“Don’t Take My Kindness for Weakness” Over the years as a monk, I’ve watched how people behave around kindness. After all, we’re taught to be loving, open, giving, and forgiving in many of the spiritual traditions of the world. But how do others respond to that? How do we manage…

Ever wonder how ethnic and cultural cuisines developed? Is it because the Irish are predisposed to prefer the taste of potatoes? Because those in the Levant had a particular yen for lentils? The actual answer is much, much bigger: Cultural cuisines developed in conjunction with the agricultural revolution. Agrarianism increased…

If therapy were vital for you to have a healthy retirement forty years from now, would you still do it? Or do you only do it because it gives you an outlet now to metabolize your feelings with a professional who ultimately provides you with the tools to figure out…

Heating and cooling homes, in this economy? Unfortunately, the longer climate change progresses, the more necessary it will be. It’s a huge problem for reducing emissions — not as big as decarbonizing transportation, though — as 10% of our national emissions come from regulating buildings. The U.S. produced 4.57 million…

2021 will be remembered in the business world as the year of the Great Resignation… But author Jonathan Fields thinks we’re soon going to rebrand it as the year of the Great Regret. That’s what he told me when he came onto the Urban Monk Podcast recently. Not because capitalistic…

A stalk of wheat isn’t the same by any other name. And the distress the difference between kinds of wheat can cause you? Well, that’s been reported widely both from Europeans visiting the U.S. — shocked at the acne outbreaks, weight gain, and lethargy they experience — and Americans visiting…

Actually, they have more in common than you’d think. Mostly, their goals are similar: They want to calm the mind and help you achieve focus. And the people working towards these solutions are finding that it’s an exercise in stripping away a lot of the trappings of humanity we’ve burdened…

Can you name the cultures that value quiet the most? Clue: It’s not Western culture. In fact, it’s Asian and Nordic cultures that emphasize silence in all its forms… Comfortable social and familiar silence, respectful listening silence, personal and restorative silence. All of the silences. Quiet time isn’t allotted for…

There’s a parenting cheat code we don’t often talk about… We don’t always have to bear the burden of coming up with consequences. Natural consequences already exist. All we have to do is explain the parameters, set up the guard rails, and let our children make their choices and face…