Life Coaches Blog

Most of us go through our entire lives reacting to our own interpretation of the happenings and events in our lives. We live in fear, we fall asleep in quiet desperation and we do anything we can to protect what we think is ours. Under the guise of personal power, we falsely believe that we are able to control everything in our lives by holding the things we cherish most so tightly that we are never threatened by their loss.

Your False Ego Makes You Afraid

In the Vedic scriptures, this is referred to as ‘False Ego’. It is our desire to lord it over everything in our lives in order to maintain security, control and a false sense of power over our material existence. It is completely fear-based and referenced from our perception of events in our pasts. It is unreal, yet perceived as real and therefore given the power to manipulate our life experiences.

Hi guys,

I’ll be heading off to Thailand early tomorrow morning, first to Udon Thani where I’ll stay with a few days with my friend Paiboon the monk.

After that, it’ll be a 10-day meditation course, where I’m supposed to keep noble silence and meditate for 10 days, in Prachinburi. Add to that, a short stay in Bangkok.

I’m a little nervous as this is my first time traveling alone; not to mention I’m not sure what to expect staying in monasteries and meditating for 10 days straight! But I’m sure it’s going to be a good stretch.

In the meantime, enjoy the great guest posts I have lined up for you, and excuse any spam comments you might see in the meantime.

Values. What are the things to which you attach value? What is important to you? If you had to create a list of the top five things that you value, what would they be? Would it be money, possessions, power, stature and authority? Would it be love, family, integrity, freedom and compassion? Or a combination?

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of
value.

~Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

How Do You Want to Be Remembered?

We have all heard the adage about what the epitaph on our tombstone will say or not say. Will it say that she had a powerful job, she flew first class, that she had a Mercedes-Benz and wore only couture? More often you will read on a tombstone that she was a loving Mother and Wife, a charitable person and an outstanding member of the community.

9 Rules To Get Out of Plateaus

A month ago I was stuck in a plateau; my ideas for Life Coaches Blog posts were running dry and I couldn’t see a way out.

The answer to why and what to do came in a serendipitous way.

The Monk Talks: What Would Buddha Do If Someone Hated Him?

In these few words Buddha teaches what might be the greatest spiritual law. The Roman poet Virgil wrote “love conquers all.” I believe there are things that love is not well-suited to conquer, but love is perfectly suited to conquer hate.

Pay Yourself First

If you won a million dollars today, would you spend it all immediately buying loads of stuff so that by this time tomorrow, it’d be all gone?

Do You Want To Feel Alive?

I was listening to the MSNBC on the radio when a feature came on entitled, ‘The Good Life’. They proceeded to discuss a $14,000 dessert being offered in Sri Lanka that included, amongst other things, an aquamarine. No kidding. This is how MSNBC characterizes the good life. It struck me how in our culture we define the good life more in terms of the consumption of material goods than in relationship to any other quality.

Simply listen to the vast majority of contemporary music on the airwaves these days for confirmation. I have two teenagers in my house so I know all too well: Cristal champagne, expensive cars, first class jet airline seats, bling; the list goes on and on.

This is what our kids are being taught: the good life is about having things, not about who you are as a human being. Where are these values coming from? I believe it is a trickle down effect from what they see being honored in our society.

Last weekend I went to challenge my fear of heights again at Forest Adventure, inside Bedok Reservoir.

Forest Adventure’s a series of tree-top obstacle courses, spread out over 4 sites. Like most height courses, it looks easy from the ground, but once you’re up there…

As far back as I could remember, I’ve always had a fear of heights. Whereas my friends were comfortable in glass elevators, roof-tops and roller-coasters, I’ve always found my feet getting all rubbery and my insides in a cold grip.

Things came to a head 4 years ago in Akltg’s Patterns of Excellence program when I had to walk across a wooden plank, 3 metres in length, suspended nearly 3 stories above ground.

Looking up at all my friends who were breezing through it with ease, I thought it was easy. Looking back, I guess that was because none of them had the same fear of heights I did!

I was walking through the forests near Chiang Dao Nest, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying being in the moment.

As I was looking at the sun shining through the treetops, something Paul McKenna wrote in his book I Can Make You Rich sprang to my mind.

Getting Rich Is an Inside Job

Over the last twenty years I have had access to many high achievers and I have been amazed at how some are able to truly enjoy their wealth while others remain trapped by their own limited thinking…

At the time of my writing this, Mariah Carey is worth over $100 million - yet in a recent interview she said that sometimes she still feels financially insecure…

I hope by now you are beginning to realize that having a lot of money will never be enough to make you rich. It is the quality of your thoughts that will ultimately create the quality of your life.

I had a beautiful time at Chiang Dao Nest and it definitely gave me the time to just be. I loved how slow, quiet and simple it was over there, but it also takes a certain type to appreciate it.

I know some friends who would have been bored stiff by the fact that there were no shopping places nearby, nothing touristy to do if you don’t like climbing through caves, up mountains and trekking through forests, and no TV in your room.

But I loved it. I loved how we were surrounded by nothing by forest, how quiet it was, how few people there were in the Nest, how warm and friendly the staff were, how cold it got at night.

Day 3

Woke up this morning already feeling I was going to miss this place since it was going to be my last day here. We’d actually booked one of the tours to go for an elephant ride, tribal villages visit and river-raft ride. But actually, what I was really looking forward to that morning was another delicious Chiang Dao Nest breakfast!

In my head I’d an idea of what to expect from the elephant ride; a smallish elephant that probably took you around in circles like in the Singapore Zoo. That idea was blown away the moment we met our elephants!

They were huge, we could hardly get on top of them. And once on top, we had to hang on for dear life - because the ride involved going up and down a long mountain trail! It was more exciting than I imagined; in some places the trail was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and here we were stomping it on an elephant.

Day 2

We woke up bright and early the next day at around 5:30AM, thanks to the roosters crowing outside - lucky we had an early night the day before! Just as well too, I walked out after 6 and it was a beautiful dawn. The view outside our little hut was just gorgeous and it was so cold I could see my breath - loved it!

Morning in Chiang Dao Nest was as peaceful and quiet as the night before. Breakfast was superb, I had the super-healthy and delicious fruit pancakes; which was crepes wrapped around banana and pineapples slices topped with honey. Spend a week here eating their fabulous food and breathing the crisp mountain air and I guarantee you’ll be brimming with health before long!

The healthy and sumptuous bruschetta we had later on in the day.