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Articles by Dr. Robert Puff

Browse every published article connected to Dr. Robert Puff, with exact attribution and full-archive search.

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57 articles by Dr. Robert Puff · showing 50

Browse every published article connected to Dr. Robert Puff, or search within this exact expert archive.

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Mental Stillness and Being Present: Key Ingredients of Happiness

If you were to ask me, “What is the key, essential component of happiness?” or, “What is a fundamental element of happiness? my answer would be simultaneously simple , yet very complicated. Here, I’d like to explore the fundamental element of happiness. When we “get it,” when we understand it, when we live by it, we will be happy. What is it? What is the fundamental key to happiness? Though it may seem very easy, finding the key to happiness can be one of life’s most difficult and elusive tasks; yet it is possible. It is absolutely possible.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,408 views3.1/5 (7)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Stabilizing Power of Meditation

As we go through life things happen to us to get us off course. Things that make us wonder about the true benevolence, kindness and love of life and the universe. The beauty of meditation is that when you meditate you truly get grounded with life and you are able to see how everything is really well and going the way it’s supposed to. You are doing your part, others are doing their part and together the world is a beautiful place for everyone to live in.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,149 views4.5/5 (4)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation and Fear: How to Find Relief from Our Fears

What are fears? Fears are something that we have created in our mind after, usually, having a negative experience. I say “usually” because fears cannot only come from our own experiences but also from those of others also. A lot of people have different fears. The main ingredient of fears is that they are created in our minds, reinforced in our minds and sustained in our minds.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,550 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Why We Don’t Meditate: And How We Can Change This

Let’s explore why we don’t meditate twice a day? Some of us do, but many of us don’t meditate when we should. People come home after a long, hard day of work, finish their day and fall into bed without meditating. There’s simply ‘no time’ for meditation. But why don’t we find the time? There is so much proof of why meditation is good for you. If you were to visit some of the healthiest people on the planet you will be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t believe in, attest to, and practice meditation.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,327 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Key Benefits of Meditation: My Personal Mediation Journey

When you meditate, the key is to focus on your breath because that is the only thing happening right here, right now. You may have a mantra or prayer word; you may visualize or use a guided meditation; but the key to any meditation is to be in the here and now.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,559 views4.6/5 (5)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

What Is Really Real? How Awareness and Beingness Open the Doors to the True Self

Everything that is, everything that ever will be, everything that has ever been, can only occur because we are bearing witness to it. Everything exists simply because we are aware of it. Without us, nothing can be. The entire universe unfolds from our true self: our consciousness, which is also known as the ultimate self, or the ocean of awareness. Whatever words we use to describe it will be inadequate, however, since words are limited. They are only able to be a part of our conscious mind, and even our conscious mind arises out of that which we truly are.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,256 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Cause and Effect: Suspending time to achieve beingness

What causes things to be the universe, us, everything that is? Time and space play a huge role in causation. Physics, Einstein and scientists around the world have concluded that we live in a space-time continuum.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,131 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditators, Dancers, & Mind-Body Awareness

Have you ever gone through a day when you’re very, very busy and you have to get things done so even though you are hungry you just keep going and slowly that hunger sensation turns into a headache? I’ve seen this happen to my wife a lot when she’s busy and she just forgets about, or puts aside eating and a few hours later she gets a terrible headache. It can happen to a lot of us; we just get busy, we don’t focus on what our bodies are doing, and things go wrong. Our bodies and our minds are connected.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,343 views4.5/5 (4)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Living a Meditative Life

Meditation is a wonderful experience, but so often so many people out there stop meditating and their mind goes back to being extremely busy, active and non-attentive. They leave the meditative state of mind to go back to the every day world. I like to encourage people to truly keep their self in a present awareness all day long. This is actually the premise of the retreats I offer on a regular basis, focusing on a full day of living a meditative life.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,223 views4.3/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation, Einstein and Living in the Moment: Has Your Life Gone to the Dogs?

