Joy is a Choice: Cultivating Joy & Savoring the Good Despite the divisive times we find ourselves in, I believe there is one thing nearly all of us can agree on. Our nervous systems are getting more than their fair share of wear and tear these days. With an apparent oversupply of unpleasantness, these times are an easy set-up for negative emotional feedback loops that lead to escalating levels of anxiety and stress. It is a natural human tendency to avoid or resist the unpleasant, to run away from our fears. We raid the cookie jar, or much worse, which just adds fuel to the fire. What we resist, persists. This isn't good for our mental or physical health and, as a nurse practitioner and meditation teacher, I have found that many of us--myself included --become easily drained. We can't drink from an empty cup. Yet as caregivers, we keep on giving....With all this, there is good news. Antidotes exist that help us break out of our negativity bias. In times like these, I am reminded of how deeply grateful I am for my meditation practice. November 27, 2020By Jennifer Jordan family, teachings
It takes a Sangha: Normalizing Accessibility in Our Mindfulness Communities We are all grateful that we are able to maintain contact with one another and practice together through technology during this period of prolonged physical isolation. One of these days though, we hope we will be together in physical practice space again. Our yearning is to share embodied presence with one another. We miss the ability to touch, to be beside, to feel the rhythms of each other’s hearts as we practice. May this be soon. But for some of us, returning to physical practice spaces will not be simple.... November 19, 2020By Alison Shapiro , Tara Beech Affinity
IMCW Annual Report 2020: Collective Awakening For IMCW, like many other organizations, the past year has been one of celebrations and challenges. While our first and second quarters saw the excitement of hiring of an interim executive director, bringing on several new board members, and the conclusion to our year+, community-wide visioning process, the third and fourth quarters were quickly overshadowed by COVID-19, and the national upheaval that followed the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. Like other caring communities, IMCW moved quickly to create the needed supports for our sangha... November 13, 2020By Editor announcement
Harriet Tubman: A Lesson in Moving Through the Unbearable She is running in the darkness, a young Black woman, breathing hard, stumbling, but moving, moving in exhaustion and fear, but moving. It is dark, but she has a sense of where she is going. This is where I meet Harriet Tubman. This is how I came into practice. So often, the attention placed on Black bodies is focused on what we do with them or what is done to them. Too often, our hearts, our vision, and our spiritual practices are ignored as the action of our bodies are either praised or vilified. Harriet Tubman has become the epitome of Black woman as action hero.... November 5, 2020By Ayesha Ali teachings
The Humanity of Shared Retreat Experience For the past 15 years I've been part of our annual Fall Retreat. This one was way different. It was online. For seven days. I was skeptical..... I was wrong. November 3, 2020By Jonathan Foust ResidentialRetreats