Applying Restraint to My Life. What I Have Learned from the Dogs.
Gunnar is the name of the dog that my former husband and I lived with in our last few years of marriage. He now lives with my ex. He is all Black Labrador Retriever. He lives to retrieve. He knows nothing about the study of Yoga or Mindfulness. At least he has not told me so. There is a big chance he does and this is the question I am going to explore. Although it was Gunnar that came to my mind, I have lived with many dogs and maybe you too have had a dog in your life and you can relate to what I am about to say.
Read More
Instructions for Meditation Practice
Have you ever unpacked after you have moved? Or maybe, if you haven’t moved and unpacked, you have helped someone move and unpack. Were there instructions for this? Did you know how to do it?
I invite you to sit in a comfortable meditation posture, close your eyes as I guide you through a visualization
Read More
Unpacking Zazen (bare awareness meditation) “Just do it” OR “Sit as though saving your head from fire”
When I first started a Zen practice, that’s the first thing I did, I “just sat”. I came into a room filled with black cushions, “zafus and zabutons” and I saw how people were sitting on them and I imitated their posture. I “just sat”.
I HAD meditated before, before I found Zen. I had a home practice, were I sat on a cushion in front of an altar, did various guided meditation and imageries. I would meditate off and on. I did not have a regular practice for a long time. I continued like this, on and off my cushion, letting life jostle me around and being surprised, astonished and incredulous when things did not go my way and wondering what was wrong with me.
Read More
Turtle Steps from A Hot Mess to a Triad of Mindful Focus
How do we get from a hot mess to a triad of mindful focus? We all know what it feels like to be a hot mess. I’ve been there, you’ve been there. Sometimes we know how we got there and many times we end up there and wonder what the @#&$ happened??
Read More
The Path of the (Woman) Warrior
I am going to talk about what it means to be a warrior in the context of meditation and choosing the path of compassion and self-love.
What do you see in your mind when I say the word “Warrior”? Did you see a man or a woman?
Read More
Connection & Faith - during a pandemic and violent injustice
People, as the humans we are, desire to be connected to other people. As I reflect on connection during this pandemic and now during this week of violence, anger, despair, suffering, injustice and confusion, I have had a deeper noticing of how important connection is and what happens when we are disconnected or feel that we are separate.
Read More
Abundance - Positive Thoughts Create Positive Outcomes - Go after what you want!
Abundance is a mindset that can be created through positive affirmations and meditation.
Read More
Synchronicity
“Cold, isn’t it?” I said. Then a conversation ensued. Michael was his name. He was a writer, a poet and a creative. He wrote poems from crossword words. He had written a lot. Homemade books upon books that he created using his computer. He worked with his hands, did odd jobs or designed spaces and things for larger corporations, like Target, for money. He did just enough to feed his love for writing, spoken word and travel. He spoke of his travels, of his youth.
Read More
Choose your approach. Surrender doesn't mean giving up.
I have fought many processes in my life. A big one was the dissolution of my marriage. I sooooo wanted it to work. I was going to fix it- all by myself! I laugh when I say that because that is crazy thinking. How am I suppose to do THAT when the definition of a relationship is the state of being interrelated, connected? I need the other half to connect to and that other half needs to want to connect with me.
So, I struggled, resisted, clung to what I knew…the womb…
Read More
Gratitude
I started writing just gratitudes, in letter form, to the Divine, in April 2016. I had a regular writing practice, my Morning Pages, that I had been doing for 5 years. Morning Pages are Julia Cameron’s invention from her book, The Artist’s Way. Morning Pages are 3 full pages of spontaneous, flow of thought without too much thinking.
Read More
Transforming Power of Acceptance - for yourself, for others.
How it struck me. February, a month that we sell and market gifts as an expression of LOVE. But... what if someone would try to sell you suffering (anger, sadness, lust, greed) would you buy it? Doubtful. And yet suffering can be such a gift. It is a persistent presence that demands my attention.
Read More
Why Do YOGA?
I have had this question posed to me various times as of lately. Not only have random people been asking me (like the guy at the auto parts store) but my mother sent me an article about why WOULD one do yoga?
Read More
