Description
A NOTE TO READERS
Welcome to book three in my four-book series, A Human’s Guide to Inner Compassion: A 365- Day Action Plan for Those Who Wish to Live Life More Consciously. This book, Fade, will guide you through each day, from July through September, as you deepen your self-awareness and mindfulness meditation practice.
I wrote this series to reach out further in my work as a teacher, author, and CEO of Our Mindful Process, an educational group that teaches mindfulness meditation — a compassionate way of life! We teach people why being curious from the perspective of who we are, not what we think, elevates us, frees us, and empowers us!
My books guide readers through a daily process of learning how to meditate mindfully to conquer old life patterns, practice forgiveness, and move forward to a place of self-validation. The readings and guided meditations in my books are designed to show you how to live peacefully in an increasingly difficult and violent world through a daily practice of gently focusing on the present moment as we experience it within.
Many people think meditation is the experience of nirvana – a state of peace. That is not necessarily true. Experiencing peace during meditation does not mean we are in a place where there is no noise and pain; it’s being in that noise and pain and knowing that we are having a human experience.
Meditation is a daily practice of learning to pause when we are triggered and to calm ourselves as we sit with the discomfort and turmoil and breathe. It is becoming curious about the present moment. Gradually, this calming consciousness allows us to let go of anger and blame and sit with emotions that freely arise.
I believe that we learn more from our failures and our pain than we do from our successes. I have experienced a tremendous amount of pain in my life. I am a gay man who didn’t want to be gay. I tried everything to change who I am, and nothing worked. In my journey toward self-acceptance, I’ve learned that when I experience pain, it awakens me, and that is an important step toward self-compassion. I have learned to look at the other side of pain. I know now that other people’s opinions and discussions about me are none of my business. We are so fragmented in this country because we are focusing on our dissimilarities – the 2% of what makes us different. We are all human.
We all experience suffering and joy; we are all connected in this way. In this book, we go further inside ourselves, where who we are takes. on even greater importance in dealing with the compulsive thoughts that enter our minds during mindfulness meditation. Simply put, we focus on two ideas in our daily mindfulness process:
All of our thoughts are impermanent. We’re practicing this revelation while developing our practice in what we call the season of Fade, or Decay. Here, our compulsive thoughts are trying to pull us into the realization that everything is falling apart, but who we are, the watcher of our thoughts, needs to take center stage. This clear-seeing allows usto see that, just like the Fall season, when all the leaves fall off the trees, who we are is eternal and anchors and connects us to the Universe and one another. The compulsive chatter is loud, but it is not who we are.
Once we move who we are, the watcher, to the forefront, we don’t try to remove this chatter. We just see it for what it is, something that eventually passes. Here, we add compassion and kindness to the mix.
We invite the pain, full-force, to sit with us and we open our hearts to the compassionate and kind energy that eternally exists without the boundary of time. We all have this journey in common. It connects us. This is the season to practice inviting what our compulsive mind thinks is a total calamity, and to allow who we are to deal with the perceived negative energy until we come to experience wisdom. I wrotethis book to show you my experience of focusing on who I am, and why it is important to show you how to move the watcher to the forefront, ahead of what we compulsively think. We do this together! On a daily basis, take my hand, and I will show you how to work with the energy of pain – quieting the mind and allowing the heart to connect to the Universal wisdom. You can trust me because I created this series for myself first. I’m sharing it with you because it works. I know firsthand.
