You certainly don’t need me to tell you how stress accumulates in your body. The way we eat, drink and live takes its toll on our bodies, minds and well-being to be sure. Deep relaxation meditation is an opportunity for our body to rest, to heal, and to be restored. Today, I offer you a […]

What It's All About Meditation is not a vacation from yourself. It isn’t about self-improvement. One of the most difficult obstacles new meditators often have to the success of their practice is believing that meditation is somehow designed to enhance something about ourselves or some kind of exercise in self-improvement. What drives you to meditate? […]

Why We Quit One of the biggest reasons we quit establishing a daily meditation habit is we think we “don’t have time." We’re busy, our lives are moving full steam ahead, and our “to do lists” are overfilled. We think we can’t possibly “add one more thing” to our busy day. The reality is, there […]

ON THE PATH One of the most essential spiritual lessons we can learn is how to differentiate between the situations we actually experience and our mental commentary about those experiences. So you might be asking yourself, "How can I begin my spiritual path?" The thoughts about a situation and the situation itself are sometimes difficult […]

Why meditate?

Many mistakenly believe that meditation entails sitting still for ten minutes or so in some kind of contorted pretzel position and stopping all thought. These are actually two of the biggest misconceptions of the practice of meditation. They’re also the primary reasons most people give up meditating all together.

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I’m doing things a little differently this time around. I have recorded a new meditation for you to practice called, “I Am Present Everywhere.” It’s roughly ten minutes long. All you need is a quiet space to settle in and listen.

We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make everything feel solid and secure. We want certainty and are uncomfortable not knowing. We want or even need, to know how it all will turn out. When we don’t know, we feel unsettled, insecure, like we have somehow lost our footing. Staying caught up in your head with your thoughts is a very dangerous neighborhood to be in alone!

Some of us worry that because we get lost in thought, that means that we are not successful in our meditation practice. Just the opposite is true. The fact that you are noticing that your mind strays as you meditate is a sign of success. It means you are beginning to become aware and recognizing how much “stuff” passes through your awareness oftentimes without you even noticing it.

One of my favorite teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, often wrote about how we each have the seeds within us to either be happy or unhappy, angry, patient, kind, mean-spirited, violent, peaceful, and the like. He called these the seeds in our store consciousness. It’s up to us to choose which seeds we want to water at any given time.

Let’s look at calming strong emotions. Painful feelings are part of all of us, but if we fight those painful feelings, we’re actually fighting ourselves. Today, practice noticing the painful feelings as they arise, and calm them by going back to your ground state of being. …

Many people believe that an awakening will make us blissful, joyful, and happy all the time. As if the state of awakening gives you these feelings permanently. They believe that if they follow a teaching just because it’s ancient or revered, it will produce the desired result. But those feelings of happiness and joy are byproducts of awakening, not the actual awakening itself.

There are many forms of meditation. The meditation I have been trained in and practice twice a day is a silent, mantra-based sitting meditation.

Sitting meditation gives us an opportunity to settle in to the stillness and return to our ground state of being, that state of stillness and emptiness. It’s an opportunity for us to take time away from the busyness of our daily life and its distractions and give full attention to and care for ourselves.

Every time we turn on the news or scroll through our social media, we are literally assaulted with stories of conflict or what’s not working in the world. Allowing our senses to be bombarded daily can create a deep and profound disruption and cause a deep tension in our bodies and minds. We need the physical and mental reprieve from this constant negativity.

Every single moment is an opportunity for us to live mindfully in an awakened state.

Life coaching is a partnership with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires you to maximize your personal and professional potential.

Not sure where to start your journey but know that it's definitely time to incorporate something new into your routine?

From a spiritual perspective, the ultimate purpose of mediation is to reawaken you to your true self. But this is almost impossible when we are caught in a cycle of chronic stress, an endless "to do list" and too much on our plate. A meditation practice can help.

Like me, maybe you’ve spent time in your life trying desperately to avoid painful memories, grief, anger or other emotions hoping that they’d simply “go away” on their own. Or maybe you bought into the old adage that says, “time heals all wounds.”

Most of us have bought into the idea that happiness comes from something “out there.” If we just have more time or money, drive a certain car, get that promotion or that advanced degree, live in a certain area then we’ll be happy. We have become stuck . . .