9 results for tag: Meditation Practice
Online Lunch Meditation Practice Tuesdays!
I am incredibly excited about offering an online lunch meditation practice on Tuesdays from 12:15 to 12:45 (Eastern Time)! We will practice multiple forms of moving and sitting meditation to discover and meet various mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. This is a drop-in practice; you do not need to register or sign up to participate. It is OK to join after we have started. No previous meditation experience is necessary!
There is no fee for participation. We want you to join us!
We will begin our online lunch meditation practice by saying hello and identifying ourselves, then do some moving meditation like Qi Gong or walking ...
How I Got Sober and What I Now Know About the Impacts of Alcohol
How I got sober in September of 1989 was incredibly anti-climactic. Nothing was particularly awful or special about when or how I got sober. It was a Monday night, three days before I went for an alcohol assessment. I wanted to "beat the test," so I stopped drinking in advance to prove that I was n0t an alcoholic. I know; it's pretty funny, actually.
Even though I have been clean and sober since September 11, 1989 (Yes. September 11th, but twelve years before THAT September 11th), my recovery has four separate phases.
How I Got Sober - Phase One
The first phase was short-lived. I was going to an outpatient program four nights per week and AA/NA meetings the other days. I hated all of it, was not interested in what they had to offer, and was only complying to prove to my girlfriend at the time and her therapist that I was not an alcoholic. I still chuckle when I think about it. That phase came to an end when I freaked out, drove my car over 100mph, passed a cop, had that cop pull me over and approach my car with his rifle pointed at me, and a whole lot of drama during the following twenty-four hours that lead to me being locked up in an in-patient mental hospital while "sober"....The Healing Apprenticeship Costa Rica 2023!
The Healing Apprenticeship is an amazing week-long Intensive at the beautiful Goddess Garden Retreat Center, Cahuita, Costa Rica, January 28 - February 4, 2023.
Is it time for you to break through the obstacles that prevent you from sustainably being yourself in all the beautiful and not-so-beautiful ways?
Have you had enough of the same obstacles showing up again and again, no matter how long you have been in Therapy, practicing Meditation, Yoga, or other Spiritual practices? ...
Thich Nhat Hanh Passed To The Next Dimension
There are about two handfuls of people who have shaped the course of my life beyond friends and family. Tich Nhat Hanh was one of them. We can add Martin Luther King Jr., Dalai Lama, Louise Hay, Thomas Merton, Mevlana Julaluddin Rumi, G.I. Gurdjieff, John Lennon , Mikao Usui, Mahatma Gandhi, and my former Teacher and Mentor Rev Betsy Browder. to this list. Today he passed to the next dimension.
He and Louise Hay are where my journey into meditation began in 1990. There were not many books one could find on meditation at the time. Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh, and You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay are the two that made the most sense to me. I felt like they were key to a door that I somehow knew existed without any rhyme or reason to think there was such a door. I do not think I am being theatrical in saying that they saved my life.
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Learning To Meditate
Learning to meditate is hard. This is my experience with learning to meditate. I was coming up on six months clean and sober. My sponsor's sponsor, which I jokingly used to call my grand sponsor, was coming up on 40 years sober. I used to enjoy talking with old Bill often. He was kind, respectful, direct, and openhearted. These were all qualities that I had desired, but I did not know how to express them myself or know many people who did, for that matter. So I used to like to talk with him whenever possible. He was one of the few people I trusted even a little.
One night after a meeting, Bill came over and sat next to me. He smiled that soft, gentle smile that typically made me feel safe, if only momentary. On that particular Friday night, I was not able to tap into his smile in order to shift the sadness, desperation, and frustration I was experiencing. Bill noticed this immediately. He leaned over and put his right hand on my left elbow, "How are you doing, young man?". Bill was old enough to forget pretty much everyone's name, and we were all either Young Man or Young Woman, regardless of age or any other identifying factors.
I let out a deep sigh and felt my belly clinch, "I'm not doing so good, Bill. I go to meetings, I talk to my sponsor, I hang out with all my recovering friends, I pray every night before I go to bed, and every morning when I wake up, I still feel miserable. I feel like it's never going to get better for me, and there's nothing I can do about it."
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... How Breathing Calms Your Brain
It's about time that science has caught up to what many of us have known for a very long time. Breathing calms your brain, heart, whole body, and mind. Scientists are doing amazing research on how breathing affects the vagus nerve. "The vagal nerve, as a proponent of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), is the prime candidate in explaining the effects of contemplative practices on health, mental health, and cognition"(Roderik J. S. Gerritsen and Guido P. H. Band). I trust research conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
My primary interest in posting this article is that simply focused breathing can shift our brain rhythm, heart rate, and sense of well-being in general, just a few simple breaths. I encourage many clients to pause and take three full breaths several times a day: when we get out of bed, before work/school/childcare, after work/school/childcare, and before bed. We can stop at any time in any place and take three full breaths to regulate our brain rhythm and heart rate so we can function normally. Breathing calms your brain.
I invite you to try it right now. Below is a basic technique suggested by the University of Michigan Medicine. If the situation does not support the specifics of this method, just take three full breaths to your below and release fully after each breath. Breathing calms your brain.
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"Belly breathing
Belly breathing is easy to do and very relaxing. Try this basic exercise anytime you need to relax or relieve stress.
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Sit or lie flat in a comfortable position.
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Put one hand on your belly just below your ribs and the other hand on your chest.
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Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let your belly push your hand out. Your chest should not move.
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Breathe out through pursed lips as if you were whistling. Feel the hand on your belly go in, and use it to push all the air out.
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Do this breathing 3 to 10 times. Take your time with each breath.
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Notice how you feel at the end of the exercise."
... We Can Still Be Crazy – Pema Chodron
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