When I woke up with throbbing in my mouth, I knew that I had to visit my dentist. By the end of the day, not only had I visited my dentist, I'd had over 7 injections into my mouth and gum to take care of the pain and I'd had a root canal surgery! And, when the pain medication wore off, it was time to practice meditation.
Compassion Doesn't Have to Hurt, in Nursing or Otherwise Albert Einstein wrote: A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, his feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and [...]
When you find that you've become distracted in your meditation...or in life, simply bring yourself back to the moment, gently, easily, without giving yourself a hard time. Without beating yourself up. And then...celebrate! Because you're back!
With time and repetitions, research will tell us whether it is possible to excise the spiritual components of meditation and still see the same benefits, but knee-jerk resistance to concepts that have guided meditation practices for millennia is unacceptable, especially when an effective process has already been established.
This morning, I received an email from one of my readers who wrote, "One question that I have about thoughts is, if they're not real, how do you know if they're 'true' or not...The way I've always viewed my thoughts is, well if I thought of them then they MUST be true." Do you ever wonder the same thing? If so, read on...
Imagine meditating while you're suffering, what does that feel like? What if, instead of trying to run away from your disturbing emotions, you engage with them and see them for what they really are, temporary and impermanent? How do you think your life would change if you were able to be with whatever arises within your mind in a state of grace and peace, instead of constantly running after the good thoughts and fleeing what makes you suffer? Would your life be different?
Well, it's that time of year again. Time to...meditate? No, shop! Or, is it time to meditate on why we shop, why we consume hoping to find some outer reward to our thirst for something...new, different? Time to find happiness in...Target? Nordstroms? Amazon? How often have you felt an urge to go out and buy something, only to find that after you'd bought whatever it was, there was still a hollow place inside? Have you ever been really stressed out and felt like a little "retail therapy" was just the thing that you needed to remove your negative thinking? What [...]
Many of us are working on trying to become more aware of what we put into our bodies. We've come to realize that certain foods, while tempting or alluring, aren't really good for us. And so, we've become choosy - even vigilant - in deciding what to eat. But, do we do this with our thoughts?
For anyone who meditates, or who has ever tried to meditate, dealing with the thoughts, emotions and sensations that arise during one's mediation practice can be a real challenge. In fact, these temporary phenomena can be such a challenge that many people abandon their attempt to meditate because of them.
Walking meditation is a practice in many contemplative traditions. The object of this practice is to use the simple act of walking as an opportunity to practice moment-to-moment awareness. Meditation is moment-to-moment awareness. Meditation is about not being distracted in the moment.
A Worldwide Epidemic of Stress in Nursing As an RN, I've worked in many environments that I would describe as "stressful." Why were they stressful? Because there was an abundance of stressors. People often confuse the words around stress, maybe because they're so stressed out?! Before we can learn how to handle stress in our life, it might be worth knowing what we can modify (hint: that's the stress) and what is out of our control. The Definition of Stress It seems that whenever I research challenges in nursing, the main topic seems to be stress. Whether it's [...]
Does Anger Ever Get Away From You How often do you experience a situation where you can feel the anger arise, you know that it's coming, and yet you're not be able to do anything about it? Do you ever wish that anger didn't have such a hold on you? Would you like to be able to work with anger so that instead of leaving you feeling helpless, it helped you to work on your meditation practice instead? Great...
You're Already Empowered! When nurses talk about empowerment, the discussion often focuses on how we can find power over the circumstances in our work environment. And when we talk about feeling stressed or burned out, we’re usually talking about the circumstances at work that are causing us to experience stress (see article on stressors and stress to learn the difference between what stresses us and what we experience.) Becoming empowered and less stressed within our workplace is necessary. But…are we missing something? Is there a way to become empowered and less stressed without trying to change everything that goes on [...]