I drove 300 miles to a temple

Yesterday I drove 300 miles to a temple in the middle of a forest.

Visiting Michael Singer’s Temple of the Universe had been on my bucket list for the past year, so it was epic to finally make the trip happen.

Every week Michael Singer - author of The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment - hosts a talk at the temple he founded 51 years ago.

People travel from all over the world to attend. Some people even move nearby just to integrate the teachings into their lives.

The talk he gave focused on one core message:

Your experiences mean nothing.

At first that sounds strange.

But what Michael meant is that the experience itself isn’t positive or negative. We decide what it means and then we carry that meaning into future situations.

Here’s a simple example:

Imagine that you’re stuck in traffic and you're now late for a very important meeting.

The car in front of you is driving painfully slow on a one-lane road.

Your mind jumps in immediately and thinks:

Meaning #1

This will feel very real, yet nothing actually happened in this moment other than a slow car.

Let's take another potential meaning we could assign to the same situation:

Meaning #2

That's two completely different experiences of a situation yet nothing external has changed.

What blew my mind with this concept is that we can use it every single time something comes up.

Michael Singer actually recommended that improving this is more important than meditation or more advanced spiritual practices.

This made me reflect on the last couple of weeks.

I’d been feeling stressed, but after the talk I realised something: nothing about the week itself was stressful.

The stress came from the meaning I added to what happened.

Michael Singer calls it “just getting a little lost.” It happens to all of us but it's something we can improve every day.

So to close, here's the question I've been asking myself that I invite you to think about:

Then,

I'd love to hear what this sparked in you. Reply to this email and let me know.

Talk soon,