Cultivating Joy: Mindful Practices to Reclaim Beauty and Wonder Cultivating joy through mindfulness offers a gentle path back to delight, aliveness, and inner peace Joy can feel elusive in times of grief, stress, or uncertainty. When the world feels heavy or our hearts are worn thin, it’s easy to believe joy is inaccessible. We may […]
Saying yes to our lives means passing by whatever does not support our highest good and well-being. “The world begins with yes.” –Terry Tempest Williams It means practicing loving-kindness meditation until we actually begin to love ourselves, affirming that we deserve love until we feel deserving, and being willing to walk away from whatever holds […]
Self-confidence is something that most people long to have more of. According to Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, we can increase our sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence by performing tasks successfully, witnessing others succeed through sustained effort, receiving support and encouragement from others as we approach a task, and managing stress and encouraging positive mood […]
You must listen to your body in order to heal the disconnection between your body, heart, and mind. “The body doesn’t lie.” –Terry Tempest Williams Our body speaks to us through symptoms—pain, numbness, tightness, weight gain, sleeplessness. If we slow down to investigate and be present with the sensations in the body, we open to […]
Art and healing are synonymous in my world. I make art because it helps me to make meaning from my life, and it supports my physical and emotional wellbeing. At times we become caught up in doing what we perceive that we should do, and we lose touch with what we want and need. We […]
Nature inspiration can recharge our creativity and our wellbeing. Early morning or late evening walks near wetlands are a great way to get inspired to create. If you don’t have wetlands in your area, where can you go to connect with the natural world? Perhaps a nearby park or garden. If you can’t find one, […]
Mindfulness and happiness go hand in hand in my world. Research has shown that a regular mindfulness practice can support feeling a greater sense of peace, happiness, and wellbeing. One of the habitual patterns of the mind is to ruminate about the past and worry about the future. Neither of these habits tends to be […]
Knowing your inner landscape. What does it mean to become intimately familiar with both our inner landscape and our outer landscape? Do we approach each with a sense of mindful care? “It is a landscape so familiar to me that sometimes I have felt a species before I saw it.” –Terry Tempest Williams Knowing your […]
Finding freedom with meditation practice is a journey of personal and spiritual growth. We desire freedom from suffering and its causes —loss, grief, uncertainty, fear, self-doubt, lack of self-confidence, anxiety, depression, psychological and physical pain, illness, death. Finding freedom is possible in this moment when we choose to take refuge in our own breath with […]
Every day we are surrounded by the miracle of love. We often fail to recognize it because we are too busy or distracted, or we fail to embrace it because we either don’t trust it or we judge ourselves as unworthy. Take time today to be present to the love that surrounds you. Open your […]