Click here to hear Dan Harris openly share his story about having a real live panic attack in front of 5 million TV viewers on Good Morning America and how it led him to discover meditation.

Key points Harris makes about meditation:

• A simple brain exercise that can have an extraordinary impact on your brain and your body
• Can lower your blood pressure, boost your immune system, and literally rewire key parts of your brain that have to do with self awareness, compassion, and stress
• A scientifically tested simple thing to do everyday that will make you significantly happier
• Can change the relationship between you and the voice in your head that you’re probably most embarrased about

My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.

An old Zen story goes like this: An old Chinese farmer had a mare that broke through the fence and ran away. When his neighbors learned of it, they came to the farmer and said, “What bad luck this is. You don’t have a horse during planting season.” The farmer listened and then replied, “Bad luck, good luck. Who knows?”

A few days later, the mare returned with two stallions. When the neighbors learned of it, they visited the farmer. “You are now a rich man. What good fortune this is,” they said. The farmer listened and again replied, “Good fortune, bad fortune. Who knows?”

Later that day, the farmer’s only son was thrown from one of the stallions and broke his leg. When the neighbors heard about it, they came to the farmer. “It is planting season and now there is no one to help you,” they said. “This is truly bad luck.” The farmer listened, and once more he said, “Bad luck, good luck. Who knows?”

The very next day, the emperor’s army rode into the town and conscripted the eldest son in every family. Only the farmer’s son with his broken leg remained behind. Soon the neighbors arrived. Tearfully, they said, “Yours is the only son who was not taken from his family and sent to war. What good fortune this is…”

By Caren Goleman

What do you do when you’re really up against a challenge?

Do you give up, thinking it’s too hard for you to solve? Or is your mindset that you just haven’t solved it “yet”?

Click here to watch this TED talk by Carol Dweck where she talks about the power of believing, establishing a growth mindset, and how we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems.

Maria Shriver shares her intention for the year – to lead from a place of love – and why it’s her toughest intention yet.

How this year she plans to show up with love – even for the people who can be tough to love:  like people who don’t show us love, the people we don’t care about, and the people who push our buttons.

How she aspires to show love and compassion for the world, versus fire and fury.

I love her words of wisdom to her children (and herself):

• Judgments are never loving
• Gossip is destructive
• Shaming helps no one
• And fighting for a better future benefits all of us

Click here to read more and be inspired by Maria Shriver’s words of wisdom for 2018.

Awareness-
her gaze is so constant,
our every move
watched
with such affection,
a ceaseless vigil
without condition
or agenda,
silent,
patient,
unrelenting in her
embrace.

There is endless room in
the heart of this lover,
infinite space for whatever
foolishness we may
toss her way.

But she is also
crafty, this one-
a thieft who will steal away
everything we ever cherished,
all our beliefs,
all our ideas,
all our philosophies,
until nothing is left
but her shimmering
wakefulness,
this simple love
for what is.

By: John Austin