Writings on Spirituality and Mindfulness

Let’s get this right (as Gordon Ramsay often says). I’m not religious. Never have been. My dad is, I think, Catholic (he has his mom’s rosary), but never practiced. My mom was protestant (again, neither were raised religious, but my grandpa always said a prayer of sorts and amen before the start of every large family holiday meal).

But, even though I’m not religious (i.e. I don’t believe in God), I would definitely say I’m a spiritual person, and even more so since my mom’s death a few years ago. I’m a big lover of fantasy and sci fi books but after she died, and I read through a pile of grief books, my reading interests turned to self help, self improvement non-fiction type stuff (and I’ve just recently got back into reading fiction, though I still read non-fiction stuff about mental health, and mindfulness and Buddhism etc. (like right now I'm reading Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind by Dr Judson Brewer, a psychoanalyst and meditation practitioner. It’s this kind of stuff that’s also re-kindled my love of psychology). After my mom died, I started doing yoga daily, as a way to help me cope/deal/process her passing. I started on January 1st 2016 as a new year’s resolution, and as of today I haven’t missed a single day, so I am currently at 2,087 days as of September 18th, 2021. After about 9 months of at-home yoga practice, I decided I wanted to take a yoga teacher training because of the impact that yoga had on me and I wanted to share that love with others.

So I took a 6 month part time training course through a local community college (sadly, the program closed down during the pandemic, which is so disappointing as it was fantastic, but it’s difficult to teach something like yoga, which should really be taught in person, in a virtual way (and yes there are online yoga teacher trainings but I personally would prefer in-person). It was a fantastic 250 hour training (most yoga teacher trainings are only 200hrs), and that’s where I also learned more about meditation and eventually got into Buddhism. Part of our teacher training involved taking up a daily meditation practice, which later evolved into me wanting to learn more about mindfulness and Buddhism. After I finished my initial yoga teacher training program, I went on to take two more courses through the same school (a Restorative Yoga for Chronic Pain Management and a Trauma Sensitive Yoga for Resilience). Both were amazing courses and I learned so much. My interest in yoga and meditation eventually led me to learn about the ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy of Stoicism, whose poster boy, ancient Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, with his famous book ‘meditations’ written over 1,000 years ago, also influenced my spirituality. It’s less a philosophy and more a way to live your life - by the 4 virtues of courage, wisdom, temperance and justice, and I talk about Stoicism in some of these articles I’ve written for the mindfulness website Elephant Journal.

Below are the articles I've written on this topic, on Elephant Journal. Check them out! :) (note: you can only read 2 free articles each day, unless you are a paid subscription member).

8 Touchstones that Helped me get Through The Craziness of the Year

Silver Linings to the Year That Wasn’t: 5 Ways We Thrived

The Crucial Element of Mindfulness That We Often Overlook

The Lazy Person’s Guide to Enlightenment: 4 Simple Actions to Be More Present

Synchronicity - meant to be? Or just coincidence?

Yamas and Niyamas: 10 Ways to Honour International Yoga Day

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