What Wine Tasting Can Teach You About Mindful Eating
By 1 Comment
On a recent trip to Australia to visit my husband's family, we experienced the powerful connection between wine tasting and mindful eating. New Zealand and Australia are known for their outstanding "new world" wines. Although we weren't in the heart of wine region in either country, we managed to find some interesting tasting rooms. One was housed in an old mortuary. I know; that should have been our first clue. They served old (and I don't mean aged) wine in little plastic communion-style … [Read more...]
Making Room for Kindness
By 1 Comment
Sometimes, there are things you know and understand. Intellectually, you grasp the validity and value of these ideas, and practices; you are able to see their truth and wisdom, but don't feel that you have any sort of relationship with them. Suddenly, you have some sort of visceral experience, make a physical connection, or maybe just an "aha" moment, and you have an insight into this thing you've known and understood in a pure, theoretical way, and you get it on a whole different level. You … [Read more...]
Ask Leonard
By 3 Comments
Question: You speak of a hierarchy of repressed emotions as follows: anger, hurt, need and fear. I gather from what you say that our needs, other than for survival, are an illusion. Is awareness of these needs all that is necessary for them to be met and to move beyond them? Is there some action we must take? Leonard's Answer: The only true need is the need for others to be present with us. All other needs are substitute needs. When we came into this world as tiny and vulnerable babies, we … [Read more...]
Being Mindful is how to Live Fully
We spend much time in our lives failing to live fully, going through the motions. Being mindfully present allows not only clarity, but also invokes a state of peaceful oneness, providing the opportunity to be of benefit to all others. We are constantly lured away from this state by enticements that are powerful, insidious and almost irresistible. About 2,500 years ago, the Buddha sat down under a tree and made the commitment to sit in that very spot until he became enlightened. After a while, … [Read more...]
Avoiding and Transforming Addictions through Yoga and Mindfulness
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 22 million Americans suffer from substance abuse related to drugs and alcohol. Sometimes we turn to substances to manage stress, forget problems, numb out pain and escape from unpleasant experiences. For addicts, consistent use causes impairments to the brain, overwhelming cravings and the compulsion to ingest the substance to feel "normal." Often in denial, they first need to recognize they have a problem before they … [Read more...]
Recent Comments