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From the Guidebook...

Table of Contents

PART ONE: MINDFULNESS METHOD

Introduction...3

Background information: 4-Brains...7

PART TWO: THE DAILY PRACTICE

Step 1: Get on the Balcony...9

Step 2: Recruit the Body...11

Step 3: Choose Safety...14

Step 4: Challenge Authority...16

Intermission: The Big Picture...18

Step 5: Get Back on the Balcony...20

Step 6: Engage the Sensorium...22

Step 7: Pre-Life Checklist...25

Step 8: How You Show Up...27

Step 9: Live From the Balcony...29

Conclusion: Living the Practice...31

Introduction

The practice of mindfulness begins with a simple but profound insight: our lives are created in and by our minds. How we experience the world, how we respond to challenges, how we connect with others — all of it flows through the patterns of mind. If we can improve the way our minds function, we improve everything.

Mindfulness offers us a suite of practices designed to do exactly that. These practices strengthen awareness, calm reactivity, and open space for clarity, compassion, and wisdom. Step-by-step, we learn to steady the body, ease the emotions, focus the mind, and return to awareness. Over time, mindfulness becomes more than a practice — it becomes a way of living with balance, purpose, and presence.

What this is:
A simple, but not easy, daily training that helps you take control of your own mind. We call it “Modern Monk” because it’s monk-like in its clarity, discipline and deep-focus, and modern in its language, science-friendliness, and fit for everyday life.

Why this practice?

Life constantly pulls us onto the ‘dance floor’ — the tasks we juggle, the emotions that surge, the thoughts that spin. Most of the time, we’re swept along without realizing it, reacting more than choosing. This practice is about learning to step back on purpose, to find the balcony view.

From the balcony, we see more clearly. We notice the whole pattern instead of being tangled in one thread. From that clarity, we can choose more wisely — whether to act, to pause, or simply to breathe. And then, just as importantly, we return to the dance. But now we return with poise, with a steadiness that comes from knowing we are not just caught in the music, we are also aware of the room.

This rhythm of stepping out and returning is the heart of the Modern Monk practice. It’s how we bring awareness into everyday life — not as an escape from it, but as the ground that allows us to live it more

Final Thoughts

Together, these steps form a two-stage cycle: awareness → body → breath → mind → awareness again → insight → integration → compassion → return. It’s a rhythm of inner leadership. First we steady ourselves. Then we learn from what’s inside. And finally, we step back into the world with a clearer, kinder presence.

And this last point is crucial. The practice doesn’t end when the bell rings or when the minute is up. That’s just the rehearsal. The real stage is the day ahead: conversations, work, family, traffic, chores, decisions…all the countless moments where we either live from reactivity or from awareness.

The Modern Monk Daily Practice isn’t about escaping life — it’s about showing up for it, fully. Each time you notice your body, take a deliberate breath, question a thought, or soften into gratitude, you are bringing the balcony into the world. Over time, this becomes less of a technique and more of a way of being.

So the invitation is simple: keep practicing, every day. Keep coming back to these steps, over and over. Let them shape you the way walking or talking once did — through repetition, until they are simply part of who you are. And then live from there.

Because the point isn’t just to practice like a monk in the morning. The point is to live like a modern monk all day long — aware, embodied, safe, compassionate, and free.