’m thinking about all that happened for me this decade, I gotta pause and do some Ujjayi breath or something… Ok, that’s better.)

I feel as if I lived at least 3 different lifetimes in the past decade. For me, though I love the idea, the jury is still out on the idea of reincarnation. However, I can assure you that I’ve lived several lives within this life. I feel like I was someone very different a decade ago.

Do you ever feel like this, that you were someone very different at the beginning of this decade?

If my past decade were a playlist, it might read like this:

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1. Wanna be Startin’ Somethin by Michael Jackson

2. Money for Nothin’ by the Dire Straights

3. She Works Hard for The Money by Donna Summers

4. Girlfriend In A Coma by The Smiths

5. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do Neil Sedaka

6. Cry Me a River by Billie Holiday

7. Losing My Religion by REM

8. I Can See Clearly Now by Otis Redding

9. I Got My Mojo Workin’ by Jimmy Smith

10. One Bourbon, Once Scotch, and One Beer by John Lee Hooker

11. Anthem by Leonard Cohen

12. You Are The Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne

13. This Must Be The Place by The Talking Heads

14. Into The Mystic by Van Morrison

15. Beautiful Boy by John Lennon

16. The Lion The Beast and the Beat by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

17. Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

18. Don’t Fear The Reaper (More Cowbell!) by Blue Öyster Cult

19. Feelin’ Good by Nina Simone

20. Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman

21. New York, New York by Frank Sinatra

22. New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down by LDC Soundsystem

23. Afternoon in Paris by John Lewis

24. La Vie En Rose by Édith Piaf

25. Timeless by John Abercrombie

26. Suddhosi Buddhosi by Shimshai

27. Clare de Lune by Claude Debussy

28. All You Need is Love by The Beatles

What’s on your playlist for the past decade?

Does it ever feel like your decade playlist is playing too quickly or too slowly? One thing I’ve noticed is that when I’m really present, time doesn’t seem to move either fast or slow. When I’m not paying attention, it seems like life is moving at mach speeds. So, before another decade blazes by and all we feel is the wind blowing our hair as it passes, let’s start this year and decade by practicing presence.

Also, starting a new year and decade gives us a very unique opportunity to forge our path forward very mindfully and deliberately, charting the course toward our best decade EVER. There’s a saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

For all these reasons I want to invite you to join me as we start this decade with a simple dedication to mindfulness. I invite you to meditate with me every day during the month of January for at least 15 minutes a day with my 31-Day Meditation challenge. Truly, this challenge has the ability to start this next chapter of your life with power and presence.

The 31-Day Meditation Challenge is simple: meditate every day during the month of January for 15 minutes or more. That’s it. Choose whatever style of meditation works best for you. I’ll be supporting you every step of the way with emails filled with information and encouragement. I’ll also provide a resources page on my website with several links to guided meditations, explanations about different meditation styles, and links to poetry, blogs, and articles about meditation. For those new to meditation, this will lead you step by step through creating a simple yet effective meditation practice that may become a life practice. For those of you who are experienced meditators, this challenge gives you the opportunity to be doing your regular meditation in tandem with hundreds of other people, thus creating a cyber sangha. I believe that people meditating together can change the world. Let’s do it together!

This challenge costs $31 because in my experience, when there’s a buy-in, there’s a tendency to be more committed. I would even encourage you to enroll friends and family and create for yourself a mediation tribe for more accountability, support, and camaraderie. And, I’m so committed to your success that as an incentive to complete the challenge, everyone who finishes has the option to receive a 100% refund on their tuition. Boom, no joke.

To register CLICK HERE or the button below. It will take you to the registration on my website. Simply and fill out the form and pay your tuition. Then, forward this email or that page to anybody you’d love to have do this challenge with you. When you register, you’ll get a welcome email right away with all the details and you can start meditating today—why wait until the first of January? The official challenge begins January 1 and will last through the entire month. We will even have the opportunity to do some live meditations together via Zoom, an online meeting platform. If you've done this meditation challenge in the past, I'm offering all new content for the emails.

At only $31 there’s not much to lose but there’s so much to gain. Please consider joining me to start your year and decade off perfectly with regular mindfulness.

