Dec 13, 2024
by Carolyn McCarthy Photo by Judy Beth Morris On a recent morning in early November, my stomach was in knots. My head was spinning, a thought storm tumbling through. I’d managed to get myself out the door and was walking to yoga class, mat tucked under my arm. But my...
May 3, 2024
I hear it all the time, especially at the end of a class or workshop: how do I keep this going? Daily practice, finding community, and doing a retreat come to mind. But how about books and movies? For this list, I’ve skipped the many wonderful “How To”...
Feb 2, 2024
In our classes, when we turn toward difficult emotions, we often say, “This is where the rubber meets the road.” In other words: This is where it gets tough, but also, this is why we’re doing this practice. I have five parents: two in-laws, two birth, one step. In the...
Sep 29, 2023
Think of Mindful Movement as a "body scan in motion" where we practice deeply feeling the sensations in the body as we move it and as we hold different postures. We offer a few suggestions for getting started as well as diagrams of our standard full mindful movement...
Sep 12, 2023
Open Awareness is the practice of stabilizing attention with a broad, wide-open focus that allows mental objects, sensations, and sensory experiences to come and go. All mindfulness-based practices are oriented towards stabilizing attention. Sometimes a stable...
Aug 4, 2023
I invite you to become like a bee, moving from flower to flower. In this case, the “flower” being anything beautiful or interesting that draws your attention. Engage your senses to connect with delight: the sun on your cheek, the grass on your feet, honeysuckle in...
Mar 29, 2023
Roses are red, Violets are blue, Happy National Poetry month To you! If you’ve been in our classes or attended our retreats, you know that we celebrate poetry every month of the year. As Lucille Clifton says, “Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of...
Dec 2, 2022
Have you ever had a wet nose interrupt your meditation? My friend and I have circled this lake for years. It’s about three miles around, with a swimming area, baseball diamond, dog run, and huge old firs and cedars. We’ve walked and talked our way through our kids...
Apr 13, 2022
“April showers bring May flowers.” Or, as Thich Nhat Hanh put it, “No mud, no lotus.” Trials, which can be hard to bear, often spur growth. Beautiful blossoming, even. Yet when too much difficult stuff hits us all at once, we can feel swamped, sodden, struggling to...
Nov 17, 2021
The Body Scan is a mindful tour through your body. This practice deepens awareness of the body, strengthens attention, and supports a more grounded, present-centered feeling for life. The Body Scan can also reveal stresses and emotional issues that you haven't become...
Sep 28, 2021
This core meditation for our Mindful Self-Compassion program connects compassion practice with a feeling of equanimity. Loosely based on the Tibetan Buddhist Tonglen meditation, Giving and Receiving Compassion involves inviting the feeling of receiving all that you...
Sep 28, 2021
The practice of Affectionate Breathing is a core Mindful Self-Compassion practice. This practice "warms up" the core mindfulness practice Awareness of Breathing by bringing elements of self-kindness and inviting a feeling of being nurtured by the breath. Affectionate...
