The Best Lessons I’ve Learned
Monkhood
We hardly realize just how much baggage we’re carrying around and allowing to control our lives. But once you commit yourself to a life of discipline, looking inward, and connecting with a higher power, it becomes much more clear. It might seem like you’re actually become more materialistic, but what’s actually happening is you’re becoming more self-aware. As part of a balanced life, we all need to regularly refresh our minds by connecting with spirit in our daily practices. This becomes a sustainable lifestyle when we build our lives on the foundation of honesty.
The Crisis Center
Once I started taking real calls from people in crisis, I was overwhelmed with the heaviness of the job. But my mentor told me, “When you make room in your heart for the pain of other people, it can definitely be emotionally overwhelming. But since this pain isn’t yours, it will go away soon. And then you will be left with a heart that’s bigger than it would have been, if you had never bothered to care.”
Alzheimer’s care
With dementia care, patients are often confused and resistant. While helping them, it can be very difficult figuring out how to respond to behaviors like hitting or cursing, and still offer the help they need. Even though the pay was humble, the experience I gained in this job was an incredibly valuable opportunity for me to develop patience, empathy, and the ability to remain calm under pressure.
DepT. of Children & Families
While mentoring troubled teenagers, I learned that you shouldn’t compare yourself with other people because you have a different story than they do. But by focusing on your own growth and taking one step at a time, the day will come when you look back and see how far you’ve come. And in that moment, you’ll enjoy a special sense of accomplishment by the private meaning that your ongoing story has to you.
Offering Personal Coaching
The most important thing I’ve learned in my experience with one-on-one coaching is that while we often proclaim to desire admirable things, like integrity, a lot of times we don’t anticipate the price we have to pay to get there. For this reason, honesty is the foundation for all growth. Until we acknowledge the desires and fears that are holding us back, we remain stuck indefinitely.
Marriage and Fatherhood
The most valuable thing you possess in life is people you can trust, and confidence in yourself that they can trust you, too. Do whatever it takes to achieve these great forms of wealth. And guard them with your life. There’s no one more important than your family and community.
From Monk to Mentor
When I look back on my life, it’s been anything but perfect.
I enjoyed school when it came to making friends and studying subjects that were actually relevant. But after graduation, I didn’t see the point in chasing money and status. I wanted something deeper, something that gave my life deeper meaning, so I started devouring every spiritual book I could get my hands on. Out of all of them, the Bhagavad-Gita hit me the hardest. I couldn’t understand all of it, but as I got more and more captivated, my friends got tired of hearing me go on and on about it. I wanted to hang out with people who had the same interest. My father suggested I become a Hindu monk. And before long, I joined an ashram with the Hare Krishna movement. For the next seven years, I threw myself into the lifestyle—thousands of hours of mantra meditation, reading the Bhagavad-Gita hundreds of times, and doing community service all across the U.S.
But I didn’t leave my flaws at the door when I became a monk. I was still worrying about what people thought of me, secretly slipping into old habits, and avoiding full responsibility for my life. At first, I thought the solution was to try harder—to be stricter with myself. But that just left me burnt out and being way too hard on myself. I was spiraling into depression, shame, and old resentments were coming back. The ancient teachings were there, but I didn’t know how to apply them to the messiness of modern life.
In 2015, my life took a turn. I started volunteering at a suicide hotline, and for the first time, I felt like I’d found something that could become a career for me: I loved helping people. Even though I wasn’t ready to dive into counseling yet, I knew I wanted to do something helping people. Over the next few years, I worked in Alzheimer’s care and a shelter supervising delinquent teenagers. These jobs taught me patience and how to really meet people where they are.
At the same time, I was working on myself. I fully embraced responsibility, learned how to process feelings like resentment and shame, and finally overcame all sorts of addictive habits. I also dove into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Stoicism, and modern psychology. I looked at what helped me finally make the transformation I had been looking for so long, and it hit me—most of the answers I’d been looking for were already in the spiritual teachings I’d read “hundreds of times.” But now, I knew how to make them work for real-life problems.
I started offering coaching full-time, and realized the people I was counseling were dealing with the same struggles I’d faced myself—feeling stuck, ashamed, overwhelmed. That’s when my mission became crystal clear: to make this ancient wisdom practical and accessible. You don’t have to become a monk to benefit from it.
Think of me as a friend or older brother who’s walked a similar path, someone who combines spiritual depth with real-world experience. I offer a judgment-free space where you can talk about whatever’s on your mind. No pressure. No perfection. Just honest conversations and practical steps forward.
