Your Mindful Coach

The following traditional equanimity meditation comes from Jack Kornfield's The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace (p. 197-201). Visit www.yourmindfulcoachblog.wordpress.com for more thoughts on equanimity.

The following practice explores the anchors of stillness, silence and spaciousness in an outdoor setting. To learn more, visit www.center4selfcare.com or email marc@yourmindfulcoach.com.

The following guided meditation offers a tool for returning your attention to the present moment. By smiling when we notice a distraction, we can gently return our attention to the rhythm of the breath. Visit www.yourmindfulcoach.com and www.center4selfcare.com to learn more.

The following practice explores the anchors of stillness, silence and spaciousness as anchors to our attention in a mindful practice. To learn more, visit www.center4selfcare.com or email marc@yourmindfulcoach.com.

Today's practice begins with focused breathing. As we move deeper into the practice, we draw our attention from the movement of our breath to the stillness in our body.

Today's episode comes from a talk I gave to the Main Line Newcomers Club on October 24, 2017. It includes several guided practices as well as the science and tools of mindfulness. You can find a companion video with slides at https://youtu.be/xAOVorWfytg.

This meditation comes from a recent gathering of Mindful Dads Meeting. You are invited to notice what arises in your awareness, including sensations in the body, thoughts and emotions. I have done my best to reduce the noise from the air conditioner. Thanks to Josh Gansky for providing this practice.

The following talk was presented on October 3, 2017. It is the second in a series of four workshops entitled Cultivating The Heart, Beginners Meditation. Each session focuses on one of four immeasurable qualities of the heart: compassion, lovingkindness, joy and equanimity. There are several guided meditations and some foundational concepts. You can learn more at yourmindfulcoachblog.wordpress.com and get links to the individual meditations. Note that participant questions have been edited out so there is some choppy editing.

The following talk was presented on September 26. It is the first in a series of four workshops entitled Cultivating The Heart, Beginners Meditation. Each session focuses on one of four immeasurable qualities of the heart: compassion, lovingkindness, joy and equanimity. There are several guided meditations and some foundational concepts. You can learn more at yourmindfulcoachblog.wordpress.com and get links to the individual meditations. Note that participant questions have been edited out so there is some choppy editing.

Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg declares, "They say that the healing is in the returning. Not in never having wandered to begin with." With this simple practice of returning our attention to the breath, we gently arrive back in the present moment no matter how far we've gone or how long we've been away.

The following practice comes from Stephen Batchelor. It offers three simple phrases designed to bring us closer to the reality and mortality of our existence. If you'd like to learn more, read my recent blogs posts, "Get Busy Living" at yourmindfulcoachblog.wordpress.com.

This is the first of an upcoming guided meditation series called “Come Back to Your Breath.” Breath centered practice is a foundational teaching in many meditative traditions. It has physiological impacts because the breath helps regulate so many body functions. Coming back to your breath slows the stress response and directs the body back to a calm, centered state. In this practice, we let go fully, allowing our exhale to flow freely and smoothly.

This talk explores how we can become familiar with our mortality in a way that allows us to live more authentically. By recognizing that things big and small are constantly changing, we loosen our resistance and open our hearts.

Today’s guided meditation explores our mortality. Through breathe practices, repeated phrases and visualization, a sense of what really matters arises. With this knowledge, we can make choices about how to live our lives. An intimacy with our mortality is critical, as we experience rebirth and disappearance each year, each month, each day. Relationships come and go. Skills improve and degrade. Our body recovers and declines. Recognizing these are part of the cycle of impermanence may allow us to hold our expectations and desires a bit less tightly.

The following meditation is a form of naming or noting meditation where the practitioner labels each thought, emotion or bodily sensation with the quality of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. There is no need to avoid the unpleasant or grasp on to the pleasant. Instead, it is an opportunity to explore the mind and allow what comes up.

Today, we explore the intersection of our internal and external experience and how familiarity and intimacy with this intersection can be meaningful and awakening. We ask the question, What emotions and identity do I hold behind the mask that I allow the world to see? Who gets to see behind this mask. As we explore further, we ask, What is happening? and Can I be with it? as a method to arrive at non-judging awareness as our life unfolds.

Today, I lead a guided meditation that offers three questions popularized by Deepak Chopra. These questions, ‘Who am I?’, ‘What do I want?’, and ‘How can i serve?’, explore of our internal experience and illuminate a path that leads to our true selves. As we allow responses to arise, they inform an intention that guides our actions as we practice in the world.

Today, I lead a guided meditation that comes from Jack Kornfield. I practiced this meditation at a retreat led by Jack in spring 2014 and look forward to sharing it with you. Compassion is cultivated through the imagining of a wonderful, luminous being that assumes our body and enters a situation of challenge, conflict or difficulty in our life. It is possible that you will discover some answers, but to me, the most important thing is to recognize our suffering and approach it with kindness and care.

This week, I offer a traditional compassion meditation. With these practices, we combine an image, a wish and silently repeated phrases. Jack Kornfield writes, “The point of meditation is not to perfect yourself, but instead to improve your capacity for love.” As we offer these wishes to ourselves and others, we open our hearts to connection and healing. If you live in the Philadelphia area, please consider joining me for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion a half-day meditation retreat on June 3 in the western suburbs. To learn more, visit www.yourmindfulcoach.com.

This week, I offer a traditional forgiveness meditation with the words of Jack Kornfield wrapped around some more contemporary repeated statements from my teacher, Jonathan Foust. The meditation explores forgiveness in three directions. Forgiveness from others, Forgiveness to ourself and forgiveness to others. I hope one or all of these directions resonate with you. Remember that forgiveness is a process. And forgiveness is for you. Theologician Louis Smedes wrote "Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future."