Our happiest moments are when we lose our sense of self. It other words, when we aren’t worried about our future. When we aren’t striving to look like this or that. To be like that person. When we LET GO.
Read MoreThe “self” is a psychological structure meant to keep us alive. It’s great for survival, but not so good for living a life that is satisfying and meaningful. When teaching on this topic, I like to bring up the imagery of a leaf growing in between cracks in cement. Our ego is like that. It will do just about anything to grow, to live. I mean, it can push through CONCRETE. Damn.
Most of us spend most of the time pushing through imaginary concrete…
Read MoreBringing mindfulness to your schedule means pausing to create a schedule that is in line with your energy, practicing discipline, developing tolerance for needing to change your schedule if that becomes required, supporting your body with mindful breaks, and reflecting on BIGGEST goals, BIGGER goals, and BABY goals.
Read MoreBut when this tendency goes unchecked, we are no different from lab rats pushing the lever for food and avoiding the shock. That becomes our life, and it takes a LOT of energy. There’s no room for anything else when our only goals are to hold onto every positive feeling and avoid anything negative. We have to always be on guard in order to do this.
Read MoreWhen you don’t allow yourself to feel the sadness of a breakup, the guilt of not spending enough time with your parents, the desire for the cupcake, or the jealousy of your friends' success, for example, you inadvertently prevent yourself from feeling the happiness of your promotion, the joy of a cupcake, the pride you have in your children, the empathy when your friend is in distress, etc.
Read MoreWhen our attachments begin to get in the way, we are officially at war with ourselves. You want to stay in the relationship, but you know in your heart it’s not the right person. You want to have another slice of cake, but you’re really trying to cut back so you can live long enough to see grandchildren. This inner conflict feels heavy, stressful, and takes up a lot of valuable energy 😬
Read MoreThe inner critic becomes more firmly established over time and prevents us from feeling like we are living a life full of meaning, adventure, and joy. Just like a splinter, the sooner you take care of a relentless (or subtle but deadly) inner critic, the less likely you are to have it “infect” the rest of your life - your relationships, your values, and the vision for the life you want to live.
Read MoreWe can’t change something we aren’t aware of. Meditation and mindfulness practices help us become aware of beliefs that are unconsciously guiding our behavior (sometimes in very harmful ways, like implicit bias). From there, we can act in ways that are more in accordance with our values. Meditation also strengthens the important skill of compassion, which helps us release self-judgment for our implicit biases (judging ourselves only makes it worse) and also have compassion for the stigmatized population, which drives us to take action rather than wallow in an untrue belief that we can’t control anything.
Read MoreYoga is one such tradition, and it has deeply impacted my life and well-being. Although the yoga we practice today BARELY resembles its original form, *some of* its evolved forms are still applicable and helpful for the modern day angsty adult (when practiced in intentional ways with an informed teacher, I’m not talking about hot-power-goat-yoga where you can BYOB, as fun and Instagram-worthy as that sounds).
Read MoreYou know that feeling when nothing is actually “wrong” with your life, but there is this background sense of unhappiness, of dis-ease? I think this type of dissatisfaction can actually be worse than when we can actually PINPOINT something “wrong”. What do you think?
Read More“Just like you can thirst for water, you can thirst for touch. It is a comfort to be met confidently, deeply, firmly, gently, responsively. Mindful touch and movement grounds people and allows them to discover tensions that they may have held for so long that they are no longer even aware of them. When you are touched, you wake up to the part of your body that is being touched” - Bessel Van Der Kolk
Read MoreConsistent mindfulness practice builds up our ability to witness and observe what is happening in our experience rather than giving it power over the way we live. The part of our consciousness that witnesses and observes is called buddhi in Sanskrit. When buddhi is strong, it is literally impossible to hurt ourselves from an asana class or from any sort of movement.
Read MoreIn this blog post, I discuss how, when we intend to to get rid of our pain, more suffering results. l also touch on how, when we practice equanimity (that is, not pushing away negative experiences nor grasping onto positive experiences) more enjoyment of life results.
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