Just so you know, if you are reading this and in the grips of a frightening mental illness, then you need to go to a doctor. If they don’t take you seriously, then go to another doctor. Meditation is not going to work when your brain is being throttled by depression, or anxiety, or OCD, […]
Category: Meditation
Moles
There is a distinctly non-spiritual reason why I decided to start meditating every day. I read that meditation can give you deeper rest than sleep. For four years, I had been either pregnant or breastfeeding. I was tired and needed more rest. I’m not a morning person anyway and now brutal, unasked for dawns invaded […]
Yet
‘Answer the why, and we’ll naturally find more courage when it comes to following through on the how.’ Light Watkins wrote this and as soon as I read it, I wrote down why I needed to seek out a particular meditation teacher at a particularly inconvenient time. All the logistics were against me – I […]
Flossing
I dislike anything to do with dentists. That’s dentists, hygienists, dental chairs, that swirly thing you spit in. All of the sounds. But after three back-to-back pregnancies and their affect on my teeth, I am vigilant about getting my teeth cleaned. Yesterday, as I lay back in the chair getting them scaled and polished, a […]
Roots
‘You, the unstable, must become a tree’ This is what we have to do as parents. No matter what has happened in your life, no matter where you are, how often you have messed up, how many bad choices you have made, your roots come down when you have children. You stop letting the wind […]
The hum
I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert this morning talking about The Curiosity-Driven Life, and it blew my mind a little. I didn’t run out to the world and shout Hallelujah, but something popped in me. A recognition. The talk spun off a reader who had posted a comment on her Facebook page. Elizabeth had offered her […]
Good morning, muse
‘Who knows anyway what it is, that wild, silky part of ourselves without which no poem can live.’ This is the late poet Mary Oliver talking about the creative part of us that resembles a quivering deer in headlights. It can be vibrant, tangibly pulsating from someone, or painfully elusive, moribund – in desperate need […]
The hidden poets
I’ve been writing this blog for the time of dot in the infinity of the universe (that’s precisely four days) and already, it’s freed something in the ether. Opening up in this infinitesimal way has lit up something for other people too. This tap on the shoulder from my soul has unconsciously touched at other […]
I’ve got no more brain left
I’m referring to the 3-year-old again. This is what he says precipitating a meltdown, and I think it is a perfect way to describe how the adult brain feels pre-meltdown. Of course, as adults, we are not allowed to let it all go like this. Instead of releasing all that stress and confusion into a […]