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 »
Dear Friends, It’s Monday, and I am back to the regular work routine. Many of my colleagues who were on holidays the last couple of weeks are back as well, so the office will be buzzing with activity. It’s on busy days like this that I often find I neglect to make space for mindfulness. So here’s a… Read More »
Dear Friends, In his book Meditation and Relaxation in Plain English, Bob Sharples gives this advice: Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship toward yourself. In this view there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of… Read More »
Dear Friends, One of my big tasks at work this month will be working with my team to our articulate goals for 2016. Goal setting is something many people do. Intentions are different than goals. I found a good description of the distinction between goals and intentions, by Phillip Moffitt: Goal making is a valuable skill; it involves… Read More »
Dear Friends, This past May, I had an opportunity to sit with Susie Harrington and Anne Cushman at the Lost Coast Retreat. As we neared the end of the retreat, Anne shared her tips on “How To Maintain A Daily Practice of Almost Anything“. The first step is “Set Your Intention.” Many of you are familiar with Jeanne’s… Read More »
Dear friends, Welcome to the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community Daily Meditation Support for January 2016! Starting January 1, 2016, look for a daily email to give you a little bit of extra inspiration to maintain a daily meditation practice. Each email may contain one or more of the following tips: A quote or a poem A link to… Read More »
