The nature of the mind-body connection is such that if you begin to contract in response to a difficult situation, you will

ordinary, or everyday, compulsion—the irresistible drive or urge to repeatedly think, speak, or act in a manner that is unskillful and sometimes harmful.

Starting-over practice is like this: you attend as best you can to the immediate situation in a way that is as close as you can come to your intentions.

I want you to take your inner life more seriously

Ordinary compulsion can be felt in the body as an overwhelming sense of pressure or urgency to act immediately in a certain way—

The process of investigation begins with noticing the components that make up ordinary compulsion. It helps to think of ordinary compulsion as an unattended, habitual impulse.

do a body scan. In a body scan you progressively tense and relax each part of your body as you imagine healing energy moving through it.

Living from your intentions is quite different from living from your goals. It is not oriented toward achieving a future outcome. Instead it is a path of practice that is focused on how you are being in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever-present now in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions by understanding

Setting Intentions Based on Your Values