Meditation Monday #44 – How to Meditate: The 5 Koshas (Anandamaya)

We are at the deepest or most subtle layer of your Koshas as we enter our final post on this topic (for now). The Anandamaya layer is often called the blissful layer or sheath; however, the bliss doesn't necessarily mean a feeling of happiness, but rather a feeling of wholeness. This is sometimes referred to …

Fave Reads Friday #10.2 – Meritocracy and other Made Up Words

Have you ever heard that word Meritocracy? Did you know that it's not a real word? More of the many bits of information that I learned while reading The Big Test by Nicholas Lemann. The word meritocracy was created by Michael Young in his 1958 work titled The Rise of Meritocracy. His work was meant …

Meditation Monday #43 – How to Meditate: The 5 Koshas (Vijnanamaya)

Who am I? What is my purpose? These are two of the questions that Pacheco's book addresses when it comes to the Vijnanamaya layer of the 5 Koshas. The Jnana path of yoga is the path of knowledge and that makes sense as the Vijnanamaya layer is the intellectual layer. In the practice of Jnana …

Fave Reads Friday #10.1 – Testing, Testing….

Have you ever read a kind of older book and when it was finished desperately wished there was a follow up book? I HATE when that happens and it just did again recently when I finished The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy by Nicholas Lemann. The book is about how standardized …

I Need More Gretchen! – The Call to Self-Care

So, a few of weeks ago I read/listened to a pair of posts/podcasts by Gretchen Rubin: A Little Happier: More Advice about How to Be Successful–Check Every Box. A Little Happier: Don’t Check Every Box. I know that just looking at the title of each of those seems like a major contradiction, but Gretchen Rubin …

Meditation Monday #41 – How to Meditate: The 5 Koshas (Pranamaya)

I swear that all Mondays are rainy ones now and it puts a real damper on my running...especially when I can't wake up in the morning because my 4yo threw up at 3am and I had to do the usual clean up from that nonsense. Well, after that amazingly long run on sentence, how was …

Meditation Monday #39 – Training

Welcome to Monday afternoon! For many of you tomorrow is the big American holiday in which we celebrate our forefathers' declaration of independence from a tyrant ruler. For others of us it is an excuse to get drunk and eat grilled food while ignoring the fact that you didn't put on any sunscreen and are …

Fave Reads Friday #9 – Quitting a book

Have you ever started to read a book and then decided that it wasn't for you? That was me over the last week-ish. I decided to check out the first book (alphabetically by title) on my library saved list: The book must have come from another book I read previously, but I don't remember where …

Meditation Monday #38: Living by the Books

It's been 11 days since a new post went up on the site. It's been even longer since I wrote. Why? Because of life. That's the usual reason. This isn't my only priority in life and during the summer other things come into play. Additionally, and kind of also as usual for me, I've gotten …

Fave Reads Friday #8 – Spending Out

So, I've finally finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I don't know if you've ever looked at what else I read, in terms of blogs, but hers has made it on to my WP Reader. I'm sold! I want more happiness in my life and I've started on my own HAPPINESS PROJECT: MY BEST …