A practical article connected into the broader SelfGrowth topic graph.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,253 views3.5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation and Earnestness

Perhaps the most important concept or discipline I can teach you is “Earnestness”. When I was younger, while I had been introduced to mediation, I wasn’t earnest in practicing it until later in life when I realized how mediation so closely related to my own growth as a person. For me, it was a process in learning how important meditation was to my life and my growth in life. I had to first realize that meditation was a good experience. I enjoyed it but, until I learned about how meditation was a basis for growth, I wasn’t earnest about it.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,392 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Dealing With Past, Present and Future: The power of here and now

In life we experience two main emotions: one is pleasure, the other is pain. They come and they go; they are a normal part of the human experience. But what happens is that our minds try to maintain the good and push away the bad. It’s a kind of tug-of-war where we say “I want this” and “I don’t want that.” This has the result of causing struggles in our lives.

Primary topic: Meditation

2,090 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Awakening Your True Self: The power of awareness

In this life, the most permanent thing we experience is witnessing awareness. It begins when we are born and it goes away when we die. But beyond this witnessing, beyond the most permanent thing that is part of our life, is that which truly is. That which we ultimately are cannot be described, yet it is a foundation of everything that is, will be or has ever been. What we experience is witnessing, but the knower and the known arise out of our ultimate true self. It’s similar to when we are asleep. We may not be aware of it, but after we wake up we are aware that we were asleep.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,285 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

How Can I Achieve Happiness? How the Natural State is the Key to Pure Happiness

As we go through life, sometimes we have beautiful experiences. They are so wonderful that we are filled with a desire to hold onto them for as long as possible. But why we can’t hang onto them and why they go away is because we can only remember them in the mind. The mind itself is not stable; it isn’t consistent. We can’t hold onto those experiences because the mind often changes. The question to ask ourselves is: “What is consistent? What is stable?” We have to go beyond the mind to find that which is stable and always is. But, how is it possible to move beyond the mind?

Primary topic: Meditation

1,180 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Ultimate Purpose of Meditation: Meditation’s role in enlightenment

I began meditating almost thirty years ago. I think at first I began just out of curiosity. I had been studying meditation in my academic training and learned how science has shown that meditation is very beneficial to us. When I started meditating I found it to be a very relaxing, peaceful experience. Over time as I grew and discovered that meditation is really helpful for our spiritual growth, I really dived into it. I now consistently meditate every day, usually once in the morning for about an hour and then in the evening for about half an hour.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,140 views5/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

How to Feel Beautiful: Feel Beautiful and Celebrate Ourselves

Our culture, around the world, puts so much pressure on us to look good, to stay young, and to stay beautiful. Why? How does this impact us? There are many reasons why. One, from more of an evolutionary stance, is that being beautiful encourages people to procreate. Women who are younger are, of course, more able to have children so youth is seen as something that is desirable; this is natural and helps us have procreate around the world. If we had evolved in such a way to find elderly people to be attractive then we wouldn’t have as many babies and genes wouldn’t be passed on.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,428 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation and Synchronicity: How Meditation Creates Amazing “Coincidences”

Synchronicity is actually related to probability. There are events that occur in life which have a small probability in life of happening, yet they happen. For instance you’re talking on the phone with a friend and you say something and they say to you, “I was just thinking that!” The chances of that actually happening are really small, yet it happens. Another example is perhaps you call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while. You come across their number and you decide to call them and check to see how they’re doing.

Primary topic: Meditation

3,654 views4.3/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Three Steps to Spiritual Enlightenment: Earnestness, Concepts, Being-ness

There are three important steps which are crucial aspects in moving in the direction of living an enlightened, awakened life. Any one of us can take these steps.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,263 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Walking Meditation: Some great tips and strategies for understanding how to perform a walking meditation

Most of us think of meditation as sitting in the lotus position with the eyes closed, but there is a form of meditation called “walking meditation” that is wonderful, relaxing, and something you can do anytime, anywhere.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,007 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Learning To Live Spontaneously: Loosening Our Hold on Fear and Desire

Life is a dance between two intense emotions: fear and desire. We go back and forth between these two throughout our lives. But what we’re exploring here is what precedes and pervades life before desire and fear.

