Over at One City: A Buddhist Blog for Everyone, Julia May Jones makes a bet with her readers: you started your practice because of relationship trouble.

Walk into any Buddhist dharma center across the country. Sidle up to a pleasant looking stranger. Compliment their eco-friendly aluminum water bottle to get a conversation started then ask them what started them practicing. I bet that at least half of the time a person will say, “I was having a hard time and the teachings of the Buddha helped me.” Glance sympathetically, breathe mindfully and then press them about the nature of the hard time. Nine times out of ten I bet they’ll respond: “I was really suffering because of a bad break up/divorce/inability to let go of a former love.”

While this wasn’t entirely the case with me, repeated heart break did play a part in influencing my practice. After sitting regularly for a while, I realized that I kept making the same mistakes in love and I credit stillness with helping me to break the pattern.

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