Once upon a time, without any warning, I never went back home from summer vacation, and was placed at the very last minute as an international student at an American boarding school. It was a rough first year, but sometime along the way I lost my accented English, found a Read more…
It’s taken me awhile to gather my thoughts on the killing of George Floyd because his death has brought up a lot of stuff and I didn’t simply want to add obvious anger to the public conversation. I speak only for myself, so don’t take this as my opinion on Read more…
I initially envisioned this post series on centering as a simple how-to, but my first post came out rather pointedly around a limiting belief, and when today’s topic came to me this morning, I realized that before getting to the meat and potatoes, I need to keep giving folks the Read more…
Many of us grow up with the message that being self centered is a moral failing, that we must put others ahead of ourselves. So-called navel gazing is for the privileged because look 👏 at 👏all 👏 the 👏 problems 👏 in 👏 the 👏 world 👏. Look at all Read more…
One type of client I seem to attract (and there’s always a very personal reason for these kind of patterns) are the type A, super achiever, “I’m gonna do whatever it takes to heal myself” kinda person. They’ve devoted years to self-improvement and personal development. They consider themselves diligent, self-reflective, and hardworking. Yet they Read more…
Yesterday I mentioned how a student got to the bottom of a chronic headache. She’d been noticing that every time she sat down for her daily meditation her head would start to hurt. I casually mentioned, “Have you asked it what it wants to tell you?” Within 24 hours she Read more…
Though some people experience excess energy in their fourth chakra, I think the majority of us have the opposite problem of shutting down our heart chakra. Here is a list of ways to open your heart that is by no means exhaustive. Feel free to chime in in the comments Read more…
Last year when we worked on focusing we used the technique pioneered by Ann Weiser Cornell in her book The Power of Focusing, which was my own personal introduction to the method. It was a great introduction to noticing how the body communicates to us something we need to know about our deeper selves, and how we can tap into that and attend to it if only we took the time to pay attention, ask, and listen.
Purists might disagree, but I consider focusing a form of meditation because it is just another way of quietly coming home to ourselves. But focusing also feels different from most traditional sitting practices because it really asks us to focus on the body (rather than the breath). It also requires that we be more “active,” in that we are meant to engage with what’s bubbling to the surface, rather than simply letting those bubbles go. One Dreamer & Schemer said that the focus on the body gave her something to hook into more easily than perhaps more “abstract” meditations, and that the experience led her to gain a new appreciation for her body!
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This month, Michele Théoret provides us with guidance on how to connect with our second chakra through yoga asanas. From the grounding position of mountain pose, we can choose to move into what she designates as “moon pose/chandrasana.” (Note that this is NOT the version of moon pose where you Read more…