Left Brain Buddha
the modern mindful blog
It’s What We Do
Mindful Moment: It Is What We Do From Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening In India, there is a story about a kind, quiet man who would pray in the Ganges River every morning. One day after praying, he saw a poisonous spider struggling in the water and cupped his hand to...
To My Daughter, On Her Seventh Birthday: We’ll Find the Good Together
Dear Abby, You are not actually crying in that picture. Did you know that babies do all sorts of practice faces while they sleep? Practice smiles, practice grimaces, and practice cries. And wow, did your practice pay off! In fact, in light of all the parenting...
Finding Abundance in the Little Things
At the end of another crazy week, I am finding abundance and gratitude in the little things: ~ A fun family birthday party for my almost seven-year-old daughter! ~ A Friday night pizza dinner with the neighbors, complete with our children putting on a performance for...
Multiple Universes and Shimmery Rivers
In the movie Sliding Doors, Gwyneth Paltrow plays a woman whose life splits into two parallel paths. In one, she just makes it onto the train before the doors slide shut, then arrives home early to find her boyfriend cheating on her, and begins to remake her life. In...
The I.V. League? Being Mindful of Why We Compete
Today’s post is the FIRST in the Brilliant Book Club for Parents! I am joining several parent bloggers in reflecting on Hilary Levey Friedman’s Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture. We’d love for you to join the conversation on our blogs, on our...
Mindfulness and Gratitude: Let It Be
Mindfulness: Words for a Moment with the Breath Did you watch the season premier of Glee this week? It was all Beatles music.... which has led me to select the following for our weekly Mindful Monday: And when the night is cloudy There is still a light that shines on...
Bravery and Desire: Wisdom from Pink and the Buddha
The email read, “Sarah, Thanks again for your interest in…” Uh-oh. Isn't that always how rejection starts? In mid-August, I joined a dance group that performs throughout the holiday season, entertaining crowds at parades, shopping malls, nursing homes, and other...
Do You Struggle with Meditation?
I do! I have a hard time just sitting and being. I want to read, I want to be active, I want to DO something. But meditation doesn't have to be sitting and gazing at your navel. It can be active, engaged, and physical. For those of you who also struggle with...
What We DIDN’T Expect When We Were Expecting!
I've shared with you before that when I was pregnant, I envisioned slow and quiet days at home with my baby. The most frequent image in my mind was of me rocking my baby in the nursery, nursing and sleeping, while listening to classical music on NPR. And there were...
Mindfulness and Gratitude: A Celebration of Thankfulness
If you missed it, Saturday was World Gratitude Day. So this week, our Mindful Monday is a bit of a meta-meditation on gratitude. Be thankful for the benefits a gratitude practice can bring to your life! Breathe: Words for a Mindful Moment "The medieval Christian...
On Self-Compassion: Why You Totally Deserve a Medal!
Some days, I tell myself I totally deserve a medal for managing my crazy day. Take yesterday, for example. At 5:02 am, I woke up to screams of “MOMMY!!!!! MOMMY!!!!” I rushed into my daughter’s room to investigate the latest crisis, scraping my leg on my nightstand in...
September Literary Love: What I’m Reading
I LOVE to read. It is my favorite thing to do when I have time to myself. It is my restorative me-time. It is my treasured self-care. I have a "What I'm Reading" page on the blog, but I thought it would be nice to update you once a month about the books I'm reading,...
Mindfulness and Gratitude: It Takes a Village
I'm posting this "Mindful Monday" post on Sunday afternoon, so that I can link up with some other amazing bloggers for Ten Things of Thankful. Many of you have shared with me that you enjoy these weekly posts about my moments of gratitude, so I hope you will take some...
A Florentine Renaissance
My best summertime memory this year was…. I feel like I wrote a lot this summer about my favorite memories, and I didn’t want to simply repeat myself in this Finish the Sentence Friday post. Instead, I want to share memories of a long ago summer, a summer that I...
Character, Compassion, and Confucius
Today's post is the last in our Parenting Around the World series based on Christine Gross-Loh's Parenting Without Borders. You can read more about our next venture, The Brilliant Book Club for Parents, here. Completing these last chapters from Parenting Without...
Mindfulness and Gratitude: Transition Time
Breathe This passage is written for teachers, but I think it can apply to all of us as we transition between the different parts of our day, and especially as we sit in traffic during those transitions! From "On to School," in Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness...
The Best Laid Plans…
I’m a planner. An organizer. A scheduler. I still have a notebook from when I was in junior high, where I scheduled my morning getting-ready routine {e.g., 5:00am shower, 5:10am get dressed, 5:12am do hair.} Seriously. I love binders. And structure. And routine. And I...
Announcing the Brilliant Book Club! {And a Giveaway}
My dear readers, I am so excited about this! Today I am launching a book club for parents with four other amazing bloggers! Because parenting is complex. Our intuition, our personality, our child’s unique temperament, our family wisdom, and, honestly, sheer accident...