On a fundamental level, I think everyone wants to feel loved. The paradox is that in order to get others to love you, you must love them first. To be able to love someone else, you need to love yourself. To love yourself, you need to learn how to accept yourself and your …
Author: Ryan Shelton
While my job description is to lead the science department and teach physics at Padua Academy in Wilmington, DE, my calling is to prepare teenagers to lead their communities towards a vibrant and healthy future. This purpose has lead to the creation of Loving Lives Delaware.
Before becoming a teacher, I explored many careers and had many adventures in search of the best way to make a difference in the world. I hiked over 1700 miles, traveled to 5 continents, managed a bakery, started a meditation center, counseled troubled teens, attended Duke, UNC, and Harvard, protected forests as a wildland firefighter, volunteered thousands of hours with Americorps, rafted the Grand Canyon, and SCUBA dived on the Great Barrier Reef.
My next adventure is starting a family with my beautiful wife in our Wilmington home. I'm sure there will be many mistakes along the way, but I hope we're able to create a loving household that's a beacon of support and clarity for others in our community. Thank you for all of your support throughout our journey.
Year 2 as a Delaware High School Teacher
Life keeps moving along. I've got some good news to report. Dhamma Delaware is working on a huge expansion which will increase capacity from 15 to around 60 students. After a year away from the Center, I've accepted an invitation to join the Trust. The Catholic High School I teach at will be starting the Second …
Love the World, Don’t Try to Change It
As a youth, I wanted to change the world. More accurately, I wanted to fix it to my desired state, and be the glorious hero. On my quest, I acknowledged the failures of our world, developed the ego required to know what's best for others, and the nurtured the arrogance that I could change people …
Everyone Can Be Happy If We Stop Trying to Win
Survival of the fittest is awesome because it turns everything into a game. If I'm bigger, faster, and stronger, I will win and survive. I can spend my whole life playing endless games to acquire wealth, fame, and power. Unfortunately, this this scientific theory that we dedicate our lives to applies to species, not individuals. …
Continue reading Everyone Can Be Happy If We Stop Trying to Win
Love People, Fight Harmful Qualities
It's extremely easy to react negatively to adverse situations and blame others for our circumstances, but the anger we project on others only makes situations worse. If we want to live in a loving environment, we need to love the people around us. We need to love their negative qualities, their poor decisions, and all …
Connecting the Dots
While I've experienced the benefits of meditation with my own experience, it bothers me that I can't figure out the connections. When I'm meditating 2 hours a day, my life trends upward. If my wife or I start missing our sittings, our lives just go in circles and we become agitated by the details of …
Confidence is Complicated
Learning Vipassana caused me to stop evaluating my life based on my accomplishments in the world and to start looking inside. While my resume looked pretty good, I discovered that I was carrying an abundance of anger, sadness, and fear. My confidence dissipated as I reflected on the misery I brought to the people around me …
Becoming a Householder
Another chapter in my Vipassana journey is beginning as some previous chapters are coming to a close. This past year has not been about Vipassana. From 2010 to 2015, embracing and understanding Vipassana were at the core of my life mission. After completing a year of service at Dhamma Delaware in the summer of 2015, …
Meet My Wife
Start again! I started this blog in 2012 to share my journey through the tumultuous beginnings of my Vipassana adventure. Establishing a daily practice of 2 hours a day was one of the most difficult challenges of my life, but the silver lining and my biggest support throughout this journey has been my now wife, …
Liveliness and Livelihood
I have been having trouble deciding what to do with my life. Most people think that we should find a career that is something we love to do, so that we can make a livelihood while enjoying ourselves. This can be useful to look at, but life is more than just what we do for …
Living Vipassana 