February can be a challenging month, especially for those of us who are lucky to live in an area with four distinct seasons. Sometimes when it’s frigid, icy, windy weather—which we’ve had a lot of this year—I don’t feel so lucky. But it definitely reminds me of the impermanence of all things, including whatever mood [...]
Situating Yourself: Mind Noise ...continued from Becoming Aware 1:2 - Busy Mind Once you start to become aware and take note of what your mind is doing, create a Quiet Corner bank (some call it a God box—if that works better for you) in which to store all your questions, self-judgments, and self-criticisms. Perhaps you [...]
Situating Yourself: Busy Mind ...continued from Becoming Aware 1:1 - What is Our Purpose? Throughout this process we will be studying our mind. We will see how it controls us and learn to what extent we have control over it. Being human, most of us have very active minds. Generally, we just accept this as [...]
How many of us know how to really listen? Do we know how to listen to our own mind as it careens out of control and races off on some tangent or other, into the past or the future? Or to others—our coworkers, loved ones, or strangers—as they attempt to communicate something to us? To [...]
When I arrived last Thursday at Garrison Institute for a four-day Contemplative Care retreat and learned that there would be 108 participants, I gulped that number in and took a stroll outside to soak in the beauty and quiet before they all arrived. As I watched them stream in, I exclaimed out loud, out of [...]
