In many traditions, the greatest teachers are called Sages. Originally, sage was a verb – “to sage” and it meant to taste or to experience. Overtime, we’ve learned to place all our stock on one who has tasted when really the true work is to taste/experience for ourselves.

“In naming things we often come to mistake the names for the things themselves…”  ~Maria Popova⁠

As part of the New Year traditions, many of us are anxious to reflect, to set intentions and goals, to pick a “word” of the year, to name what it is we most want…⁠

This week’s mini practice is a drop into spaciousness and then the prompt to journal immediately afterwards. For 5 – 10 minutes after your meditation practice, write everything you can think to write. Write about how your practice felt, what you thought about, how you feel right now, etc. Just keep going until the well is dry or the timer dings. 

This past weekend’s Winter Solstice felt particularly potent for me. Some years I reflect and teach on the dark. Some years I reflect and teach on the coming light. This year, I felt drawn to savor the pause in-between. ⁠

In order to feel free, in order to experience FUN, we must be able to be with ourselves without fear of judgment, shame or recrimination. This is possible when we learn how to let our brain take a break from dominating the conversation and we let the body speak. This is possible when we pay enough attention to actually acknowledge how we feel. This is possible through our meditation practice. Join me today for this short practice!

I recently stumbled across a 2016 NY Times article about Google’s quest to understand what makes some teams so successful, so productive, so creative while others stumble time and again.

The first step in awakening is learning how to be with whatever arises in the moment WITHOUT judgment. This is removing the secondary layer of pain to any situation. The first layer of pain is the actual thing that hurts {you stub your toe}, and the second layer of pain is how you feel about yourself for stubbing your toe {i.e. “I’m so stupid for running into that chair!”}. Join me today for this mini-meditation and practice simply being with your experience and noticing what judgments arise. Curious about the stages of awakening as we work this practice? Be sure to tune into last week’s episode {Finding the Fun part 2} to learn more about what is happening as you practice.

In today’s episode of The Mindful Minute, we are taking a look deep inside the brain to understand what is actually happening when we meditate, especially as we start to lighten up and enjoy life more! 

Have you ever wondered if your meditation practice is working? If so, this is the episode to help you answer that question!