Primary topic: Meditation

2,043 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation and Labyrinths

Labyrinths are walking meditations that go way, way back in time. Archeologists can date them all the way back to 1500 BC but they are probably much older than that. We can find them all over the world, in churches, cathedrals, old ruins, and now many spiritual retreat centers have them. Perhaps the most famous labyrinth is Chartres Cathedral just south of Paris. It’s a beautiful labyrinth that dates to over 800 years ago. I suggest anyone that goes to Europe visit Chartres Cathedral. It’s beautiful and the labyrinth is right inside the cathedral.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,152 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Breath Meditation: Some of the many ways in which breath meditation may help you enhance your general well being

Now I’d like to share with you my favorite form of meditation, called “breath meditation.” I believe it is one of the most powerful, yet one of the easiest, meditations to learn.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,132 views5/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Ultimate Cause of Everything: Connect with Your Ultimate Self

When looking at causation, we need to ask: What causes things? What is the ultimate cause of everything? By taking a look at the universe we can see that everything is interlinked at such a level that we can’t help but wonder if anything really can happen. We need to understand that it’s up to the universe to make things happen. The entire universe needs to conspire to cause them to happen.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,103 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

How To Meditate Anywhere

Where can you meditate? Do you need to have a quiet place free from all distractions and noises or can you actually meditate anywhere, anytime, any place? Many people live in crowded cities or areas where it’s busy. Does that mean that they can’t meditate? Is it possible to meditate even when there’s cacophonous noise all around you? I say it is.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,619 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Winning the Bronze Medal in Life: What My Kindergartener Can Teach Us

Many of us put a lot of pressure upon ourselves to achieve. When we don’t live up to our expectations, we are often very hard on ourselves. Furthermore, we have an incredible tendency to compare ourselves to other people. If we don’t live up to these imaginary lines of success that we have created in our heads, then we suffer. I want to offer an alte ative to this suffering, a lesson we can all learn, courtesy of my six-year-old daughter.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,360 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

My Personal Journey Into The World of Meditation

I began meditating in my late teens after I was exposed to the research of Herbert Benson, who wrote the book The Relaxation Response. It was a wonderful study into how people meditate and the benefits of meditation. It was basic but very helpful. It got me interested in both practicing and studying meditation.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,231 views4.8/5 (4)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation Can Reduce the Intensity of Pain: Medication or Meditation?

Recently my daughter slammed her hand in the door and it was very painful for her. I had done a similar thing many years ago and initially it was a very painful experience for about maybe ten seconds. I started to breathe slowly and deeply and the pain went away quickly. There still remained a slight, dull ache for a while but overall the pain was gone. I’m sure my daughter and I aren’t unique in having painful experiences to us.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,193 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Waking Up at Princeton: It’s Not Always The Degree You Get That Makes You Smart

Many years ago, when I began working on my first Masters Degree at Princeton, I had an experience that really helped me change my life and put me on a new path, a new direction for how to live my life. Towards the end of my degree I had made many accomplishments while at Princeton. I had was graduating with honors, I had won many awards for some research work I had done, I had been accepted into one of the top PhD clinical psychology programs in the United States, and all seemed to be going well.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,203 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Eating Well and Mindfully: Living a Meditative Life

You may ask yourself, “What do meditation and eating have to do with each other?” The answer is that they actually have a great deal to do with each other. What happens in the day is that we tend to get so busy that we’re not 100% present with “what is” and we really miss out on wonderful experiences that occur throughout the day. This includes important moments in everyday life, like eating.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,329 views4.8/5 (4)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

How to Overcome Obstacles That Keep Us From Meditating

There are many reasons why we don’t do things that we know are good for us. When I first was exposed to meditation, at about 19 years of age, I was working on my first academic degree. I had begun studying the positive effects of meditation. My exposure to meditation was very scientific, very medical. I learned how meditation was good for your heart, your stress levels and just overall good for your health. I would describe it all in very scientific and medical descriptions exclusively.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,220 views5/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Most Powerful Mantra: Learn to Lose the Ego and Awaken to Who We Are

Who we are is very simple. We are the Supreme Reality. Everything comes from that and is a reflection of that. We are really like the sun and our lives that we’re experiencing right now are like the dewdrops that are reflecting the sun. Another way to look at it is to see life as a dream. We are dreaming this life. We are the dreamer of our lives. Our lives are being dreamed. Life is really just an extended dream and we are the dreamer, which is the supreme reality.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,987 views

