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Reflections on striving to live with greater presence and ease, more compassion and kindness, and how to tap into that renewable spring of wonder and inspiration.
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Speaking of settling, over the past week, I shared a snow globe with my groups to give a visual of what we are striving to do when we sit in meditation and how it can be useful in our everyday life. We practice staying steady in the midst of everything else that may be swirling around (and right now there is a great deal swirling around in this country and in this world, in addition to our personal lives). We observe ourselves and choose not to run around, chasing thoughts, getting caught up in the chaos, but instead to stay grounded. It is a practice that needs strengthening. What does it take to stay embodied, connected, grounded, or to come back down when we do get swept up?
I feel old fashioned saying it, maybe because it feels taboo to say in today's climate, but "self-discipline" is what feels most true to my experience of learning how to resist the pull of forces all around us. No one else can make me have self-discipline which is what makes it so empowering. If I let myself be swayed by every impulse, feeling, and desire to do something, to have something, to follow something, to say something, more often than not, I'm not making mindful choices or choices I will feel good about later. In fact, I am not free to choose anything when I'm at the whim of my thoughts, feelings, and desires. That's not to say that being spontaneous or trusting one's gut feeling is not valuable. Of course, if I am overly regimented, I may never be surprised or delighted. But, if I can't observe what arises with curiosity and awareness and without acting immediately, I am likely to do a lot of unhelpful things for myself and others. We help kids develop this muscle when we teach them to wait, or show them the value of working toward something, or when we let them be bored and discover something on their own.
In meditation on Saturday, I shared how much I wanted to look at my phone during the meditation to see if my son, with his newly acquired license and responsibility, had left the house in time for his cross country meet. The pull to pick up the phone was strong, but I didn't. I sat in the discomfort and it passed. It was the perfect practice of feeling the temptation, the incessant cajoling of my mind, and not giving in. We can have a healthy relationship with self-discipline, one that's not dictated by "shoulds" but guided by awareness. One that reminds us to stay with the task we set forth to do because we can. In meditation, staying with our breathing exercises our ability to do one task -- to be in the present. It is a workout of its own and the benefits translate into our everyday life when we realize that we are more present to everything.
In a culture where instant gratification is awarded so easily, it makes this practice an even greater ask. It requires us to practice more. We don't have to wait for much today. We can instantly have all kinds of food, entertainment, material goods, games delivered to us. We can get a hit of endorphins when we open our devices and get a "like" or play a game. We can distract ourselves easily with non-stop news, emails, communication. What meditation teaches is that we can just sit through the feeling, the pull. We won't explode. We won't miss anything. In fact we will be more present to the life that's here right now.
My invitation this week is to celebrate self-discipline. In what ways have you noticed that self-discipline has enriched your life? Think through small things you take for granted. What healthy habits have you trained yourself in? How did you get to be successful at what you do? Most likely self-discipline was in there to some degree. Make note of the ways you currently choose to do something even when you feel the pull not to (for example, maybe you brush your teeth, even though you just want to get in bed). Let's make it not so taboo to choose to hold our tongue, to wait instead of react, to concentrate on the one task before us and not distract ourselves with a quick hit, to enjoy the reward that comes from observing, waiting, and choosing to act with awareness. To let ourselves be uncomfortable, or to be okay in not knowing how to do something. To stay steady amidst our own thoughts, feelings, desires. The reward is worth it. It is empowering.
🧘🏽♂️
Jean
September brings with it a lot of beginnings. Because new things are asked of us when we begin something, beginnings also involve change. Even what we perceive as endings are beginnings of something new -- a new period of time, a new way of being, a new landscape, etc. For me, this month brings the start of all my groups, the start of the school routine with my teenagers, the start of them driving on their own and what that means for me, the start of cooler temperatures and leaves falling, the start of a new self-care routines, the start of relationships with new members in the community. Something new I've been seeing on social media about seniors, "its the first last day of school!" I didn't know that was a thing!
