Stop Missing Your Life, by Cory Muscara

Review by Frawn Morgan

Full disclosure – I count the author, Cory Muscara, as a friend.  Is that why I read this book?  Yes.  Is that why I’m writing this review?  No. I am writing this review because I love this book!

Let me tell you why I love this book.  First, its pure Cory.  Cory’s easy style and calm demeanor are evident on every page.  His sense of humor radiates through the stories and examples he shares.  His wisdom (he is much wiser than his physical age of 30-something would imply) shines through.  His description of how the mind wanders in Chapter 3 was hilariously true for me.  I was surprised and enlightened by the lessons he shared from his study of the female menstrual cycle in Chapter 7 (and even more surprised by the fact that he studied this at all).  His analogy of the ruts we can let our thinking sink into as being a cow path, in Chapter 8, was not only humorous, but very enlightening for me.  His phone seduction meditation in Chapter 11 is not to be missed.  I never thought of seducing my phone…and meditating on it, wow!

Is this a book about mediation?  Is this a book about mindfulness?  I’d be lying if I said no, but those are not the book’s real purpose, in my opinion.  This is a book about life and how to experience it more fully.  Are mediation and mindfulness a part of that experience?  According to Cory, yes.  But this isn’t the meditation I experienced in the seventies… the chanting, rocking, mind-bending activity we thought we needed to experience transcendence.  This is more learning to still the mind so as to find and harness the peace, joy, and beauty that permeates each moment.  And that “more” is what Cory is trying to gently coach us into understanding with this book.

I doubt if I will ever succeed at meditating the way Cory does.  I can’t even imaging spending a day in a Buddhist monastery, let alone six months as he did.  But Cory, through the beautifully arranged words in this book, has given me permission to relax into a deeper sense of being, and in doing so find a presence that can deliver an uncommon peace in our crazy world.  This is a book I will read (or listen to) over and over as well as share with friends.  And I do highly recommend the audiobook.  Cory’s easy, conversational style makes this book a joy to listen to.

Thank you, Cory, for sharing your road to peace with the world through this book.

Muscara, Cory, 2019

Stop Missing Your Life: How to be Deeply Present in an Un-Present World