A Simple Path to Well-Being

There are ways of relating to the world that eliminate suffering and increase joy. Insight into emptiness provides the freedom we need to break free of our usual way of perceiving. This makes space for our imagination to come in and revolutionize our relationship with life.

Our life is an everchanging stream of experiences. When we attempt to resist this stream, it causes us to suffer. This resistance is caused by craving. We can learn to just trust the stream of experiences, and when we do this, we are filled with peace and joy. This is not something for us to believe - it is something we need to see for ourselves.

In this episode of the podcast, I discuss the book 'The Short Path to Enlightenment' by Paul Brunton and his ideas about the difference between the 'short path' and the 'long path'. 

Trust and acceptance are two of the most useful ways of relating to life, but they can also make our situation worse. Acceptance can become a type of prison when what we are accepting is the limitations placed on us by the thinking-mind. Trust can be a path to despair when it is dependent on reaching a specific goal (e.g. I want my ex back). 

Literalism is at the core of most of our problems in the world today. In this episode, I share some musings on the book Imaginal Love by Tom Cheetham. Here he examines the ideas of Henry Corbin and James Hillman for how the imagination can help us break free of dogmatism, fanaticism, and the despondency that prevails modern life. It is through the imaginal that we once again re-enchant our universe. 

Life can be so intense that it becomes unbearable. In this episode of the podcast, I discuss how loosening our grip on reality means things become much easier for us. It is this dream-like relationship with reality that so many of us deeply yearn for. It is the thing we are missing - it is the 'hole in the soul' we are trying to fill. 

Life is messy, and this can mean we become desperate for any means of escape. In fact, we can end up in a position where much of our approach to life is based around avoidance. Trust is the realization that there is no escape, and it is only by cooperating with life that we can find peace. 

Intimacy is the experience of being fully accepted, understood, and cared for. It is a strong sense of connection that means we are never on our own. We can spend our whole life desperately seeking connection, but it will be hard to find until we realize that intimacy is not something that is given to us but something that we allow to happen. In this episode, we will look at the obstacles to intimacy, and how we can remove them. 

Many of us will remember how much more exciting and interesting life appeared to as as a child. Maybe you have yearned to experience things this way again?  In this episode, I describe how we can return to this state of wonder and remain there. We will also see why wonder is such a key element of well-being. 

The deeper our roots into stillness, the less we are troubled by life. This is why spending time in stillness each day is the most life-changing thing we can ever do. In this episode, I will share with you my experience of developing a relationship with the stillness that lies at the core of our being. 

Right now, we can alter our experience of reality just be developing a sense of appreciation for our surroundings. This is real magic, and it is one of the most important skills we will ever learn. Unfortunately, most of us only truly appreciate things when they have been taken away or when they are at risk of being taken away. In this episode of the podcast, I will teach you how to appreciate the familiar so you can fully engage in your life. 

Just spending a few minutes every day being grounded can greatly improve our mental health and increase our sense of well-being. It gives us a reliable refuge from inner-turmoil that we can turn to at any time. In this episode, I describe what getting grounded involves, and we will get to practice some simple techniques.

In this first episode of the podcast, I give a definition of well-being and describe the key components of this most wonderful way of relating to reality.