How to Reach Enlightenment in 10 Easy Steps

Step One: Do not bother reading a 10-step method for reaching enlightenment.

Step Two: Are you still there? You must be really stupid. Or really bored. Or both.

Loving-Kindness Meditation

Every morning, I practice a loving-kindness, or Buhddist mettā meditation. The words are always evolving in order to maintain their meaning for me. Here is a shortened version of my current mettā meditation. Note that it starts with love for oneself, often the most difficult part to get through. But, just as you can’t make a meal for a friend if you haven’t cultivated any food to have in your own kitchen, you need to cultivate self-love in order to authentically project love to others.

This version incorporates thoughts of loving-kindness for the people in the Bahamas who are suffering from the effects of Hurricane Dorian. It’s important to back up your thoughts of love with actions of love, so I have included links to ways for you to send material aid to the Bahamas.

Trick Your Brain into Mindfulness & Wellbeing

Here are some mindfulness brain tricks which I find astoundingly effective.

1. Come Back into Your Body

Imagine that you have been dead for a while, doing whatever people do in the afterlife, and suddenly you find yourself back in time, in your body. You might think, “Oh yeah! I remember this body!” What do you see and feel? Perhaps you only have one day back on Earth in your body.

When I do this, I find that I really appreciate everything – the sensation of being alive, the air, the sun, the use of my hands…. In fact, any pain or discomfort I may have been feeling dissipates completely or becomes an intriguing sensation of life. Tiredness goes away. My posture even improves. It’s pretty amazing.

How OCD Interferes with Qi

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is designed by the brain to give relief from stress by restoring a feeling of safety. People controlled by OCD can feel like it is keeping them healthy. On a rational level, sufferers of OCD can know that it’s all in their head, but on a deeper level, the disorder is inexorably intertwined with fear: Fear of things going wrong. I was trapped for decades by multitudinous symptoms of OCD. I cured myself three years ago, and have come to realize that my OCD was blocking the healthy flow of the universal life force, qi.