Today it’s great to have Cory Muscara on the podcast. Cory is an international speaker and teacher on the topics of presence and well-being. He believes that when people are deeply fulfilled, they are a better force in the world for other beings, the environment, and their communities. For several years he taught mindfulness-based leadership at Columbia University and currently serves as an assistant instructor of positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2012, Cory spent 6 months in silence living as a monk in Burma, meditating 14+ hours per day, and now aims to bring these teachings to people in a practical and usable way, presenting to schools, organizations and healthcare systems, as well as through workshops and retreats for the general public. Named by Dr. Oz as one of the nation’s leading experts on mindfulness, his meditations have now been heard more than 10 million times in over 100 countries. Cory is host of the popular daily podcast, Practicing Human, and the author of Stop Missing Your Life: How to Be Deeply Present in an Un-Present World. In this episode we discuss: Cory’s transformation from frat boy to monk Can monks be self-actualizing? The importance of not being enslaved by certain parts of you How to overcame pain through mindfulness The emotional body vs. the sensation body The process of detaching sensations from the labels we put on them Equanimity and allowing life to happen How equanimity is more about our internal experience than our external experience The “pain box” How to soften the “pain wall” Dispelling the myth of the “real you” Barriers to real connection What it means to be fully seen and accepted The importance of radical acceptance How the more parts of you that are brought in and accepted the more you feel as though the wholeness of you is accepted and seen The "scrollercoaster" meditation How we can take control of technology and take back our lives