Q: Dear Todd, I view smoking and vaping as negative habits and don’t want to be around people who do that, and don’t want to view them positively. I find these habits trigger me and make me pull away. Any suggestions?Todd Answers: That is very understandable. It's always difficult to see our loved ones or people we care about doing something harmful whether it's vaping or doing even more harmful…
It can be a hard and unwelcome lesson when someone we idolized shows us their humanness. We want to count on people, we hope we can rely on them, and until we learn this lesson, we expect people to always be there for us in the ways we need them to be.When someone fails us who we admire, when trust is broken, it can be earth-shattering. It can feel like…
Q: Dear Todd, What Are Your Thoughts On Negativity?TODD ANSWERS: The thing about negative thoughts is that they are neither good nor bad, but clues to something going on below the surface.Like anything else that's undesirable, when negative thoughts arise, we can either get mad or sad about it. Or, we can be totally fine about it, accept it, investigate it joyfully, and be at peace with it. It's all…
Every single thing we experience outside of us is a projection of our own mind. If we lived in a tribe on an island with no connection to the modern world, we may think airplanes flying overhead were shiny birds. We can only experience the world based on our understanding, our mental state, and our emotional state.If we are hard on ourselves, we expect other people to be hard on…
Many people wish for a perfect life. But the wise person knows that everything is already perfect because perfection is just a mental construct. Each person may have a different idea about what perfection means to them, but it is never more than a projection of one’s own conditioning. More on how to see beauty all around us in this video.If perfection is in the eye of the beholder, then…
Q: Dear Todd, either it is the generation, or something else, but I feel, people are too attached to stuff - money, sex, food, Netflix, cellphones, etc. Have you seen that movie "ripped" when they fly from the 80s to today and they go to a mall and everyone is with their cells, and they think they're in a math convention cos everyone has a "calculator", it is what's happening…
Q: Dear Todd, we have struggled badly the last 2 years with duality, and inner peace. It's because we don't want to continue working in corporate America & being online constantly promoting my small business. Ironically, 3 years ago we were peaceful, happy, having fun, able to relax, and were very into esoteric teachings, could follow through on meditating, doing yoga, being resilient & adapting better. Thought we were all…
Many people ask me if meditation is good for coping with cancer. "How can I find the good in cancer?" is another question I get asked all too often. As someone who has seen many loved ones go through this battle, this is a deeply personal topic for me.The fact of the matter is, cancer is one of the worst, scariest things many people will ever go through. When you’re…
Have you ever noticed how in life, all pleasurable experiences are temporary? Have you ever noticed the futile effort we make to prolong happy experiences, and yet they are always followed by more longing and craving for those same good times? This may be why meditation is making a comeback. So just what are the benefits to meditation?It seems we spend our whole lives seeking pleasure and avoiding pain as…
When we grow up unaccepted, unliked, and under appreciated, it’s a totally normal reaction to internalize those feelings. This is our way of making sense of the world — if people keep taking their anger and hurt out on us, we will begin to think that we are the problem and that we deserve it.If left unnoticed and untended to, this belief system can cause us to accept mistreatment and abuse…
“I thought my biggest fear was growing old and dying in prison. In truth, my biggest fear was growing old and not knowing myself.”
- Rick Smith, Albama inmate
Path to Peace - A newsletter not just for your mental health but also for your spiritual health.
