Self-compassion Guides
Gentling the Inner Critic As you left their voice behind The stars began to burn Through. . . . —Mary Oliver, “The Journey” Our inner critic is the part of us that has given up on us. It hurls “can’ts” and “shoulds” at us: You can’t go. You can’t make it alone. You should [...]
Continue Reading >> A Few Thoughts about Suffering An excerpt from Peace from Anxiety As you can see from the discussion of trauma, suffering comes in many flavors. It can be rooted in personal, interpersonal, or systemic issues. Some suffering is inevitable—things like death, illness, and loss touch everyone in their lifetime. Some of us are protected from [...]
Continue Reading >> The material in Peace from Anxiety can be much more impactful when approached in an interactive and exploratory way. It is especially powerful when you can engage with the material with others. This is your guide to working with the concepts in this book with a small, trusted group of people. There are many ways [...]
Continue Reading >> 5 Free Tools to Release Stress and Anxiety ENTER YOUR EMAIL TO RECEIVE FIVE FREE TOOLS FROM PEACE FROM ANXIETY. Reclaim your capacity to heal and learn to regulate your nervous system with practices and reflections from therapist and yoga teacher Hala Khouri, author of Peace from Anxiety. Draw a body map, learn to feel [...]
Continue Reading >> Cuong Lu, author of Wait, discusses his new book, how we can bring happiness and love into every moment of our lives, and shares some words of encouragement for when times get tough. 1. Why was it important to you to write Wait? I was alarmed seeing so many shootings in the US on the news—homicides, [...]
Continue Reading >> by Tias Little, author of The Practice Is the Path At this time of a worldwide shake-up due to the great pandemic, we are all prone to mind states of flurry and worry. Given the crisis in the world economy, health care, and social networks, it is indeed hard to see clearly. When overwhelmed by [...]
Continue Reading >> By Tias Little, Author of The Practice Is the Path We are committed to remaining the entire month of April apart from each other, practicing social distance. A lingering uncertainty remains—what about May and June? How can we see this through? I feel at a loss myself, and wonder if I should while away the [...]
Continue Reading >> The Unruly Givens of Life Excerpt from Five True Things For all that has been: Thanks! For all that shall be: Yes! —Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings In the early 1940s, on the night of her graduation party, a high school girl named Doris Van Kappelhoff was involved in a serious car accident. She had planned to [...]
Continue Reading >> Exploring Healthy Communication An excerpt from Triggers Building Trust Partners in romantic relationships naturally trigger one another. This follows from the fact that our choice of a partner has so much to do with transference from our past. We often unconsciously choose a partner who reminds us of the parent with whom we have unfinished [...]
Continue Reading >> "Turn Your Wounds Into Wisdom" An Excerpt from Conceiving With Love I am a huge fan of Oprah. She has done what she encourages all of us to do: “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” She knows what it’s like to suffer sexual abuse and heal from it. And while she didn’t go on to have [...]
Continue Reading >> Sign Up for 5 Free Videos and a Meditation Practice from Pema Chödrön! ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO RECEIVE A SERIES OF 5 VIDEOS AND A MEDITATION PRACTICE. In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, Pema Chödrön offers fresh wisdom, heartfelt reflections, and the signature humor and insight that have [...]
Continue Reading >> Three Practices for Eating | An Excerpt from Mindful Eating on the Go
Bettering Our Relationship with Food Trying a New Fruit The Exercise Find a fruit you have never eaten. An Asian food market is a good place to look. Star fruit, lychee, kiwano, rambutan, papaya, custard apple, mangosteen, and dragon fruit are some possibilities. At a Mexican market look for mamey, guanabana, sapote, chico, or pitahaya. [...]Radically Happy: A User’s Guide to the Mind ENTER YOUR EMAIL TO RECEIVE TWO PLANS FOR HAPPINESS AND THE FIRST CHAPTER OF RADICALLY HAPPY AS A PRINTABLE PDF. Spending time with someone you love, laughing at a funny story, eating your favorite food—we experience happiness in many different ways, but maintaining that feeling can often be [...]
