This month marks 10 years since I sat down to meditate — and never stopped.

When the Body Speaks

I didn’t come to meditation for enlightenment.

I came because my body was falling apart.

By mid-2015, I was a mess — physically, emotionally, spiritually.

I had sciatica that made it hard to sit. Eczema that flared every time I got stressed. Asthma. Allergies. Digestive issues I couldn’t explain. I was 20 pounds underweight and constantly battling fatigue.

Add in a cocktail of anxiety, mood swings, and a persistent sense of “something’s wrong,” and you’ve got the full picture.

I was also drifting — working a job that didn’t feel aligned, struggling in my relationships, quietly spiralling in what I’d later realize was a minor mid-life crisis.

But the thing that finally got my attention?

My heart.

Or more precisely — those moments when it felt like my heart was trying to escape my chest.

It would skip a beat, then pound 1,000 miles an hour. My throat would tighten. My hands would go cold. My thoughts would spin out. I’d feel like I was dying — but somehow still on autopilot.

Doctors told me it was “just heart palpitations.”

And I believed them — for 30 years.

I now know what it really was.

Panic.

Misdiagnosed for 30 Years

By the time I turned 45, I had a long list of things I was trying to “fix.”

• Heart palpitations.
• Extreme anxiety.
• A textbook case of imposter syndrome.
• A body in burnout — sciatica, eczema, asthma, allergies, digestive issues, 20 pounds underweight.
• Unfulfilling work.
• Frayed relationships.
• A growing sense that life was drifting by while I was stuck in survival mode.

And yet, I was doing all the things I thought I was supposed to do.

• I read the productivity books.
• I set SMART goals.
• I pushed harder. Worked longer. Optimized everything I could.

But no matter how much I achieved on the outside, I still felt like a mess on the inside.

WTF?!

It was in this season of frustration and confusion that something finally clicked:

The “heart palpitations” I’d been experiencing since I was 9 years old—at least once a week for 30 years — weren’t just a quirky physical symptom.

They were panic attacks.

That realization shattered me … and also liberated me.

Because finally, I had a name for what was happening inside me.

And more importantly, I had a direction.

If my body wasn’t broken … maybe it was just trying to be heard.

That was the beginning.

The Turning Point

The realization didn’t hit me during a meditation retreat or in the middle of a panic attack.

It came quietly, while reading a book with a quirky title:

Diagonally-Parked in a Parallel Universe: Working Through Social Anxiety by Signe Dayhoff.

I can still remember the moment.

I was sitting there, reading the author’s description of panic attacks and suddenly, the puzzle pieces snapped into place.

Wait a minute …

This is me.

These so-called “heart palpitations” that had haunted me since childhood — this is what they really were.

Panic.

Anxiety.

Undiagnosed. Unnamed. Unmet.

I was 45 years old.

And I’d been living with panic attacks for over three decades without even knowing it.

Why Growth Feels Stuck — Until It Snaps Into Place

In that moment, I understood something else:

Learning isn’t linear.

It’s not a smooth upward curve of progress.

It’s a staircase.

You read the books.

You take the courses.

You do the work.

And for a long time, it feels like nothing’s changing.

You’re stuck on a plateau — building knowledge block by block, layer by layer.

Until suddenly, something clicks.

A final insight drops into place, and the whole system levels up.

That book was the final brick for me.

But it was only possible because of the foundation I’d been building for over a decade.

How One Quote Changed My Life

My mindfulness journey started in November 1994, when I first read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

There was one quote that stopped me cold:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

At first, I rejected it. I thought, what a load of crap.

I reacted instantly — which, ironically, was the exact point of the quote.

But something about that moment stuck with me.

That one line triggered my entire personal growth journey.

And over time, it became my mission:

To widen the gap between stimulus and response.

