I have something a bit different for you today! I was recently interviewed by Sara Rae Hoaglund for her podcast, Spiritually Inspired.

I thought you guys might enjoy hearing a bit about my early experiences with meditation, how I defined meditation, and how to deepen your meditation practice when you are ready for more than just 10-minutes a day!

In today’s episode of The Mindful Minute, we wrap up our ‘Stress Free Summer’ series with an interview with Sarah Ezrin. Sarah has written a new book, “The Yoga of Parenting” and in it Sarah offers 34 practices to find more presence, patience and acceptance - with your child and with yourself.

Together, we share:

• Our experiences of being yogis and meditators before children and after

• What a typical practice looks like during the school year and when the kids are out for summer

• Yoga poses that support our parenting

• Why patience and presence feature so strongly in what we as parents need for ourselves and our kids.

This meditation is both an expression of greeting and of gratitude, and it is a beautiful way to start your day.

When we greet and celebrate the components of the cosmos, we greet and celebrate the components of ourselves.

Yay! It’s summer. No schedule. Going to the pool! Going camping! Fun

And -

Ohhhhhh it’s summer. No schedule. No routine or rhythm to anchor our days. Yikes.

In the next few podcast episodes, I am going to share a few recipes with you - recipes for connecting with nature, with time, and with self. I encourage you to go sit outside if at all possible - on a stoop, porch, park, backyard or even a parking lot staring up at the sky.

Oh, surrender, what a complex equation you are.

Within today’s class, we will

• Tease apart the difference between letting go and giving up

• Look at examples of the action of surrender

• Engage with the “trustful” aspect of surrender

• Discuss how the weaving together of discipline, self-study and surrender elevate the practice of meditation from a simple concentration exercise to an opportunity for spiritual awakening.

This week’s mindful living tenet is Self-Study, and this teaching also asks us “who are you?”

Who are you without a job?

Without a plan?

Without a diagnosis?

Without a gender?

Without any of your conditioning?

We talk through the practice of self-study and engaging our curiosity muscle. We explore both how this tenet was taught originally and several ways we can incorporate it into our daily lives. And, most importantly, we talk about why this is not ‘fixing’ yourself.

Today’s Mindful Living tenet is self-discipline, or more literally, the fire of transformation. This teaching reminds us that meditation and mindful living is not meant to be synonymous with sunshine and rainbows or with joy 100% of the time.

Mindfulness grows from burning away non-supportive habits in order to actualize who we really are.

Self-discipline is the teaching that focuses attention so that attention becomes intention.

It is in this way that we practice.

So let’s burn; let’s do the work.

Contentment is not about ignoring or avoiding pain, it isn’t about glossing over or using the dread phrase, “it is what it is”... I would venture to say that contentment isn’t even about happiness.

Contentment doesn’t mean you will never be uncomfortable; contentment is knowing the antidote is right here, in this very moment. The moment is complete.

Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we tease apart the paradoxes within contentment and share in a 20-minute guided meditation.