Dear Friends, After yesterday’s email, Rod reminded me of one of my favorite Sesame Street mindfulness memes: “Today me will live in the moment unless it’s unpleasant, in which case me will eat a cookie.” ~~ Cookie Monster This ties in nicely to the second foundation of mindfulness – the pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral “feeling tones” (“vedana” in… Read More »
Dear Friends, Spirit Rock has an on-line video course with esteemed teacher Sylvia Boorstein called Everyday Life as Mindfulness Practice. In the videos, Sylvia takes us through her home and her daily activities and describes all the different ways she brings mindfulness into these “ordinary” things. She says “there isn’t any activity that isn’t a venue of training… Read More »
Dear Friends, This past week, I’ve been focusing on mindfulness of the body, so I thought for this “Heart Sunday”, I would look for a meditation that combined metta and the body. There are quite a few choices! I ultimately chose this guided meditation from Catherine McGee, called “Guided Metta Practice – easy person, self and body” (~45… Read More »
Dear Friends, Another way to contemplate body, as specified in the Satipatthana Sutta, is in terms of the elements: And further, monks, a monk reflects on this very body, however it be placed or disposed, by way of the material elements: “There are in this body the element of earth, the element of water, the element of fire,… Read More »
Dear Friends, Here’s a quick stealth meditation you can do anywhere and any time, from Sharon Salzberg’s Real Happiness at Work: As you sit down at your desk or work space, spend a few moments just listening to the sounds around you, and note your reactions to them. She has a brief guided sound meditation on her site… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha mentions several postures for practice: “Again, bhikkhus, when walking, a bhikkhu understands: ‘I am walking’; when standing, he understands: ‘I am standing’; when sitting, he understands: ‘I am sitting’; when lying down, he understands: ‘I am lying down’; or he understands accordingly however his body is disposed. Thinking about lying… Read More »
Dear Friends, I bet a large majority of the people reading this email are reading it on a mobile phone or tablet… Right? And if not, then on a computer, of course… So a suggestion for today – bring embodied awareness to your interaction with your tech. The Cards for Mindfulness deck includes this suggestion: It is often… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha set out the four foundations of mindfulness, the first being mindfulness of the body. There are many ways we can practice mindfulness of the body, including mindfulness of breathing, mindful walking, mindfulness of movements of the body in everyday activities (as mentioned yesterday), and through a body scan meditation. In… Read More »
Dear Friends, Andrea Fella led a series called “Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation” in 2012. Her week 5 talk included a handout on “Mindfulness Meditation Week Five: Daily Life Practice“. One suggestion from that handout is something I’ve picked for today’s “stealth meditation”: Choosing a Reference Point for Daily Life A main practice for daily life that helps to… Read More »
Dear Friends, Here we are, already into the second week of January. Maybe, like me, you’ve hit a few bumps on your path based on the intention you’ve set for the month/day/year. When that happens, my default behavior is to get down on myself. And then I get down on myself for getting down on myself… In her… Read More »
Dear Friends, If we’ve had a chance to do a joy practice together on a Wednesday night, you’ll know I have two dogs, Savanna (rough collie) and Reece (lab mix). So I really relate to the following quote from Pema Chodron, which describes developing the quality of steadfastness in meditation (and in any difficult situation in daily life):… Read More »
Dear Friends, Here’s a quick exercise from my set of “Cards for Mindfulness“. It’s called “Thank Me”. We really can give ourselves a hard time sometimes. Self-criticism and feelings of unworthiness are so common that it is really important to balance that out by remembering that fundamentally we are actually on our side. A good way to do… Read More »
Dear Friends, At work, we have monthly lunch sessions where we get together and listen to a TED talk together, and then we have opportunities to discuss the topic and how it applies in our workplace. On Wednesday, we listened to Brené Brown’s talk called The power of vulnerability (~20 minutes). I’ve listened to her talks several times.… Read More »
Dear Friends, One of Sharon Salzberg’s “stealth” meditations is Eat a meal mindfully, noticing the colors, the flavors, the texture of what you are eating. The first time I tried mindful eating was the “raisin meditation” in Jeanne’s MBSR class. Here are some instructions for that simple exercise (text; exercise takes ~5 minutes): http://hfhc.ext.wvu.edu/r/download/114469 Every time I try… Read More »
Dear Friends, Some advice from Elisha Goldstein and Bob Stahl in their book MBSR Every Day: … we have a portable and powerful resource that is with us at all times, inviting us to stop and just “be” with life instead of getting caught in the trap of ‘doing” so much. This is our breath. As we start… Read More »
