Death, taxes, and LIFE!

Hello Members,

This Tuesday April 15th 2025 it’ll be tax day.
With the current state of politics, engaging with the government in this way can be heavy on the nerves. It’s good to have sanity strategies in your back pocket.

Lately, I’ve heard some fine strategies from y’all during members’ Labwork calls, here’s my paraphrased versions of what I’ve been hearing:

• “I hang out with dogs as much as possible”
• “I looked at a plate of food I just made for myself, and recognized that taking the time to make this meal was a form of self care”
• “I put things on my calendar to look forward to (like the MBZ1 beach day)”

These are legit!

I’m sending out this email as a reminder that in addition to these types of little daily boosts, there are mindfulness technique for widening the field of your awareness and building longer-term resilience.

It’s good to have regular practices on your menu that are potent enough that they can strengthen your stress hardiness in the face of the ups and downs of life.

It’s good to have regular practices on your menu that are potent enough that they can strengthen your stress hardiness in the face of the ups and downs of life. This include making peace with taxes, death, and the other heavy parts of life.

Use the comments section to let me know if you want to discuss the big-picture practices further, or if you’ve been doing some of the heavy-hitter practices such as Tonglen.

The traditional way of doing Tonglen comes from Tibetan Buddhism. I’ve heard the word ‘Tonglen’ translated as the practice of giving and taking. [wiki-page link]

My (very light, considering,) version of Tonglen is track #3 from our March22 Ukraine album, if you want to try it. This recording is not available on our radio playlist because it’s not light and fluffy enough for general use at the radio station.

But as members, you get access to the behind-the-scenes juicier practices.

This is a good practice for when it’s getting rough out there: