Nothing lasts forever. Sound pessimistic? Think about it. Do you look today like you did a decade ago? Are those pretty flowers you received for Mother’s Day still fresh and alive? Do you still have the headache you woke up with last week? Nothing lasts forever. When we think of mindfulness, we primarily associate it […]
It’s tough to acknowledge our distress and admit our vulnerability. Instead, it’s so much easier to allow ourselves to fall into whatever story we have been telling ourselves on repeat than to stay with our experience. The way you speak to yourself matters. What are the messages you've been sending to yourself? Take responsibility for the […]
Meditation isn’t about trying to stop thinking. Instead it’s about noticing the thoughts as they arise and allowing them to be. To be able to have access again to our ground state of being which is already whole and complete, we must recognize how we’ve allowed ourselves to be hooked by the stories and conversations we tell ourselves in our own minds. Most times, we don’t even question the thoughts, perceptions, judgments or beliefs and instead believe our own thinking.
What if your happiness, joy, peace and fulfillment is just covered over by an old mindset of limiting beliefs and assumptions? Making positive changes starts with a shift in mindset. Once that takes place, the rest will follow.
As humankind is in need of more widespread and global empathy and altruism, we find ourselves desperately cultivating compassion. Learn more about the Dalai Lama and his role in raising awareness of the healing power of compassion.
Consider that most of your mental suffering actually comes from how tightly you hold on to your beliefs. What if you were to discover that your stories do not fully define who you are and what is actually happening to you? With mindfulness, we can step out of the story we tell and simply notice the telling of the story.
Through the practice of meditation, you develop what is known as “witnessing awareness” which allows you to observe your thoughts, feelings and stories with greater objectivity and distance, rather than getting pulled into the drama and emotional reactivity. Over time, you will begin to notice that some space has been created around difficult emotional states. You will start to see that there is more to who you are than your moods or thoughts, and you may also observe that the sensation associated with the negative feelings dissolve altogether. I like to say that you begin to develop a sense of responding as opposed to reacting.
People often feel intimidated by meditation, thinking there is a perfect way to join in this time-tested practice. But that’s simply not true. Each person’s practice is a reflection of their unique personality and mind/body connection. The biggest support for working with our minds in meditation is our body. Generally, I don’t think most of us are sensitive to how much our body can support our mind in meditation.
You certainly don’t need me to tell you how stress accumulates in your body. The way we eat, drink and live takes its toll on our bodies, minds and well-being to be sure. Deep relaxation meditation is an opportunity for our body to rest, to heal, and to be restored. Today, I offer you a […]
ON THE PATH One of the most essential spiritual lessons we can learn is how to differentiate between the situations we actually experience and our mental commentary about those experiences. So you might be asking yourself, "How can I begin my spiritual path?" The thoughts about a situation and the situation itself are sometimes difficult […]