We can meet beginnings in a contracted state, ready to protect against what we don't know, or we can meet them with trust in possibility and growth, knowing our resiliency is strong, should we need it. The latter feels better emotionally and physically, but it takes some attention and intention to let go of habitual guarding that arises. It takes awareness that the guardrails are emerging and then the perspective to choose how we really want to meet it. Meditation, mindfulness, awareness -- they are the path to freedom, to ease, peace, contentment, and that's because unless we see what we think, feel, say, and do, we can't choose. We are not free at all and happiness eludes us.
Though our habit energy is strong, we are not servants to it. To create new habits, to see meaning in things, to be filled with awe, wonder, gratitude takes applying ourselves. It is not effortless, but it can become less effortful the more we practice. Without this effort, I may have missed this experience...
Last week, I went to convocation day at my son's school on the 2nd day of his senior year. I warned him that hearing live bagpipers at ceremonies often makes me cry and I would try not to embarrass him. I thought it was a beautiful ceremony, though this yearly tradition seemed routine to the school community. I didn't get the sense that crying at the bagpiper's music was a norm. The experience was fresh to me, though.
A senior stood at the podium to share some words on courage that was accompanied by a slide projection of illustrations to the far left of the gymnasium corresponding to each line he read. The audience turned and watched the projections, but my eyes stayed on the student whose posture was attentive and upright. Almost military in his demeanor, he was clear and deeply articulate. When he sat down, he sat at attention and let out a deep breath and sigh of relief. All I could do was smile from ear to ear. This was the same student I remembered three years ago, like my son, a newcomer to the school. He shouted out a "goodbye James" back then after soccer practice and I felt relief at the time, that someone knew my son's name and wasn't afraid to connect. He gave a talk on courage and I could see that courage at work inside him on that first day of his freshman year and on this "last second day." And then the tears did want to start flowing and it wasn't because of the bagpiper. I looked at the class of 90 students across from us in the bleachers of that gymnasium and thought about all the experiences this one group of young people will have before them. How many will thrive, how many will get stuck, how many may have ill health or not live as long as me. I thought of all the awkwardness in these high school years and how they will outgrow it, or already have, and just how amazing the whole things is...this life.
To some teachers, students, administrators, trustees this was just another ceremony, another speech. If we don't look closely, if we miss that freshman shouting a goodbye, if we miss the nuances and don't stop long enough to take in the life that's here, well, then it is just another ceremony, another day. I drove home and felt joy and awe that morning. And that was a beautiful thing.
My invitation this week is for us to keep our eyes, ears, senses open so that we don't miss the subtle, beautiful gestures and the awkward moments that remind us how precious and vulnerable we all are together. We can let that tenderness of being wake us up to joy and love. We have to slow down to do it. We have to be present.
Wishing you all a week of noticing beginnings and choosing how you want to meet them.
🌻
Jean
We are at that point in the summer where it might be nice to do a self check-in. Whether it is your favorite season or least favorite, I invite you to take a pause.
There are still approximately 6 more weeks of summer left. Though, if you are at all tied into the school calendar, it may feel more like 3 weeks or less. Either way, seasons tend to go quickly and the summer is often one where we make promises to ourselves to lighten up, maybe have more fun, or simply change the pace and intensity, or somehow get replenished in some way. Our best intentions to do something nice for ourselves sometimes don't come to fruition in our actions and suddenly the summer is over. So, before we get to that place, from a place of kindness, we can check-in.
Put all judgment aside for this. This is a self-kindness exercise, so it doesn't make any sense to have it there. As you read this, take time to close your eyes, breathe, and hold each question patiently waiting to see what comes. Start by asking...
Have I given myself what I knew I needed this summer? Is there anything I am still longing to have nourished before the fall arrives?
See if a word or phrase comes to the surface that captures a particular quality, need, element that feels missing or incomplete. Anything from the general or specific may come (ex. alone time, spontaneity, inspiration, sleep, space, relaxation, movement, connection). When the answer comes to you, slowly say it back..."I could still use______." Say it a couple of times to see how it lands. Is that the word that feels true? If so, how does it feel to acknowledge it (if not, try again and see what does feel true)? If the answer is "yes, I am full," what is it like to stop and take that in -- to actually feel full before you move on to another season?
