Anchor

The breath is often considered an Anchor while meditating; something used to ground you and bring you back to the present moment when thoughts distract our attention.

Coming into presence

A short meditation that focuses on letting go of our distractions and inviting us into this moment to practice presence.

Balance

While our mind likes to jump from one extreme to the other, balancing our day is a more sustainable practice where we can practice kindness to what we need while accomplishing what we hope to achieve.

Being with the pause between breaths

So rarely are we aware of the spaces between things. Being with the pause between breaths allows us to identify our expectations and let go into the open field of our awareness.

Being

So often is our day focused on the next item on our “to do” list. We end up feeling distracted and exhausted from the pressure of “doing”. Instead of the bustle of needing to do something, we can practice the art of simply being.

Introduction to Mindful Movement

Why mindful movement may be helpful to incorporate into your own practice.

Mindful Movement

We can meditate even while moving. This is an opportunity to notice body sensations and thoughts that arise while we are mindfully aware during a stretching sequence.

Acceptance

While often an elusive concept, Acceptance helps us come to terms with what is and begin to let go of the resistance we naturally have to things we dislike.

Facing fear

Fear is a constant in our lives whether we pay attention to it or not. We have a choice to either let the fear guide our behavior in which we become helpless to its strength or we invite it into our experience with acceptance and compassion therefore altering its grasp and decreasing its control over us.

Softening

Often carrying ourselves with rigidity and tightness, we can practice letting go into the softness of our being and experience the felt sense of letting go.

Reflection on difficulty and Metta

While our brain automatically rejects discomfort and tries to escape it, it is possible to accept and learn to tolerate the pain of our difficulty and respond to it with compassion and Loving Kindness.

Kindness for me is kindness for you

We are all interconnected and so is our capacity for empathy and loving kindness. It can sometimes be easier to focus being kind towards others rather than reflecting currents of kindness towards ourselves. When we perceive the interconnection between kindness towards ourselves and others we can increase our motivation to practice self compassion.

Tonglen

Tonglen is a loving kindness practice in which we breathe in another’s suffering and breath out gestures of love and compassion that can ease another’s pain. In doing so, we allow our own bodies to soften and accept the inherent suffering involved in our interconnection.

Rest

So much of our current society promotes busyness, productivity, and ambition. The value of Rest is often lost. Reconnecting with the wisdom that arises through our silence of resting can lead to an increased sense of ease and wellbeing.

Hope

Hope is a concept often misunderstood. Instead of it meaning to simply focus on the positive or perceive the world through “rose-colored glasses”, hope is a practice that focuses on opening up to all the possibilities that may occur and trusting ourselves to be able to recognize the opportunities that arise.

Joy

While we often focus on the pain inherent in this life, our brain easily dismisses the experience of joy. Increasing mindfulness of this experience and practicing the felt sense of these moments allows our brain to also trust in life’s basic goodness.

Boundary

Having an understanding of our boundaries and being able to implement them gives us a sense of safety, confidence, and trust that we will ultimately be “ok” in this swirling, tumbling world.

Equanimity

There is tension and stress all around us. Instead of resisting what is, fighting to have it “be different”, there is a space we can exist within that allows an understanding of the temporary nature of all suffering. It is within this space that we can feel a sense of wholeness and comfort even in spite of stress and pain.

Grief and loss

Loss, whether is it losing a loved one, being disappointed by a situation, or feeling the loss of a future possibility, is inherent in our daily lives, yet we so often avoid facing the grief that accompanies this sense of loss. Through practice we can change our relationship to grief and loss from one of fear and avoidance to trust and appreciation.

Identity

This society suggests our unique identity as unchanging, stable, and fixed. This perceptions can create feelings of inadequacy and misunderstandings of who we truly are. Embracing the flow of our ever changing identity and noticing the beauty of what continues on improves confidence and self love.

Change with kindness

The transitions we face on a day to day basis can feel exhausting and overwhelming. Noticing ways to embrace these changes with kindness towards ourselves and the world enables equanimity and trust in the process of these transitions.

Connecting with yourself

As current challenges continue, we tend to feel more and more isolated, even if we are surrounded by others. Connecting with ourselves allows us to feel closer to one another and more in touch with what we truly value.

Let is exist

A short meditation of letting what is already present, exist within us. Inviting in the experience without resistance allows an improved ability to be present and a chance to notice the beauty admist the pain.

Letting go

Letting go, or more appropriately, letting be, is not an act of submission or defeat, but a courageous and conscious decision to accept what is. Through learning to be with the uncomfortable emotions letting go creates, it gives us freedom from the prison of holding onto impermanent aspects of our lives.

Post Pandemic Re entry

So many things have changed since this pandemic started, including ourselves and how we recognize our priorities. When re-entering society, we have the option to take some of these new priorities with us and leave behind old patterns that were not serving us.

Vulnerability

While society teaches us that to be vulnerable is a weakness, vulnerability is the most courageous things we can embody. It allows us to deepen relationships and improve our trust, confidence, and peace within ourselves.

Christmas chaos mantras

Christmas time can lead to busyness and overwhelm. It can be helpful to identify what is important during this time of year and set conscious intentions to embody those priorities.

Endurance

The ability to endure requires patience and compassion, both of yourselves and the world. Instead of putting your head down and pushing through challenges, it is important to feel the hard feelings that come with having to endure and within that openness allows you to also feel blessings inherent in the challenge.

Sleep Aid

A short mediation to help you focus on your body and relax your mind and body to ease drifting off to sleep (Great for kids!)

Letting Go

Letting go is an idea often discussed but not easily understood. While it is a cognitive concept, it is only through experience that letting go can be felt and incorporated into our being. Notice the healing effects of letting down our guard and trusting in our natural means of healing.

Shadow

Often unknowingly, we hide certain aspects of ourselves from the world’ perhaps even from ourselves. This unconscious resistance adds to feeling scattered, weak, and alone. Integrating these “shadow” qualities can ease this underlying tension and help us feel more confident of and peaceful within our unique well rounded beings.

Existing in Awareness

We strive to achieve, meet expectations, be different than we are. While there is a place for ambition and setting goals, it is also important to exist and find peace and calmness within our capacity of awareness itself, in this moment, in this breath.

Healing In Nature

We are so often dis-integrated through our attempt to live in the separate roles we play each day. Is it possible to begin to integrate our minds, return to wholeness, and feeling interconnected within body, mind, and one with nature.

Unmet Needs

The stress and pain caused by conflicts, whether these conflicts are between loved ones, strangers, or within ourselves, can tend to overwhelm our presence and rule our mood. Understanding these conflicts through the lens of pain caused by unmet needs can help promote compassion for ourselves and others.