All the sects of Buddhism focus on studying books as an important activity to practice Buddhism. I know this because I attended a few Nichiren Buddhists' meetings, met a Tibetan Buddhist, and have explored this topic for a few years now.

My problem with religious texts is that everyone reads texts from centuries ago without updating the teachings with a modern context. This doesn’t mean those old texts are fundamentally wrong; rather, we might understand it better if they are taught within the context of our social media world.

On my journey to explore Buddhism in a modern context, I…

Like any other bookworm, in 2016, I started tracking my reading progress on Goodreads.

In 2017, I pushed myself to read and finish many books because I wanted my Goodreads stat to display a boastful number. I read 15,000 pages and finished 61 books in 2017. This is how it looked in Goodreads:

Whenever I mention online that I’m a habit coach and I help people improve their habits, most of the time, I get the same response: “How can I wake up early?”

This issue has even more intensified due to the corona lockdown times. A national survey published on NCBI concludes—

“Due to complete lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic leads to a state of social jetlag with delayed sleep-wake, meal timings, and excessive digital media exposure…”

I used to be a night owl, which isn’t an issue. …

It was September 2018, and I had a traumatic breakup. My anxiety issues were back and my therapist recommended to try meditation.

Meditation was the only thing that helped me stay calm and not overthink at that point. I used to meditate for an hour a day. I did it consistently for a few months before becoming irregular with the practice.

For the past 1 year, I am again consistent with my meditation practice, fluctuating the meditation time from 15 minutes to 2 minutes in a session.

Meditation is a tricky habit

There are so many schools of meditation — zen, visualization, isha kriya, chanting…

Last week, I graduated as a certified habit coach from coach.me.

My coaching statement is simple — I help people improve their emotional health with simple daily habits.

Let’s explore the four easy habits I recommend my clients follow to improve their emotional health.

Here are a few questions I will answer in this post

• Does science back up these habits for better emotional health?
• How soon will you see the results?
• What has been my experience with this habit?
• What would be the challenges to follow the habit?
• How can you get started?

This one habit helps you to slow down: Pause.

Sitting on a chair or wherever, closing your eyes, and simply breathing. …

My 2021 theme

Today’s January 1st (wishing you a happy new year!) — and it’s the most popular day for creating resolutions are trying habits.

I am enrolled in Coach Tony’s 1-year long course “Heavy Mental Training”. He gave us the assignment to choose a theme and resolution for our 2021 and set a small habit around it.

My theme for 2021 is more mindfulness, and my tiny habit around it is — ONE mindful meal every day. I am planning to start by cutting off external distractions, i.e no screens or books while I am eating my mindful meal of the day…

While reading this post by Sílvia Bastos today, I got inspired.

She mentions an experiment she did — writing an online journal publicly. She claims how it can be beneficial to practice deliberate vulnerability.

I loved the idea… so much that I immediately decided to do this from today onwards.

I’m planning to write it 3–4 times a week, which literally means writing it every other day. Honestly, I want to write it every day, but anything more than four times a week would be a bonus.

My intention with this online journal is to regularly —

1. align my thoughts…