Apr 13, 2025
You are so excited to prepare dinner for three of your friends. You’ve planned a menu, gone grocery shopping, and spent several hours slicing and chopping, sauteing and mixing to bring forth a delightful meal. Your guests arrive to share your culinary efforts. They...
Mar 4, 2025
Dear Friends of Mindfulness Northwest, A group of 25 people is gathering for a day of mindfulness at Semiahmoo County Park, north of Bellingham. The park is situated on a mile-long sandspit extending into the Salish Sea, with water on both sides. It’s just...
Jan 10, 2025
Dear Friends of Mindfulness Northwest, As the year turns, I find myself reflecting on the journey and adventure Mindfulness Northwest has been and thought I’d share a bit this month. Sometime in 2009 a dream started to take shape in my life. I was starting to...
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...
Oct 3, 2024
What happens when you take stock of your day, your life, your purpose? What is the nature of the language you use with yourself? Most of us tend to be harsh and critical of how we are conducting our life. We easily spiral into self-talk of “shoulds:” I should be more...
Sep 7, 2024
Something that occurs to me regularly at our mindfulness retreats is: “I never would have thought of this!”It never would have occurred to me that being quiet and sitting still with a group of people for days at a time would bring so much benefit. That it would lead...
Jul 3, 2024
In strengthening the ability to be present and grounded, "anchoring" attention with felt present-moment experience is deeply helpful. While many practices do this using breath as the object of attention, the anchoring meditation helps you explore other options. These...
Mar 4, 2024
ABOUT LABELING The meditation called Labeling (also known as Noting) is a very helpful practice for getting to know patterns in our minds while at the same time starting to develop some space around them. This practice helps us see what our minds are up to without...
Mar 1, 2024
When I was younger I was a very judgmental person.Pretty much anything anyone said or did I’d have a strong opinion about how they could have done that better and the many things wrong with their choices and approach. It was a pretty constant grouch-fest with a strong...
Feb 26, 2024
In this innovating 11 minute practice, Tim invites us to find stability in the context of dynamic energy and change using the imagery of sitting besides a mountain stream. The audio includes a “special guest” recording from nature. Sitting by a Stream - 11...
Feb 26, 2024
Meditations using imagery and symbols can be powerful. The Mountain Meditation envisions your experience as that of a mountain: stable and solid but also always changing. This classic practice, popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn, is often included in our Mindfulness-Based...
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...
