Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking a lot about thriving and the idea of turning challenges or problems into opportunities. I believe that this is one of the most valuable things we get from our practice of martial arts and meditation. What we as a human race are facing right now is undoubtedly a challenge. It seems to be one of the greatest we’ve faced thus far. How we

There seems to be an air of helplessness in the world today, rather than responsibility. If you watch the news you’ll be scared half to death by any number of things. Lately, politics and coronavirus are the most pressing, so I’ll use those as a jumping off point. In many of my recent conversations about politics, the eventual conclusion we’ve arrived at is “it’s all a mess and there’s no way

I have a friend who has been unofficially diagnosed with schizophrenia. He doesn’t get psychiatric help or take medication, and his symptoms make it difficult for him to work and have a social life. One of the most difficult aspects for him are the constant delusions he suffers from. For example, my friend believes that a life-like crucifix on display at the Detroit Institute of Art isn’t just a statue,

I recently heard a great story about perspective that I will paraphrase here. View from the toll booth A man was approaching a line of tollbooths on the freeway in San Francisco. He began to dread the most mundane, sometimes depressing kind of interaction that you get with someone stuck in a toll booth. Yet when he rolled down his window, he heard loud music playing. Upon arriving at his lane’s booth,