By 
Ever feel like you’re sleepwalking through your own life?
I spent most of my mid-twenties that way. Had the degree, ticked all the boxes society told me to tick, yet I’d wake up each morning with this gnawing emptiness.
The anxiety was constant, like background static I couldn’t turn off. Then I found myself in a warehouse in Melbourne, shifting TVs for eight hours a day.
Talk about a reality check! Here I was with my background in psychology, loading boxes and wondering where everything went sideways, but that warehouse job became my unlikely monastery.
With nothing but time and repetitive work, I started experimenting with Buddhist principles I’d been reading about, practical things I could apply while stacking boxes and dealing with difficult coworkers.
What happened over the next few months surprised me: The practices I stumbled upon didn’t just help me cope with the warehouse work.
They gave me different ways to notice my reactions and think about how I wanted to act.
Here are five of those practices, adapted so you can try them in your own life.
1) Start each day with intentional silence
Your phone alarm goes off, what’s the first thing you do?
If you’re like most people, you’re scrolling through notifications before your feet hit the floor.
Email, news, social media, all flooding your brain before you’ve even had a chance to think your own thoughts.
Buddhist psychology calls this “monkey mind,” or the restless, unsettled state where your attention jumps from branch to branch without ever finding stillness.
Here’s what changed everything for me: I started giving myself 15 minutes of complete silence every morning.
No phone, no podcast, and no music, just me and my thoughts.
At first, it was torture. My mind would race through my to-do list, replay arguments, worry about money.
However, after about two weeks, something shifted and the mental noise started settling, like sediment in water when you stop stirring it.
That quiet time creates a little space between you and your thoughts; you start seeing them as weather patterns passing through, not permanent fixtures of who you are.
Try this tomorrow: sit with your coffee or tea in silence for a few minutes before you pick up your phone. It doesn’t need to be formal meditation. Just notice the thoughts that arise and gently return to what’s around you.
If it feels unsettling at first, that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
2) Practice “response pause” before every reaction
Someone cuts you off in traffic, your boss sends a passive-aggressive email, and your partner brings up that thing you did wrong three months ago; what happens next usually determines whether your day improves or spirals.
Contemporary meditation teacher Tara Brach describes a “sacred pause” as an opportunity for presence. My version is simple: a short pause before I respond.
Even a moment before responding gives you a chance to notice what’s actually happening.
I learned this the hard way during my warehouse days. I had a supervisor who seemed to enjoy making my life difficult.
Every interaction left me seething, until I started implementing a simple practice: counting to three before responding to anything he said.
Those three seconds changed everything. Instead of matching his energy, I could choose my response.
Sometimes that meant staying quiet or asking a clarifying question, but it was always my choice and not my conditioning running the show.
The next time someone texts you something that triggers you, wait one full minute before responding.
When someone says something that annoys you, take one deep breath before speaking.
You won’t always respond calmly, but you’ll give yourself more chances to respond deliberately.
3) End the day with radical honesty
How often do you actually examine your own behavior?
I’m talking about the uncomfortable questions, like did you act from ego today? Did you cause unnecessary suffering? Did you live according to your values or just drift through on default mode?
Every night before bed, I spend ten minutes reviewing my day through three questions:
- Where did I act from fear instead of love?
- Where did I create suffering (for myself or others)?
- Where did I miss an opportunity to be present?
Try to observe a specific action without turning the review into a judgment of your whole character.
The aim is to look honestly at the impact of your choices and what you might do differently next time.
Over time, you’ll probably notice patterns you’d like to change, such as interrupting people or checking out during conversations. Pick one specific action to work on.
Noticing a pattern is a starting point; changing it still takes effort, support, and practical steps.
4) Replace consuming with creating
What did you create today? What did you actually bring into existence that wasn’t there before?
The hungry-ghost realm is part of traditional Buddhist cosmology: a place of endless, unsatisfied craving. Contrasting it with creation is my own twist rather than a traditional teaching, but I find it a useful way to look at how I spend my time.
How much of your day is spent consuming, and how much creating?
We scroll through other people’s lives, consume their content, and react to their creations, but we rarely flip the script and become creators ourselves.
When I started Hack Spirit in 2016, it wasn’t because I had all the answers—far from it, I’m still very much a student of these practices—but I realized that documenting my journey, creating something from my struggles, transformed my relationship with those struggles.
Pick a small form of creation to try regularly: write a few words, draw a sketch, build something, or cook a meal. Choose whatever fits your life.
Quality doesn’t matter, consistency does. This is about shifting from passive consumption to active participation in your own life.
5) Practice “difficult person” meditation
Think of someone who drives you absolutely crazy.
Got them in mind? Good, they’re about to become your greatest teacher.
Buddhist loving-kindness meditation usually starts with sending good wishes to yourself, then loved ones, then neutral people, then difficult people.
Some people find it difficult to extend kind wishes to someone who has hurt or annoyed them. You can adapt the exercise without forcing a feeling.
My adaptation is to spend a few minutes thinking about a difficult person with curiosity instead.
What shaped them? What are they afraid of? What are they protecting?
This is about recognizing that your reaction to difficult people reveals more about your own internal state than it does about them.
During my warehouse period, I used my challenging supervisor as my daily practice.
Instead of mentally rehearsing arguments with him, I started getting curious about what made him tick.
Well, it turned out he was going through a divorce, worried about losing his job, and taking it out on everyone around him.
Did that make his behavior okay? No, but understanding it freed me from taking it personally.
This practice targets what Buddhists call “the second arrow.” The first arrow is what happens to you; the second arrow is your reaction to it.
You can’t always control what happens or the feelings that arise. But you can sometimes reduce the extra distress that comes from dwelling on it.
You may still find the same person upsetting. The practice is about changing how you respond, not making every trigger disappear.
Final words
These five practices aren’t quick fixes. They’re more like compound interest for your character.
The changes tend to be modest and uneven, and everyone responds differently.
These practices draw on Buddhist ideas rather than scientific testing, so treat them as experiments.
Start with one of these practices today, keep it manageable, and notice whether it helps.
The question is whether you’ll stick around long enough to let them work on you.