Why Practice Meditation Every Day? Five Great Reasons

What Is the Benefit of Practicing Meditation? On this site, we've discussed how to deal with thoughts, emotions, sensations...even sleepiness while trying to meditate. Those are the "how tos," but how about the why? Why meditate? Or, even if we know the why of meditation, why practice? This question is partially answered when you consider the obstacles (mentioned above) to our meditation; if we don't practice, how do we know whether we're progressing on our path? Almost daily, I experience situations where I wish that my "meditative mind" was in charge instead of my habitually distracted mind. Does this ever [...]

2012-11-28T12:40:00-07:00By |Meditation|3 Comments
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Seven Things to Remember When Learning to Meditate

When we're first learning to meditate, we may find ourselves lost in thoughts, sensations and/or emotions. Previous posts on this site have addressed how to work with these distractions and obstacles and I encourage you to read them to find out more. There are some things that we can do to bring ourselves, immediately, back to our practice, whether that practice is a formal one, or an informal one. For the sake of ease, I decided to share the ten things that I remember when I become distracted by the many things that my mind seems to follow. I hope [...]

2011-09-13T20:08:03-06:00By |Meditation|0 Comments
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Meditation Isn’t About Arriving Somewhere; You’re Already There!

A colloquialism favored in the state of Maine is that you can't get there from here, or - spoken as a Mainer  "you can't get they-ah from he-ah." But, why talk about Maine when the topics of this blog are mindfulness, awareness and compassion at the bedside? (with bits of the mundane daily stuff tossed in for grins) The "from here" that we work with when beginning meditation is our ordinary - some might say deluded - mind. And, the "there" that we're working to achieve to some degree is a state free from delusions, free from distractions. The premise of [...]

2011-09-06T17:45:45-06:00By |Meditation|0 Comments
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How to Overcome Distraction While Practicing Compassionate Meditation

Recently, while doing a meditation practice based on compassion, I found - much to my dismay - that my focus was anywhere but on my practice. What made it even worse (and even embarrassing) was that I was doing the practice for a friend of mine who had experienced a significant medical emergency. In a previous post in this site, Forget About Yourself, Meditate for the Sake of Others!, we discussed using our meditation as an opportunity to meditate for the benefit of others. But, what about when we are meditating for the benefit of others and can't even bring [...]

2014-08-25T17:46:09-06:00By |Compassion, Meditation|4 Comments
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How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation – New ebook!

(The following post in from the Introduction to my new ebook, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation. Please feel free to go directly to the link to download the ebook, or read the intro first to see if its contents are of interest to you. Take care.) I think that it’s fair to say that many people experience difficulties and challenges when first starting to meditate, especially if the technique or method that is being used is based on observing and working with thoughts, feelings and/or sensations. As meditation practitioners, we need to know that there’s nothing [...]

2014-07-03T12:26:56-06:00By |Meditation|1 Comment
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Meditating On…My Birthday!

Today is my birthday. I'll be celebrating by taking a day off from the blog and book-work. I'll be out in nature, meditating and relaxing. But, I just wanted to offer you this wonderful gem from Sogyal Rinpoche's Glimpse of the Day. Enjoy!   August 23 If you find that meditation does not come easily in your city room, be inventive and go out into nature. Nature is always an unfailing fountain of inspiration. To calm your mind, go for a walk at dawn in the park, or watch the dew on a rose in a garden. Lie on the [...]

2011-08-22T22:41:11-06:00By |Meditation|0 Comments
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Meditation With Death in Mind (memento mori!)

We’ve discussed and shared a lot of different aspects of meditation and how to work with the mind on this site. One topic that we haven’t strayed into is how working with one’s mind can not only affect the quality of one’s life and the lives of those around us, but also how the stability that we can find in learning to meditate can also help us when we or our loved ones approach the transition of life into death. The Latin words memento mori—“remember death” or “remember that you must die”—were used in ancient Rome and in medieval times [...]

2019-08-12T17:47:25-06:00By |Nursing|3 Comments
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Don’t Do Doubt! Four Steps to Work with Doubt When Meditating

Recently I participated in a bicycle ride, the Colorado Triple Bypass, which is a 120-mile ride with 10,000 feet of elevation gain, over three mountain-passes…all in one day! I've already posted on some of the experiences that I had in working with my mind while preparing for this endeavor. One challenge I didn’t share was my experience of doubt while training. When encountering my doubt, I came to realize that it was such a great lesson for me that it may be of some use to readers of this blog. There are many reasons that people meditate. Some meditate to [...]

2011-08-05T01:02:35-06:00By |Meditation, Mindfulness|2 Comments
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Returning to the Aha! of the Meditative Moment

Remember those "aha" moments you've had in the past? Maybe they've been moments of clarity about something that you said in a discussion, or perhaps you were struggling to make a decision about your career and a different, unique and creative idea sprang into your mind. While many of my formal meditation moments may be focused on working with remaining in the present moment and resting, as best as I can, in a state of non-distraction, without altering my mind, there are times when I'm suddenly presented with an idea worth noting or taking down for use later on, after [...]

2012-12-06T21:26:34-07:00By |Meditation|0 Comments
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