The Month of March - Connect to Your Community
When you live in the midwest, the go-to theme for March is spring, growth, new things to come. You struggle to make it through cold, gray winters and it's pretty much all you can think about. This year, however, we had the most amazing, mild, somewhat sunny winter I can remember. Do I dare admit that it was easy this year? When I moved back to Chicago from San Francisco a decade ago, I cited one of my top reasons being the collective hardship of getting through these winters with everyone else around you, which creates an automatic sense of community. While I never experienced a major earthquake during my time in San Fran, there was nothing that happened in nature there that encouraged an unspoken bond with the people around me. Maybe because of the missing sense of collective survival, or maybe just because of cultural differences, I also felt just slightly detached from everyone else. Occasionally, I'd meet someone from the midwest and we'd commiserate about the cheek kiss greetings and how much we missed a good, solid hug hello. I was grateful to have three of my childhood best friends living in the bay area at the same time I did for my down home connection with them. So, this year, instead of the predictable "spring is coming" inspired theme, I'm thinking a lot about community.
From family of origin to family of choice, there are people we feel connected to. There are also ideals and interests and hobbies when shared that help us feel connected. I encourage you to build and nurture your sense of community this month, and I'll do the same!
* Happy to say I've already started by having lunch with two new girlfriends today and having a family-of-friends over for early kid-friendly dinner and then two golden oldies over for after-the-kids-are-down dinner tomorrow night. Hadn't even thought of these plans when I came up with this idea, but I'm sure these get-togethers are part of the inspiration for the theme.
How do you connect to community? Who or what is your community?
Grateful
I forget how lucky I am to work in a field where I am surrounded by positive energy, creative ideas and people trying to live life to the fullest. I take for granted my level of self-awareness and mindfulness, which I am continually challenging myself on. I just wanted to take a second to write this.
If you are reading this blog and feeling like you don't even know where to start to "look within," then know that you are not alone. Daniel Siegel calls it "mindsight" - knowing your own mind, and the minds of others. I like to think about knowing your mind as paying attention to the running thoughts that are always there, rolling past as if on a scrolling marquee, narrating your experiences, your feelings, your thoughts, your self-judgments. When you can start to tune into that "thinking mind" and notice the trail of thoughts that inhabit your brain, you will start to know your mind. And then, once you have mindsight, you can do two very crucial things to happiness. One, you can stop and/or change the thoughts that are in your thinking mind. Two, you can detach from your thought process all together in order to be fully present.
Maybe I will continually write notes like this, both to clarify my own thoughts about how to teach mindfulness, and to help readers who are new to this idea. Please share your comments and feedback!
If you are reading this blog and feeling like you don't even know where to start to "look within," then know that you are not alone. Daniel Siegel calls it "mindsight" - knowing your own mind, and the minds of others. I like to think about knowing your mind as paying attention to the running thoughts that are always there, rolling past as if on a scrolling marquee, narrating your experiences, your feelings, your thoughts, your self-judgments. When you can start to tune into that "thinking mind" and notice the trail of thoughts that inhabit your brain, you will start to know your mind. And then, once you have mindsight, you can do two very crucial things to happiness. One, you can stop and/or change the thoughts that are in your thinking mind. Two, you can detach from your thought process all together in order to be fully present.
Maybe I will continually write notes like this, both to clarify my own thoughts about how to teach mindfulness, and to help readers who are new to this idea. Please share your comments and feedback!
Thinking of Dr. King
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
MLK
I am trying to channel Dr. King today. Fighting internal negative energy while contending with 8+ months of sleep deprivation is constantly trying. I give in to the darkness too much.
Love and light. Love and light.
MLK
I am trying to channel Dr. King today. Fighting internal negative energy while contending with 8+ months of sleep deprivation is constantly trying. I give in to the darkness too much.
Love and light. Love and light.
January: A Month of Going Within
With the winter solstice in December came the sense of quieting my mind and turning inward. Inspired by the renewal process of plant life where I live in the cold midwestern US, I find comfort in the way the outer growth slows or stops and the deep roots sustain life in the winter with the promise of buds in the spring. I like to think of myself as going within too, letting my soul sway into my inner depths as the winter season quiets my mind.
You are invited along this month. Move your consciousness toward a sense of going within.
Meditation:
I choose to go enjoyably inward.
Action Plan:
- Deep breathing every day (using "Mindfulness Bell" app every hour, and I will take a deep breath each time I look at a clock)
- Electronics curfew at 10:30 every night so that I can move into silence and presence well before it's time to sleep.
- Only eat foods that nurture me.
- make more art. Do it now.
Please share your ideas, meditations and actions too!
Loved sitting in the unusual warming January sun while very quickly painting during the baby's naptime!
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A New Year of Positive Intention
2012, I am so glad you're here.
I am excited to capture the fleeting moments of the year in a mindful and present way. My hope is to use this blog to shape my consciousness as the year unfolds. I see abundance and joy on the way for us all.
My hope is to set a positive intention for each month, posting early in each month to describe the intention, and then later in the month to document how it's unfolding in daily life. Please send notes, photos, art, dreams and any other bits of story from where you are and what you are experiencing as it relates to living with positive intentions. As soon as we can get my basement art studio functional, I'll be posting on a more visual sister blog, Intention Arts. (More on that later.)
If you have any inspiration or intentions that you'd like to send, I'd love to hear from you! I'm forming a loose foundation for the twelve intentions this year and would love to have a more interactive dialogue as part of my creative process of coming up with the monthly intentions.
I'll post the first month's intention soon! Thanks for being out there!
I am excited to capture the fleeting moments of the year in a mindful and present way. My hope is to use this blog to shape my consciousness as the year unfolds. I see abundance and joy on the way for us all.
My hope is to set a positive intention for each month, posting early in each month to describe the intention, and then later in the month to document how it's unfolding in daily life. Please send notes, photos, art, dreams and any other bits of story from where you are and what you are experiencing as it relates to living with positive intentions. As soon as we can get my basement art studio functional, I'll be posting on a more visual sister blog, Intention Arts. (More on that later.)
If you have any inspiration or intentions that you'd like to send, I'd love to hear from you! I'm forming a loose foundation for the twelve intentions this year and would love to have a more interactive dialogue as part of my creative process of coming up with the monthly intentions.
I'll post the first month's intention soon! Thanks for being out there!
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