When I started meditating, it was out of sheer desperation. I was burning in a forest fire of stress. While drinking worked pretty well to shut it down at night, that didn’t offer practical solutions for what to do with the other hours of the day. Finally, out of care and concern, my kind manager… Continue reading Calm and Stress Meditation
In which I indulge in shameless autobiography in an effort to suggest to those whose suffering comes from inside themselves that I used to suffer a lot, and now suffer less. I always thought meditation sounded dumb. Like, really dumb. How on earth could sitting and focusing on your breathing do effing anything? I had… Continue reading Shameless Autobiography Part III: Meditation is Dumb
I’m not a great one for mind/body connection, but I’m always blown away by how much I’m actually experiencing all the time without even noticing it. When I actually slow down enough to pay attention, there is such a richness of experience to be observed by shifting my concentration from place to place. This is… Continue reading 5 Senses Meditation
When we look at how people change, and what sustains that change, how does that even happen? Recovery says it starts one day at a time. People in early sobriety from the really gnarly white drugs say it starts one minute at a time. I’d even say it takes one thought at a time, because… Continue reading How’s It Feel To Want?
In which I indulge in shameless autobiography in an effort to suggest to those whose suffering comes from inside themselves that I used to suffer a lot, and now suffer less. I grew up a fat kid, into an obese teenager, into an obese 20-something. There was no question of ever being attractive to men.… Continue reading Shameless Autobiography Part II: Lifestyles of the Morbidly Obese
Long before anybody knew the mechanisms, we knew that breathing sustained life. When you do contemplate what happens with every breath, 20,000 times a day, the flawless ballet of it is astonishing. It all happens beneath our awareness, a background script. When we turn attention to what is actually happening when we simply breathe, the… Continue reading Rejoice! Fresh Oxygen! Meditation
Death is all around us. Different, but related: Non-life is all around us. There is a lot of matter in the universe, and there are lots of things on Planet Earth. Hardly any of this is alive. Life is bizarre, and improbable, and very, very rare. Except for the things that are alive right this… Continue reading Life Is the Exception
