Pacivida

Do we really fear dying, or do we actually fear not having lived?

I’ve just received confirmation that the forthcoming Bestseller Experiment / Pacivida podcast will be recorded in Ram Dass’s study/writing room and library in his house in Maui, Hawaii.

It will be an incredible honour to record from this sacred space.

To one of my greatest teachers and mentors. Happy Birthday, Wayne.

Pacivida

Mothers - A Pacivida Reflection on their Peace and Quiet Strength.

Today is Mother’s Day.

And I believe one of the greatest acts of peace in the world has always happened quietly through mothers.

Not perfect mothers or mothers without struggles, exhaustion, fear, or heartbreak.
But mothers who kept showing up with love anyway.

So much of what holds humanity together has come from people calming storms inside themselves so their children could feel safe enough to grow. When I sit with that, it’s hard to fully grasp — the sheer amount of invisible strength that has been poured into the world through that one act alone.

It’s a hand on a forehead, a late-night conversation, a hug after a hard day, a reassuring word. A thousand invisible moments of patience, sacrifice, reassurance, and care — most of which nobody ever sees, and most of which are never acknowledged the way they deserve to be.

And so much of that begins with something we rarely talk about enough — the quiet strength of a mother learning how to carry life’s worries whilst still creating a feeling of safety, warmth, love, and peace for the people around her.

Perhaps that has always been one of the greatest acts of peace in the world.

Many mothers spend years carrying the emotional weight of entire families while asking for very little in return.

That is not weakness… it is an incredible strength.

Pacivida is about making peace with life.

And when I reflect on that, I keep coming back to this… Long before most of us understood what peace was, many of us first felt it in the arms of our mother.

Mothers teach us our very first experience of peace through that first embrace, loving presence, kindness, and simply being there.

So today, for me, is about honouring the people who helped steady the world for others, often while carrying so much themselves.

To every mother, stepmother, grandmother, foster mother, grieving mother, and mother figure…

Thank you for the peace you’ve brought into lives, even in moments you thought nobody noticed.

Happy Mother’s Day. ❤️​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

- Mark Desvaux

(Share this today with a special Mum in your life)

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One day, making peace with life may be recognised as one of the greatest health practices of all.

Not instead of exercise, nutrition, or sleep, but as the foundation beneath them.

We already know chronic stress affects the heart, hormones, immunity, inflammation, sleep, and longevity.

Yet very few people are ever taught how to make peace with life itself.

And learning to make peace with life changes the way we experience everything else.

SLEEP
Greater peace at the end of the day helps us fall asleep more easily and leads to deeper, more restorative sleep.

FOOD
Greater peace slows our eating, supports digestion, and helps us become more connected with our food.

FITNESS
Even exercise becomes more mindful, more connected, and less driven by stress, punishment, or force.

And perhaps most importantly, peace changes the state of the nervous system itself.

Ultimately, a peaceful life creates a different internal environment for the body to live in.

Pacivida is the practice of creating that peace, one moment at a time.

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Sir David Attenborough turns 100 today.
And the thing that strikes me isn’t the longevity. It’s the quality of presence he’s carried through all of it.

There’s always been something peaceful about him — not the peace of someone who has turned away from hard things, but the peace of someone who has looked at everything clearly and kept showing up anyway.

Think about what he’s witnessed… extinction, collapse, ecosystems dying in real time while he was watching. He never looked away. He brought the same quality of attention to a coral reef at risk of dying as he did to a beetle turning over a leaf.

What does it take? Simply being in awe of our world and every day of life that we get to experience it.

Because outrage needs an enemy. It needs the world to be other than it is. It needs to argue.

Awe doesn’t work that way. Awe just needs you to pay attention. Paying attention to what’s actually here, actually happening, actually extraordinary when you get close enough.

The beetle, a migration, a coral reef that is somehow still alive.

That perspective of staying curious about life rather than at war with it is what Pacivida is trying to cultivate in all of us.

Not just in the difficult moments, but as a way of moving through the world entirely.

Making peace with life and all its fragile complexities, rather than a constant argument with it.

Attenborough never had the word, but he lived the practice.

And the science is catching up. Chronic stress accelerates ageing at a cellular level. We carry our emotional lives in our bodies whether we intend to or not. We know the body keeps the score, and so, it seems, does time itself.

Maybe a life spent in awe rather than outrage looks after you differently.

Still curious at 100. Still making things. Still, somehow, at peace with a planet he has watched suffer enormously during his lifetime.

That’s Pacivida. Not as a philosophy you read about. As a life someone actually lived.

Happy birthday, Sir David and thank you for bringing us an incredible voice and lens on our beautiful blue planet.

“People travel the world trying to find themselves. But wherever you go, there you are.

Many people think peace is found on mountaintops, in temples, or far away from the noise of life.

But peace is not found. It is practiced.

Beautiful places may awaken peace within you for a moment, but lasting peace is cultivated from within.

Pacivida is the daily practice of using life itself — its stress, challenges, and uncertainty — as the training ground for peace until peace becomes foundational in your life.”

Mark Desvaux

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Follow Pacivida today to start cultivating peace in your life every day, and share this post to help create a more peaceful world.

Last week, I had the honour of being invited to Ram Dass’s home in Maui (more on why I was there soon…).

As I drove up the driveway, his beloved dog Leela came running toward me with pure joy.

Ram Dass spoke of Leela with such love. After his stroke, she became a source of comfort, presence, and quiet teaching in his life. He often described her as a kind of guru, reminding him, simply through her being, how to return to the moment.

The instant we met, I felt something extraordinary. A calm, familiar energy… as though we had known each other forever.

It felt as though a part of Ram Dass’s spirit still lived within her gentle presence.

Sometimes the most profound teachers never have to say a word. ❤️