” He who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.” Thomas Jefferson When I came across this quotation my first thought was: ” how do I know which one is me? ” When my mind is filled with falsehoods and error Read more…
Mindful conversation is naturally ‘we-first’, which means that the relationship between speaker and listener is valued. Whether we agree or disagree, it still matters that our listener can hear what we have to say. And, when we’re listening, we try to understand what the speaker is trying to convey. This Read more…
http://youtu.be/O8V1ZS1tqOI The Journal of the American Medical Association reports the significant improvement in well-being that physicians experience when they train in mindful communication.
I appreciate how the view of ‘we-first’ is streaming into our culture. For example, author, psychologist and researcher Dr. Kristen Neff focuses her work on self-compassion, which ( in the following excerpt from her website) she describes as including the following three elements: Self-kindness. Self-compassion entails being warm and understanding Read more…
Book signing is new to me but I’m discovering I enjoy it. Sharing a few minutes with someone I’ve never met before– or, in some cases, with an old friend I haven’t seen in years–is what I call a ‘heart snap shot’. Whatever I end up writing feels like Read more…
” To become awakened we must give up identifying with the melodramas that surround us.” Swami Ajaya Whenever I hear teachings like this, part of me nods in agreement but another part mutters ‘easier said than done‘. So today I’m contemplating the word ‘identify‘. Practicing mindful communication is training Read more…
Think back. What was going on in your life twelve years ago, in 2000? How about 1988? One way to structure a spiritual autobiography is to use the twelve year cycle of the Asian calendar as a way to reflect on our lives. This is the year of the Read more…
My favorite chapter in the book Running With The Mind Of Meditation is “Motivation”. Sakyong Mipham reminds us that mindfulness is neutral. Like having strong muscles, it gives us the power to stick with our intentions. So it’s important to be clear what our intentions are. How do we Read more…
Yesterday I was sitting on my patio, listening to the sound track of Winged Migration and sipping a beer when the begonias caught my eye. They spoke to me in all the languages I know– it felt like I could hear, taste and touch at them all at once. Read more…
In this short video clip we see how quickly a baby suffers distress when communication with her mother freezes. First there is joyful connection ( which we call the ‘green light’) and then the mother’s face goes still ( red light). The baby experiences a crisis of disconnection ( yellow Read more…