When my mother was in her mid-sixties, I found her new habit of giving away possessions morbid. She had plenty of life left, I asserted to my siblings. What was the rush? Now at the same age, I find myself with a thirst for decluttering. Almost weekly I set out ...
You don’t have to be a drama queen (or king) to be tripped up by life's ups and downs. We all have disturbing things happen to us — from the irritation of losing one's keys to an ongoing family crisis. How do you handle these situations? In my psychotherapy practice, ...
I suppose some readers may think "meditate on what you want for Christmas" is an oxymoron. After all, we usually associate meditation with peace and health, not with the material wants of the holidays. But I propose that meditating on what we want can give us insights into ourselves and ...
Whether the sun is rising or setting, it paints the sky in breath-taking hues. Likewise, when we give or receive a gift our heart radiates warmth. Can you think of a time you gave a gift that you really put your heart into? When the person received it, did you ...
Yesterday I watched a Youtube presentation about using 2 to 5 seconds of non-focus to relax your mind. As the presenter spoke, I felt myself going into a trance. It got me thinking about some of my blogs about short meditations and my suggestion about finding “free” moments during the ...
Have you ever been stung by how someone spoke to you? And then worried about getting stung again? This seems to me to be a fairly common concern within organizations, friendships and families. Perhaps you remember assertiveness training. The advice was to respectfully address the person and request to be ...
This week I polled my readers and asked, “What’s your favorite thing about meditating?” Here are some of the unedited responses: “It's refreshing.” “Relaxing.” “The silence of listening.” “Connection.” “Satisfaction....When I can't get no satisfaction, I go meditate. It’s always close by. The divine self takes over again.” “Gives myself ...
One of the questions I hear often in my meditation classes is, "How long do I have to meditate?" In our culture of do, do, do and produce, produce, produce, we look for formulas, rules and guidelines. Everyday we’re plummeted with responsibilities, some we choose and some we don’t. We ...
On one of those recent super-hot afternoons, I cooled off in my bathtub. It was relaxing and the thought came to me, “Why not meditate?” I imagined putting candles around the tub, maybe filling it with bubbles or flower petals. After all, bathing is relaxing, and sometimes being in the ...
The online media is rich with information about meditation. Just Google “meditation,” and you’ll have a cache of material to pursue from studies on the benefits to techniques to free guided meditations. This morning I was going through some of the articles and found myself getting overwhelmed. I thought, “I ...
This morning I got up to meditate and found myself wondering what part of my brain was being stimulated. In an article I wrote that was published by Huffington Post last week, I referenced several studies that researched the benefits of meditation. (See "Meditation: The New Elixir for All Our ...
Now that the weather has become warmer and the plants outside are growing with all the recent rain, I’m tempted to leap out of bed and into my garden. After all, gardening is meditative, right? Some of you may have other changes in your schedule coming up — your kids ...
In my last blog I wrote about using guided meditations as a way to “give over” your effort to another person’s words, to assist you in shifting to your “right” brain — that is, away from the analytic, critical-thinking mode. A guided meditation is also a way to increase your ...
For me a guided meditation or centering technique is like a poetic journey that my mind agrees to take. By simply choosing to use a guided meditation, there’s a subtle letting go, like receiving a massage. The mind can stop working, can stop trying so hard. It’s like taking a ...
This is the way I think about meditation: It’s when I shift my focus from the external to the internal. It’s actually possible to do this and not lose any functioning in what you’re doing. In the same way we can feel a variety of emotions at the same time ...
Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com AnnArbor.com's partner news site MLive.com is on a quest to find the best barbecue in ......
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