Mindfulness

You don’t have to dedicate a huge chunk of time to meditation. You can get stress relief with just ten deep breaths. To do it, sit down in a quiet place, close your eyes and breathe in slowly. Picture the air coming in through the…

The key to lessoning the impact of hard, difficult moments in life is to watch our reaction. In Buddhism, suffering is likened to an arrow. The first arrow is painful. Normal. Our fighting against the pain is like a second arrow being shot. Except this time, we are the one’s doing the aiming.

Through the day, we regularly pass from personality to personality.  We can go from Caretaker to Judge to Striver in a flash. Because of the speed and fluidity of this process, we don’t usually attend to the ways in which this inner community conducts its business.

Mindfulness brings vivid awareness to your behavior, your being and your past. It give you a chance to rework the beliefs, feelings and images that help determine who you are and provides a grounded yet spacious container for deeper self-understanding.

Westerners are always on the move. We’re often on the lookout for the next thing. When we’re small, we can’t wait to be big. When we’re at work, we can’t wait for vacation. Our minds are usually anywhere but the present moment. We consume, covet and control continually and it’s draining us, which only perpetuates the cycle of seeking THE thing to bring us joy.

Meditation might be your prescription for a happier mind and kinder heart, a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows. Scientists worked with 16 Tibetan monks and 16 meditation novices, giving the beginners lessons on compassion meditation two weeks prior to a series of brain scan experiments.

Aparigraha, or nonattachment, brings us to the end of the Yamas portion of Patanjali’s Yamas and Niyamas. It invites us to enjoy life to the fullest while simultaneously being able to drop everything. This requires trust. Like a trapeze artist, who must let go fully…

When we clearly realize that the source of disharmony and misery in the world is ignorance, we can open the door of wisdom and compassion.

When you encourage your mind to relax, your body gets the signal that it is okay to repair itself. It’s the opposite of the flight-or-fight response. Heart rate and blood pressure drop, your immune system becomes more active and digestion soothes – all of which help stress levels decrease

In an attempt to create structure in our lives, we often place limits on our selves and hold unrealistic expectations of others. It may be a subtle voice that says “it’s too late” or a belief that someone will never change. The good news is that it is rarely too late. Whether it be a mood, thought or flower – everything changes eventually.