Meditation Blog - Page 18 of 19 - Minding The Bedside

The Object of Our Emotion is Not its Cause

Can Meditation Practice Affect How We View Our World? A Series of Articles Part One - The Object of Our Emotion is Not its Cause A funny thing happened on the way to the office today. Okay, it wasn't really funny, and my office these days is The Laughing Goat Coffeehouse. While getting ready to prepare for the day, my wife made a request of me that seemed, to my sleep-deprived mind, unreasonable. Reasonable or not, whether the haze of sleep loss or the actual request was the trigger, the emotions that arose within my mind were ones of frustration [...]

2013-12-16T13:31:24-07:00By Jerome Stone|Meditation|0 Comments

Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain

Meditation Causes Positive Changes in the Brain I've already written on how the practice of meditation can change not only our lives, but - at a very profound and empirical level - can actually change how our brain works. In this post, I'm going to let a true expert in the field take over and provide you with an incredible lecture on brain changes that can be accomplished through contemplative practices. I'm posting a link to a lecture by Dr. Davidson at the end of this introduction (you can go directly there by scrolling to the end of this post). [...]

2015-12-14T23:18:28-07:00By Jerome Stone|Neuroscience, Science|5 Comments

Are Thoughts the Mind, or Just a Product of it?

In the book “Zen and the Brain,” author James Austin, MD, writes: “Meditators discover a surprising fact when they finally arrive at moments of “no-thought”: they do not have to think to be conscious. For consciousness starts with being aware. The awareness has a receptive flavor, its normal landscape is not a level plateau. Instead, it rises and falls as a series of peaks and valleys.”[i] (To read an interview done with Dr. Austin by MIT Press, check out this link: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/auszp/austin/interview.html) As we work with our mind and begin to develop insight into its dynamics, we’ll come to realize—even [...]

2013-11-08T16:12:34-07:00By Jerome Stone|Meditation|2 Comments

Compassion in Action: Band of Brothers

I write about compassion, hoping in some small way to help nurses and health-care professionals to find that wellspring within themselves that sources irrepressible compassion. Every once in a while I find...or in this case, stumble upon an organization that exemplifies the kind of compassion that I aspire towards. I'm devoting this post and the space for this post, to the organization - Band of Brothers Charity Venture Group. I came upon their site by accident, if there is such a thing, and found myself deeply moved by the scope of their work, and the clarity of their vision. From [...]

2011-09-14T15:33:55-06:00By Jerome Stone|Compassion|3 Comments

Using Thoughts During Meditation as the Object of Meditation

Meditation Can Be Using Your Thoughts as the Object of Your Meditation For many of us, when we begin to meditate, instead of sinking into a blissful space of quietude and relaxation, we find the exact opposite. We encounter a torrent of thoughts, distractions, and just about anything else that we wouldn't want to be thinking when we're supposed to be taming our mind. But, isn't meditation supposed to free us from our thoughts? That's what I assumed when I first began meditating. After all, I'd seen enough photos of robed figures seated, motionless, in peaceful settings, undisturbed by the [...]

2015-01-20T15:19:36-07:00By Jerome Stone|Meditation|4 Comments

Meditation: Who is the Meditator?

What meditation does, at its deepest level, is to help us to free ourselves from this grasping after a "self," a self that we identify with our feelings, our hopes and fears, our projections.

2013-11-08T16:17:29-07:00By Jerome Stone|Meditation|2 Comments

Meditation is About Getting Used to Our (Undistracted) Mind

The mind that we use to meditate with is the very same mind that "starts out" in a state of confusion and leads us to a state of meditation, and the qualities that permeate the "deluded" mind, cognizance and awareness, are the very qualities that bring us to a state of non-distraction, or meditation.

2015-01-20T15:11:51-07:00By Jerome Stone|Meditation|4 Comments

Meet the Author!

Jerome Stone is a Registered Nurse with over thirty years in a variety of health-care settings, including pain management, hospice care, ICU, and research in complimentary and alternative medicine. He is a long-time practitioner of meditation, with an emphasis in the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism and an interest in Christian and Kabbalistic Contemplation. In addition to his Nursing degree, he also holds degrees in Environment Education and a dual-degree in Comparative Mythology and Depth Psychology. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife, Jill Siegel-Stone, and their son Noah. Besides his love for his family and for the [...]

2012-07-30T15:02:25-06:00By Jerome Stone|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Mindfulness, Meditation, Compassion and Nursing – The Perfect Fit!!

I'm stuck in Washington at Dulles Airport, “G” Terminal with several hundred other souls crammed into the boarding area. Outside, flashes of lightning illuminate the cloud-darkened sky; the loud thunder-clap strikes come alarmingly close to this small, overcrowded weigh-station. As we watch the Departure Boards, one flight after another posts “CANCELED,” and a tide of anxious and angry passengers washes over the customer service desk, employees frightened for their well-being. How appropriate it is then that I am on my way back from teaching a class on mindfulness and meditation to a group of health-care practitioners in Seattle. What a [...]

2014-09-08T23:33:54-06:00By Jerome Stone|Nursing|6 Comments