Left Brain Buddha

With mindfulness — curious attention to the present moment — we take the sting out of feelings, and nurse emotional pain in the same way we tend to physical injuries.

Compassion, empathy, and generosity are as much a part of human nature as self-preservation. What if we taught that to our kids?

Okay, I admit, I have used the beautiful, air-brushed, unrealistic photos of people meditating in my posts and promotional materials. I mean, the people are just so pretty and they live in such beautiful, air-brushed, and organized places. But I'm sure these pictures...

"Remember to breathe, now." I smiled. Or, at least, I tried to, what with all the sharp dental objects protruding from my mouth, and my lips half-numb with Novocaine. But even in my lightly-medicated state, the irony of the dental assistant having to tell the...

We talk about balance all the time – a balanced diet, a balanced budget, a balanced approach, and the always elusive work-life balance. It makes me wonder, if we have to talk and write so much about how to find it, maybe we’re doing it wrong.

Mindfulness practices help children improve their ability to pay attention, by learning to focus on one thing (e.g., breath, sound) while filtering out other stimuli. Mindfulness also provides kids with skills for understanding their emotions and how to work with them.

There’s a lot of work to be done, and it can be overwhelming. We cannot do it all. So we must tend our garden.

If “practice makes perfect,” what exactly are we perfecting each day?

When we try to “power through” illness & fatigue, what we’re really trying to do is will the body into submission. But it doesn’t work that way. Here’s what does.