Tag: meditation
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Breathing with the Trees
We just returned from a week of camping in Northern Michigan. I love the trees in the campground where we stay. Walking among them, listening to the wind rustling their leaves, standing aghast at the blue sky to which they point, is worship. Two years ago I wrote this blog post about our trip to […]
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The Mindful Life
Last week I taught a class about “The Mindful Life” at my college. Mindfulness is rooted in the Buddhist philosophy that only the present moment exists. The future does not yet exist. The past no longer exists. Therefore, we should focus our energy and attention on that which is real, the present moment. Personally, I […]
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Who is setting your intentions?
It is 9:21am and I have yet to check my email. This is new. Please don’t worry, though. I’ll get to my email. I ALWAYS get to my email. But I needed to make a change. Last week I scheduled a call with my writing coach, Christine Hemp (who I realize also serves as my spiritual […]
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The Practice of Doing Nothing: How I Stopped Fueling my Stress
I caught myself getting overwhelmed tonight. I’d been distracting myself from my stress all day long—running from meeting to meeting, answering emails, sending emails, moving from one uncompleted task on my desk to the next. When I finally got home and needed to focus on my children, though, I no longer had the energy to […]
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I find you spiritually attractive.
I recently told a male rabbi about my age that I find him spiritually attractive. Actually, I didn’t tell him. I posted it to his Facebook page. Immediately before adding this message to his feed, though, I hesitated over the following inner monologue: Is this creepy? Am I over-complimenting? Will this be misconstrued as some […]
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Mindfulness Meditation: There’s An App for That
I’ve recently heard about a new genre of “apps” that are being developed to provide “digital therapy,” or relief from all the stress and distraction caused by… all those other apps. Yeah, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’ve found the best therapy for my overworked, distracted, and oftentimes anxious mind, is to get […]
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Serious Business
I enjoy reading the Paris Review’s interviews of writers because they are often inspiring. I ran across their interview of Maya Angelou the other day and was particularly struck by this question and answer exchange: INTERVIEWER You once told me that you write lying on a made-up bed with a bottle of sherry, a dictionary, […]
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What I Know and What I Don’t
“Why did this happen to me?” She looked directly and desperately into my eyes as she asked, tears welling and spilling from her own. I had moved to her good, right side so she could see me after her husband had slipped out of the room to speak to the doctor. In this brief moment […]
Teri McDowell Ott 