Ep. 230: Ethan Nichtern — Mindful Awareness 5. A Better Way of Working with the Mind You Have

My guest this week for part 5 of our series on mindful awareness is Ethan Nichtern, author of a new book called Confidence: Holding Your Seat Through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds (affiliate link).

Topics we discussed included:

• Confidence as trusting we can navigate our own minds
• Making friends with our inner experience
• Equanimity as realizing that everything affects you
• The eight worldly winds or forces:
  • Pleasure/pain
  • Praise/blame
  • Influence/insignificance
  • Success/failure
• Showing up and working with whatever happens to us
• Mindfulness leading one to feel more but suffer less
• The first arrow/second arrow metaphor from Buddhism
• Not pretending something painful is not painful
• The normalness of reacting to the eight worldly winds
• Being willing to admit that we’re having an experience we’re having
• Why hope can be a trap just as much fear is
• The stress that comes with the possibility of good things
• The longing to be OK … in every way … forever
• The incredible power in just knowing what our mind is doing
• Mindfulness as a good way to practice working with the mind

Ethan Nichtern is a renowned contemporary Buddhist teacher and the author of The Dharma of the Princess Bride, One City, and the widely acclaimed The Road Home (affiliate link).

Since 2002, Ethan has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology classes and workshops in New York City and around North America. 

He has lectured at meditation/yoga centers, conferences, and universities including Brown, Yale, and NYU.

Ethan has been featured by CNN, NPR, the New York Times, Vogue, and Business Insider, and has written for the Huffington Post, Beliefnet, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma, and more. He lives in Brooklyn.

Find Ethan online at his website and find his courses at Dharma Moon.

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