In an old audio course, Zig Ziglar recalled an experience walking into a soup kitchen. He saw someone who might need a little cheering up, and perhaps in that moment he didn’t feel like doing it.

However, he said to himself “I have a reputation here. People know me.” His self-image as a person who helped others was so strong, that enabled him to get leverage over his actions.

Perhaps one day we won’t need to use our egos in this way to inspire ourselves to act. In the meantime, if we have a strong ego about our ability to help people, it’s good to use it.

There are many habits that are very good for us, for example meditation. We can reasonably predict that if we practice meditation, over time we will gain more presence of mind, increased concentration, greater understanding of our emotions.

We know that by practicing exercise regularly, we will improve our health, feel strong and gain confidence.

We might even guess that by meditating on our own death, we will be able to leave the fear of death behind, something like exposure therapy.

If we know these things, the only question that remains is: Will we do it?

For the transcript: Will You Do It A Beautiful Thought

Now meditation is known throughout the world to have many benefits for our physical and mental health, for our concentration, reduced anxiety and clarity of thought.

Yet we stand to gain much more in terms of inner peace, easy acceptance of new situations, self-knowledge, and even deeper mystical experiences.

We fill our days with work, play and distraction, and often not feeling fulfilled by any of it. A habit of 30 or 60 minutes a day can give us rest from the world, and also show us the world anew - bright and glorious.

For the transcript: Meditate A Beautiful Thought

There are a lot of hard decisions that we must make in this life. Many decisions become far easier when we think them through in advance - perhaps even before we know for sure that we will face them.

It is likely that sooner or later, we will be in a position to help someone, perhaps even save their life. We can’t say exactly in what form it will come, so it normally pays to be prepared.

If we don’t think about it in advance, if we don’t make that decision to help someone, we may find ourselves in the regrettable position of being able to help, but passively standing by. Later we might wish we could have acted differently, but our wishes will be little consolation to those others involved.

Therefore, you are invited to think about it now, while the stakes are still low. What will you do in a difficult situation?

For the transcript: The Heart Decision A Beautiful Thought

Many of us have the experience of reaching for our phone or wallet, and when it is not in the exact spot we expect, we experience a moment of panic. Then as we dig a little deeper in our pocket or satchel, we find it was there all along, and there was never cause for concern.

Most humans develop object permanence by the age of 2, but it seems that few of us ever trust it completely.

We might pray and wish that our possessions remain safe, or we could take a more stoic approach. Perhaps our objects don’t really belong to us - we are just their stewards in our time on Earth, and can be taken from us at any time.

Perhaps they will be taken from us in just the right moment.

For the transcript: Lose or Gain A Beautiful Thought

The breath is a curious physiological function in humans, being one of the only functions which can be under conscious control or unconscious control. This is one of the aspects which makes it a vital link to the deeper levels of the mind.

By practicing a technique such as alternate nostril breathing, we can quickly bring peace to a perturbed mind.

For example, we might take 20 breaths from one nostril, and then take 20 breaths from the other nostril.

Or we might breathe in on the left nostril, retain the breath and then breathe out from the right nostril.

After some weeks or months of practice, we might find that we bring our breaths down to two or one per minute. If we expand that practice to the rest of our lives, we might find that we can stay composed even in the most difficult situations.

For the transcript: Breathe A Beautiful Thought

The feelings of attention and significance are fundamental human needs, but many people don’t know how to meet their needs in a way that is healthy.

A man may send an obscene picture to a woman to get her attention, and even though in some form he achieves significance, it is likely to fall short of his highest hopes. Similarly, though less offensively, a woman might emphasize her cleavage, perhaps affirming an insecurity - stating through her actions that her personality won’t be adequate to attract the man.

In an extreme case, a person might injure or sicken oneself to gain attention, or be cruel to gain significance.

Surely there must be a better way, and there is, though it takes courage, vulnerability, and honesty.

Perhaps you might find your own way to meet your needs while meeting the needs of others, when you ask the question: how can we be together?

Content warning: sexual themes

For the transcript: How Can We Be Together A Beautiful Thought

If you don’t take a moment every now and then to take stock of your life, you might not realize all of the things that you have in your favor, or some of the things that might work against you.

Here you are, with your “version of humanity, in all its simplicity, and all its complexity,” with your problems, previous successes and failures and all the wisdom you’ve gained from them, the past that is still carried with you - positively or negatively, your life expectations, aspirations and disappointments, your skills, strengths and resources, your degree of openness, your willingness and readiness to change, your cultural values, your entire range of relationships, your interpersonal communication skills, your blindspots, and all the external aspects of your situation for or against you.

Whatever you have… It’s enough.

For the transcript: What You Have as a Human A Beautiful Thought

Lev Rozenberg is an entrepreneur, expatriate and immigrant, being born in the USSR, growing up in Florida and now joining Kurt in Guadalajara.

As a 17-year-old in Florida, he found himself having some kind of unusual mental experience while on the beach with friends. Perhaps it was a heatstroke, or a panic attack, or the build-up of stress from his schooling, but he began to have a seizure and ended up in hospital.

The doctors did several tests and confirmed that there was nothing physically wrong with him. That led to additional anxiety - wondering when a seizure or panic attack would happen again, and he soon dropped out of school.

Eventually he found a way to try psychotropic medications, and soon realized that they were causing more problems than they were solving - with physical pain and emotional numbing.

Listen to the interview to find out Lev’s journey and life lessons.

For the transcript: Psyched Up with Lev Rosenberg A Beautiful Thought

Any ordinary process that we go through in our days can be used as an object of meditation, for example, drinking a glass of water.

Picking up the glass, we can feel its coolness or wetness. We notice the sensation of the glass against our lips, the water entering the mouth, the sensations in our throat.

Allowing these things to appear in our consciousness doesn’t require any effort; they simply are.

Now we might notice what is happening inside of us, our presence, our calm or discomfort. We might have avoided looking at these things, but here they are, again effortless and ready to present themselves.

For the transcript: Simply Noticing A Beautiful Thought