Over the years, I chased that mission with everything I had:

• NLP & Hypnosis – Practitioner, Master, Trainer. I spent years studying the unconscious mind.
• Toastmasters – Dozens of speeches, leadership roles, personal breakthroughs.
• Coaching – Professional certification, hundreds of hours coaching others—and myself.
• Tony Robbins – Firewalks. Peak states. Breaking limits.
• Mindset & Marketing – Courses from Jeff Walker, Todd Herman, Ryan Levesque, Michael Hyatt, Donald Miller, and more.
• Hundreds of Books – I devoured everything I could on leadership, productivity, spirituality, mindfulness, neuroscience, self-help, and mindset.

From spiritual growth to storytelling, I absorbed everything I could about how to change, grow, and lead.

And it helped.

But I missed something big:

The body is not a mindset problem to solve.

It’s a nervous system to meet.

That insight changed everything.

It was the moment I stopped trying to think my way into peace …

… and started learning how to feel my way into awareness.

The First Sit

In 2015, meditation apps weren’t exactly flooding the App Store.

I tried a few.

But most of them were random — different voices, inconsistent lengths, strange instructions. It felt more confusing than calming.

Eventually, I found an app called Calm.

And in it, a course that changed my life:

21 Days of Calm by Tamara Levitt.

Ten minutes a day.

First thing in the morning.

Before checking my phone, before coffee, before the chaos of the day.

I’d sit in a chair, or sometimes on the floor.

Back straight.

Eyes closed.

Shift attention to my breath.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Exhale slightly longer than the inhale.

Listen to the background nature track.

Follow Tamara’s soft, steady voice guiding me back to the present moment.

That was it.

What Was Difficult

• Sitting still. My body didn’t like it. My back ached. My legs twitched. My nervous system wanted to do something.
• Staying focused. My mind would latch onto the first thought that showed up … and then another … and another.

Even 10 minutes felt like a marathon some mornings.

What Surprised Me

• How wild my mind actually was. Not in a bad way — just relentlessly active.
• How each time I brought my attention back to the breath, my nervous system dialled down just a little bit.

Not all at once. But noticeably. Tangibly. Reassuringly.

What Kept Me Coming Back

Somewhere around day 14 of the 21 Days of Calm, something shifted.

For the first time in my life, my nervous system slipped out of overdrive.

Even if just for 10 minutes, I found something I didn’t even know I was missing:

Stillness.

Safety.

A quiet, sacred space inside.

A Commitment That Changed Everything

That 10-minute sit became my sanctuary.

And that was the moment I made a quiet but powerful decision:

This is the greatest gift I can give to myself.

From that day forward, I committed to making meditation a part of my life — every day, no matter what.

It became my Keystone Habit.

A self-care ritual that I anchor at the same time every morning.

Before email. Before screens. Before anything else.

It’s not always easy.

But it’s always essential.

This wasn’t just a habit I was building — it was an identity I was reclaiming.

I became someone who meets the day with presence.

Someone who protects his nervous system before the world makes demands on it.

Someone who shows up — one breath at a time.

And almost immediately, the panic attacks dropped away.

I went from weekly episodes to … nearly none.

In the past 10 years, I can count on one hand the number of times panic returned.

The Skill That Changed Everything

There’s a handful of mindfulness skills that gradually develop through practice — awareness, self-compassion, curiosity, patience.

But the one that changed everything for me?

Non-judgement.

Every time I noticed my attention had wandered, I used to scold myself.

Ugh, there I go again. Why can’t I just focus?

But through Tamara’s gentle guidance, I learned something radical:

You don’t need to fix the mind. Just return. Without judgement.

And that changed everything.

That one micro-shift — notice → return → no shame — was the moment I stopped fighting myself.

And started healing.

A Gentle Warning About Dark Thoughts

About six months into my practice, something unexpected happened.

Disturbing thoughts from my past began to surface — memories, regrets, fears I hadn’t consciously thought about in years. At first, it felt like my mind was fighting back … like it was throwing everything it could at me to break the calm.

It was disorienting.

And honestly, a little scary.

If this ever happens to you — please know: you’re not doing it wrong.

You’re not broken.

You’re not failing.

You’re healing.

