Category Archives: practice

#MarchMindfulness2016: Reduce The Noise | LetWhyLead.com

Reducing the “Noise” — or practicing mindful consumption, which we Buddhist practitioners celebrate as part of the 5 Mindfulness Trainings — enables us to filter out content that triggers our anger, fear, judgment, resentment, and overall suffering.

No, this is not about AVOIDING everything. However, staying #woke‪‬ (i.e. informed, conscious, enlightened, culturally competent) also means staying sane!

The benefits of pressing pause on the flood of external information:

We have space to reflect, listen deeply and respond skillfully (thoughts/feelings/actions) and are better able to water the seeds of compassion, skillful understanding, and authentic connection!

letwhylead

❤ JOIN 3 Jewels Yoga TO GENERATE COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING + CONNECTION!

❤ RSVP + SHARE THE LINK BELOW for the 2nd half of this month-long celebration: 3 Jewels Yoga | March Mindfulness 2016

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‪#‎ShiningTheLight‬: Read the full article from Let Why Lead – 9 Practical Ways I Reduce Noise In My Life

 

#MarchMindfulness2016: The Power of Collective Energy

margaretmeadquoteLining Margaret Mead’s quote up alongside Thich Nhat Hanh’s, we can begin to understand our capacity as a spiritual community to multiply the compassion, skillful understanding, and authentic connection beyond the sacred time we spend together each week. Collectively, we carry this nurturing energy from the cushion into the community.

 

“The Sangha is made out of the work of individuals, so we have a duty to help create the energy of the Sangha.

Our presence, when it is mindful presence, contributes to that energy…

Don’t think that we sit for ourselves. You don’t sit for yourself alone, you sit for the whole Sangha–not only for the Sangha, but also for the people in your city, because when one person in the city is less angry, is smiling more, the whole city profits.

If we practice looking deeply, our understanding of interbeing will grow, and we will see that every smile, every step, every breath is for everybody. It is for our country, for the future, for our ancestors.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“Go As Sangha” in Friends on the Path

 

#MarchMindfulness2016: (G)litter Police

This is a parenting joy and a testament to the power of modeling for our children acts of care, connection, and skillful understanding. Without any prompting from me and entirely of his own accord, my Earth Day-born child was compelled to do his part by tending to our home and garden.

Truly, no action nor person is too small to make an impact!

(g)litter police!

My soon-to-be-6 year old son woke up Wednesday on a mission to get things organized!

Must be the feverish nudgings of spring because he’s actually been on this cleaning kick for a couple of weeks now — packing up old books and toys to give away and meticulously tidying up any surface cluttered with junk the ever-multiplying array of collectibles (his or ours).

It started with rearranging his windowsill full of treasures, the credenza in our dining room, his desk, and a basket of old magazines — which, after stopping him from pitching them all out, we sorted through and recycled.

Later in the day he decided to investigate a stray onion in our garden (his hypothesis: it rolled from the neighboring plot) where he also noticed odd bits of trash that had been scattered around by the winter storms. He launched into action–dashing in for a trash bag then dashing back out to hunt for wind-blown refuse around our communal property.

When I came out to check on his progress, I was tickled to find him singing on the job: I’m the Glitter Police!

Can I say how much I love that he misheard litter as glitter?! If only it were glitter…

#MarchMindfulness2016: The Art of Compassion | Pam Roy

resilience | pamela roy
i am | pamela roy

 

Each week, I send my dear friend and colleague an original piece of artwork — a symbol of my solidarity and a reminder that her bravery and patience as her family battles to triumph over recent illnesses matters. This is one way that I commit to shining love and light on the people that have blessed my life, in times of struggle and in moments of happiness. ~ Dr. Pamela Roy

Pamela-Roy-photo

Dr. Roy is a scholar, visionary and creative leader, and artist who has a passion for youth education and enthusiasm for community-building at the local, national, and international levels.

Pamela is the Founder and Lead Consultant for the Consultancy for Global Higher Education. View her gallery: www.pamelaroy.net

embodied practice: alice walker quote

 

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Celebrating the power of sangha and all who commit to the practice of:

Showing up for ourselves so that we may be present and available in heart and mind to show up for others.

Speaking our truth.

Listening with open hearts.

To be in the presence of such companions is fuel + balm for the soul!

May we seek and be blessed with the gift of wise companions!

May we learn to be a good spiritual friend to others!

 

 

 

March Mindfulness 2016

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It’s my fourth annual “call-to-action” to promote the practice of bringing skillful and compassionate awareness to how we engage, are impacted by, and then respond to the world around us.

March heralds the coming of Spring and, with it, a sense of renewal! Let us take a few moments to refresh our commitment to self-inquiry and spiritual self-care by tending to ourselves with loving awareness so that we may notice what moves, blooms, dissolves, transforms and even becomes reconciled within body, heart, mind, and relationships.‪

WHEN + WHERE:
MARCH 1st – 31st | RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!

HOW:
PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!
What can you do each day to foster
compassion, skillful understanding, authentic connection, inclusion, freedom, belonging?
No action is too small!

RSVP TO SHOW YOUR COMMITMENT ~
 3 JEWELS YOGA | MARCH MINDFULNESS 2016

SHARE THE CREATIVE + THOUGHTFUL WAYS
THAT YOU ARE GENERATING COMPASSION
FOR YOURSELF + OTHERS ~
Submit stories + images to be featured on 3 Jewels Yoga’s site. Email: tara@3jewelsyoga.com


Post them to 3 Jewels Yoga’s Facebook page with the hashtag #MarchMindfulness2016

SPREAD THE LOVE + INVITE OTHERS!

for clear-seeing: “I Am Light”| India.Arie (Lyric Video)

I am grateful to my friend + fellow teacher Ann Lapo for reminding me of this beautiful song on Saturday!  It was a timely meditation and perfect accompaniment to the first dharma discussion of our Toward Wholeness series on Inclusion, Freedom + Belonging, so we had to share it with Sangha the following day. (We actually played it twice!)

May We Love Ourselves Whole,
Embracing Sacred Shadow + Blessed Light.
May We Learn to See the Holy in the Darkness.
May We Feel Free to Shine Bright.

 

 

HEAR HERE [for deep listening]: The Resilient World We’re Building Now | On Being with Krista Tippett

“In the last year and a half, from the black community in and of itself, as we say “black lives matter,”
you see the light that comes inside of people to other communities that are like, I’m going to stand on the side of black lives.
You see people literally transforming. And that’s a different type of work. And for me, that is a spiritual work.
It’s a healing work and we don’t have it codified. There’s no science to it. Really, it’s — we are social creatures.
Human to human, if you take a moment to be with somebody, to understand the pains they’re going through, you get to transform yourself.”
~ Patrisse Cullors, #BlackLivesMatter Co-Founder

Listen to the podcast: The Resilient World We’re Building Now