Category: Blog
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Wishes for 2024
In early October of this year, I participated in Spirit Rock’s Fall silent retreat in Woodacre, CA. We took our silence in sitting, walking, eating, and doing one job per day to support the community. The instruction for the walking meditation is to walk a few feet, stop, turn around, and walk the same few…
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Respond / React?
I love the redwood forest. When I enter the forest and start taking in the cool crisp air, I feel a sense of calm and steadiness throughout my body. I have found it to be very beneficial to meet the stresses of life from a place of steadiness and calm. However, it’s not always easy…
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Do Judgments Reveal Your Inner World?
For the past decade, I have mostly looked at judgments through Marshall Rosenberg’s lens: “Even criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.” When I receive a criticism or sense I”m being judged, I try to figure out what this person’s unmet need is. When or if the unmet…
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Perceptions of a Kettle
I recently heard Ying Chen’s (a guest dharma teacher at Insight Meditation South Bay) talk titled Dancing with Elements. She gave a great description of how to practice mindfulness of the body along with an example of how thoughts cloud reality. Ying described a time when she saw children running around the pool while dropping…
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My Mindful Self-Compassion Journey
I was very fortunate to have been able to stay home to raise our two children who are young adults today. In 2014, I wanted to re-enter the workforce. I was telling myself “Who would hire me?”, “I don’t know how to interview.”, and “I’ll never find a meaningful job.” This inner dialog made the…