In 2020, beginning shortly after the onset of the COVID pandemic, I started an online meditation group at Spirit of the Lake (recordings available here). Those 30-minute meetings ended up being a lot like episodes of Pretty Good Meditation, with me talking to people and not a lot of discussion.
Blog
March 3, 2022
Meditation offers a wide variety of benefits, whether you use an app, watch recorded videos, live streams, or practice alone. Meditation with a group can provide a useful support to your practice and amplify the benefits of meditating alone. When you practice in a group, you might feel accountable to other members of the group or less likely to drop your meditation practice when life starts to get chaotic.
January 31, 2022
Most of the public enthusiasm for mindfulness stems from the reputation it has for reducing stress. But scholars and researchers who work on mindfulness, and the Buddhist tradition itself, paint a more complex picture than does the popular media.
January 20, 2022
The first foundation of mindfulness is contemplation of the body (kayanupassana). When you learn to listen to your bodies and stay with sensations, you can become more grounded and less reactive. Contemplation of the body helps you make friends with your body, and accept the fact that this body is not "your" body, but rather just a temporary form. A large body of scientific research suggests that simply paying attention to your body helps ward off disease, improves cognitive and emotional functioning, and much more. However, simply staying present with the sensations in your body is as simple as it is challenging.
January 18, 2022
Chanting mantras can help us bypass the mundane matters and mental chatter of daily life. I am offering a new weekly class called "Mantra and Movement" that combines the yoga of sound (nāda yoga) with the yoga of movement (asana) to support your physical health and spiritual development. You can choose to sing or listen to the sacred sounds, join in the movement or just sit. No prior musical or yoga experience is required for this class, and people from all belief systems are welcome.
January 9, 2022
After taking a long period to work on my own practice, I will be offering some new classes at Minnetonka Community Education in the coming months. Gentle Flow Yoga on will take place on Mondays in January and February. Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation will be on Saturday, January 22
November 29, 2021
Most people who try meditation probably think of it as an activity done in silence. They might learn the common meditation technique where they observe sounds that happen to arise and notice the temporary nature of those sounds, but they probably would not expect those sounds to continue throughout their meditation. In other words, sound is understood to be a departure from the "real work" of sitting — or struggling to sit — peacefully in silence. Fortunately, there is more than one way to meditate and there isn't some rule that the only allowable "meditation music" is repetitions of John Cage's 4' 33".
November 17, 2021
It isn’t obvious that we should like sad music. Sadness is usually a feeling we try to avoid. An alien might expect us to find such music depressing and dislikable.
Yet, sad music pulls us in and lifts us up. So, why does hearing sad music feel so good?
November 15, 2021
Curious about mindfulness meditation? Perhaps you have heard the hype or seen the long lists of benefits. Maybe you are wondering how mindfulness meditation can be such a powerful tool for becoming more present in daily life or how "just sitting" causes people to develop more compassion for both themselves and others. Or perhaps you would like to develop deeper insight into the nature of your mind and the world around you.
September 28, 2021
The CDC, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Research Society, and many other sleep experts agree that adults need seven or more hours of sleep per night. Children need even more sleep. Further, sleep experts advise that a lack of sleep can lead to a wide variety of negative consequences. One "Consensus Statement" from representatives of these organizations warns: