When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the…
Without the silence that follows the chants, you get only half the story. It’s like the climax of a good story. The silence is there because it exists in the music. It just needs to be exposed and acknowledged. It’s so easy to overlook the silence inside the music… and it’s that which is healing…
Leslie Davis writes, “On a recent personal retreat, I hiked into Horn Canyon in the east end of Ojai, California. Due to the severe drought, it had been years since water had flowed alongside the trail there, but now I was delighted to cross the creek a few times, jumping from rock to rock. My…
Smiling Mind produces a free and inspiring app to help you begin or maintain a mindfulness practice! “Smiling Mind aims to build happier, healthier and more compassionate people. Our mindfulness meditation programs are designed to assist people in dealing with the pressure, stress and challenges of daily life.” LEARN MORE ABOUT SMILING MIND OR DOWNLOAD…
Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “Our true home is not in the past. Our true home is not in the future. Our true home is in the here and the now. Life is available only in the here and the now, and it is our true home. Mindfulness is the energy that helps us recognize the…
Dacher Keltner writes, “We are all naturally endowed with a set of passions that enable us to find our purpose, increase our well-being, and navigate our place in the social world. These passions include gratitude, compassion, mirth, and our focus here, awe. Awe is the experience we have when we encounter things that are vast…
Finding Your Favorite Meditation Practice Cassie Shortsleeve writes, “At times, meditation seems like a practice for someone else. While the benefits are clear — research has shown that monks who meditate for thousands of hours alter the structure of their brains and significantly decrease emotionally reactive behavior — it’s easy to think: “How nice for them, but…
MINDFUL AOTEAROA asks kids about the benefits of mindfulness in this short video.
Ed Halliwell writes, “Bringing mindfulness to simple activities like drinking tea trains us to direct attention consciously. We might think we choose what we’re paying attention to in life, but in reality most of us are driven by habit and impulse. By deliberately choosing to attend to an activity, we slow things down and let…
How to add meditation and awareness to your daily routine. Jack Kornfield writes, “Awareness of your breath can serve as a steady basis for awareness in all you do.” First select a suitable place for your regular meditation. It can be wherever you can sit easily with minimal disturbance: a corner of your bedroom or…
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