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About Mindful Disciple
Hi, I’m Chris. Welcome to my blog. Mindful Disciple is where I share valuable lessons I learned in this journey called life that I believe are beneficial for self-improvement and for helping others to live more balanced, healthy, and happy lives.
My story
First, let me tell you my story.
I had worked as a top executive in a stressful, long working-hour automotive industry for almost two decades. Along the way I encounter a lot of stressed-out people wherever I go, people with anxiety, panic attack, depression, forgetfulness, and all the problems associated with them. Some of them are at a worrying degree and are even relying on drugs.
Because of my working conditions, it affected me too to a point. So, I can relate to them. I know and understand how it feels. If you’re feeling hard to focus on anything, hard to make priorities, procrastinate often, easily get angry, anxious all the time, you know what I mean.
My quest
I realized that most of these are about how I manage my mind. I thought if I can make my mind work for me instead of against me then, problems solved, period. That was my simple understanding. No brainer, right?
So, I read a lot of books on personal development, watched motivational videos, and attended many seminars and training with the topic of self-improvement and personal development. All of them work to some extent. But, the pressures and tensions always come back to visit me.
I realized I was relying on external factors to tame them. So, the solutions weren’t permanent. I wanted to make it permanent. I thought I need to build something in my mind, a mechanism, a way of thinking, a trick, a habit, or something. I don’t want to rely on anything external for solving anything internal. That’s what I thought. Again, a simple idea, right?
“I don’t want to rely on anything external for solving anything internal”
At one point, back in 2009, I attended several mindfulness meditation retreats and the ones that suit me very well is the Buddhist Vipassana meditation with the cittānupassanā tradition (the third Satipaṭṭhāna). Or, in layman term: contemplation of the mind.
I attended several more vipassana retreats in the following years. Turns out, I’m a big fan of it.
This meditation style really suits me well. I’ve been experiencing real benefits in my life. For me, it really is life-transforming. So, I keep on practicing.
In fact, I can’t even imagine my life without meditation
Although the retreats were Buddhist in tradition, the participants were from many other religious backgrounds. Once, I even attended a Buddhist meditation retreat conducted in a Buddhist monastery where the Buddhist participants were the minority. What an irony. But, later I found out that, that was not uncommon.
As a matter of fact, I’m no Buddhist either. But, the takeaways from those retreats are precious. You don’t need to be a Buddhist to take advantage of them because they’re universal. They can benefit anyone regardless of religious background. They’re just happened to be referenced from Buddhist scripture.
“The takeaways are universal and can benefit anyone regardless of religious background”
My mission
Now, most of us busy working people have limited time to attend to such retreats where typically last for at least ten days. Not to mention the difficulties of understanding the “technical” terms taken from the scripture.
So, I built Mindful Disciple as a place to share with you those valuable lessons, experiences from others as well as my own by delivering them in simple layman terms so that you and I can benefit from it and live a more mindful, balanced, and healthy life.
Many scientific studies have shown that meditation is very effective to manage stress and anxiety. I know people who have great successes overcoming depression and panic attacks.
When you own it and make it your lifestyle, this meditative approach is far-reaching and goes beyond just stress and anxiety management. It will be beneficial for your relationships, well being, self-improvement, and much much more. It will transform your life.
Nowadays, more and more people are practicing meditation for practical reasons.
Look, I’m no expert. I consider myself a continuous learner. I’d call it sharing ancient simple wisdom to help others live mindful, balanced, and healthy lives. And you and I will learn together and from each other along the way. If it works for me. I strongly believe it will work for you.
“I call it sharing ancient simple wisdom to help others live mindful, balanced and healthy lives”
That is what Mindful Disciple is all about.
Thanks for stopping by.
All the best,
Chris Linard
Featured photo by Sebastian Voortman from Pexels