Todd Perelmuter's Blog

We've never had more ways to escape boredom than we do today. And yet, we've never been more impatient, anxious, and antsy. 

So why so much discontentment when we have so many ways to pass the time? Why such unhappiness despite having infinite entertainment in our pockets? And why are our attention spans shorter than ever?

In this podcast, I share the truth about boredom. I discuss why we feel it, what it truly is, and how to end it once and for all.

Please enjoy other episodes where I share meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.

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If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.

Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/

Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.

The post Path to Peace The Cure for Boredom appeared first on EastWesticism.

If the unexamined life is not worth living, the unexamined mind is not worth having.

Who are we? At the deepest sense of ourselves? What is this consciousness peering out at the world? And is it possible to turn our awareness back on itself?

If we fail to look at ourselves, to understand who we truly are, to understand our unconscious thought patterns and habits, we are doomed to repeat our past, to live an unintentional life, and to keep making the same mistakes.

But if we start to look within, we start to break those patterns. Our thoughts become conscious. Our actions becomes intentional. And soon, our life starts to resemble the one we've always dreamed. It all starts by looking within. In this podcast, I share how to do exactly that.

Please enjoy other episodes where I share meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.

*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.

Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/

Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.

The post Path to Peace The Art of Watching the Watcher appeared first on EastWesticism.

Spirituality and success are not mutually exclusive endeavors. You don't have to give up all your possessions and move to a cave in India to meditate in solitude in order to find happiness. 

Steve Jobs showed us that you can be spiritual and successful. He showed us how spirituality can actually lead to greater success. And he shared how spirituality actually led to him being able to enjoy instead of losing himself in the insatiable desire for more.

In this podcast, I share the 3 most important lessons Steve Jobs taught us about spiritual success. I discuss how we can all implement the lessons he learned for manifesting our dreams. And I talk about how to use spirituality for greater clarity, to handle stress better, and for tapping into our highest wisdom and creativity.

Please enjoy other episodes where I share meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.

*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.

Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/

Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.

The post Path to Peace The Spiritual Secret to Steve Jobs’ Success appeared first on EastWesticism.

Imagine a person standing with their arms stretched out to both sides. Someone is standing on each side of this person pulling their arms in opposite directions with all their might. This is how most of us live. We’re living in a constant battle between two opposing forces. It’s a state of constant stress — the tension from our mind almost being torn in half. 

On one side is what we crave, pulling us towards it. The other side is what we dislike, that we push away with tremendous effort. There’s also the battle between following our heart and doing what we know to be right for us, and the other side doing what our family or society want us to do.

This reactionary state of being is exhausting and not a fun way to live. This is what the ancient teachers meant when they showed us how our minds are not free. We don’t create our life. We react to it life. We may have a choice between A or B, but we didn’t choose those options.

So is there a third way? A way to break free from being a mouse in a maze, always trying to get the cheese and avoid the electrical shocks? Fortunately, the answer is yes. It is the middle way.

Instead of running around frantically in the maze of life, we can pause. We can sit. We can rest. We can relax. Then, whenever we wish, we can get up and look for some cheese. If we get shocked, that’s okay too because we’re just enjoying the totality of the maze — the journey. It’s no longer the cheese that will bring us happiness, because we’ve already found the peace within us. The shock won’t frighten us because we’re not panicking. We don’t crave the cheese because cheese is not our goal, the joy of searching for it is. We don’t hate the shock either, it’s just part of the awesome maze that sometimes has sweet sweet cheese.

The mind is always in a state of attraction or repulsion, desire or aversion, push or pull. But when we can sit with our pain peacefully, and enjoy pleasures without being consumed by craving, then we are free and everything in life becomes enjoyable

If you ever feel like a mouse in a maze, living with even a subtle level of stress and want to become more peaceful and happy, my free 4-book package, The You-Turn Collection, can help you break free. Now available at www.EastWesticism.org.

Here are some other topics that I covered this week:

How to move forward from painful experiences without carrying our pain the rest of our lives (Watch Here) How to heal the part of you that keeps getting disappointed (Listen Here)

Much love,
Todd

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The post The war inside your mind — and the way out appeared first on EastWesticism.

I am watching Peaky Blinders these days. I’m not usually one for such violence, but the family likes it and so it’s good bonding time.

One line stuck out to me in particular. Uncle Charlie says to his nephew Tommy in regard to avoiding going crazy or committing suicide, “You have to move around or the guilt catches up with you… You have to keep moving or it all catches up with you.”