If you did hear something you are still wanting to be nourished, what could you do in the next couple of weeks to bring some of it in. It may not be exactly what you imagined at the start of the summer, but there may be something simple that you could do that would nourish you. Maybe you didn't get to take a week long beach vacation, but maybe you can take a morning at the shore. Maybe you expected to feel more rested by now, and you still want rest, what can you eliminate to have more space and ease? It might require imperfection, but if you agree to the imperfect nature of it, it will be nourishing. If you get stuck on it only counting if it is a certain way, then you'll cause yourself suffering. Our ideas about something can easily get in the way of our actual experience. Instead, let yourself be nourished one bite at a time. It is amazing how the bites add up and suddenly you are full.
Lastly, another way to feel full is to recognize all that did get nourished in you this summer that you might not have planned or acknowledged yet. All the other pieces of goodness when we take stock add up to make for a very rich existence.
Feel free to reach out and send to me what came to you in this exercise. I am happy to be a witness.
🌻
Jean
In our groups, we recently spent time looking at the practice of equanimity as a liberating tool and I want to share it with all of you in the hope that it will bring you more ease. When we see things with greater equanimity, we remove judgement and evaluation. We remove notions of right/wrong, good/bad, and ideas around what should/shouldn't be. Instead we just meet the experience as it is. What I like to say is "it's like this right now." Multiple people have said they want that expression tattooed on them to remind them that they can just be with the experience and remove the reactivity to it. It's the reactivity that causes suffering. We step off the roller coaster when we do. We still experience highs and lows, but we aren't stuck on the ride, or at the very least if we are on it, it doesn't make us so queazy. We can recognize it and in doing so we begin to slow it down so we can get off.
The invitation this week is in two parts:
Choose something that is going on that feels pleasant. Something that is going well and feels good and what if you let yourself experience it fully -- the feelings and sensations that go with it, but don't hold onto this pleasant thing. You don't have to figure out how to get more of the good thing. You don't have to worry about it ending. Simply experience it fully as a pleasant experience, breathe with it there, fully present to enjoy, and let it be free -- like letting a bird go.
And now, choose something that feels hard, something not so pleasant, and what if you do the same? Feel what this unpleasantness is like -- the feelings and sensations that go with it, and let them be there without adding on to them, without pushing them away, without making them your story. Instead, let it, too, be free -- like letting a bird go.
How does life feel different if you can bring some more balance to what arises in life? It is certainly less dramatic and causes less reactivity around us. Equanimity needs to be practiced along with it's accompanying practices of loving-kindness, compassion, and joy. We can practice it more easily when we also can bring in care and compassion and we don't forget to appreciate what is here. The practices of living mindfully all work together.
This is something we can keep strengthening. We won't become dull or impassioned. We won't be detached or inactive. It will keep us from causing more harm and this world needs more people striving to do that.
May your experiences be balanced. May you be free.
🕊
Jean
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Over the past week in all my groups we have been working with letting go. Specifically, we explored letting go of things that were never really ours to begin with. Getting involved in somebody else's fight, taking on someone's responsibility, doing someone's work, analyzing someone's situation and giving feedback. The funny part of our human nature is just how much time and energy we can expend on this kind of thing in our mind alone. We may not actually be doing anything, but if our mind is taking us through it, we might as well be because all that energy is being used anyway! Just think how much more peace we could have if we caught ourselves in the act and let it go sooner, rather than later. (But, even later is good enough!)
Once again, it's our awareness, being mindful of our thoughts and actions, that changes this pattern. When we can break this pattern, we attract less drama and cause ourselves and others less suffering. As is the case with most positive change, it takes effort, steadiness, and patience. Be gentle and kind to yourself as you bring more of this into your life.
