Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

When people are filled with fear and paranoia, they often dump it on others without being asked. If I tell them I'm flying to Seattle for example, they immediately feel the need to share crash statistics with me,

recount a turbulent flight they've had, or casually plant the seed of doom by sharing a story with me about a flight

they've missed because they didn't leave for the airport in time.

Honestly, I didn't want that extra baggage.

Some of the concerns that regularly occupy other people's thoughts don't even enter mine.

And while I intellectually understand these people mean well when they tell me to drive safe, for example, at no point was I planning not to.

But if everything we watch on the news, read in the paper,

or hear on the radio or from our own families

is fear-based, then our lives are going

to be filled with fear as well.

We are what we eat after all and we eat with

our eyes and our ears too, not just our mouths. We're constantly consuming information

that is detrimental to our well-being. Air pollution is nothing compared to the pollution in our airwaves.

But since I can't live in a bubble, I remind myself that just as a boat cannot sink unless

water from the ocean gets into it, we can maintain a positive attitude if we don't let the

negativity that surrounds us get inside. People's behavior is simply a reflection of how they view the world.

So if you're on the receiving end of unsolicited advice,

remember that it has more to do with the person giving it than it has to do with you. So

take it but with a grain of salt because they may be mirroring something

actually worthy of your attention after all, but you can

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