I blurted out loud, “Opposite!” And my wife thought that would make a good newsletter, so here we are.

Running is short-sighted. Nobody can run forever. Not even David Goggins. We can never outrun or escape ourselves. We’ll just end up alone and that voice in our head will only get louder.

​​So don’t run from your demons. You have to make peace with the demons or you won’t ever have peace.

I understand why people think running away makes sense. It feels like an immediate solution. And it’s counterintuitive to look closer at our troubles. It’s so hard and scary to look at our pain that we don’t even think of it as a possibility.

But that pain is a cancer that grows and spreads to every part of our life. We are so good at stuffing it down, ignoring it and running away from it that we may not even know it’s there. So we have to give ourselves the MRI. We have to scan our body and mind for any trace of pain or trauma.

Once discomfort rises to the surface of our consciousness and we notice it, that’s when the real work begins. Don’t hate it or run from it. Keep looking. Don’t react at all. Don’t let it control you. Don’t give it any energy whatsoever. Don’t try to think about something else. Don’t crave after happy thoughts. Just watch the activity of the mind until it settles back down naturally. This is how we will notice the mind cannot control us. This is how we become truly free.

Running is easy. When we learn to rest — deep and peaceful rest — then there’s nothing we can’t do or overcome. 

Much love,
Todd

P.S. Here are a few other topics that I covered recently:

Is it even possible to succeed in life without being highly competitive? (Watch Here) What is the one solution to freeing ourselves from destructive thoughts and emotions? (Watch Here) What can we do to grow in happiness and never lose our childlike wonder? (Watch Here) Where do we draw the line between compassion and being a doormat? (Watch Here) What can we do when our thoughts make us miserable? (Listen Here) Path to Peace with Todd Perelmuter Newsletter Email JOIN

The post Don’t Run From Your Demons appeared first on EastWesticism.

Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate!

Every year, I think about the inner freedom America’s Founding Fathers displayed when they envisioned a new form of government built on the ideals of liberty and equality. They first threw off the shackles of tyranny in their own minds so their creative spirit could imagine a better way forward. 

The conditions of political freedom were not prerequisites for their flourishing. In fact, it was their suffering from subjugation that led to their spiritual revolution. In their footsteps, may we each use our life and liberty to pursue happiness not just for ourselves, but for the world. 

Free your mind — the world will follow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend filled with friends, family, and lots of good food. 

Speaking of food, it occurred to me that a lot of us are letting a huge opportunity go to waste every single day. With most of us eating 3 meals a day, we are blessed with 3 chances to connect deeply with the Earth, the present moment, and ourselves. But we mostly let these opportunities pass us by.

Every meal can be a meditation. You may think you don’t have time to meditate, but we all eat. It’s simply a matter of paying attention.

In deep presence as you eat your food, you will observe not just the subtlety of taste and smell and texture, but you will sense the nourishment and how it becomes you. You will notice what your body needs and respond to it with conscious choices. You will savor the last bite as much as the first. 

All we have to do is pay close attention. Be with every bite. Feel every particle of food in your mouth. Stay with the smell. Feel the jaw and the teeth and the sensations of swallowing. Notice the mental reactions, whether they are craving and excited, distracted and unfocused, or calm and peaceful. And lovingly practice making your mind focused and calm.

Sense all the hard work that went into bringing you your food, from the chef to the farmers, the drivers and the store clerks, the bees and the worms, to the sun and the rain. Watch the gratitude that naturally arises within you. And feel the connection taking place — the sense of oneness — between you, the Earth and the cosmos.

The more you practice eating mindfully, the more everything you do in life becomes awakened with mindfulness. You don’t have to meditate 3 times a day, but it’s easier than you’d think.

Much love,
Todd

P.S. Here are a few other topics that I covered this week:

How to Stop Living Life on Autopilot (Watch Here)

2. How to Make That Decision You’ve Been Dreading (Listen Here)

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The post 3 incredible opportunities for deep meditation every day appeared first on EastWesticism.

Yesterday I was so in the zone writing my next book, The Guidebook to Being Human, that I totally lost track of time and forgot to write the newsletter. But now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Hope everyone is enjoying mango season. They’re extra sweet this time of year so be sure to get your fill. I sure did.

This may surprise you, but peace and happiness is our natural state of being. But too often in life, we are being pushed and pulled in all sorts of directions. If we don’t wisely observe this taking place, we will quickly get tangled up in knots. 

Most of us are tangled. We need to untangle. Just like our cords that get all tangled up, with enough time and care, everything can be untangled.

