Category: Daily Success Habits
-
what a girl in a bonnet can hear
As a little girl I often wore a bonnet. When I first saw this picture of my big sister and me in an old photo album, I assumed a bonnet was what all little girls wore. But it wasn’t. I wore it because I was sickly, prone to perpetual colds, coughs, sore throats, and ear…
-
Good neighbors
As the world knows, Zen Buddhism is a practice of stillness and silence. Its iconic image is a figure sitting cross-legged in meditation. But Zen is also a practice of active questioning. And no question is more central to the practice than one a child might ask: “What is this?” Zen teachings enjoin practitioners to…
-
if not now
There is a long-held view that at this time of year we should take stock of where we are and where we’re headed. I subscribe to that. It’s a good time to renew our intentions and redirect our actions. In Buddhism, “intention” refers to that part of the Eightfold Path which is called “right intention.”…
-
The Oxygen Mask Principle: Why Self-Care Matters
We’ve all heard the airplane safety instruction: in case of emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. It’s practical advice for survival at 30,000 feet. It is also one of the most profound lessons for living a sustainable, compassionate life on the ground. Yet so many of us resist this wisdom. We…
-
Simple Mindfulness Techniques for Holiday Balance
The end of the year often brings a whirlwind of activity—holiday gatherings, year-end deadlines, and the pressure to finish strong. Amidst the chaos, mindfulness becomes not just a practice, but a necessity for maintaining balance and inner peace. Why Year-End Mindfulness Matters As we rush toward the new year, it’s easy to lose ourselves in…
-
I should have thought
Many years ago, when I was still an undergraduate, I traveled from eastern Iowa to the North of England to study English literature at the University of Leeds, a so-called “redbrick” university in West Yorkshire. There I lived for a year in a village on the outskirts of that soot-laden city in a hall of…