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The World Exists Because We Do: Changing How We Perceive the World and Ourselves

Some questions we need to ask ourselves when finding out who we are and how to live in the world in an enlightened way include: “What are the various states of being in which we exist?” and “What ultimately is our true, primordial, foundational state of being?” As human beings we exist in three states. The first one is wakefulness, the second is dreaming and the third is sleep in which no dreaming occurs. These are the three states of being that we exist in throughout our lives.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,005 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Life Is But A Dream: Waking Up from the Dream of Life

When we think about our lives, the people in our lives, the work we go to, the city we live in, the galaxy we’re a part of and the whole universe, we think of it as so real, tangible, ever present and everlasting. But because we perceive it in our minds and we can only perceive that which our minds can grasp, it’s actually a very small universe. It is also transitory – it doesn’t last. It only lasts and exists when we think about it. If we see it as a dream then we can locate truth.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,297 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Pursuit of Happiness: What are you seeking?

We all seek for many things. Some of us seek for money. Some of us seek for fame. Some of us seek for love. Some of us seek for health. But I believe, at its core, what we are ultimately seeking for is happiness. “I’ll be happy if I find the love of my life… if I have enough money, I’ll be happy… if I get that promotion… if I purchase that home… if I get that car…” The list goes on and on but we all know people who have money, who have fame, who even have the love of their life but still are not happy.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,306 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Finding The Answer To “Who Am I?”: Lose the labels and learn the art of beingness

Before anything can be known, before anything can come into existence, there must be someone who is the background to all that exists. When we wake up in the morning, everything blooms in our awareness. But would it all be there if we weren’t around? Can there be anything without us first being aware of it? The “I am” is present before anything else exists. Thus, you are before everything else can be.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,024 views5/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Discovery Who We Are: We Aren’t Who We Think We Are

Ironically, one of the main things that keeps us from awakening to our true nature is knowledge. We think we know things, and knowing these things keeps us from being awake. Our belief that we have true knowledge keeps us caught up in our perceptions, labels, and opinions, making them appear as realities rather than the biased points of view they actually are. If truth is a matter of perspective, can we call it truth? If situations change depending on how we look at them and on who is doing the looking, can we really trust our judgments to be true knowledge?

Primary topic: Meditation

1,208 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Discover the “I Am”: Embrace the infinite possibility of the real you

Knowledge is one of the things that prevent us from awakening. Why? We think we know many things and knowing these things keeps us from being awake. To gain awareness we need to unlea what we know, or think we know. We need to let go of every piece of knowledge and just be. In the East they call it the way ‘neti neti’ which means ‘not this, not that.’ In the West we refer to it as ‘via negativa’ which means a way of nothingness.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,475 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Boosting Our Self Confidence: The Magnetic Personality We Create

This article is inspired by one of my listeners from the Netherlands. She is recently divorced and is rebuilding her life. She wanted some advice on how to build self-confidence again. I decided that in response to her e-mail I would like to address using meditation as a means to boost our self-confidence.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,783 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Total Recall of Who We Are: Stop Thinking and Start Being

There is a movie starring A old Schwarzenegger called Total Recall. A large part of the movie revolves around A old’s character discovering who he really is. We all want to know who we really are. Unless we settle into thinking, “Well, this is my life and I’m not going to think about it,” we keep searching until we find the answers. Who Are We Really?

Primary topic: Meditation

1,255 views5/5 (1)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Creating A Place To Meditate

Children love a routine at night when they are preparing for bed. Putting them to bed, reading them a story, singing to them; whatever the routine is that a parent may have, calms them and relaxes them. When children go on a road trip in the car they do so much better when they have something special with them that reminds them of home; a special blanket, a cd of songs that calm them and so on. My daughter has a special “blankie” that makes her feel safe and calm when she’s on a trip.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,554 views4.7/5 (3)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

What Shakespeare Can Teach Us About Enlightenment: All the world’s a stage

When I was an undergraduate at university many years ago, my deep enjoyment and love for the works of William Shakespeare blossomed. I had the privilege of taking a Shakespearean class and then during one summer in my undergraduate years, I was able to travel through Europe inexpensively on a bike and a Europass to see the great sites. A memory I remember most is going to Stratford-upon-Avon and watching a William Shakespeare play. I don’t know where my passion and love for his plays comes from but it has been a deep part of my life. His writings have also taught me many things.