When we are feeling very tight and tense, we need to loosen up. When our mind is spinning in circles, we need to take a pause. Then we can start to unwind.

Step 1) Stop Making the Problem Worse

The first step, as with any tangled cord, is to stop making the problem worse. Take a break from the activities that created the mess in the first place. Go out into nature if you can, free from all the influences that created this mess. Nature doesn’t want anything from you — you’re free to just be. If that’s unavailable, close your eyes and breathe.

Step 2) Examine the Mess

Notice the desires you’re running towards and the fears you’re running away from. 

Look at your attachments and loss. 

Face your regrets and your pain. 

See how everything in our society is practically designed to tie us in knots. We are either rewarded or punished in school, advertisements tell us what we should want, the news stokes our fears, and even the architecture around us either inspires us or depresses us. 

Step 3) Don’t React to Any of It 

One by one, unthread that cord by not reacting mentally or physically to any of the knots. Accept life exactly as it is. Accept you exactly as you are. Don’t respond to desires with craving and don’t respond to fear with anger or tension. Just be with it all.

When we can peacefully watch what used to drive us in knots, they become peaceful to us. Then they stop agitating us altogether.

This is how we reclaim our natural state. Eventually, we can witness whatever life throws our way without reacting. This is the lasting peace we’re all looking for.

When we can simply be — by letting everything else be — we rediscover our true self.

Don’t try to do it. All effort keeps us tense. Just rest into it. Don’t put expectations on top of your expectations. Play, explore, have fun. The right attitude is, whatever happens happens. Then, it surely will.

In our new film, Lost and Alone: Secrets of Finding Your True Self, I go into more depth about how we can rediscover our natural state of bliss. Looking forward to sharing and watching it with you.

Much love,

Todd

P.S. Here are a few other topics that I covered this week:

What if what you think is protecting you is actually holding you back? (Watch Here) What can we do when we’re hurting? Revenge? Ignore it? Distract ourselves? Drown our sorrows in substances? Or is there another path? (Watch Here) How can we get through hard times? (Listen Here) Path to Peace with Todd Perelmuter Newsletter Email JOIN

The post 3 Steps to Solve Your Life’s Mess appeared first on EastWesticism.

Every cell of your body plays a role,

has an intelligence,

and they work together to create the illusion of a single individual self. 

Your cells are conscious. 

They are aware of their surroundings and react accordingly. 

They are imbued with universal consciousness. 

They’re just not so advanced, like us, to be able to falsely believe they are separate from the whole. 

They do their job, focused, and play their role without the ego’s need for praise or blame.

Your organs are conscious, highly advanced and intelligent. 

And from all the cells and organs in the body, your sense of a single consciousness emerges. 

Through all of the people and lifeforms in the cosmos, 

through all the cells and bacteria, 

the cosmos becomes conscious. 

A single consciousness arises from the universe.

This is what some call God or universal consciousness. Because being human seems good enough to most of us,

We’ve forgotten we’re God/the Universe. 

That is why we suffer. 

We are like the cells of a body, 

but believing we are separate, 

and special or unspecial, depending on whatever cell we’re comparing ourself to at the moment. 

We’ve forgotten we’re the whole. 

This is why we feel fragmented, alone, scared and agitated.

Have you ever noticed how we humans never compare ourselves with algae cells or some other egoless species?

We’re always competing and comparing, 

but never with planets or stars, rocks or streams. 

We only compare our ego (that illusory sense of self) to other people’s egos (their illusory selves). 

Because there is only oneness, 

Comparison can only happen between two mutual illusions,

which becomes a delusion. 

If you are ever comparing, it is only because your false self observed another false self.

The illusion of duality stems from the ego. 

Disidentify with your ego and all comparisons stop.

Then there is nothing left to compare to. 

There is only the Universe.

Much love,
Todd

P.S. My new book, The Guidebook for Being Human, will be coming out later this year. I felt it was about time that being born on this planet came with an instruction manual. Stay tuned for more updates.

P.P.S. The secret to a peaceful, happy, meaningful and rich life is so simple that we all fail to do it, because it seems too obvious and easy, and not as attractive as all the fascinating stories and technologies are.

