We enjoy what we appreciate, and we don't enjoy, what we don't appreciate. Yet appreciation isn't something we ever feel we're "doing"... but there is a way to grow our appreciation. Beauty is a feeling, not something we can measure, it's precisely for this reason we can learn to find the world beautiful.

Learning To Be Happy

#13 Finding Beauty Everywhere

This is a short story of a personal experience which illuminated for me the fact everyone is doing their best to be happy, even if their actions make little sense to us, and from this perspective, everything they do is acceptable, forgivable.

There Are No Bad People

What does acceptance mean? Well it's not resignation, nor is it passivity. Acceptance is a recognition of the way things are combined with the understanding that wishing things things were different only makes us feel bad. To accept something is to see it clearly, this means we need to separate the story from the facts.

#12 Practicing Acceptance

The search for Truth necessitates questioning everything, and there are several things we never think to question as they seem self-evident. What is a thought and where does it come from? In this episode we look for proof "we think", and will come to realise, at least intellectually, that we're not the source of thoughts, rather than we perceive them very much like sounds. This has huge implications, to truly realise your thoughts are not a part of your 'Self', you will no longer be attached to your opinion or point of view, you become extraordinarily flexible and easy going. You're no longer interested in being "right", and you begin to understand that thoughts are functional, and thoughts do not have a superior or inferior relationship, but rather, some thoughts lead to peace and some away from it.

#11 What The Fuck's 'a Thought'?

What we really need, to work with negativity, is the realisation that it's there to guide us. To fear our feelings, is to fear ourselves. In truth our painful feelings are there to guide us, to new ways of seeing, more loving ways of being.

#10 Feeling Good About Feeling Bad

In this episode I explain how you can explore negative thoughts and emotions, through feeling and through questioning. Included are some tips on what attitude to have and what to do when it gets overwhelming. These tools can be used in or out of meditation, or to support you in writing your journal, as well as in day to day life.

#9 A Guide to Exploring Negative Emotions

This is a live recording of a Dharma talk and guided meditation on the nature of thought, given at the Sydney Gay Meditation group, September 30th, 2019. We often talk about "our thoughts" and how to work with them, but we rarely ask, who or what am I, and what exactly is a thought.

Live Recording from Sydney Meditation Group

The ultimate goal of meditation is self-realisation. Who, or what, am I? That is the question we're here to answer. This episode introduces the idea of meditating on the nature of identity and why it's so important.

#8D Meditation Basics: Understanding Ourselves

This is a guided meditation. It offers a new way or relating to sound, empowering you to feel capable of meditating anytime, anywhere. You don't need a quiet place to meditate... it's important that we learn how to use what we're aware of, here and now, to make peace with and befriend it.

A Guided Meditation on Sound

In this episode, we touch briefly on the practice of mindfulness and its many benefits. By practicing this we become more interested in the world around us, find more beauty and joy in our day to day lives. By finding our thoughts less interesting, we find them less distracting, and all of this depends on learning how to pay attention.

#8C Meditation Basics: Mindful Attention

This episode will introduce you to the practice of understanding negative thoughts and feelings by means of concentration and inquiry. When we understand someone else, our negative feelings towards them go away, when we understand ourselves ALL our negative feelings will go away - forever. By doing this correctly you'll experience less and less anger, hurt and disappointment in your life.

#8B Meditation Basics: Understanding Negativity

In this guided meditation we get to practice the art of 'cultivating positive' feelings. Deepen your appreciation of love, its meaning and power in this simple exercise that with only a few listens you'll be able to do anywhere, anytime!

A Guided Meditation on Love

How can we feel more joy, more love and more confidence? This episode will introduce you to the concept of cultivating positive feelings through correct imagination. By doing this correctly we decrease our attachment (our reliance on people and things to make us happy), and grow into our own sense of Emotional Independence.

#8A Meditation Basics: Learning To Feel Good

In this episode we look at how to keep a useful journal for the purpose of questioning our beliefs and confronting our negative mental and emotional patterns.

#7 Journaling for Self-Awareness

This episode introduces listeners to the practice of mindfulness in daily life. Mindfulness can be used to improve concentration and increase our enjoyment of everyday things. It can be relaxing, stress reducing, but perhaps most importantly, it can be insightful. Contrary to what many think, when we start practicing mindfulness we become more aware of our thoughts and this will help us understand how they shape our feelings.

#6 Mindfulness in Daily Life

What do we really want? To feel good of course! Can external things really make us happy? How are physical experiences translated into happiness and unhappiness? What is the relationship between our thoughts and feelings? How do our beliefs shape our reality? By reflecting on your own experience with curiosity, you can discover how to be happy, you already have everything you need. Come and discover yourself. Topics include mindfulness, meditation, psychology, journalling, dreaming, yoga and more!

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Learning To Be Happy

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