What I’ve come to understand is this:

Meditation doesn’t create dark thoughts. It reveals what’s already there — so it can be met, felt, and processed.

Each time one of those thoughts arose and I stayed present, even just for a breath, the grip loosened. The reactivity faded. The charge dissolved.

Now, those thoughts — when they arise—feel like echoes.

They no longer hijack my nervous system.

That was one of the greatest gifts of the practice:

I stopped being afraid of what I might find inside myself.

From Surviving to Rebuilding

That early shift — when my nervous system finally dropped out of overdrive — was more than just a moment of calm.

It was a reboot of my entire operating system.

From that moment forward, everything began to change.

One Tiny Habit Changed Everything

That small decision—to sit for 10 minutes each morning—sparked a habit cascade that would reshape my health, my identity, and my life strategy.

A month into my meditation practice, I added a second habit:

Working out three times a week, using a basic dumbbell set and bench I picked up from Canadian Tire.

Then I started dialling in my AM and PM habit stacks—protecting my mornings for alignment, and my evenings for recovery.

From there, I began systematically addressing each of my chronic health challenges:

• I saw a specialist for my asthma and finally got it under control.
• I saw a psychotherapist to help manage the sciatica that made sitting so painful.
• I worked with a naturopath and a medical specialist to understand and heal my eczema and digestive issues.
• I focused on eating, moving, and sleeping habits—not just to “perform,” but to restore balance to a nervous system that had been dysregulated for decades.

What I learned was simple but profound:

My nervous system wasn’t broken.

It was burned out — and desperately asking for a new strategy.

Burn It Down. Build It Better.

That’s when I stopped trying to “hack” my way to productivity … and started rebuilding my life strategy from the ground up.

One mindful habit at a time.

I set a bold target for myself:

Install 100 mindful habits — not all at once, but through daily reps.

Move from theory → to practice → to mastery.

Over time, I:

• Reconnected with my strengths and values
• Rekindled my sense of purpose and mission
• Committed one focused hour per day to a passion project

During that one hour per day, I:

• Built two habit-tracking apps
• Recorded three seasons of the Mindful Habits podcast
• Wrote articles, built tools, and developed the foundations of Habit Theory 2.0

In 2022, I reached my goal of installing my 100th habit.

And later that year, I became a certified Heroic Coach (Class V) under Brian Johnson’s program.

To graduate, each participant must complete a physical challenge.

I chose to run a Spartan Race — 5 km of rugged terrain, 20+ obstacles, mud, grit, and growth.

Something I never imagined I could do.

But the nervous system that once broke down in panic … now carried me across the finish line.

I also began building habits to deepen my connection with my wife and daughters.

Daily presence. Weekly rituals. Moments of undivided attention.

Little anchors that reminded me: the point of healing isn’t just inner peace.

It’s being fully here for the people who matter most.

My System Wasn’t Broken. Just Misaligned.

What I discovered is that habits don’t just change your actions.

They change your identity.

Each foundational habit — whether it was meditation, movement, nutrition, or connection — helped rebuild trust with my body, confidence in my mind, and clarity in my purpose.

My new strategy wasn’t about external success.

It was about internal alignment.

• Habits became a way to build the strengths required to meet life’s challenges.
• Self-doubt gave way to capability and courage.
• Limiting beliefs faded. Curiosity and growth took their place.

And most importantly?

My system stopped running on anxiety.

It started running on intentional design.

The Real Reason You’re Stuck (It’s Not What You Think)

Here’s the insight that changed everything for me:

The reason you’re suffering from anxiety, burnout, disconnection — or any modern challenge — isn’t because you’re weak, lazy, or broken.

It’s because you’ve unintentionally installed hundreds (if not thousands) of tiny habits … designed by the part of your brain that’s trying to keep you safe.

That part of the brain — the Safety Brain — isn’t concerned with joy, purpose, or growth.

It just wants to avoid pain.

Avoid risk.

Avoid the unknown.

And so it builds a system of behaviours that keep you in the known zone.

Safe … but stuck.

