Tag: meditation
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Life is my monastery
Last night, my husband and I finished watching the beautiful documentary, Into Great Silence, an illuminating look at the lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps. The monks live a simple, ascetic spiritual life, devoted to prayer and silence, Scheduled times are intentionally set aside for walks, conversation and, in…
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Listen to the Spirit
I was looking through some boxes of books in our basement and came across Let There Be Light: Based on the Visionary Spirituality of Hildegard of Bingen. It had been given to my husband by a Sister of Mercy he used to work for at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and it is a 30 day meditation…
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21 Day Practice: Days 10 and 11 – That’s why they call it a practice
I woke up yesterday feeling pretty good and the first part of the morning went as usual. Then, there was an unexpected change of plans and suddenly, a wave of stress and anxiety hit that I couldn’t shake for hours. That, and the Grumpy Monkey was back, tossing mental banana peels in my path. I…
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21 Day Practice: Day 2 – Return of the light
The sun is out! It feels absolutely amazing to see light and blue sky again! Hello Sol Invictus! I must admit that after I sent my daughter off to school, I went back to bed. I used to resist sleep (my mental refrain used to be, “Only wimps go to sleep when they’re tired!”) but…
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21 Day Practice: Day 1 – Grumpy Monkey
A small group of my Reiki students and I have embarked on a 21 day challenge to support mind/body balance and spiritual development. We are committing to 3 weeks of daily Reiki self-treatment (many of us already do this) combined with an exercise in mindful speech that involves refraining from complaint, gossip, judgment or criticism (self…
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Enter the monkey mind
Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better, it’s about befriending who we are. ~ Pema Chödrön Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg is holding her annual 28 Day meditation challenge beginning February 1, and I decided to participate this year. I meditate as part of my Reiki practice, but I’m not very structured…
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Spiritual practice isn’t protection from life
Practice can be stated very simply. It is moving from a life of hurting myself and others to a life of not hurting myself and others. That seems so simple–except when we substitute for real practice some idea that we should be different or better than we are, or that our lives should be different…
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