I always think the words "letting go" sound so easy, like letting go of a balloon. But, it rarely is and that's because the reason we are involved to begin with is that there is some unmet need in us that's driving us to want to be engaged. It might be the need to feel helpful, needed, seen, valued. It might be the need for harmony or the feeling of being in control and secure. Often the need is misplaced. We don't even realize that what we are stepping into is driven by it. But once we know, then we have the power to stop and take care of our need outside of the situation. This is the more loving way to be and it often goes against the grain. Some part of us thinks the more loving thing is to get involved, but often it is not.
Once we have the awareness, what do we do next?
1) We stop and recognize the unmet need and we bring in self-compassion. Ask yourself what is driving my involvement here? What am I wanting to fill? Once we have that understanding, we can let go a little.
2) We recognize what we feel if we stop getting into the situation -- what do we have to feel to let go of our involvement? Often it is feeling the unmet need.
3) Once we can name what we have to feel, then we allow ourselves to feel just that. Not to think about it, but to breathe, feel and give it space without doing anything. If we skip this step of feeling, we haven't done the hard work yet. When we allow ourselves this, we realize that it's okay to feel something uncomfortable. We won't explode.
4) We can then bring compassion to ourselves, the other, the situation we are stepping out of.
This is how letting go happens. And we stop there and let that digest. There is so much freedom and lightness that can come the more we practice letting go of what is not ours. Besides, we have plenty that is ours to deal with! We can bring ourselves more ease, space and peace.
What currently in your life are you taking up, that is not yours, that you could try this with? Feel free to reach out if you get stuck or share your insights if you have them.
Wishing you a beautiful week.
🌸
Jean
P.S. Gaining awareness takes some practice. Join me this summer to strengthen these skills. See below for the summer offerings.
P.S.S. Are you a teacher or know of teachers who are off for the summer and would like to learn to meditate? Or know a willing student heading off to college in the fall? It's the perfect time to start. Beginning Meditation Series.
My Mindful Pause had to go on a pause, but I am back. I'm struggling with what to say next. After those big personal losses that happen in life, there's a recalibrating that needs to happen. I'm in that place. Finding my way, there is so much I can say and nothing at all at the same time.
Many of you know that my mom passed away a couple of weeks ago after a short illness, all of which came suddenly and chaotically. I was close to her, so the absence feels real and yet something about it doesn't feel real at all. I still expect to talk with her. This is natural, I know. I am adjusting.
In recent years, my mom would say, "I don't know how you do what you do. It seems so hard." It always took me by surprise when she said it. I didn't know how aware she was of what I did, but she was clearly following me. Moms do that. On the heels of my mom's funeral, just four days later, I was scheduled to lead a weekend retreat, which I did over this past weekend. It seemed crazy to go from such a time of turmoil and loss to facilitating a group of people in a weekend of strengthening self-kindness. Mother's Day weekend at that. And yet, it was just right. I was gifted a beautiful group of 14 people who joined me at the lovely Dharmakaya Center in upstate New York. We did just what my mom said, we did some "hard work." It's the hard work that yields so much presence, connection, growth and joy.
Though this work is not something she was inclined to do herself (she worked hard in many other significant ways), I can rest in knowing that my mom knew I was truly happy in my life. "My beautiful Jean," she would say. And that happiness I experience, which she could see, didn't just come. It has taken "work" and the fruits of it can't be bought or brought by anything else. I share this because because I just witnessed 14 people dive into the practices of stopping, being still, and listening to what arises in that stillness. They spent time exploring what their inner critics have to say and made room for the unmet needs lurking underneath. They tried being on their own side, finding what their unique voice of compassion sounds like. They tried on forgiveness and humility as they took in their ancestors and what brought them here. They shared openly and listened carefully. They practiced self-kindness and let it permeate to the whole group. It was inspiring to witness.
Why do we practice meditation? Why do we reflect and contemplate? Why do we intentionally draw our attention to what is well and good, again and again? Because it make us happier, more peaceful people. The world certainly needs more of that.