This creates a kind of slow-motion drift — one tiny habit at a time.

Over the years, I’ve come to map these habits of unconscious drift into five core areas:

The 5 Areas of Drift

1. Body Drift – Neglecting movement, nutrition, and sleep. Living in fatigue or pain.
2. Heart Drift – Disconnecting from relationships or avoiding vulnerability.
3. Mind Drift – Stuck in overthinking, anxiety, distraction loops.
4. Path Drift – Working on goals that aren’t aligned. Living for validation, not purpose.
5. Space Drift – Letting clutter, noise, and endless inputs overtake your environment.

Each of these reflects a system of unconscious habits — installed not by intention, but by repetition and stress.

How to Rewire the System — One Habit at a Time

Once I understood that my “normal” was just a collection of misaligned default habits, I realized something liberating:

If unconscious habits got me here … conscious habits could get me out.

That’s what my entire life strategy became:

Not fixing myself … but rewiring my system to support who I actually wanted to become.

One mindful habit at a time.

From Identity Crisis to Identity Design

At some point—quietly, gradually — this stopped being about managing symptoms.

It stopped being about fixing anxiety.

Or healing my body.

Or even installing mindful habits.

And it became something deeper:

I was becoming someone new.

Not through a single breakthrough.

But through thousands of small decisions — each one reinforcing the identity I was building.

From Drift to Design

I used to live by default.

My habits were mostly unconscious.

My energy was reactive.

My days were shaped by whatever crisis or craving pulled my attention.

I was living as what I now call “You 1.0”—a version of me built by fear, protection, and the need to survive.

But little by little, as I practiced awareness, as I built habits aligned with my values, as I shifted my state intentionally instead of unconsciously …

… I began embodying “You 2.0.”

A version of me built by design, not drift.

Not a perfect version.

Not a superhuman.

But a version of me who:

• Meets the day with presence
• Notices his nervous system before it spirals
• Anchors in purpose before performance
• Chooses from curiosity instead of fear
• Trusts himself—even in uncertainty

Identity Is a Habit

If anything, I learned early on — painfully — that identity is highly shapeable.

Growing up with social anxiety, I became an expert at shaping myself to fit in.

Reading the room. Becoming who others needed me to be.

Adapting. Masking. Pleasing. Performing.

It’s probably a “my dad left when I was 7” kind of thing.

That ability to shift — while a powerful survival skill — also became a prison.

I could become anything … except myself.

What meditation revealed was that I didn’t need to perform anymore.

I didn’t need to shape-shift to survive.

I could design my identity — intentionally, from the inside out.

And I could anchor that identity in daily actions.

Not in what others expected … but in what I chose.

Every Habit is a Vote

That’s the deeper truth I discovered:

Identity isn’t just who you are. It’s what you practice.

Every habit is a vote for the person you believe you are.

And every intentional rep is a signal to your nervous system:

• “This is who we are now.”
• “This is how we live.”
• “This is what matters.”

That’s why meditation was never just a morning routine for me.

It became a ritual of remembrance.

A daily moment to reclaim who I was becoming:

• “I am someone who shows up.”
• “I am someone who meets my life with presence.”
• “I am someone who builds a calm, resilient system—one breath at a time.”

From Student to Steward

The further I walked this path, the more I felt called to help others walk it too.

Not because I had everything figured out.

But because I had lived it.

I had rebuilt my life strategy.

I had installed 100 mindful habits.

I had experienced the identity shift from survival to service.

And so I began sharing what I was learning:

• Through the Mindful Habits Podcast
• Through two custom-built habit apps
• Through the creation of Habit Theory 2.0
• Through my coaching, my writing, and my work in the Everyday Heroes community

I stopped just building habits.

I started building a mission — to help others do the same.

From Panic to Purpose

Ten years ago, I was a man struggling with undiagnosed panic attacks, a dysregulated nervous system, and an unspoken fear that I might never feel truly calm.

Now, I’m someone who begins each day with stillness.

Who builds mindful systems for growth.

