Author Archive | Ida Santana

I just finished Tara Brach’s ten day Radical Compassion challenge with Sounds True. There’s a Buddhist saying about meditation that you’re either sitting in meditation or sweeping the garden courtyard. She spoke about how some people who meditate have meaningful Read More

I was shocked by the email this morning saying Sharon had a medical emergency and had been hospitalized. I’ve been crying all day. Feeling selfish that in the midst of Sharon’s health struggles all I can think of is how Read More

I read Robert Caro’s Personal History in the New Yorker Turning Every Page, Unearthing the secrets of the L.B.J. archives; or I read the first few pages. It’s a long read about LBJ’s crazen power hungry rise in the political Read More

Brené Brown says the opposite of scarcity isn’t abundance, it’s having enough. We live in a culture of scarcity where we’re never enough. We never look good enough, get enough done, have enough stuff, meditate enough, get enough sleep, or Read More

Starting over counting the breath is the perfect metaphor for beginning again without chastising oneself, with a bit of kindness and graciousness. It’s everything in meditation and in life. I was recently flying, and I have a ritual of getting Read More

I noticed that the word note has various meanings: the written version commincatiting something- reminiscent of me getting in trouble for passing notes in class in middle school, the mental note used as a gentle reminder in our meditation practice, Read More

I’m visiting NY, meeting up with my 22 year old niece who graduated college in Vancouver last May and has never been to NY. She has a travel blog, and we’re both super excited. My nephew, her 18 year old Read More

I took Dr. Kristen Neff’s Lifeclass course with Brené Brown on Self Compassion. Kristen has written books on compassion, and part of Kristen’s deep well of self compassion springs from raising her son who has autism. One of Kristen’s stories Read More

My friend’s birthday is today and she doesn’t want to celebrate it. I kept suggesting we go ice skating with friends, and she’d say “No thank you.” Finally she told me she doesn’t want to do anything for her birthday Read More

My friend who’s gay and single and kinda lonely posted an anti Valentines Instagram that had Candy Hearts the read “Meh” “You Suck” and “Get Lost.” This holiday is not a happy one for many single not necessarily by choice Read More