My invitation this week is simple. What makes you feel grounded, joyful, peaceful? Do more of that this week. Look at your week and see what you have planned that cultivates those qualities and what you have planned that may be doing the opposite. Is there anything you can let go or space you can open? Is there anything you can add that nourishes you? Remember, it's often not big things. It's the simple things that give us spaciousness, ease, joy, and peace. It's available. Be intentional. If it is going to bring you those things in any lasting way, there will be some effort involved. Don't be afraid of it.
Renew your commitment to yourself and have the courage to lean in so that you can be more free in life. It is short. There is no time to waste being stuck, angry, resentful, critical, worn out. You can choose something better.
Wishing you a beautiful week.
🙏
Jean
Lately, I am hearing more people express a sense of dismay with their "progress" meditating. Honestly, when I hear this I wince inside. I can't help it. If we are thinking in terms of "progress" then we are missing it altogether and, even more, it's mean to ourselves! So, if you have this sense of not progressing or not being good at meditation, then I hope this message speaks to you and feels reaffirming.
Meditation is not something to progress at. It is simply something to do. We refer to it as a practice, but I wonder if that's in the way, too. Why? Because it is not something to master or even get good at. It is not something to win at. You'll never arrive somewhere. Why? Because you have already arrived. You are here. It's simply remembering that you are here that mindfulness meditation helps us to do. Here and not in the future, the past, or in fantasy.
Is it a practice? Maybe we are causing ourselves some suffering by calling it that. I wonder if it would be more beneficial to say simply, "I meditate." Just like we would say, "I brush my teeth." We don't practice brushing our teeth. We just brush our teeth. We don't practice meditation, we just meditate, which means we follow our breath to stay in the present moment, we get distracted, we return to our breath again. Sometimes we can stay in the present longer, sometimes we are gone in a split second. We just do it.
You are here in this form with a brain that produces many thoughts. Endless thoughts. It is what it is made to do. We could say, "thank you, my brain." It's a good thing to have one. But I know sometimes we wish it would quiet down. Fortunately, our brain also has the capacity to let go of a thought, the next thought, and the thought after that, one at at time. This is what we are doing in mindfulness meditation.
We start by following the breath because it is happening only in the present moment. Sensing our breathing, we are right here. Sensing anything, we are right here. If I listen to these sounds right now, I am present. If I feel my feet on the ground, or my pelvis on the chair, I am present. If I smell this flower in front of me, I am present as I draw the air in through my nose. If I feel this inhale and this exhale, I am present. I can't sense these things and be somewhere else in my thoughts. So we use the body to stay here.
It could be that we feel like we are failing or not getting any better at it if we are holding on to some notion that we should be getting to a peaceful place, or a place where thoughts stop coming in, or a place of otherworldliness (bliss), or a place of perfection where we don't get distracted. If we have those motivations or goals we have fallen off the path. It's going to feel like we aren't very good at it.
Of course, there are different forms of meditation. Some are intended to bring us to another place, out of this body. Mindfulness is not that. Mindfulness is awareness of what's happening in the present moment. We are not trying to get to another place, a special way of being, or ongoing peacefulness. It is not an escape. It's the opposite. It helps us to be right here with what is, whether what is is pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, or anything along that spectrum. We learn that we can stay. We can observe and we don't have to react by trying to get away from it. This is where its power lies because then we can make choices. We can't do that when we are not present. And so this is why we meditate. It helps us to live aligned with what matters to us. We learn that we can be aware. We can stay. We can observe. We can make a beneficial choice from there.
Just meditate. That's it. Just meditate and let the doing of it speak for itself. Lately, I am hearing people say that they notice as they meditate more regularly (just about daily) they find that it is easier to do -- to be still and to stay. Of course it is. Like riding a bike. It's not scary like that very first time we did it without any training wheels.
My encouragement this week is to meditate regularly without evaluation, without trying to get somewhere, or attain something. You have already arrived. Now, just meditate.
Need any help, just reach out.
🙏🌷
Jean