The Great Updraft

Today we talk about six ways that modern society screws you up, and my six solutions to these issues.On the surface these might seem quite simple, but in combination they aspects are deadly and slowly rot away our ability to be happy and lead fulfilling lives.These tentacles reach down into all aspects of our psychology, our habits, and our view of what life is all about.

We have an extraordinary amount of luxury available to us, luxury that our parents and grandparents’ generation couldn’t imagine.And it’s all available very quickly and for very little money. You might think this makes you happy, but it actually slowly ruins your life. You’re being manipulated and exploited by media and marketeers, and it’s making you miserable.Learn how stimulation and comfort are ruining your life, and how to reprogramme yourself to free yourself from their grip.This is a small part of my next episode, which is coming on Friday. Subscribe to be the first to see it.

Today we talk about spiritual abuse: how to see the warning signs in teachers, why it happens, and how to lead a healthy spiritual life. This is based on my personal experiences as a teacher, meeting other teachers, and my 10-year meditation journey.

I explore persistence, failure and success, with no script. I open up and share the challenges I've faced this week, month and year so far. I hope you take away some lessons on success, failure and persistence.

Let’s discuss and practice choiceless awareness, a particular meditation state in which we give up control of our attention. This is also a meditation practice in its own right, and we’ll look at a couple of varieties of it.Skip to 11:30 for the guided meditation!I often see choiceless awareness talked about as a philosophy or doctrine. But to me it’s much more immediate than that. It’s a first-person meditative state. You don’t have to believe that it exists: you just need to experience it for yourself.That said, this work is best suited to people with some experience with meditation, particularly mindfulness or vipassana-style practices. This is a delicate, nuanced art. If you’re a beginner, feel free to check out my free guided meditations on the channel.Accompanying article with extra tips and second meditation: https://deep-psychology.com/choiceless-awareness/

Let’s talk about walking meditation, how to practice it, why we practice it, and the obstacles involved.If you do meditation for some time, you’ll naturally begin to bring it into everyday life, and walking meditation is a powerful way to systematise this process. In my local classes I teach it from day one to accompany our sitting work. My students discover that it’s possible to meditate whenever, wherever.Practice it enough, and you’ll realise you can enter meditative awareness whenever you want. This is life-changing.Accompanying article: https://deep-psychology.com/moving-meditation/Free guided meditations: https://deep-psychology.com/category/meditation/guided-meditations/Learn more techniques: https://deep-psychology.com/category/meditation/learn-meditation/

Limiting beliefs are disempowering views you have about yourself. You tend to strongly hold on to them, and they persistently prevent you from changing.Holding one is like being hypnotised by yourself, by your own mind. They trip you up, paralyse you, stop you in your tracks, and you don't even realise it.Today we talk about the 5 most common limiting beliefs and how they’re destroying your life. You’ll learn these limiting beliefs, why they’re so sneaky and pernicious, and what you can do about them.Okay, I don’t really know if they’re destroying your life. You’ll have to analyse your situation for yourself. But if you’ve never learned about limiting beliefs before, I can guarantee they’re having some kind of negative effect on your life and preventing you from making positive changes.

Welcome to this 5-minute sleep meditation, guided by Ross Edwards BSc DipBSoM. I suggest you do this lying down with a pillow under your head, keeping the body symmetrical.My accompanying post (link below) includes this free audio along with tips on how to get the most from it.This is perfect for both beginner meditators, who can get a taste of mindfulness meditation, and for experienced meditators, who can use it to supplement their existing habit.In this 5-minute sleep meditation, we intentionally relax the body then bring attention to the feelings of relaxation that result from it.In this way, we begin to enter a sleep-ready state while also cultivating the essential skills of meditation.Sleep meditation: Tips and next steps

We’re often presented with a choice:Practical career → money, security, status, but potentially boring.Passionate career → meaningful, exciting, but potentially financially precarious.The underlying message is: you can have one, but not both. But this is based on a number of assumptions that deserve examination.My central thesis is that practicality and passion aren't actually opposites.

I've been practicing meditation consistently for nearly a decade and now teach dozens of meditators every week. What I've found is that we tend to come into meditation with all sorts of misconceptions. These misconceptions are unhelpful and even damaging. They jeopardise our efforts to establish a regular practice and start seeing its power.Use these three simple tips to plant the seeds of a mature meditation practice from day one.EXTRA TIP: https://thegreatupdraft.com/advice-beginner-meditators/