• Do you find yourself often focusing on what's wrong or what's missing?  
• Do you get stuck in anxiety and sadness, feeling weighed down by patterns of negative thoughts?

We can use our minds to create new experiences that include more ease, peace, contentment and even happiness.  In this video, I introduce Rick Hanson's amazing work on neural plasticity and using our minds to change our brains with a very simple and easy process that can be used just a few minutes here and there throughout your day.

• Could you use some spacious time to come back to your heart?
• Are you stuck in your head and not feeling very connected to your body?
• Have you been bombarded by criticism, judgment and shame?

This 26-minute spacious guided audio practice offers simple instruction in mindfulness meditation and includes offering loving-kindness (Metta in Pali) for yourself.  It has been said to be an antidote for fear, hatred and greed.  A protection from all those negative, critical and judgmental thoughts the mind creates.

• Got a mind full of shame and blame and judgment?  
• Are you down on yourself because you can't get yourself to stop being so hard on yourself and others?
• Focusing on what's wrong all the time?

Guess what??? You're not stuck like this. You're not broken. Mindfulness and self-compassion offers a sustainable path towards creating more space inside yourself to feel a little more gentle, accepting and even FREE from being taken out by these heavy moments with yourself.  

I offer this talk as an easy process to practice being in a new way with yourself. It's 13-minutes. Got some time to sit down, put aside any distractions and ponder this with me? If so...  here it is...

When hearing emotional pain we can easily jump to an immediate reaction to “fix it”…which is not always helpful. When people experience pain, they benefit from being heard and validated through empathy, not pity or sympathy (see the difference here). Sometimes we wish well, but we just have a hard time coming up with empathetic statements.

Often times our natural tendency is to eradicate pain and fix the issue. While this can be helpful in some cases, it is usually best to collaborate and fix an issue (if desired by the hurting person) after hearing and validating the pain.

When we empathize with others, we give them space to process, time to feel heard, a chance to experience support and the opportunity to feel validated in their feelings.

Coming Home to Our Bodies When Our Bodies Feel Anything But Relaxing, Safe and Cozy… Like a Home Should Be

Chronic health conditions carry a huge weight for so many of us. Grief, loneliness, shame, doubt, disconnection, hopelessness, depression and anger can arise in response to feeling out of control with our bodies. When we make space for them and also cultivate internal skills for being more at ease with pain, it is possible to live a more free and vibrant life – even if we are in pain. 

Pain doesn’t have to mean suffering or stress...