Todd Perelmuter's Blog

Path to Peace How to Stay Calm When Someone Triggers You

Why do we suffer from mean words? What is the real root cause of this suffering? Why do words directed at us hurt more than watching those same words on TV? What is getting hurt? And is there a way to stop getting angry and upset by the cruelty and unkindness of others?

In this podcast, I do a deep dive into the root cause of this particularly difficult and all too common form of suffering. I talk about what role trauma plays in us getting triggered. And I share some simple but powerful ways to stay cool and calm in every situation.

Sometimes people just want to push our buttons. They want to make us miserable. They want to tear us down. Here's how to be on guard and defend yourself.

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 my words have ever touched your heart or helped you through a hard moment, I’d be deeply grateful for your support in keeping this podcast alive. Support the Podcast

And if you’d like to explore these ideas in greater depth, you can find all of my books here.

The post Path to Peace How to Stay Calm When Someone Triggers You appeared first on EastWesticism.

Path to Peace How to Let Go of People Who Left (and Those You Must Leave)

One of the hardest times in anyone's life is when we lose someone who is still alive. Perhaps they cut us off, perhaps we cut them off, or perhaps it was mutual. But either way, the pain, regret, blame, and open wound of hope make this type of loss particularly difficult.

There are countless books written about grief. When someone we love passes, friends and family offer their support. But when we lose the living, we often suffer alone. Taking time to grieve seems strange and futile. So what can we do when a hole is left in our heart by someone who still walks this earth?

In this podcast, I share my own personal stories of family estrangement and family separation, abandonment and betrayal. I talk about what helped me get out of the darkest place of my life. I discuss the lessons I learned, what I wish someone had told me, and the healing that is possible.

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 my words have ever touched your heart or helped you through a hard moment, I’d be deeply grateful for your support in keeping this podcast alive. Support the Podcast

And if you’d like to explore these ideas in greater depth, you can find all of my books here.

The post Path to Peace How to Let Go of People Who Left (and Those You Must Leave) appeared first on EastWesticism.

Path to Peace Breaking Bad Habits — 4 Easy Steps

Is it possible to change? Why do we find it so hard? What prevents us from changing? And why do we keep failing?

In this podcast episode, I share the answer to these questions and more. I share some personal stories of my own struggles. I talk about the nature of addiction, why we really get hooked, and most importantly, how to become free 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.

*****
If my words have ever touched your heart or helped you through a hard moment, I’d be deeply grateful for your support in keeping this podcast alive. Support the Podcast

And if you’d like to explore these ideas in greater depth, you can find all of my books here.

The post Path to Peace Breaking Bad Habits — 4 Easy Steps appeared first on EastWesticism.

Path to Peace What Are We Really Looking for? The Trap We Don’t See

We are all searching for something. We are all on a journey. And to some extent, we all have a restless mind. It is the nature of being alive. We move, we age, we learn and we grow.

The question is, what are we searching for? Are we staying focused or getting distracted? Are we getting closer or further away? And is it the right goal, the right destination we're moving toward, the place that will bring us the peace and happiness we seek?

In this podcast, I share some common pitfalls on our journey through life. I talk about how we lose our way. And I give 2 simple steps to make sure we all reach our destination, and enjoy the journey along the way.

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 What Are We Really Looking for? The Trap We Don’t See appeared first on EastWesticism.

Path to Peace The Cure for Boredom

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.

*****
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.

Path to Peace The Art of Watching the Watcher

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.

Path to Peace The Spiritual Secret to Steve Jobs’ Success

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.

The war inside your mind — and the way out

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.

Don’t Run From Your Demons

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.

3 incredible opportunities for deep meditation every day

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)

Path to Peace with Todd Perelmuter Newsletter Email JOIN

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