Why Avoiding The News Makes You Smarter

By: | High Existence

Some time ago I stopped reading and watching the news. No newspapers, no news programs and no internet snippets of world drama. I stopped because I didn’t feel it had any positive effect on my life and I suspected it might even have a harmful effect. Sometimes when watching or reading the news I felt myself anticipating for another big event in the world, something to shake the very core of my being. Other times I checked my smart-phone every hour to get my news-fix. Was I truly in need to know what comes through the filters of the media or was I just a news-junky? Read more of this post

Welcome to Part-Time America

Written by: Sal Pezzino -@sp1989

If you were to look at the state of the United States economy, on paper it would seem as though everything is OK. The Dow Jones has been flirting with 16,000, stock prices are soaring, and the unemployment rate keeps going down. The truth is that it is all entirely artificial. Read more of this post

Why Cable News is Still Destroying This Country

A while back I wrote an article about how I feel cable news is destroying this country. That article can be found here and in it criticized all of the popular media outlets for polarizing this country so far to the left and right that there is no such thing as middle ground anymore. Read more of this post

What Are You Thinking?

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” – Oprah Winfrey

Norman Vincent Peale published the book in 1952 called ‘The Power Of Positive Thinking’. And then as time went on, this idea was turned into a whole entire industry. Each aspect of the “positive thinking” process picked apart and made into books, DVD’s, and seminars. Read more of this post

The Art of Lifestyle Design

Inaction is the greatest risk of all. -Tim Ferriss 

What if you could design your life to exactly the specifications you wanted? What if you could create every moment of every day to what you imagined in your head? What would you do if I told you that this was possible under one condition, would you do it? Well, if you continue to I will talk extensively about lifestyle design and how to do it. Read more of this post

A Child-Like Point of View

Children are a wonderful addition to our lives. Whether  cousins, nephews, or we are parents child light up our lives with little sparks of joy. Children enable us the opportunity to feel lighter about our lives. Have you ever watched a child at play? They are creative, innovative, and focused. The way in which a child goes about a task is like no other. We can learn from this way of thinking, applying it to our own lives. Read more of this post

Improve Your Life With a Day of Rest

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.  -Richard Carlsonrest

Do you live a busy life? This might be a silly question, but if you live what you consider a busy life, you and your body needs rest and regeneration. We all need it rest, whether we like to admit to it or not.  I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to admit it, but I have come to understand that I can be twice as productive if I give my mind and body a break. I used to think that rest was  for those who don’t have anything better to do, and for those who don’t want to get ahead. Until crashing happened. Then, I took steps to adjust how I approached my life to still feel fulfilled and rested simultaneously. This is a product of a balanced life with excellent time management skills.

Cultures and traditions throughout the world have written about the power of practicing a day of rest or even a moment of rest. But is there a possibility that some of these traditions might have been based in natural principles that they were given for the sake of preserving the health of the people? We already know that many of the ancient traditions regarding eating habits have been found to be based on factual evidence of the forbidden foods were dangerous to the people’s physical well-being. However, when it comes to mastering your personal health, taking a day of rest also has a very practical application to our well-being.

A recent article published by the DailyMail stated that  domestic chores, work worries and arguments at family get-togethers are all factors which have combined to make the second half of the weekend just as frenetic as a working day for most. Nearly two-thirds of those polled (65 per cent) said they had busier schedules on a Sunday than a weekday – losing out on time to recover from a tiring week at work. One-in-ten admitted to spending most of the Sabbath worrying about the working week ahead, while 67 per cent said the ‘Sunday blues’ kicked in at some point in the day. Over half of those polled (51%) believe that Sunday is a day ‘for getting things done’. The study for TV channel Really found that an average of three hours and 36 minutes is spent completing household tasks such as ironing, washing, grocery shopping and cleaning. A third of adults (35%), admitted nagging or being nagged by their partners to carry out such chores.

Even though we may not actually feel stress in the conventional sense, i.e. work, bosses, products due, the stresses of arguing with family members and conflicting ideas can cause the same rise in blood pressure, contributing to hypertension and heart attack.

So, let’s not argue and get to relaxing…

If we take the time to relax, which is the ying to the yang of our stresses, we find a deep sense of ourselves. By taking time to be quiet, our internal monologue and personalization with the outside world lessens. As we ease in to our day of rest, we are privy to several benefits that will aid in our stress managing ability for the work week. Those might include:

  • It fosters a sense of gratitude.
  • Disables flight/flight.
  • It helps maintain balance in my life by drawing focus to the things that are most important.
  • Quiets the rambling of the inner monologue.
  • It helps with mentally catching up and the recharge of physical energy.
  • Inspirational. Time to spend connecting with your own spirit force.

What will you do on your day of rest?

