Advice to William Carlos Williams from his dad, in response to a letter:
You’re quite wrong. What you have written is not “lousy” but extremely effective. Write, when you feel like it, and write freely, carelessly (if you know what I mean)...
When we get too busy our awareness is compromised. When relatives come to visit, or I'm trying to catch an airplane, or I just have a million things to do, my mind doesn't feel like an ally. Suddenly keys disappear, sunglasses hide on top of my head...
In developing mindfulness through meditation, we're advised to drop the storyline and simply be aware of what's happening in the moment.
For instance, in this moment, I'm sitting in the largely empty newsroom of a daily newspaper. It's bit chilly...
Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to offer an online interactive presence for...
I have been thinking about the six Paramitas. The Paramitas, or the six transcendent actions, are a way of getting over ourselves. They are generosity, virtue, patience, energy, concentration, and wisdom. Paramita means to cross over. It is said...
As one of the American pioneers credited for bringing Eastern spirituality to the West, Ram Dass had more than four decades of spiritual training to help guide him when he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1997. Nonetheless, in the...
Journaling as a Mindfulness Practice
When I meditate, I sometimes notice myself thinking, Ok, Emily, concentrate, concentrate, hold on to the breath and have a good session this time, not like last time when you were all over the place.
Descartes had it wrong when he said “I think, therefore I am.”
Our thoughts are not what define us and make us who we are. They come and go like the wind and over time through practice we learn how they operate and how...
Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to offer an online interactive presence for...
I am sharing this article today with a rather short commentary for such a complex topic. May this conversation join the ongoing dialogue and spark more well-intentioned conversation about racism.
Just over a week ago, I started posting a Community Gratitude Journal each day under the "Journal" section of the blog, inspired by Kim B's lovely post on gratitude,
“Reality is always kinder than the stories we tell about it.” - Byron Katie
Can you imagine understanding, even loving, someone who belongs to a group of people responsible for killing your father, brother, or best friend? Can you...
When I first started practice, I really thought I’d discovered a way to bypass all of that messy self-reflection stuff I had been engaging in for so long through various methods-- psychotherapy being the most ongoing one. If I just meditate everyday...
There are two kinds of confidence: the kind you pump up and the kind to which you wake up.
Conditional confidence comes from some kind of credential. If I read a book about cooking, I'm confident I know something about cooking. If I get...
When I was young, I vaguely remember seeing something on television from the 1960s of some young people handing out free food. It was a soup, or porridge of some kind, and they were doling it out in bowls to whoever was hungry. It may...
Meditation can change your life and your very sense of who you are. There is a reason it has been around for thousands of years and practiced by people from all walks of life and all parts of the globe. There is a common myth...
Meditation can change your life and your very sense of who you are. There is a reason it has been around for thousands of years and practiced by people from all walks of life and all parts of the globe. There is a common myth...
Life's like that sometimes. We encounter obstacles -- or create obstacles in our minds -- and the frustration we feel becomes the obstacle. But if you can relax into it, look at what's happening in the moment, sometimes it just eases.
Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to offer an online interactive presence for...
