Author Archive | London

Today as I sat, when my mind did its usual circus of planning, planning, planning, I tried something new: Whenever that magic moment came when I woke up and realized I was planning, I tried just offering compassion to myself. Read More

Oof, struggle. I sat for an hour this morning found it particularly hard to concentrate on the task at hand — metta for categories of beings. I was running short on sleep, and my attention span felt so short. Just Read More

I had a wonderful meditation, surrounded by my benefactors — then promptly got sucked into fighting with my landlord over text message, not the most metta kind of day! Oof. My big takeaway is it’s never too late to start Read More

Just reporting that it’s Day 23 and I’m still at it! Blogs are getting shorter but I’m sticking with this challenge and happy we arrived at metta at last! I didn’t do much walking today but incorporated lovingkindness in massage Read More

Good in self: Washing a pot joyfully for my hosts. Exchanging smiles with Rebecca. Being a companion to a new friend. Good in others: hosts making me dinner. C inviting me to poetry reading. A’s ebullience on stage. May all Read More

I enjoyed today’s message about spaciousness. Lately I’ve been experiencing sitting meditation as taking a vacation from doing. Just basking in non-doing for an hour. It makes it feel less like a task to check off and more like BE-ing.

I’m noticing lately how little effort it takes to open to joy. It was helpful to do that in seated practice today and then return to it during the day. For example: Driving 2 hours on the highway, I remembered Read More

Oof, anger. One thing I noticed today is the firey energy behind it. I feel like my torso is a billows, fanning a flame. Which actually felt kind of invigorating when I dropped the story (arguing with my former partner Read More

So many thoughts! It was a relief today to remember that I am not my thoughts. What am I? I asked myself that during meditation. The answer that came up: the internal steadiness/calmness that is always accessible by paying attention Read More

I’m feeling anxious this evening, just in time to write this blog entry about difficult emotions. Feeling a tightening in the chest and noticing how quickly I go into story — e.g. this side job I just took on is Read More