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s Poem of Love

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Poem of Love

“Love.
What is love?
What is love.
Love is a fading memory.
Love is piercingly present.
Love is full of charm.
Love is hideously in the way.
Explosion of love makes you feel ecstatic.
Explosion of love makes you feel suicidal.
Love brings goodliness and godliness.
Love brings celestial vision.
Love creates the unity of heaven and earth.
Love tears apart heaven and earth.
Is love sympathy.
Is love gentleness.
Is love possessiveness.
Is love sexuality.
Is love friendship.
Who knows?
Maybe the rock knows,
Sitting diligently on earth,
Not flinching from cold snowstorms or baking heat.
O rock,
How much I love you:
You are the only loveable one.
Would you let me grow a little flower of love on you?
If you don’t mind,
Maybe I could grow a pine tree on you.
If you are so generous,
Maybe I could build a house on you.
If you are fantastically generous,
Maybe I could eat you up,
Or move you to my landscape garden.
It is nice to be friends with a rock!”

Love is an interesting part of our every day life. We say we “love” coffee, food, people, articles, photographs, animals and so forth. What is love? To answer this question you would have to consult the hundred plus years love has been debated about by theologians and philosophers. For scientists, “love” is a chemical reaction when parts of our brains release chemicals that make us feel good physically. To theologians, love is spiritual connection to something that matchs our connection to the world. To philosophers, love is a part of the ego that longs to fill a psychological void deep within our mind. So, love can obviously become complex very quickly.

In the above poem by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939 – 1987), Buddhist meditation teacher and founder of the Shambhala community, love becomes a an all encompassing aspect of memory to something that can give your celestial vision. At the conclusion, you are left with the lingering impression that love is a fixation with a rock. The point that Chögyam is hinting is that love is not only with things we like or have a deep effection for, but also to the childlike fixation with a rock. He also eludes to the idea that he might “move” the rock to different locations. What this says is that even though he has this fixation of “love” towards this rock, he can find different places for the rock. What this eludes to is that he is willing to release the object that he loves in order set benefit to other areas of his life.

We can learn a lot from Chögyam’s poem on love. But I’d like to present two main points that jump out right away: 1. All encompassing love. 2. Releasing that love into the world for the benefits of others. Is it possible to love coffee just as we love our home pet? If you’ve ever had some organic French press coffee, you’d be able to answer that. Is love more than a biochemical response in the brain? If you’ve ever been speechless due to seeing massive beauty, you’d be able to answer that question. Love, is beyond words and labels. Love is transferable, give-able, and palatable. Love can be between two people just as much as with a rock. The difference is in how open our hearts are.

Poem from: Timely Rain: Selected Poetry of Chögyam Trungpa. Written July 1975

What is Your Source of Happiness?

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx Read more of this post

86,400 Can Change Your Life

I am reminded of the epic image of the businessman rushing to get to his next appointment, only to be stuck in traffic and creating an ethos of stress in the scene. No matter how much he tries to get to where he is going, he is faced with obstacles that hold him back from his goal. Read more of this post

Beach Living for Ultimate Potential

We have all heard someone say, “Some day I’m going to live by the ocean!”, and maybe that someone was you. Nevertheless, we all have some association with living near a large body of water. The numbers are in and more people flock to beach site living every year chasing the idea of a calmer frame of mind on the beach. This way of thinking may not be as far fetch as it sounds. The research has shown that living by the beach has massive benefits for our health and well-being. Don’t be dismayed if you don’t live by the beach, you can benefit by visiting the beach on a regular vacational basis. Good news! Read more of this post

Contribution is Our Destiny

Welcome to the “me” society. This is the style of society that we are currently amongst. Thinking about ourselves is at an all time high, and there are only a few that seem to want to think otherwise. We are privileged people with just about everything right at our fingertips. Because of this table we have set, you can imagine how thinking of other people is made difficult, through the society we have constructed. We are even reminded of this through television and entertainment. It seem that everywhere you turn, these days, there are reminders of how we should take care of ourselves first. Read more of this post

The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

The death of author Edgar Allan Poe has been considered one of the world’s greatest unsolved celebrity mysteries. This well known eccentric author passed away on October 7th 1849. Many theories surrounding the death Poe have circulated by biographers and Poe enthusiasts. Just four days prior to his death, a man by the name of Joseph W. Walker found Poe roaming the streets in the area of Baltimore, Maryland. He reported that Poe was “in great distress” and seemed to be laking normal mental faculties. He was described as being in a delirious state, not speaking clearly and having trouble communicating ideas. He was placed in the Washington College Hospital and passed away at approximately 5:00am on the morning of October 7th. Read more of this post

Summer: The Essence of Change

If you’ve noticed, we are officially engaged in the midst of the summer madness. Swimming, snow cones, and weekend barbecuing have taken hold throughout the country, taking advantage of the warm summer sun. I want you to imagine yourself at your favorite summer destination. Is it the beach? It it abroad? Are you with your family? Let the sun hit your face, relaxing your muscles. Your breathing is deep and thankful for what you have been given. Are you there? Enjoy this escape… Read more of this post

Change Your Life With The Power of Gratitude

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” -John F. Kennedy Read more of this post

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