Meditations, experiments, books and guided meditations to assist with nourishing spirituality, healing childhood wounds, and living more consciously.
Meditations, experiments, books and guided meditations to assist with nourishing spirituality, healing childhood wounds, and living more consciously.
Here’s February’s audio meditation, continuing the theme of wholeness of our beautiful planet and all our earth-kin who share it…
For those who would rather listen to this meditation while watching images from nature, here’s the YouTube version:
I wrote last week about drawing on steadiness as a form of subtle activism. Another quality that is sorely needed within our human family is the expression of kindness. Here in the United States, we’ve had an unfortunate shift toward a lack of civility toward one another, and it seems that there is a lessening of kindness in many places on the planet. This lack of kindness, and an accompanying lack of care, extends to our other-than-human earth-kin and to the planet in general.
Kindness and care are expressions of the heart more than the head. They are heart-centered responses and it’s possible to strengthen the tendency to express kindness and care when we offer ourselves practices that orient to heart perception and intelligence. I’ve written about this a lot and continue to return to it because of its central role in helping us to be with one another in more compassionate ways.
Drawing on a combination of information from HeartMath (www.heartmath.org) and other sources, I’ve spent a good bit of time orienting to my “heart brain” and to checking in with what my heart thinks about various issues. How often the heart perceives things differently from how the head brain understands them and how helpful it can be to have both perspectives available!
Read More “841st Week: Revisiting Kindness”
Sitting in Central Park on a Saturday morning, a couple walked by with two adorable small dogs. One was on a leash and the other ran free. One member of the couple needed to walk back to see if she had dropped something and, as she returned, the dog on the leash saw her and began to excitedly wiggle and run toward her. What I noticed were her smile and delight in greeting the dog and it reminded me of the power of appreciation shared with a smile.
There’s a concept called “heightening”, offered by David Spangler, a spiritual teacher and guide. What the word addresses is the natural response of “coming to life” and becoming more energized when we feel seen, acknowledged, appreciated, and celebrated. Watching the dog brought to mind the inflow of life energy that is naturally experienced when we offer and are offered delight in someone or something else.
This brings to mind a practice I’d like to invite you to play with this week. As you move through your regular daily routines, take a moment when appropriate to offer appreciation and a smile to the people you encounter, as well as to the other-than-human lifeforms you engage along the way. Remember to include as much of the world around you as you can and then notice the quality and tone of your inner experience as you do. Not only will you be “heightening” the enlivened experience of everything around you, but expressing appreciation will tend to heighten the enlivened experience within you, as well.
Read More “851st Week: Sharing Smiles, Offering Appreciation”
This month, we focus on the essence/frequency of compassion. This year, we explore a different essence each month, bringing its living presence into our experience. Imagine going through everyday activities resonating with and expressing compassion…
If you’d rather have nature images with your meditation, here’s our YouTube version:
If you haven’t discovered him already, Nipun Mehta is a man who offers continuous opportunities to be inspired. He talks a lot about kindness, and one of the practices he promotes is what he calls “the radical power of generosity”. Here’s a link to a Tedx talk he gave. He also created Karma Kitchen, Read More “Week 666: Radical Generosity”
Our theme this year continues to be focusing on various frequencies, qualities, tones of being that may be imagined as energy frequency, color, as a Spirit embodying and radiating the quality, or in any other way that brings it alive for you. This month, we focus on the living presence of gratitude and explore how it is to call this frequency into the foreground of your awareness, being, and actions, in yourself and in your relationship to the world around you.
If you would prefer to listen while seeing images of nature, here’s our YouTube version…