For those of you who purchased my book, Practical Yoga Nidra or my latest offering, Essential Yoga Nidra with Scott Moore: Volume 1, you could literally put on your favorite Yoga Nidra recording every day and feel your life open up before your eyes through this gentle but expansive practice.

As we go into this next decade it is my prayer that we do so from a grounded place of mindfulness and love. May we access the miraculous place of our hearts that gives us true and essential sight and may this heart-vision illuminate the best in others and ourselves. And may we allow this essential clarity to guide our lives in all our endeavors.

Thank you for being an important part of this last decade with me. I love you. It is my honest and sincere desire is that the playlist that presents itself for you over this next decade opens your heart, gives you pure delight, and makes you dance your ass off.

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Distinguish yourself from the thousands of other yoga teachers with your ability to teach this transformative practice in YOUR own voice and not some rote script.

Meditation Is Good for Your Health!

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Everyone says you gotta meditate, right?

I know, I know. “Who has time for meditation? It takes time, and when I’m busy all I think about when I try to meditate is all the stuff I have to do, making me stress out even worse. What’s the point?”

But when we look at the data, who has time NOT to meditate? Studies show that regular meditators are more calm, less stressed, and when groups meditate the crime rates go down. Meditators are more productive, more creative, learn faster, and are generally more content with their life than those who don’t. People who meditate in a group are more likely to stick with it and have a higher sense of purpose and satisfaction than those who meditate alone.

Regular meditation has even been shown to dramatically improve physical health. Scientific studies have shown that coronary disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, and high blood pressure have lessened or otherwise depleted with the help of meditation. Get this: health insurance stats show that people who meditate regularly have a reduced likelihood of being hospitalized for coronary disease by 87 percent, and the possibility of getting cancer by 55 percent. And people who meditate are psychologically 12–15 years younger. That’s nuts! The original article doesn’t exist any more but look it up, it will blow your mind.

If prayer is a form of meditation, Martin Luther, the historic religious reformer, certainly went against the grain when he asserted, “I have so much I need to do today, I need to pray for an extra hour.”

photo: https://www.danspapers.com/2018/12/paul-mccartney-ends-2018-tour-dates-video/

Paul McCartney has crooned some immutable truths but never has he said it better than when he shared, “In moments of madness, meditation has helped me find moments of serenity—and I would like to think that it would help provide young people a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world.” Drop the mic.

So maybe you’re saying, “Ok, ok, I know regular meditation would help me but I need some basic instruction on what to do . . . and a little encouragement to get going.”

That’s where I come in.

There’s no time like the beginning of the year to start something new. That’s why I’m hosting my 31-Day Meditation Challenge starting TOMORROW. I’ll lead you through how to transform your life with a regular meditation practice. The challenge is to meditate every day for 31 days using whatever style of meditation you like for 15 minutes a day. That’s it!

One of the thrilling things about this challenge is that you’ll be doing this with a large group of people from all over the world. This will help increase your accountability and fun. You’ll be able to connect to each other for support and encouragement on our forum. We want you to be a part of our meditation community!

Not only will I and our community be helping you every step of the way, but if you call your mom and your best friends and let them know that you’re going to do the 31-Day Meditation Challenge and ask to be accountable to them, you’ll stick with it. Hell, invite them along and build a meditation posse, your sit crew. I know that whenever I want to make some positive changes in my life—I want to eat more healthy, get more fit, save money—if I am accountable to other people I stick with the program. If I’ve promised my wife that I’m not eating sugar, I’ll walk by that incredible bakery that sells the best pain au chocolat and not even give it a second look. So tell your nearest and dearest that you’re doing this and invite them along.

I’ll also be helping you by providing regular instruction, support, encouragement. I’ll give you some transformational and relaxing guided meditations to use if you want. Plus, I’ll lead you through a powerful visualization of 2019 that you can revisit regularly to blast yourself into an unstoppable year through the power of your own awesomeness.

The 31-Day Meditation challenge only costs $31 and as an incentive, if you complete all 31 days of meditating for 15 minutes a day, you can opt to get your tuition back. This is easy and fun and you’ll see some beautiful and transformational changes occur in your life.

Do this with me. Invite your friends to join us and together let’s have an incredible 2019!