Ever wondered what the biggest problem in life is? Yes, it’s the inability to relax! This is a true story: I met John at a stress-release workshop I was teaching in Scotland. He was a schoolteacher in a run down area of Glasgow. As if that wasn’t hard enough, he was a history teacher, a […]
It’s My Ego, Not Yours
Ever caught yourself trying to defend your words or protect your actions, despite them being clearly inappropriate or even downright wrong, but your egomind just won’t let you do it? No way will you admit you were off the mark! Sound familiar? The ego is the “me-centered” part that gives us a strong sense of […]
Why Saying Yes To Yourself Is The Most Important Thing You Can Do
I have too much to do! My boss is so demanding! My mother-in-law always needs my help! I have so many meetings / orders to be filled / classes to teach / deliveries to be made…the list is endless. But in the midst of everything that is being asked of you, what happens to you? […]
Will The Real Deepak Chopra Please Stand Up
The great Swami Satchidananda always said that we only need to have faith the size of a mustard seed. Such faith proved itself to us in an unusual way. We were teaching a weekend meditation program in Plymouth, a fairly rural town in Devon, England. On the Friday evening an excited student told us that […]
Why You Can Never Have Too Much To Do
Having too much to do is our most common moan. We get overloaded, overworked, over everything and don’t see a way through. Deb was just 18 when she attended her first Zen meditation retreat. “It was taught by a somewhat formidable Jiyu Kennet Roshi, a large Englishwoman in a floaty grey robe well established in […]
The Amazing Relationship Between Your Mind and Body
In Woody Allen’s movie, Annie Hall, Diane Keaton is breaking up with Woody and wants to know why he isn’t angry. “I don’t get angry,” Allen replies, “I grow a tumor instead.” We tend to think of our bodies and minds as separate systems and believe they function independently. Yet can you remember the last […]
Want To Let Go? 5 Ways Not To Even Pick It Up
Not many of us come from the perfect we-all-agree-on-everything family. Most of us come from the imperfect we-don’t-agree-on-most-things family. And Christmas isn’t always the happy-present-opening-dinner-sharing time it’s looks like in the ads; it’s more often a tense-stressful-bickering-demanding-exhausting time. We know one couple who have agreed to disagree, as the husband votes Republican and the wife […]
Are You Jealous or Joyful?
With the impending Presidential election it’s become an onslaught of one-upmanship, with no concession that one or the other might actually be right or have something to offer. It’s an endless battle of my ego versus yours, my opinions versus yours, my brilliance versus your stupidity. Which is a great example of how not to […]
Do You Have Stress Or Does Stress Have You?
Imagine you are trying to squeeze some toothpaste out of a tube but you have forgotten to take the top off. What happens? Deb actually did this in one of her most unaware moments and the toothpaste soon found another way out — through the bottom of the tube and all over her. Now imagine […]
Staying Mindful in the Midst of Chaos
Have you ever been in a crowded subway or busy street, lost in a marketplace in a foreign country, or caught up in an argument that was going nowhere? Does it make you lose your mindfulness and awareness so you end up overwhelmed and confused? Swami Satchidananda, one of our early meditation teachers, taught that […]