Meditation

Changing habits

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If you place electrodes in a rat’s brain and put him in an unfamiliar maze with a piece of chocolate hidden at the end of a path, you see an amazing thing about how habits affect your brain. I’ve personally never tried this, but Charles Duhigg talks about it in detail in his AWESOME book The Power of Habit.

But back to the rat. The first time he’s in the maze, he wanders through, sniffing the walls and working his way down the path. When he finds the chocolate he happily settles in for a quick snack. All this time, his brain activity is high. He’s learning something and his brain wants to capture every minute. Continue reading →

The importance of spending time alone

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An artist needs time to create. A writer needs time to work out a story. A musician needs time to play and to compose. A saint needs time to pray.

Alone-time lets you refill the pitcher of your life from all the little daily leaks and keeps your soul from running dry.

Such are the musing of Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Gift from the Sea. Anne was married to Charles Lindbergh and was a fellow aviator and accomplished author. She survived the abduction and murder of her first child, went on to have five more children, and outlived her famous husband by decades finally passing at the age of 94. Continue reading →

Spend time with your senses

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If you’re looking for a way to decelerate for a few minutes, I’d highly recommend spending time with your senses. I work my way through some or all of these when I meditate.

Start with the senses you’re most familiar with, then work your way into the senses you don’t think about as often. That’s where the sensations really get interesting! Continue reading →

We’re in this together

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In times of uncertainty and divisiveness, it helps to be mindful of the people around you and to recognize that we’re all in this together.

Patriot’s Day weekend, 2007, I was at an Omega Institute class in mid-town Manhattan with Zen teacher Sharon Salzberg. The topic was mindfulness. At the end of the class, Sharon asked us to look around the room and imagine that we were going to be stuck in a subway car with this specific group of people – for eternity.

“If you know you’ll be with this group for eternity, does that change how you feel about them? Does it make you more curious? Are you going to get to know them? Or are they going to continue to be strangers?” Continue reading →

Consider a leaf

organizationalhabits Building your personal brand, Changing habits, Finding your "why", Meditation, Organizational Exercises, Staying focused, Working with your guides , , , , ,

I just finished listening to Eckhardt Tolle’s audio book A New Earth. I love audio books and listen to them regularly when I drive. This started as a habit when I was driving long distances, but has evolved into an everyday habit. It’s weird to look forward to running errands or heading to the grocery story because you get to learn something new – but it’s a great use of time when you are in the car.

So back to A New Earth – there was so much to take in. Here are three big take-aways that relate to getting organized and finding the peace within that.

  1. Consider a leaf.
  2. Be present.
  3. Do good work.

Continue reading →

Life is a game

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Roll the dice. Draw a card. Move a colored peg around the board.

Life is a game with an unpredictable outcome, and the fun is in the playing. When you wake up in the morning, are you grateful to be alive? Do you feel energy in your gut anticipating the day?

What will you learn today? Who will you meet? What conversations will you have?

Back to the game. Draw a “Habit” card and see where it takes you…

Continue reading →

Getting started with meditation

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If you aren’t healthy, it’s pretty hard to stay organized. Eating good food, getting outside, going for walks, and getting enough sleep help you focus on the tasks of the day.

And a big part for me of being grounded in a healthy lifestyle is meditation. I started meditating a couple of years ago after resisting for the longest time because I thought mediation was something you had to “do right”.

What finally got me meditating was a book by Lissa Rankin called Mind Over Medicine. The book isn’t about meditation – it’s about how powerful your mind is in helping you heal.

Here’s Lissa talking about this in a TED talk. Continue reading →