Continue Reading >> Using Every Activity to Support the Present Moment We are excited to share two bonus meditation and mindfulness exercises with you created by Phakchok Rinpoche and Erric Solomon, the authors of Radically Happy. Exercise 1 Walking Meditation Begin by standing in a natural position, eyes open, facing whichever direction you are about to travel in. Keep [...]
Continue Reading >> The Secret Is Nonattachment Getting Hooked In Tibetan there is a word that points to the root cause of aggression, the root cause also of craving. It points to a familiar experience that is at the root of all conflict, all cruelty, oppression, and greed. This word is shenpa. The usual translation is “attachment,” but [...]
Continue Reading >> Building Compassion from the Outside In | An Excerpt from Befriending Your Body
A Way to Self-Compassion One in All All in One— If only this is realized, No more worry about your not being perfect! —Sosan Ganchi Zenji, Shin Jin Mei I needed someone to help me grab hold of compassion and bring it a little closer every day. —Eleanor This chapter offers ways to build [...]Meditation for Your Child | An Excerpt from The Magic of Meditation
Meditation Starting at Age Three The First Steps Most parents think that children are too young to meditate. How can they understand something that even adults have difficulty with? But in reality, young children are closer to their innate nature, and they are at the age where everything is possible. This means that any child [...]Remembering the Good within You | An Excerpt from Lovingkindness
Two Exercises for Your Practice Remembering the Good within You Sit comfortably, in a relaxed way, and close your eyes. As much as possible, let go of analysis and expectation. For ten to fifteen minutes, call to mind something you have done or said that you feel was a kind or good action—a time you [...]The Gift of Sadness | An Excerpt from Sadness, Love, Openness
Sadness Is Not the End Meditating While Thinking There is, however, one particular method that benefits everyone alike: acknowledging that nothing lasts. We instinctively feel that things are going to stay more or less the same and that the people around us will remain, but that’s not the case. If we can, we should try [...]A Healing Power by Radhule Weininger, author of Heartwork A Surprising Discovery Recently, during a one-year mindfulness facilitator training, our team of teachers made a surprising discovery. As part of an exercise, students were taught how to guide each other through mindfulness and compassion meditations. Afterwards, students shared their experiences of how this had been [...]
Continue Reading >> When Life Changed Forever Off to Colorado Life changed forever the day I set out in my sky-blue VW Bug heaving with everything I owned. An old carpenter’s chest, a gift from my mother and stepfather, had been carefully packed with watercolors, paintbrushes, and other art paraphernalia and small, cherished belongings. A single suitcase that [...]
Continue Reading >> Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives I can’t get no satisfaction ’Cause I try and I try and I try and I try I can’t get no, I can’t get no Satisfaction (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction The Rolling Stones’s first big hit in the United States was “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and is [...]
Continue Reading >> In the world of religion, some things stay the same, while many are constantly adapting to meet our new world of the internet and cell phones, scientific discovery, increasing awareness of gender and race dynamics, multiculturalism, the numbers of people identifying their religion as “none” or “spiritual but not religious,” and so much more. We [...]
Continue Reading >> The Practice of Loving-Kindness | An Excerpt from Comfortable with Uncertainty
The following excerpt is from Comfortable with Uncertainty By Pema Chodron Paperback | eBook Seven-Step Practice To move from aggression to unconditional loving-kindness can seem like a daunting task. But we start with what’s familiar. The instruction for cultivating limitless maitri is to first find the tenderness that we already have. We touch in with our [...]John Spalding & Kimberly Ann Johnson What made you to decide to write The Fourth Trimester? I didn’t set out to write a book, but I have been a harbinger of a message that is to speak about the unspeakable, and I realized that this information had to become common knowledge. When I was a [...]
Continue Reading >> Food: A Way to Contentedness and Connection An interview on the publication of the expanded edition of her book Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food By Dave O'Neal Shambhala: What, in a nutshell, is “mindful eating”? Jan Chozen Bays: Mindful eating is deliberately paying full attention to what you are eating [...]
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