Who helps everyday heroes recraft their identity through intentional design.

I don’t say that with pride.

I say it with gratitude.

Because I know the path.

And I know the pain.

And I also know — without a doubt — that it’s possible to transform.

Not by force.

But by awareness.

By design.

And by one breath, one habit, one day at a time.

The Mindfulness Journey

Looking back, one of the clearest patterns I can now see is how my relationship with my thoughts evolved over time.

Meditation didn’t just reduce anxiety.

It fundamentally changed how I related to my inner world.

That shift didn’t happen all at once.

It followed a path — a journey I now see as moving through four key stages:

1. MindLess

This is where I started.

And where most of us begin.

• My thoughts were me.
• My emotions were true.
• There was no separation, no space, no pause.
• When a fear or judgment showed up, I believed it — and acted on it.
• I was constantly hijacked — emotionally, mentally, physically.

I lived in reaction.

Everything was personal. Everything was urgent.

And I had no idea I could choose differently.

2. MindFULL

This was the first shift meditation gave me.

• I started noticing my thoughts and emotions — as thoughts and emotions.
• I realized I didn’t have to believe everything my mind told me.
• Occasionally, I caught myself spiralling — and chose a different response.
• I began to access what I now call Hero Mode — not every day, but more often.

It was like someone turned on the lights in a room I didn’t know I was sitting in.

3. Mindful

With regular practice, I moved into this third stage.

• I noticed my thoughts more consistently — especially unhelpful or anxious patterns.
• I learned to pause, breathe, and choose a new direction.
• I could down-regulate my nervous system in real time.
• I wasn’t just reacting — I was responding.

This is where I truly began to live by design.

Not perfectly. But more often than not, I could shift when it mattered most.

4. Mindfulness

This is where I find myself more and more these days.

• Thoughts still come, but they often match my practiced intention.
• When they don’t, I can shift them easily — without drama.
• I live with a nervous system that trusts me now.
• I rarely experience anxiety. And when I do, it doesn’t define me.

This isn’t a state of perfection.

It’s a state of freedom.

A life of clarity, presence, and conscious choice.

A life of mindful intention.

But here’s the truth: I almost never started.

For years, I avoided meditation altogether …

Why I Avoided Meditation for Years

For years, I avoided meditation.

Not because I was too busy — but because it seemed … woo-woo.

All this talk about “being in the now”?

What does that even mean? I used to roll my eyes.

Back then, I wanted tools. Systems. Results.

Not vague spiritual slogans wrapped in incense.

But here’s the truth I couldn’t see then:

Meditation isn’t soft. It’s savage.

It’s probably the hardest thing you can do for your mental health.

You sit.

You breathe.

And you face everything you’ve been avoiding.

No scrolling. No numbing. No escaping.

Just you … and your thoughts … and the dragons you’ve been running from.

This is shadow work.

This is nervous system training.

This is learning how to stay with discomfort instead of reacting to it.

You want to become an Everyday Hero?

Sit with your pain and stay there long enough to breathe through it.

That’s real courage.

Meditation isn’t about being zen.

It’s about becoming a badass.

10 Lessons from 10 Years of Daily Meditation

After 3,650 days of meditation, the biggest gift I’ve received isn’t just calm.

It’s clarity.

Clarity on how the mind works.

Clarity on how habits form.

Clarity on who I want to be — and how to keep becoming him.

Below are the seven mindfulness skills I’ve come to live by.

I call the model UBLARGE — a strange little acronym that changed my life.

The UBLARGE Mindfulness Model

1. Unhook

“You are not your thoughts.”

This was the first lesson — and it was revolutionary.

Meditation taught me how to step out of the stream of automatic thoughts and observe them from the front seat.

To go from being in the thought … to seeing the thought.

That’s when I realized:

The voice in my head isn’t the narrator of truth. It’s just the next prediction.

Now, when I notice anxiety or rumination pulling me in, I pause and say:

“Ah… I see you.”

And just like that, I’m back in the director’s chair.

2. Breathe + Body

“The body is always now.”

