All Entries in the "Mindfulness" Category
Prop 8 and Obama, a mandate to listen - Susan Kaiser Greenland
On a morning where an Obama presidency is cause for celebration and hope, the likely passage of Prop 8 in California is a reality check that Americans remain almost literally split down the middle with respect to our perspectives on the most basic of social issues. For those of us who supported Obama and his mandate, it will take more than just reaching across the aisle to manifest the hope for change and unity that he and his campaign have inspired. It’s going to take a whole lot of listening - active listening with a willingness to have our own perspectives shift - to come together and move forward as a more united and more evolved nation. President-elect Obama has proven to be an exemplar of this approach and, if his plans for a transition team are any indication, the hard work of open and informed conversation has already begun in his administration. Now it’s time for the rest of us to follow his lead and take these conversations to our schools, churches, temples, workplaces, and kitchen tables, truly integrating into our workaday lives the change that we believe in.
Fly Away — Susan Sawyers
Emotion is one of the things I neglected to schedule the week the 14 year-old headed north to sleep away camp. After a series of attempts to manipulate the family schedule in order to accompany her to the camp bus meeting sight, we opted to send her to Toronto as an unaccompanied minor, or UM [...]
InnerKids on TV! Whoo hoo!
A half hour news television program about InnerKids and teaching mindfulness to children will be broadcast this weekend as part of the Profiles in Caring television series funded by Equitable Life Insurance.
A walk on the not-so-wild side.
Novelist Diana Wagman published an op-ed piece in last weekend’s LA Times about unlikely connections that can be made while walking in her eclectic neighborhood.
Rocky Mountain Hi — Susan Sawyers
Among the holy hoi-polloi from Tibet who visited Aspen, Colo. for a three day “Celebration of Tibetan Culture,” Friday’s breakout session led by Sogyal Rinpoche touched my inner-being.
Attention - Susan Kaiser Greenland
While attention is fundamental to mindfulness training for kids it absolutely is NOT the whole picture. Mindfulness training focuses on two areas of practice that are taught in tandem -awareness (or attention) practices and kindness practices. Without the elements of kindness and compassion, attention training simply isn’t mindfulness.
MINDFUL IN THE CHAOS — Seth Greenland
But what about when a storm does hit, what then Mr. Mindful? To that I would say this: When a storm hits, do everything you can to keep safe and dry. And keep clearly in mind that the storm will exhaust itself, pass on, and blue skies will literally return. When in the middle of a giant upset, this is the thing to focus on.
Why I can’t wait for the new Hand-Held Wireless Telephone: Prohibited Use – Vehicle Code 23123 to go into effect. — Diana Winston
I can’t wait for the new law to go into effect because my mindfulness has been seriously at risk thanks to using my cell phone in my car.
A Mindful Instant Message — Amy Spies and her daughter Paris
Here’s an IM between me and my daughter.
Amy(8:05:54 PM): Hi there.
Amy (8:07:39 PM): I though t we could chat a bit about what it means to be a mindful mom. I know you’ve been exposed to this world through myself and Susan Kaiser Greenland and helping her and Trudy Goodman teach meditative arts to kids when [...]
There’s a lot less honesty going around than people are willing to admit to. — Kelley McCabe
And, in that one moment, I thought I understood the meaning of the word “freedom”. I didn’t have to let my previous upset impact my interaction with my son. It was a new moment, all its own, and I was completely free to experience it independently of any other moment (or set of moments).
Mother of Thousands - Trudy Goodman
Mindfulness is about balance: being aware of one’s own experience while being sensitive and attuned to our impact on others. In our lives, we are continually falling out of balance. . .
NY Times Article on Mindfulness and Therapy
The NY Times published a well-balanced article by Benedict Carey in today’s newspaper entitled Lotus Therapy about the integration of mindfulness meditation into psychology. For those interested in the area it is worth a look.
Supermom Kelley McCabe
I can no longer protect them from the results of their folly, regardless of who is to blame. I cannot fix all their problems. It’s unlikely I will be able to do much to change their basic outlook on life. I have not been a perfect mother and we all must live with the consequences.
Can Teens Meditate? Diana Winston
In this Teen Day of Mindfulness, one boy said, “I have been really upset since my girlfriend broke up with me this week. I noticed that if I just focused on my breath, I didn’t have to think about her. Every time my thoughts went there, I just returned to my breath. I felt less messed up than I have all week. That’s amazing.”
The Ritual Tribal Abandonment of Mothers - Jeanne Denney
Yes, it is about tribal fear of touching into this need and sometimes this pain. Yes, it is about feeling alone with a task that feels impossible to do well alone. Yes, the tribe has resigned from its role in the life of my children and from its needed and necessary role in supporting me.
Handling a Moment of Peace - Diana Winston
A few years ago our center piloted a small study on mindfulness and ADD and found mindfulness to be remarkably helpful for those struggling with attention issues. So by phone, I recommended she start on a basic program to meditate daily, beginning with just five minutes a day.
InnerKids and the Schwaggin Wagon
Ever hear of the scwaggin wagon? We hadn’t until they called us and offered to donate tons of promotional swag - the type of stuff kids would die for - to InnerKids. So we checked them out and learned:
False Alarms - Amy Spies
False alarms—we’ve all had ‘em, but what do they really mean? Think about it. It can be the security system going off because of the wind. Or a smoke alarm set off by a stove-top bar-b-que. Or a financial scare—or a terrorist alert. Or any kind of scare that freaks [...]
Mindfulness is not neutral. Diana Winston
Mindfulness is a matter of remembering to be mindful, and then shifting our attention to a more receptive and open state where we’re fully present with things exactly as they are. But what happens when you’re fully present as you’re committing a bank robbery?
Women, guns, butterfat and blogging. Jeep
This was in an email I got from a friend this morning:
I approach shooting as a form of yoga, concentrating on the breathing, with sensitivity to even the pulsing of my heart. Focus. Be here now. I can do this on the range. I do not shoot or dream of shooting living things. Just printed-paper targets.
My Mindless Misery - Kelley McCabe
Why did he have to say he wouldn’t have “picked Kelley out of a lineup”? Has he seen some of the people in a lineup??
Meditation, the seat-belt of mental health - Sue Smalley
We all know that the road of life is bumpy with unexpected drop-offs, accidents, and only the occasional smooth-sailing highway. I believe that meditation — a practice for increasing awareness — is truly a seat belt of mental health. . .
The Energy Shifts - Janet Pierson
Steps beget steps. Action begets action. Often times when you don’t know what to do, you just have to do something. And then the energy starts to shift. And then sometimes amazing things happen. . .
20 minutes is nothing to your right brain… Anna McDonnell
Once the lights were out, we gathered in the candlelight. The idea of staying in our separate spaces without our umbilical electronic connections was unthinkable. . .
Has Anyone Seen My Happiness? - Kelley McCabe
If only there was a chain I could attach and hang my happiness around my neck… like sunglasses. Then I would always know where to find it.
Mystic Mom - Sue Smalley
All moms are mystics by virtue of experiencing this moment of self-transcendence, experiencing a moment where “I” doesn’t exist, where “I,” the objective I, and “Am,” the subjective “being,” blur together as one. . .
Mindfulness, Mothering, Politics and Me - Susan Kaiser Greenland
I stopped blogging a few years back . . . but, after watching the Democratic debate in Ohio, I realized there were still some things I would like to say.