Wake up with discipline

3 April 2026

I sure do like to harp on about Michael A Singer on this blog, but that’s because for me, he has been by far the biggest inspiration in my life (in terms of education). I came across his biography, the Surrender Experiment, quite randomly (an Amazon suggestion). For some reason, this one got my attention. Once I got going, I couldn’t put it down. Singer, it has turned out, has been the driver behind all my writings. I have read all of his books (reading his latest, Wisdom Untethered right now) and listened to his podcasts (hundreds of hours) mostly twice at a minimum. He is the most relatable teacher and why I recommend his material to everyone.

As mentioned previously, waking up is not for everyone. Nothing wrong with that. But if you’ve tasted surface level ‘success’ and still feel something is missing, the spiritual path is almost certainly for you. More and more people are waking up to the reality that what we have been taught to believe isn’t necessarily true. From that point, you realize it’s time to take back control. This is what Singer fundamentally teaches. You are not the mind that sets all these goals for what success looks like. You are the one watching it!

To make any progress on your spiritual journey, you need to start by being somewhat well rested. I struggle to sleep a lot of the time and know how difficult days are without having a decent sleep as a starter. Without that, as Singer would say, you need to put the sails down and ride it out. Go again when the going is better. Even meditation probably won’t help much on those days. A tired mind is usually a noisy mind and this is when the ego will give you a hard time. As Singer recently discussed on his last podcast those days are especially important just to ‘do your best’.

If you do feel well rested, you should set your pole star. What is that? Every day should be about letting go of yourself. Life is a video game as we know and the objective is to strip away the ego. Every situation put in front of you will test that. I find it is a great starting point to wake up, stabilize the mind (it’ll start talking as soon as you wake up) and consider meditating within the first half an hour. As mentioned, his last podcast about doing your best without the expectation of a return is a great mantra to repeat to yourself. The whole of the Bhagavad Gita (one of the holiest scriptures there is) is founded on that. Doing the best you can without expectation of a return is such a foreign concept to most. Ironically, that approach is what will give you exactly what you’re searching for on the outside. Freedom from the mind and self-realization. Boundless energy. But you have to sincerely approach each moment with that in mind. Not self-service.

My favorite teaching in Singer’s last podcast about doing the best you can is this. The ego has such a hold of pretty much all of us, it’s hard to genuinely get behind this selflessness. It’s a strong grip. He said, when he was 23 he was trying to figure out how to stop staring at himself (such a tiny thing in the scope of this tremendous universe). He asked himself, what is bigger than me? The answer he came to, and how to shift his focus, was ‘life’. Life itself. So instead of seeing things through the lens of ‘me’ how about acting with intent to help life itself. In simulation theory terms, we are like nodes in a network, each of us God’s ambassador. All the system is asking for is authentic feedback and, as Singer says, for you to do your best. Not self-service, protection and personal success. You represent a much bigger whole. In fact, Singer has experienced the totality of the universe itself (the great masters do) within. It isn’t just something cool to say. The problem is we have such a limited perception, it’s hard to free yourself from that cage. Focusing on acting for the interest of life itself is an incredible shift.

I am going to leave you with what is for me the best talk Singer ever gave because it outlines real practical steps for those on the path. When the personal mind is noisy and you start to listen to it, it’s like a wild horse you have no control over or a screaming toddler who will stop at nothing to get what it wants. You have to take back control as the witness of the personal mind. Reign it in through discipline. When it says ‘do this’ and ‘don’t do that’, it’s a strong idea to do the opposite. Show who the boss is. I do things like fasting which helps to keep me on track. This creates a distance between who you are (the witness) and the ego mind. That space is essential to making progress and eventually ascending totally to where your energy is now liberated because you aren’t serving that ego maniac which sucks the life out of the room. That’s why you’re low energy. The ego mind is feasting on it all the time.