If you’re looking for a vacation, a retreat, a way to get in touch with your heart I’d encourage you to explore going on a trip to western Ireland with Kimberly Schneider. I’ve known Kimberly for a number of years and always known her to guide me gently and kindly back to myself. She has a magic connection to the soul which helps illuminate any of those who are lucky enough to be with her.
Here’s a video she put together which I’m sure you’ll enjoy being with even if a retreat or vacation isn’t in the cards this year for you. Here’s the link for more information
We Love You, Iran
March 27, 2012
Here’s to a world of love and peace and acceptance, inside our inner world and in the external world of our neighbors and friends and colleagues and nations.
Michelle Rieff talks about using BSE in a Charter School
February 26, 2012
Michelle Rieff is a clinical social work in the Chicago, Illinois area. Having done the Becoming Safely Embodied Skills Training a couple years ago Michelle has found the skills helpful for a number of her clients.
Michelle Rieff: BSE Wedding Testimonial
February 26, 2012
Twinings Gets You Back To You
February 26, 2012
Coming back to yourself looks a lot easier when you sip of cup of Twinings Tea.
At least that’s the message of this beautiful Twinings commercial sent to us from the UK by Bunchy, one of the frequent readers on the blog.
Six Sides of the Breath
January 16, 2012
When people have had a difficult life they get used to shortening and contracting their breath.
The breath can get tangled up in the whole slew of thoughts and feelings and reactions to others that are going on almost constantly.
It can be hard to turn the attention inside to notice the breath – right now – in this moment.
The breath can be a great control valve that is often used unconsciously. When we learn to use the breath consciously we have a way to turn up emotions or internal experience or we can turn the dial down decreasing the amount of experience we have inside.
If you train yourself to use that control valve to your advantage you don’t have to be afraid of being flooded by overwhelming and disturbing emotions.
You’ll have the capacity to take a small amount of feeling in, controlling the valve, keeping the rest at bay.
This small practice is about learning to make the control conscious so you can live in your body more comfortably.
What you’ll find is that you can use your breath to slow down what’s overwhelming or if you feel too much is going on you can use the breath to keep things at bay.
Let’s try a bit of breath awareness together. Some people find it helpful to close their eyes and allow their inner mind to be clear as they listen to the audio and try the practice. See what’s right for you as you listen.
Click on the link below and the audio will load.
Someone wrote me the following comment about the audio
Thank you for sharing this with me.
I like it alot. It made focusing on the breath more interesting and easier to engage in.
I am wondering if you might add a few statements after the practice about how to use it
when you do start to feel overwhelmed by something that is happening.
It’s a wonderful question.
When something overwhelming is happening, or has happened it’s natural for our attention to be drawn toward and into the distraction. The more emotional/physiological charge the more easily we get lost.
This practice is one of many to train the mind to focus – to stabilize. So when something is overwhelming we can practice bringing our mind to the simple mechanics of the breath.
Exploring the six sides of the breath is a way to engage the mind by having a task to focus on. The more closely we can follow the breath and notice every little fascinating thing that occurs as we breathe the more we stabilize the mind. The more that happens the more the overwhelm will recede and have less emotional charge.
Call with Colleen Byrnes on 2012
January 7, 2012
art by Suzi Druley Looking Ahead
2012 is joining us, inviting us to shift and change, at least that’s what the Mayan calendar tells us.
Some hold to a catastrophic forecast and there are those that say that the turbulence we’re in is preparing us to evolve into more consciousness. Of course, I always lean toward bringing in more love and hope and care emerging as we journey forward.
That perspective is based on watching people around me transforming their lives in small and large ways.
Colleen Byrnes is someone who holds a unique perspective on the 2012 phenomenon as both a shaman and a psychotherapist. I talked with her a couple of times about these upcoming changes. Her point of view inspired, encouraged, and motivated me – which of course, had me want to share her wisdom with you.
Click here to listen: Colleen Byrnes (it’s a large file so might take a minute to load)
Fra Giovanni Giocondo’s Wisdom From the Year 1513
December 26, 2011
[Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c.1435-1515) was a Renaissance pioneer, accomplished as an architect, engineer, antiquary, archaeologist, classical scholar, and Franciscan friar. Today we remember him most for his reassuring letter to Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513.]
I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.
Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!
Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you.
Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.
– Fra Giovanni Giocondo
Warrior Camp
December 25, 2011
Our world is filled with people doing wonderful things to support healing and transformation. Eva Usadi is one of those people. Eva lived in New York and was impacted by September 11 in a way that has brought forth both the Trauma and Resiliency Resources and Warrior Camp, a week long “decompression” camp for those men and women who are in the active military or who have had to leave the service for PTSD reasons.
I wanted you to see what she’s up to and pass this along to anyone who might be suffering and in need of support.
Kindness Keeps the World Afloat
December 23, 2011
How A Meditation Master Used Panic Attacks For Meditation
December 9, 2011
Years ago I had the wonderful privilege to meet with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche in a small dinner setting in New York as well as sit with him on retreat. His joyful exuberance and innocent face belies the wealth of wisdom that flows through him.
I wanted to share this video of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche talking about how he used his panic attacks for meditation.
Let me know what you think.
Deirdre
Waves Sound Meditation
December 9, 2011
While I was leading the retreat in the Bahamas, sitting by the ocean, doing yoga on the platform over looking the ocean I would listen to the waves.
It was easy to empty my mind, letting the waves wash through me, feeling myself no longer separate from the sound.
I wanted to share that experience with you.
Here’s a short video of the waves. Let your eyes rest on the view. See if you can let the sound be there without actively listening to the sound. Maybe another way to say it is let go of being there, listening. Instead see if it’s possible to attend to sound without internal dialogue, making associations, telling stories about the sound/waves.
How was that? Add your comments below.
It’s All Perspective
November 16, 2011
Operation Mend
November 11, 2011
I have no love of war but I do have a heart full of compassion for every person who has suffered. To take ones life and offer it in service is an extraordinary thing. Not one that would be an easy choice for me.
Every time I read about or see what Operation Mend is doing I am deeply moved by the love, the commitment, the care being given to all the military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and had their bodies blown apart.
Operation Mend is a joint venture of UCLA’s medical school and Brooke Army Medical Hospital. Underwritten by the Katz Family Foundation who funds all uncovered costs associated with the project. In addition to finding ways to develop bionic limbs for people to live a full life, Operation Mend supports plastic surgery after surgery to help put their faces back together again.
The video above is a clip from MSNBC/Morning Joe introducing Operation Mend and the first person they worked with, Aaron Mankin. You’ll hear Aaron having trouble breathing which is the legacy of inhalation damage. 50 surgeries later he’s here telling us about his life, Operation Mend and how he was catapulted into this life’s experience.
Cultivating Love in All Our Relationships
November 7, 2011
I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting and preparing for my retreat in the Bahamas at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram. Not only is the location gorgeous (yes, that’s the beach right by the casitas) but the yoga and the food and the relaxation are exactly what the winter calls for.
Course, I do think the material I’ll be sharing at the retreat is heart warming and nourishing as well!
I’ve been paying attention to feedback clients have given me. I’ve taken a point of view with my clients that love is the central organizing factor. When we focus on bringing love into every moment of our interactions with ourselves and with others our lives change. Over and over again I have clients tell me that the simple acts of kindness and love have changed their relationships for the better.
That will be the focus of the material. The in’s and out’s of cultivating love in all our relationships.
Living a life of love here on earth.
