wellness
It’s Only A Mind and It’s Job is to Think
02 Mar 2010 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • mind • wellness
Sometimes I want to stop my brain. Stop it from thinking. Stop it from thinking things I don’t want to think anymore. Stop. Just STOP already. But try as I might it just doesn’t stop. My mind just keeps on thinking and thinking and thinking.
Sound familiar?
It’s helpful to remember that it’s just a brain [...]
Sing Your Heart Open. Sing Kirtan.
24 Feb 2010 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • events • wellness
Kirtan is call-and-response chanting performed in India’s devotional traditions, sometimes called Bhaki Yoga, or the practicing of devotion. Kirtan practice involves chanting the names of the divine in song or hymn like a mantra. Kirtan is traditionally sung to the accompaniment of instruments like the harmonium, two-headed mradanga drum, and/or kartal hand cymbals.
Over New Years [...]
Taking the Waters: Hot Springs in California
10 Feb 2010 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness
I’ve been a fan of getting out of the city and “taking the waters” for as long as I can remember. When we were growing up, Ma and Pa Darland packed my brother and me along on many a family outing to hot springs around California and the Northwest. I know that helped inspire me [...]
Bringing More Country to City Life
26 Jan 2010 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • eco-living • wellness
I thoroughly enjoy my time in the great outdoors. It is great. There’s nothing like waking up to fresh air and the sound of birds and wind in the trees without the distraction of sirens and construction and traffic. For all its vibrancy and convenience, the city sometimes wears on me, my emotional well being [...]
Sangha Means Community
29 Dec 2009 ~ 2 Comments ~ Categories: blog • eco-living • mind • wellness
I just returned from a new year’s kirtan (devotional singing) and yoga retreat in tropical Costa Rica followed by a very fun wedding with friends (old and new) and it’s got me inspired and thinking about building community.
In Buddhism, the word “sangha” traditionally means “community of monks”, and it comes originally from the [...]
The Wonders of Homemade Soup
23 Dec 2009 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • eco-living • wellness
I’ve written in the past about the self-nurturing, wholesome aspect of cooking meals at home. (See “One Thing at a Time“) When cold weather strikes, I really start to embrace the comforting experience of preparing a good meal for myself, and particularly if that meal is soup.
Warm soup on a chilly, damp, foggy day… is [...]
Practicing Equanimity When It’s Hard
07 Dec 2009 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • mind • wellness
Think of the last situation that really riled you up. Do you have that moment in mind? Are you mad just thinking about it? Sure. That’s normal. Okay, now imagine you press the rewind button and approach that hair-raising scenario with equanimity.
Equanimity is a calm abiding in a state of unemotional, compassionate and peaceful [...]
The Art of Living
28 Nov 2009 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others [...]
Meditation and Addiction
18 Nov 2009 ~ 1 Comment ~ Categories: blog • body • mind • wellness
I haven’t completely renounced myself from alcohol. I still like to enjoy a drink now and then. But on the spectrum of attachment and craving, I think most of us, certainly including me, could use a reminder about our relationship with the crutches in our lives.
A local sangha (or community) group called Urban Dharma [...]
Dreamboarding
10 Nov 2009 ~ 0 Comments ~ Categories: blog • mind • wellness
Dreamboarding is basically like making a collage, with an intention. It’s a semi-annual activity of mine. Over the year, I collect images I love, things I dream to do, be or manifest and then when there’s time and I have a hankering to get the creative juices flowing, I make a dreamboard. And it becomes [...]