I talk more about this in the upcoming film, Lost and Alone. Coming Out on July 12th. I know what you’re thinking, “Not another movie coming out on Todd’s birthday just to remind everyone it’s his birthday ???” Yep that’s exactly what it is

Here are a few other topics that I covered this week:

Can Christians Meditate or Is it a Sin? (Watch Here) How to Hold on When You’re Losing Hope (Listen Here) Leave, Change, Stay, Move. How to Choose What to Do and How to Do It with Peace (Read Here) When the Feeling of Worthlessness Creeps in, What Do You Do? (Read Here) How to Break Free from Compulsive Thinking (Read Here) Path to Peace with Todd Perelmuter Newsletter Email JOIN

The post The illusion you’ve believed your whole life… appeared first on EastWesticism.

You are trapped. Not in a physical cage, but in a mental one. Luckily, this is a cage of our own making, and we each possess the key to freedom.

The cage is made of our conditioned likes and dislikes. We think they are not conditioned, that they are natural, innate to us. But they are all conditioned, and they can be changed. 

I used to hate olives and cilantro. They made me throw up. Then one day, a friend told me how she grew to love a food she hated. I had never heard of this concept or knew it was possible. “Challenge accepted,” I thought. 

I kept eating both foods as much as I could stand — it was very gross at first. But today, they are two of my favorite foods. I’ve even heard on more than a few occasions that some people are genetically predisposed to hate cilantro, and they will never be able to change. It always makes me laugh.

Our likes and dislikes can swap. We can learn to love healthy foods, where we used to only eat processed foods. We can learn to love exercise, where it was once the last thing we’d ever want to do.

I also used to hate running. I couldn’t do it. The most I’d ever run in my life was one mile, and I could count the number of times on one hand that I’d been able to do it. It was so hard and arduous, that I thought there must be something wrong with marathoners. Well, last year I got really into walking. I was walking six to ten miles a day. I was getting quite fit. One day, I just had so much energy that I picked up the pace and found myself jogging. And I LOVED it. Today, I am obsessed with running. It is so fun and such a spiritual and mentally challenging activity (but you still won’t catch me at any marathons )

Not only can our likes and dislikes swap, but we can even let them both go. Instead of being for or against everything, we can just be with everything, becoming one with everything. This is true freedom. No longer does the outer world control us. No longer do our internal thoughts and feelings dictate our actions. This is the secret to breaking free.

If we look closely, we’ll notice that not only do displeasing things make us suffer, but even pleasing experiences generate feelings of craving and withdrawal. The key is to realize you are the hamster running on the hamster wheel. You can stop and get off anytime. 

Deep down, we think that we need to react to our mind — chase pleasure and resist pain — in order to succeed and acquire. But don’t growing pains lead to success?

So the question is, can we act to create change without the attachment to our likes and dislikes? The clear answer is, only then can we work without stress, love our challenges, and fully enjoy the pleasures of life.

Much love,
Todd

P.S. Here are a few other topics that I covered this week:

They Fought Like Hell for You to Be Here (Watch Here) Why Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Listen Here)

3. When Life Feels Out of Control (Read Here)

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The post Break free from the trap appeared first on EastWesticism.

If you pull out your phone to avoid your emotions, you are not ready to pull out your phone. Everything you do on your phone will be neurotic, dependency-based, and ultimately destructive.

Imagine you find out your car is in need of repair. It’s starting to make a weird noise. Instead of having a mechanic fix it, you fill up the gas tank with sand. This is what we are doing when we turn to any escape from ourselves. There is a problem inside us, and instead of seeing what’s wrong, we dump in more junk to clog up the gears.

If we keep dumping sand in our gears to smother our uncomfortable feelings, eventually we are going to break down. We think we are self-soothing, but we are really accumulating and compounding stress, sadness and anger.

The key is to look closer. Stop running away from yourself. Stop fearing discomfort. And stop being controlled by your thoughts and emotions. See exactly what the nature of thought is. See every detail of these fleeting emotions and feelings and how they arise in the body and mind. 

When you truly look, you will discover that all experiences are nothing more than little fluxations, pulsations and vibrations within your field of consciousness. With steady awareness, you will notice that they arise atop a sea of calm and stillness. Only by looking will you discover the peace beneath the surface.

Once you are OK with the discomfort, once you have been able to welcome it completely, without resistance, then go about your day. Enjoy the pleasures of life. For now, they will no longer be a need or a distraction. They will be the play and exploration of this life, free from addictive craving or inner turmoil.

When we can sit with discomfort, everything in life becomes a gift. When we can observe our suffering peacefully, there is no more suffering.

Much love,
Todd

P.S. Here are a few other topics that I covered this week:

This Might Be the Biggest Mistake You’re Making (Listen Here)

2. Should Men Cry? Should Men Hide Their Emotions? (Watch Here)

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The post Change this, change your life appeared first on EastWesticism.