Think Like A Monk

None of Rumi will go spend eight hours a day meditating in a monastery like you did, which actually taught you how to do this, right? Yes, yes, and perfectly said. Like, you don't have to live like a monk to think like a monk. And that's my proposal to everyone is that we can learn to think like a monk. So rather than looking at loneliness and being alone as a weakness, turn it into solitude and see how you can actually use that as a way of understanding yourself. In terms of how do you break through that, one of my favorite ways of recommending and encouraging people to do that is to really sit down and even just look at your current list of goals or the things you're pursuing. Like literally make a list of the three things that you're pursuing right now. And for each thing, ask yourself, where does this come from? Does it come from something inside of me or is it coming from society? Or is it coming from school? Where is it coming from? Because what you can find, and I think a lot of people experience this, is that by the age of 35, you realize you've actually been pursuing a life that wasn't yours. And thinking like a monk is stripping away any of the expectations, the opinions and obligations of society and living a life that's true to yourselves. At the core, that's what a monk is doing. A monk is not neglecting, but not also being distracted and dissuaded by the directions of society, but actually saying, this is what is most important. and I want people to feel that, and I'm sure you want to feel that when you get to age 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 or however long you're going to live, that you do and have lived your life doing and being who you wanted to be and not what someone expected of you.