Newsletters

Last week I booked my flights for the next retreat I am leading.  Whenever I book flights for a retreat I always take a moment to reflect back to my first retreat 9 years ago. I was completely petrified to book the flight because it felt like a commitment I could not undo. Ironically one of the…

Happy New Year!! It always takes a little getting used to when the year changes. As I am sure is the case for many of you, I tend to look both back and forward at this transitional time. Last week as I was thinking ahead to what this year will likely bring and it was…

Last week I was preparing for my Monday class and I didn’t have a message. Usually the message shows up sometime during the prior week and if I am mindful I catch it, but last week that didn’t happen. I sat to briefly meditate and connect with my breath; the deep inhale and the audible…

I am working with a coaching client who shared a common struggle about having trouble getting excited about things that they usually enjoyed. So I assigned GLIMMER homework to my client. I assigned it to myself last week as well and to all of my students on the mat.  Glimmers are the opposite of minor…

I think most of us can relate to those times when others around us are suffering and it can feel like a heavy weight sinking us down. The practice of mindfulness teaches us many strategies for learning how to hold others pain lightly in an effort to be of service to both them and yourself.…

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For the last 5 years I have shared the same story about a brief interaction that happened in Nov 2020 (the height of COVID) the week before Thanksgiving. All the years I lived in NY I always hosted a large Thanksgiving. Obviously, 2020 was going to be…

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I know I have mentioned that this past summer I took an Intro to Buddhism class with my daughter. It was powerful in that it filled in a lot of blanks that I had about the history and evolution of  Buddhist tradition.  One of the topics that…

I was meditating before my first class last week, unsure of what I was going to share for my message, and one word kept popping into my head. It felt like a bright flashing light; PATIENCE,  a sentiment that is challenging to many of us.  The nature of life is that we cannot predict the…

Last week I had the chance to meet in person with someone I have known for the last four and a half years.  We are part of the same small group of six that was paired together at the start of our two year mindfulness meditation program. Since completion of our program in early 2023,…

I hope you all had a nice weekend. Last week I talked about delusion; how we can create our own realities based on the stories we tell ourselves that are not true. We see this process work in different ways. Some folks use the strategy of delusion as a way to hurt their own self…