My breath became my anchor.

When the mind races, the body brings it home.

This is how I learned to regulate my nervous system:

• Through breath pacing
• Through body scans
• Through daily stillness and morning movement

Instead of getting pulled into the past or future, I return to the body.

To this moment.

To now.

3. Label (The Awareness Check-In)

“Name it to navigate it.”

Through daily check-ins, I learned to label what I was experiencing:

• Am I anxious? Overstimulated? Drained?
• What mode is my nervous system in?
• Where is my attention right now?

The act of labelling — without judgment — creates space.

And space gives you choice.

That’s when I started catching patterns before they hijacked me.

4. Acceptance

“Not everything needs to be solved.”

One of the hardest — and most freeing — lessons.

I spent years trying to fix, control, and optimize everything.

But meditation taught me that peace isn’t about control.

It’s about surrender.

I stopped treating every uncomfortable emotion like a problem.

And started learning to sit with what is.

No resistance.

No fixing.

Just presence.

5. Release

“Let go of what no longer serves.”

Once I stopped resisting, I could start releasing.

That meant letting go of:

• Old stories
• Old identities
• Thoughts I’d outgrown
• Emotions I didn’t need to carry anymore

Sometimes release came through breath.

Sometimes through journaling.

Sometimes through stillness.

But it always came with a quiet sense of freedom.

6. Gather (Intention + Values)

“What matters most?”

Once the noise quieted, I could hear what mattered.

I began anchoring each day with a simple question:

“What kind of man do I want to be today?”

This is where mindfulness becomes moral clarity.

Not just noticing thoughts.

But noticing what matters — and aligning your actions accordingly.

This shift brought me back to my values, mission, and service.

7. Encode

“Every rep shapes your system.”

This is where habits and mindfulness truly merge.

Every time I return to my breath …

Every time I notice a thought and release it …

Every time I follow through on an intention …

I’m encoding that experience into my nervous system.

Meditation is no longer just a tool.

It’s a training ground.

A daily rep that teaches my body and brain:

“This is who we are now.”

8–10. The Ongoing Loop

You don’t graduate from mindfulness.

There’s no final level. No badge. No perfect state.

What you do get is a system — a way to meet yourself in every moment, no matter the chaos outside or the chatter inside.

This isn’t about escaping life.

It’s about building the capacity to live it — fully, freely, and on purpose.

Meditation is what you do on the mat.

Mindfulness is what you do off the mat.

The real work is carrying your calm into chaos.

Translating your breath into action.

Turning awareness into design.

8. Mindfulness is a system skill — and sometimes, a superpower.

Meditation isn’t just a practice — it’s how you train your system to notice, unhook, and respond - in the real world.

UBLARGE isn’t seven steps. It’s one loop that rewires your operating system.

And every once in a while — right when you need it most — time slows down.

You catch the pattern before it runs.

You see yourself — from the outside — and make a new choice.

That’s a Matrix moment.

And once you glimpse it, you can’t unsee it.

You don’t just have thoughts — you have the power to shape them.

9. You don’t need to win the moment — you just need to return.

Forget streaks. Forget perfection.

The power is in the return — every time you unhook and come back to presence, you’re re-encoding trust, resilience, and identity.

10. The goal isn’t calm. The goal is congruence.

Calm is a by-product — not the point.

The real aim is alignment — living in tune with your values, guided by intention, and free from the fear of your own thoughts and emotions.

What Keeps Me Going

I still meditate every day.

It’s not something I have to force anymore. It’s just part of who I am.

My morning sit is my keystone habit — the anchor that holds my system steady. Every morning, first thing after waking up, I do 20 minutes. No exceptions.

The first 10 minutes are with the Calm app, listening to Jeff Warren’s Daily Trip. Jeff is one of my favourite meditation guides. His 30-day series, Mindfulness for Beginners, might be the best intro to meditation I’ve ever encountered. Playful. Insightful. Accessible.

