Weekend Zen: New Sunday evening event! The Dreaming Buddha

Introducing the NEW Dreaming Buddha meditation area!

It is my wish that we come together to enjoy this beautiful, tranquil space each Sunday at 1pm SLT, as our special way to mark the closing of one week and enter a new week feeling refreshed.

This will be a voice led, guided meditation, designed to help you fall asleep, or enter a deep relaxation to prepare you for the week ahead. In the spirit of dream time, I invite you to come drift away on a gracefully floating swan bed, as seen in the video clip below. Please arrive with your avatar dressed in G-rated sleepwear or comfy clothing. Feel free to bring your favorite stuffy too!

Please watch for notices and the group chats to get your landmark. I look forward to seeing you all there ♥

The Science of Well Being

 Bronus shared with us this Yale course: The science of well being. I already signed up for the free one (no certificate) and hope some of you do to, it looks very interesting! 

In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.

THE SCIENCE OF WELL BEING WAS PRODUCED IN PART DUE TO THE GENEROUS FUNDING OF THE DAVID F. SWENSEN FUND FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHING.

Things that are beautiful ♥

 Bluebirdy shared this one with us and made me smile so sharing here too ♥

Mindful Thought Body- Pain

 

 

Today Body pt 4 : how can Mindfulness help with pain.

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world are impacted by pain. Physical pain, chronic pain, mental pain... Living with pain is not only a physical strain it is also an emotional strain as well. Feelings of frustration, anger, depression or even despair can deeply impact the quality of our lives.

The use of highly addictive opioids to treat pain have caused a silent epidemic, every year 300 million pain prescriptions are given out by doctors worldwide, which equals a $24 billion market, 80%of those subscriptions is consumed in the United States, 15% in Canada and Europe, and the rest of the world gets the other 5%. Unfortunately, 40 to 70% of people with chronic pain aren't actually receiving the proper medical treatment for their pain.  The over use of opioid is staggering. Worldwide 187000 people die from opioid overdose every year and that number grows every year by 6%.

New Qigong Class with Cythe

We have three Spring Forest Qigong practices each week here at the Center for Mindfulness with Cythe:

Tuesdays at 1 pm slt the Small Universe Mediation
Wednesdays at 3 pm slt the Qigong Active Exercises
Fridays at 1 pm slt a Self-Concentration meditation for healing

If you are hungry for more Spring Forest Qigong, Sue Crites is a Spring Forest Qigong Instructor and Master Healer and she offers a program of 31 Days of Qigong online on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ycmdSZqzaobhVO-f5i-LA3Pf21Ze_rL

 
You can also sign up for her Live Weekly Online Qigong sessions on Zoom:

https://register.qigongfromhome.com/

Enjoy!

Steven J. Fogel: What Carlos Castaneda Taught Me about How to Live a More Effective Life

What Carlos Castaneda Taught Me about How to Live a More Effective Life

On Tuesday, my new book, Your Mind Is What Your Brain Does for a Living: Learn How to Make It Work for You, was released, and it made me think about the path that brought me to writing a book about mindfulness and how we can use our mind to rewire our brain. Looking back, I see that as a teen I already had the curiosity of a searcher for life’s wisdom, but the first books that “hooked” me were by Carlos Castaneda, and I read them when I was in my early 30s. It was the hippie era and Castaneda’s writing was at the forefront of the counterculture of the time.

 

Read more here

Thank you, Bronus for sharing ♥

Mindful Thought Body pt2

 

Today Mindfulness Thoughts is about tackling our craving and addiction.

We function throughout the day thanks to habits: wake up, brush teeth, make coffee. Transforming behaviors into habits saves our brains from having to make extra effort to make the same decisions over and over, and this can work to our benefit like arriving in time at work, sporting 2 times a week etc 

but we can also form habits like smoking cigarettes, stress-eating, or constantly checking our social media and that may be holding us back.