Primary topic: Meditation

3,063 views

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

What can help me achieve enlightenment? Begin your journey with the right tools

When it comes to living in the moment and being more enlightened, you might have some questions that you’d like answered. For instance, you might be saying, “Dr. Puff, how do I reach that point? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process of waking up and of having a life filled with the present?”

Primary topic: Meditation

1,341 views

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Empower Yourself With the Here and Now: End Your Mental Suffering with Spiritual Enlightenment

Life is in constant flux: people and jobs come and go, we learn new things while forgetting the old, and different events take place. Our lives and views change. A seventeen-year-old boy might believe popularity is of crucial importance, whereas a sixty-seven-year-old man might believe that having a connection with God is what matters most. Nothing stays the same. The only thing we know for sure is that we are, right now. It’s All A Dream

Primary topic: Meditation

1,284 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Paradoxical World of Spiritual Enlightenment: We are nothing but we are everything

When we wake up to who we are, something happens. We stop identifying with our egoic selves because we realize they are impermanent and only that which is permanent can be who we are. We aren’t our bodies, we aren’t our memories, we aren’t our thoughts, we aren’t our feelings… We aren’t any of these things, so we stop identifying with them. What happens is that detachment develops. An aloofness or distancing from everything that occurs. We wake up to the fact that life is an extended dream and a relaxation is able to set in. It’s a sense of calm or a feeling that ‘all is well.’

Primary topic: Meditation

1,569 views

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Understanding God: Moving from Concepts to Spiritual Enlightenment and Nonduality

Who are we before anything else ever was? When we take away everything impermanent, who are we at our core? Although God may be the ultimate, our concepts of God are not. Though religion plays a beautiful role in this conceptual world of ours, it prevents us from God because it labels God. For instance, religion says, “God is good,” “God is benevolent,” etc. Labels cannot describe God or the ultimate. The ultimate is that which is before anything and everything else, including our concepts of God. In fact, God or the ultimate precedes any label or description. Throw Out the Conceptsr

Primary topic: Meditation

1,974 views4.5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Waking Up To a New Reality: Living with Awareness

I wrote a poem based on a Zen tradition and it describes aspects of enlightenment: I wake up, rain washes the trees, smells are fresh, spring is abounding now, the I wake to the illusionr I’m dreaming. Enlightenment is about waking up to the reality that life isn’t real. It’s merely an illusion, an extended dream. Our minds create a reality, saying “This is real, everything is real, I am real.” Instead of just witnessing life and being aware of it, we identify with our lives and take them on as an identity.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,119 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

The Essence of Who We Are: Living in the Now

The infinite reality of now is what life is really all about. In many ways, we have created a prison around ourselves. The walls are all those limiting ideas of who we are, who others are, and what life is. Practice neti neti: not this, not that. Let go of all the false identifications you have for yourself and everyone around you who limits both you and everyone in your life. We create a prison not only for ourselves but for everyone else, through our limiting attitudes and thoughts. Let’s allow the walls that encase our minds to crumble. It’s time to let the prison doors swing open.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,239 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Agathism - The Best Way to Live Our Lives

A practical article connected into the broader SelfGrowth topic graph.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,581 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

How To Live With Desires: Identifying with the True Self Instead of Letting Desires Control Us

When we desire something, we first have to work for it. Often we find ourselves spending a large amount of mental energy thinking about it, wishing for it and wanting it to happen. But after working for it, we should let go and just be.

Primary topic: Meditation

1,145 views5/5 (2)

By Dr. Robert PuffRecently published1 topic

Meditation and Your Health: How to Reduce Stress with Meditation

Imagine for a moment that you are holding your arm out to the side and you just hold it there. No big deal, right? But keep holding it there, and keep holding it there, and keep holding it there. With time your arm will begin to ache and become painful. Unless you do something, you will have to put your arm down because the pain will be too intense. Stress is very much like this. Stress is exposing yourself to something small over and over again for a short period of time.

Primary topic: Meditation

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