how to practice simple mindfulness meditation

I live in a beautiful rainforest

Hi Beautiful,

Where do you find equanimity and balance in your life?

I have a very, very simple daily meditation practice.  When I do my practice, I have less anxiety, a greater sense of spaciousness throughout the day, and a deeper well of energy and resilience from which to draw when things get difficult.

When I don't do my practice, my mind gets more cluttered, and I have more anger and anxiety.  And then there's this: regular mindfulness practice has been clinically proven to be as effective as medication in treating mild to moderate depression. 

So I have a regular daily mindfulness practice.

As I said, it's very simple. It looks like this:

• I set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes. Or sometimes 15.
• I sit. I sit cross legged on my bed, because that is comfortable for me, private and quiet. But you can sit in a chair, or on the floor, in a busy place or a quiet place. That part isn't important.
• I breathe. Not in a special way; I just breathe, and notice my breath. 
• I keep my eyes open, but relaxed.
• I observe my thoughts. It's not like they go away, or get special or peaceful in honor of meditation-time. They just continue their regular chatter, and I watch. I watch the chatter, I gently cultivate the ability to let all the chatter float by, without doing anything about it, like holding on, following it, or trying to shut it off.
• That's the practice. I keep doing it until the timer rings, and sometimes for a little while after. 

It's a very ordinary practice. Sometimes it feels so ordinary that it's hard to believe it can make any difference in your life or day at all, much less the profound differences it can actually make. My commitment to this ordinary practice is a really important, really beautiful part of my life. I encourage you to try it.

Mixed Media Monday: Thinking

I practice mindfulness meditation, a deceptively simple and very powerful buddhist mind training practice. In mindfulness meditation we don't attempt to empty our minds, we don't focus on an object, image, or mantra; we don't hold a goal of peace or transcendence or changing the nature of our mind in any way. It's all about noticing and observing. You sit, you notice and observe the breath. And when you notice that you are thinking, instead of judging the stream of thoughts ot attempting to stop or change it, you just notice, and gently remind yourself, "thinking." Just name the thought, "thinking."

When I saw this week's Mixed Media Monday topic, "What Was S/He Thinking," I knew I wanted to submit a piece about the process of mindfulness mediatation - so here are two more ATC's! Happy Monday!

Artful Reminders:


Soulful, artful island RETREATS for women - make art, journal, dance, do yoga, practice deep self care, learn to celebrate the sacred in daily life - all with a group of like minded women in our forest retreat at the heart of our Gulf Island... YUM!!!!!! Read more here, and join the mailing list here.





Seven Keys to an Artful Life - I'm so excited about launching this on-line circle for artful living - begins March 21st! Read more here.

Green Tara

This beautiful Green Tara Thanka was painted by New Zealand artist Ella Brewer.

The Green Tara is the principle of active compassion. She is ready to come to your aid in all manner of crises and emergencies. In situations that are overwhelming, complex, difficult, horrible, or stuck, she's the one you call on. She can help you overcome dangers, fears, and anxieties.

Some people describe Buddhism not as a religion, but as a system of mind training, with kindness at its heart. We know that mindfulness meditation (a buddhist tradition) can combat depression and improve physical health and quality of life in very real ways. The many Buddhist deities, like the Tibetan Green Tara, are not gods and goddesses per se; that is, they aren't conceived of only as autonomous entities "out there" somewhere - nor are they mere psychological entities existing only as archetypes in our own minds. I have heard them described as emanations, and this idea makes intuitive sense to me. They are like holographs of the best of our own possibilities, what has been or can be in our hearts and spirits. Working with these deities, we are working with powers and possibilities that are both within us and outside of us. In traditional Tibetan deity practice, the practitioner may spend years perfecting the ability to visualize the deity, in five senses and three dimensions. I am in awe of this kind of devotion to both creating and internalizing beauty and compassion. My own considerably simpler, more humble practice is just to open my heart, in meditation, to the idea embodied by the beautiful deity-emanation. You can also try a simple mantra practice: Tara's mantra is Om tare tu tare ture soha.

Artful Reminder:

Your Artful Life e-Course begins October 2010! We will devote time to spirit, creativity, self-care, life-balance and more.

Explore it here.