The second 10 minutes are with the Waking Up app, guided by Sam Harris. That app is a rabbit hole of depth — a masterclass in consciousness, identity, and non-dual awareness. The range of voices and practices is extraordinary. I’ve spent hundreds of hours exploring it, and I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface.

Most evenings, I also sit for 10 minutes before bed — usually five nights a week. Lately, I’ve been using The Way app by Henry Shukman. Henry’s path blends Zen tradition with poetic storytelling and direct experience. There’s something sacred and soft in the way he guides you in.

That’s what I do on the mat.

But mindfulness doesn’t end when the meditation bell rings.

Off the mat, I’ve built systems to help me live what I practice.

The app I’ve created — Habits Coach — is designed to bring mindfulness into real life. Every time I open it, I’m prompted to pause and check in. Energy. State. Intention. Just noticing.

From there, the app helps me choose habits that match who I am and where I want to go.

It’s not just about tracking streaks — it’s about designing your life.

• The Compass feature helps me stay connected to my purpose, mission, goals, and relationships.
• The Habits tool helps me build state-matched behaviours.
• The Journal helps me reflect and encode.
• The in-app AI Coach helps me course-correct when I drift.

It’s meditation, made practical.

Mindfulness, made daily.

And it’s available if you want to try it: https://open.habits.coach

Advice for Others

You don’t need to become someone else.

You just need to become someone who returns.

Not once. Not perfectly.

But again and again — breath by breath, moment by moment.

That’s the path.

Here’s what I’d offer anyone beginning (or beginning again):

1. Forget perfect. Remember presence.

You don’t need the right posture, cushion, or mantra.

You need one breath — taken on purpose.

That’s enough to change your state.

That’s enough to start again.

2. Start with 2 minutes. Let it grow from there.

Two minutes is enough.

Enough to breathe. Enough to return. Enough to shift your state.

Start with a short daily sit — ideally at the same time, in the same place, every day.

Make it easy. Make it obvious. Make it doable.

Once you build that base, you can expand.

For example:

• I currently sit for 20 minutes every morning, and 10 minutes most evenings.
• My morning routine includes Jeff Warren’s “Daily Trip” on the Calm app, followed by a 10-minute session from the Waking Up app with Sam Harris.
• In the evenings, I often explore The Way app with Henry Shukman.

But I didn’t start there.

What matters most is showing up — not how long you stay.

3. Meditation trains your nervous system. Mindfulness trains your life.

Meditation is the lab.

Life is the dojo.

That’s why I built the Habits Coach app — to carry the practice off the mat.

Every check-in is a pause. Every suggested habit is a chance to align.

Mindfulness isn’t what happens instead of chaos.

It’s what lets you meet chaos differently.

4. You don’t need to feel calm. You just need to come back.

Streaks are fragile.

But returns are powerful.

Every time you notice the drift — and gently return — you strengthen the prediction that you are someone who notices.

That identity shift is the real win.

5. Mindfulness isn’t about self-improvement. It’s about self-remembrance.

Underneath the noise, you already know.

You already are.

The practice isn’t to fix yourself — it’s to remember who you are when you’re not lost in the storm.

Widen the Gap

Ten years in, I don’t meditate to “be mindful.”

I meditate to remember who I am — and to fight the drift.

To widen the gap between stimulus and response.

To slow the spin, notice the pull, and choose something better.

Some days, it clicks.

Other days, it’s just breath … and distraction … and a hundred starts over.

But every day, it’s a line in the sand.

A quiet rebellion against autopilot.

A daily reminder that I’m not just a reaction.

I’m a pattern-breaking force of presence.

Once, my nervous system was locked in panic.

Now, it’s the anchor I return to — one breath at a time.

This isn’t about calm.

It’s about clarity.

The moment you notice — you’re back.

The moment you choose — you win.

Because sometimes, life is the Matrix.

And every sit is a chance to see it more clearly — to catch the code before it runs you.

That’s the gift.

Not perfection.

Not peace.

Just a little more power in the pause.

And that’s enough.

Because every time you sit … you widen the gap.