A Meditation Solution for Nurses
Don't have time for a meditation class? There may be a solution for you! What if you could take a class just once, and with practice, attain a degree of meditative skill that would positively benefit you?
Why Meditate? Are You Tired of Being Angry, Sad, Jealous, or…Exhausted?
Do your feelings and emotions rule you? If you're like me or if...you're human, then you've probably experienced anger, sadness, jealousy (or envy?), or emotional exhaustion. And, if you're like me, you're happy and grateful when those emotional states and feelings go away, right?! What do you do when you experience strong emotions? How do you deal with difficult feelings that just won't go away? What do you do when these experiences persist even when you try to push them away?
Is Mindfulness the Same as Meditation?
t's funny but there are so many concepts and ideas about what meditation is that we can get caught up in the definition of it all while forgetting to practice. Does it matter what you call it if you're doing it? Or, do you need to have a word for it to understand what you're doing?
The Buddha Walks Into a Bar…[this is meditation?]
There's a joke that goes something like this: A monk walks up to a hot-dog stand and says "make me one with everything"...you've heard this one before? Well, you may have heard that corny joke about the hot-dog stand, but you haven't read a book like this before...unless you've read some of the late Chogyam Trungpa's works, in which case you're ahead of the crowd. And even then, what author Lodro Rinzler has to say is new, fresh and definitely unique. Appealing to a younger crowd, "The Buddha Walks Into a Bar" brings some key Buddhist concepts about meditation and [...]
How to Meditate: Who Is the Meditator? Nine Questions…
When I began to meditate, I found that I kept on returning to my thoughts, emotions, ideas, distractions...basically, everything that I use to identify myself as "me." 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. For some people, and in some methods, "meditation" is defined as a relaxation technique, a way to de-stress from everyday life and find inner piece. That's good; most of us need a way to remove ourselves from normal speed [...]
Heal Your Past – Meditate With the Present in Mind.
There are so many ways to meditate, many of which have been discussed on this blog. And, there are so many reasons to meditate. What comes up repeatedly in discussions that I have with others is how our past and the emotions related to the past can intrude on our present life and within our practice of meditation. Since meditation is - essentially - the state of non-distraction, based upon mindfulness, meditative awareness and spaciousness - within this state, there is little room for ruminating upon past traumas, emotional injuries, and patterns that have predominated our lives with their insistence [...]
How Do I Meditate? Use Compassion…For Yourself!
HOW DOES COMPASSION HELP YOU TO MEDITATE? Good question... Let's start this post with the wisdom of a wonderful writer, James Finley. I've used this quote in other posts and keep coming back to it because...it's so good! Our feelings of impatience and frustration with ourselves in meditation are certainly understandable, especially when they persist in spite of our best efforts to overcome them. But as we sit in meditation we can begin to recognize the subtle violence inherent in our impatience with ourselves. As our awareness and understanding of our limitations in meditation continue to deepen, we begin to [...]
The Allure of Life’s Dramas, Are We Addicted to Strife?
Are We Addicted to the Soap Opera Mind? Since I first began to meditate, and even after years of meditation, I've found that the "non-meditative mind," the mind that is habituated to distraction, still remains. Though I find more peace and am able to live more presently with the mind that is free from the routine habits of distraction, there's a powerful force within my mind based on the habit of running after drama and strife. I'll call this the "soap opera mind." The soap opera mind likes things stirred up a bit, it likes to chase after drama and [...]
How to Meditate – The Most Important Practice…Plus One Great Tip!
There are so many methods of meditation, so many techniques and tips. By offering this post, I am offering to you the most significant advice that I've ever received on how to meditate and how to really be able to work with my mind.
Meditation and Compassion in Nursing. Five Handy Hints…
When we think about how to show up either in life, it’s good to remember that compassion isn’t something foreign to our minds and our hearts, we have it already.