Mindful Mondays: Feeling Hot Around the Collar?
I was recently driving southbound to Oregon during a Pacific Northwest heat spike. I was heading to an annual retreat at the Mt. Angel Abbey Bach Festival. I use this as a personal retreat mixed with amazing live music and excellent beer from the Monk’s brewery. After driving three hours in 100 degree heat my […]
Mindful Mondays: Take a self-compassion break
H/T to Dr. Kristin Neff, PhD This practice can be used any time of day or night and will help you remember to evoke the three aspects of self-compassion when you need it most. You may think of a situation in your life that is difficult, that is causing you stress. Call the situation to mind, […]
Mindful Mondays: Take an intentional break
It’s a long drive to the Washington coastline but if you get a chance, find this tree, and check out the wet, fern-walled grotto and stream underneath it. I don’t like the word, “magical” but it really did feel special. Today’s invitation is to not only find the roots and stability in your life but […]
Mindful Mondays: Start where you are
The remainder of the year is full of shifting sands, seasons and situations. The landscape is changing and so must our map. July is a great month to reset, recalibrate and get back to mindfulness practice basics! I always recommend starting where you are. Don’t overthink it. Try this: Intentionally be aware of the present […]
Essential selfcare tips for ‘Know-it-Alls’ during divisive times
Confessional: I’m a know-it-all. I know that. And when it comes to selfcare I have an honorary PhD from the School of Me. During the last few years, I have consumed mountains of books, articles, videos, and TED Talks on what you need to know about selfcare during divisive time like these. I have reached […]
Mindful Mondays: Take a deep breath
We are going through a rough time. Take a deep breath… The people of Northern Ireland have a phrase for this kind of challenging passage. They might refer to it as a Correymeela which means, The Lumpy Crossing Place. The landscape is shifting, the map is changing, the weather is mixed with an 80% chance […]
Minding the chatter in our Heads
Have you ever walked out your door, noticed the rain and wind that awaits you and within a nano-second thought this: “Oh great. Rain. Again. Why did I even bother with my hair? I’m going to be a mess, I’ll never make it to that meeting on time, the traffic is going to be horrible, […]
Stay Grounded – Be where your butt is
If you’re anything like me, you’re feeling these days like you are rearranging furniture on the Titanic. Just when you’ve reset the chairs a chandelier goes flying by, followed by a table set for dinner. We are living through a pivotal time in history that seems to spin from hopeful and beautiful to terrifying and […]
Mindfulness: Non-Striving in Practice
As a mindfulness practice and stress reliever I recently took up abstract painting. I was messing around with exercises provided by an online class when a friend asked, “Are you having fun?” to which I unenthusiastically replied, “Sort of.” The process was frustrating at times. My projects were not resembling anything like the seemingly effortless and […]
The Attitude of Non-Striving
When we practice Mindfulness, we can intentionally cultivate one of 7 foundational attitudes. This week we’ll explore Non-Striving. Non-striving can seem like a tricky mental posture in our goal-oriented world, but Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it this way, “Mindfulness is never about doing something perfectly because it is not about doing or accomplishing at all. It […]