Thoughts

 

shared by Chroma ♥

Mindful Thought Body pt1

 

Today we talk about Mindful Sex. We talked about relationships last week and how being in the present and aware of our 

thoughts and emotions helps to overcome the suffering they can cause. This week we transition to the body. 

 

Sex is tricky to talk about. It’s either too much information or not enough. 

And it’s probably the most subjective thing you’re likely to have an opinion on.

This lecture is by no means vulgar or meant to induce arousal 

I do not want to offend anyone, if however you feel that, please quietly leave

and accept my apologies before hand.

Kirtan Kriya

 Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation is a Kundalini Kirtan Kriya  brought to North America by Yogi Bhajan.
This meditation is intended to bring total mental balance.
It clears the subconscious mind of traumas and negative, unnecessary emotions. It improves concentration and brain function, increases intuitive abilities and brings peace and understanding.
The SA TA NA MA meditation, is the most important meditation in Kundalini Yoga.
It was one of the first meditations taught by Yogi Bhajan and remains today as a foundation meditation recommended for every student.
Yogi Bhajan said that if you can do only one meditation, this is it.
It does everything for you in the order that you need. It is your teacher.
It is a catalyst for change because it is a very powerful spiritual cleanser.
The meditation is a combination of chanting a mantra while moving the hands through mudra’s.
To fully experience the benefits of the meditation, a combination of singing, whispering and silently repeating the mantra are used.
A key visualization of concentration is used to cap off the meditation.

Weekend Zen

A smile is a sign of joy.

A hug is a sign of love.

A Laugh is a sign of happiness.

And kindness is a sign of compassion.

 

May you all be blessed to receive these treasures this week.

And may you be fortunate enough, to be given an opportunity

to pass these treasures to others.

So that each person you touch with your kindness, can feel encouraged to pass it along too. 

♥

 

 

Spring Forest Qigong (Wednesdays 3pm SLT with Cythe)

 

It started more than 4,000 years ago when Chinese scholars, studying the workings of the universe, discovered and established the Eastern scientific principle that everything is energy.
One of the best ways to help yourself maintain a healthy lifestyle is to practice Qigong. Qi means  “energy" and Gong means "to work with" so simply put Qigong means working with the body's energy.
Spring Forest Qigong is a modernized form of qigong developed by International Qigong Master Chunyi Lin after years of qigong, tai chi, martial arts practice and intensive meditation.
Spring Forest Qigong is a simple, effective system of movements and meditations that can be done anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.
Spring Forest Qigong can help you increase your energy and improve your physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Mindful Thought" Relationships pt5

 

Today Relationships pt 5: Break Up and Feeling of Loss

Today we will talk about loss and how mindfulness can help you to deal with it

What does loss mean? 

Losing someone, lose something...

Loss is something we can experience on many different levels and it is very personal for each of us

For example: a child can grief much more for the loss of it's pet than the loss of his grandfather,

while in our perception often the grandfather will be much more important than a pet

Loss can not be judged, the amount of grief someone feels for whatever loss can not be judged,

the amount of time someone takes to grief can not be judged

as the feeling of loss is very personal

We use words as break up, end, lose, split, we use broken, empty, hole, lost, damaged...

It is the description taught to us by society, it is the story in our mind, the story of the relationship

in our mind

Mindful THought: Relationships pt4

 

Today part 4 of Mindful Thoughts and Relationships: Mindfulness at work.

Example: 

You go shopping on Saturday and you visit 10 stores. In 9 of them the clerks are very friendly and helping. In 1 shop the clerk is rude. 

When you get home which one are you gonna talk about?

The rude one. it makes you really mad, you obsess about it and it keeps flipping back in your mind.

This is negativity bias at work. Negativity bias is the natural evolutionary hard wired tendency of humans to focus on threats

and it is not hard to understand why most humans and animals minds are wired to notice threats.

A threat can kill you or at least make your life unpleasant.

Sneak Peek for The Dreaming Buddha

 Raeven told me she would love to do a themed meditation, a pyjama meditation just before bed. So I have been working on a scene for that...

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Coming Soon! 

♥