Do you ever get hung up on what you think meditation "is" and how you have to "be" when you meditate? If so, then think on this; meditation is simply, in its essence, a state of non-distraction.
How would you like to be able to take a "meditation break" at work...while you're still working. THAT is what meditation is, it's about learning how to keep your mind in a state of comfort and ease regardless of where you are...even at work!
MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK Meditation ip of the week is a weekly series of very short, easy to remember, and basic tips on meditation. Please let me know what you think, is it helpful? (This week's tip is an updated, revised, renamed "replay" of an earlier tip that was the first in this series. I received a number of e-mails from readers asking me to include more content in this post. Soooooo, here it is! Enjoy.) This past February, while presenting to a group of hospital administrators, healthcare professionals, nuns, laypeople....you name it, at a Grand Rounds meeting at [...]
MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK IS A WEEKLY SERIES OF SHORT, EASY TO REMEMBER, AND BASIC TIPS ON MEDITATION. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, IS IT HELPFUL? I'm not sure how many times during the day you find yourself thinking about something that's unrelated to what you're doing at the moment, maybe daydreaming, maybe distracted. For me, there are plenty of times when my mind isn't where it should be or could be. The "could be" is what this week's tip is about. When I find myself staring off into space, or waiting [...]
Do you ever feel like life is just one big conspiracy to wake you the f* up from your distractions and habits?
COMPASSION ISN'T OUTSIDE OF YOU Compassion isn't something foreign to our minds and our hearts. It isn't something "out there" that we have to get or acquire. And, it isn't something that we need to learn (although we may need to remember it at times). Granted, there are times when we feel that to find even the smallest compassionate impulse for certain patients requires of us the most Herculean effort. There are also times when, either due to the amount of stress that we're experiencing, or the number of patients we're dealing with, it doesn't feel like there's "...enough to go [...]
When I write that we need to practice compassion in our daily lives, you may wonder how exactly to do this. After all, you're probably a pretty compassionate person, so is there a need to do anymore than to simply be who you are? Read on...
What is meditation anyway? (Do you get tired of me asking this?) Do people even know what meditation is? What I hear when I talk with people in my day-to-day life are things like, "Learning to meditate takes too long," and, "I tried but couldn't stop thinking," and, "I'm not religious." Yikes! People don't know what the hell meditation is! Here are a few things meditation isn't. If any of them are familiar to you, welcome to the club. If some of these seem obvious, read on. Most people get hung up on what they believe meditation is and never [...]
Many people believe that in order to meditate, it's necessary to have special circumstances, special incense or a special method. Start where you are. What that means is that when we start to meditate, we start with the mind that we have, in the circumstances that we're in, with the method that we have. The mind that we have is one that is capable of both distraction and meditation. The circumstances that we're in are whatever life is providing us with at the moment. And, the method that we have...well, that can be whichever one we've learned or used. Too [...]
There are so many ways to meditate, many of which have been discussed on this blog. And, there are so many reasons to meditate. What comes up repeatedly in discussions that I have with others is how our past and the emotions related to the past can intrude on our present life and within our practice of meditation. Since meditation is - essentially - the state of non-distraction, based upon mindfulness, meditative awareness and spaciousness - within this state, there is little room for ruminating upon past traumas, emotional injuries, and patterns that have predominated our lives with their insistence [...]