Tag Archive | mindfulness foundations course

Introspection

Sep1

In the Mindfulness Foundations Course, we include an Evening Review in the daily practice. Sometimes I feel like I’m doing a Constant Review, looking at how I’ve behaved, choices I’ve made, habits and patterns that keep repeating despite my best intentions. I’m grateful for Introspection, even when it’s painful. I’m grateful for complex relationships, even when they’re uncomfortable: we can learn from every person, every situation, every relationship and every moment in our days. It can be exhausting. But the we take a break, take a walk, watch a Drag Race, curl up in a little ball, eat a heel of bread with cream cheese and jam, whatever self-soothing works in the moment. And then we return with resilience, and take on the next moment, the next day, the next challenging interaction or condition. I’m grateful for grace, forgiveness, and love from others when I find myself struggling in a mental morass of my own making.

I’m grateful for stretching beyond habits. Today I baked a different kind of sourdough. While it didn’t rise as well as I’d hoped, it still sliced well and tasted delicious. I used a locally milled ‘Rouge de Bordeaux’ flour that I’m grateful was given to me to try, mixed 50/50 with King Arthur organic all-purpose flour. I think the dough was too dry, and maybe I over proofed it. It seemed to collapse in on itself in the first half of baking when it should have steamed and risen. It made a tasty toast. Don’t know yet how it will hold a cheese sandwich, but my intention for tomorrow is to find out! I’m grateful in the midst of mental suffering for the simple sensory pleasures that make our larger failures bearable.

My Job

Aug18

I play this game with Cousin Melinda where I send her a photo and ask Where’s Wren? She is usually able to find Wren. This is today’s photo. In this case, I was simply upstairs teaching ‘behind the curtain’ while Wren was napping in bed; later this evening she was no doubt buried in the covers as dramatic lightning and thunder cracked around the house. I’m grateful she’s so resilient. Once the storm passed, she trotted downstairs to chew on her rawhide, and beg me for treats. I’ve been giving her doggie CBD this past week when the monsoonal storms roll in, and I think it’s helping her terror trigger. I’m grateful we were nourished by a short cloudburst tonight.

During class break this afternoon we stepped out on the deck and spooked a northern flicker who’d been tapping on the house somewhere. I missed the resident flicker last summer; it feels like it’s been a long time without one around, so I’m grateful to have the companionship again. Also, I’m grateful as always for my job teaching mindfulness. Though class is only 2.5 hours a week, there’s plenty of time that goes into prep for each session, and time afterwards to review, and time during the week to support students and graduates. The work is so meaningful to me.

Despite all the pluses of the work, though, I’m taking the rest of the year off after I finish this course. I have two facial MOHS surgeries lined up this fall including an eyelid, and other neighbors are also scheduled for surgeries. I want to be able to focus on my healing, and be available to support others as needed this fall, as well as catch up on some personal projects. My next MLP Mindfulness Foundations Course is now scheduled to run from January 5 – February 23.

I’m grateful for Amy’s recommendation of this date bark. There’s no real recipe, just her vague instructions, which I adapted a little bit and now have further amendments to. Next time I’ll make it like this: Melt a dark chocolate candy bar and drizzle it over a piece of parchment paper on a 9×11 or smaller sheet pan. Press in a dozen chopped Medjool dates, sprinkle with chopped nuts (I used slivered almonds this time and would add chopped roasted/salted peanuts next time also), drizzle with a couple tablespoons peanut butter warmed to runny in the microwave, top with another melted chocolate bar (or two!) and sprinkle with salt (which I forgot tonight). I might even add a few tablespoons of dried shredded coconut. Then chill in the refrigerator until it’s hard, break it up, and enjoy. Because of an inadequate chocolate to date/peanut butter ratio, I’m storing mine in the fridge, but I think with a sufficient chocolate base it could be stored at room temperature in an airtight container. For a few days, which is all the longer it will last. I’m grateful for this healthier alternative to M&M’s for my lunch dessert. Honestly, I’m grateful more than anything else for a simple, meaningful life that affords me the opportunity to enjoy a lunch routine that includes dessert.

Adaptability

Aug31
Top to bottom in this great little silicone baggie, two jalapeño Tam peppers dancing with two Chimayos, resting on two Blot sweet peppers, with the first ripe Aji Crystal hot peppers on the bottom. I’m devising a strategy to get my fermented hot sauce accomplished even though all the peppers are not ripening at the same time, as I had ignorantly assumed they would! Why would they go against their nature just to meet my expectations? I’ll just ferment the peppers in batches as they ripen, and then mix them all together for the sauce. It’s comforting to go with the flow. I’m grateful for adaptability.

I’m grateful the little dog exercises caution at the rim, just like the catahoulas all did when they were puppies. I suppose eventually she’ll trot right up to the edge to look over, but for now she just leans her nose out as far as it will go without getting her feet too close. She’s adapting so well to her new life here that I sometimes wonder if she remembers her old life. And I often wish I knew more about it.

I tried to adapt to the inhaler medication, but it was producing some uncomfortable effects including paradoxically more difficulty breathing. Also, it didn’t substantially raise my oxygen saturation. This reading is from this morning about four hours before my next dose was due. In town a thousand feet lower a couple hours later the reading was 96. This afternoon it hovered around 90. It’s a mystery to me, but I’ve quit the drug and committed to alternative techniques to improve my oxygen. Also, a portable concentrator is due to arrive tomorrow. I’ll adapt to having a small plastic tube stuck in my nose for some hours each day and/or night. A little bit more oxygen is better than none at all.

Shameless self-promotion: I’ll be teaching the MLP Foundations Course again starting in October, sharing immeasurably valuable mindfulness skills with people looking to reduce mental and emotional suffering, increase genuine happiness and contentment, and improve their overall quality of life. Email me if you’re interested in learning more about this transformative course.

And while I’m shamelessly promoting myself, let me also joyfully promote Hillery, who has a big weekend coming up. Tomorrow, an interview on KVNF (90.9, 89.1 and elsewhere on the south end of the FM dial locally, or kvnf.org worldwide), then performances Friday and Saturday at the Blue Sage in Paonia and the Creamery in Hotchkiss respectively. Give yourself a sweet treat by going to hear this up and coming Indi-pop star!

Opportunity

Dec2

Opportunity knocked, and I opened the door. I accepted the invitation to create an online Introduction to Mindfulness course for a large group of educators. It will be a cursory overview, a tip of the tip of the iceberg, that may entice people to try meditation and some basic mindfulness practices. My hope is that it will give teachers who opt to take it a glimpse of the possibilities that meditation and mindfulness practice offer to find mental and emotional balance in a complicated and stressful work environment. During this pandemic educators, like health workers, face increasing anxiety, overwhelm, and burnout due to short-staffing, higher workload, traumatized students, and conservative pushback against the science of masks and vaccines.

Mindfulness changed my life. I’m grateful for the opportunity I stumbled upon early in the pandemic to learn simple and effective skills to manage my own anxiety, fear, and depression, and transform my life into one of gratitude and contentment. I’m grateful for a decade of meditation practice, a year of intense mindfulness training, and the opportunity to teach these skills online, helping people explore their own potential for less mental suffering and more genuine happiness. I’m grateful for the decades of adventure I’ve had exploring fun, creative, interesting, and varied ways of making a living; for all the lessons, influences, and conditions that led me to discover my true calling and right livelihood at long last. I’m grateful for opportunities to share the gifts of meditation and mindfulness with this new custom course for Oregon educators; and with anyone who is interested in a more thorough exploration, through the Mindful Life Program’s Foundations Course offered online quarterly, with the next class starting in January.