Hi everyone. I’m trying to set up a ‘corner’ of the Living Room for us to correspond and stay connected! Let’s see if this works:)
Hi Jennifer - Thank you for setting this up! I will miss our Tuesday nights, but look forward to the next steps…
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Hi Eileen. Hooray - it did work! I’m looking forward to the next steps, too.
Yesterday morning, I changed the alarm setting on my clock from radio (set to news) to buzzer and began the first day of an intention to meditate 10, 20, or 30 minutes to start my day (whatever I feel I’ve got, given the particular day). It’s funny - I didn’t quite get there during the course (meditating at different times of the day). But now, without the course to hold me up, I’ve got this sense of urgency not to lose momentum. I am realizing also that using guided meditations at that time of day - first thing in the morning - is needed for me, maybe that will change with time.
How and what are you doing with your meditation practice since the course ended? Any strategies that are working for you? I’m so glad to have a platform to be able to communicate in this way about our discoveries and challenges!
By the way, do you have Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Guided Mindfulness Meditations? They are wonderful and his voice/presence so soothing. I got them last year and it’s funny, I was never able to “go there” with the longer meditations on these CDs. Now, I’m eager for them all!
Be well,
Jenifer
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Hi Jenifer,
I do not have his CD’s, but they sound wonderful!
I have been meditating, first thing in the morning, for about a year now -
it is what prompted me to take the class.
If I do not get it done early, I find my day gets away from me, and it does
not happen. I even meditate when I travel - in bed at the hotel, before my
husband wakes up!
I am also incorporating yoga at home, since I took the class. I do go to a
Vinyasa class, but I find the gentle stretching we practiced to be very
relaxing.
Hope you are settling into your own routine!
Take care,
Eileen
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Hello!! Just getting set up here! Nice to see you and thank you for setting up our “corner”
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Hi there and welcome to our little corner of the living room:)
Jenifer
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Hi Jenifer,
Nice to have this place to meet - thanks for setting it up.
Kurt
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Hi Kurt and good morning! How is your practice going? It feels strange not
to have class tonight - I really found myself looking forward to it every
week. I’m hoping to do a Monday night sit back at the CFM soon.
Jenifer
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I found this poem posted by someone else in the “living room” and thought I’d share it with our group. I think I might tape this up at my kitchen window, over the sink, so I can look at it many times during the day…
It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?
~ Pat Schneider
Another River: New and Selected Poems
Amherst Writers & Artists Press
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How fun! I hope lots of other class friends find their way here! All the best, Margaret
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Looking forward to more conversations.
Amanda
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Hi Jenifer - practices are going well. Continuing with a mix of the recordings (body scan, breathing, yoga) still for the 45 min - some days easier than others. How are your practices?
Hi Kurt. That’s great to hear and motivating to hear, also. I am getting
about 30 minutes of meditation in plus working on ever-increasing mindful
awareness throughout the day. I’ve been using two CDs of Jon Kabat-Zinn
meditations that I got last year and which I love. It’s like a treat to use
them, now that I “know” how to meditate. I am going to go back to the
recordings from the course, maybe I’ll do the breathing. I’ve been doing
exercise (something new for me) which is crowding out the yoga. So still
working on establishing my routine.
The other thing I am using is the Insight Meditation App - I set up several
timed meditations that incorporate periodic bells/chimes that help “bring
me back” to the breath, sound, choiceless awareness practicing.
Do you want to upload a photo so we can see faces? I’m missing our group.
Enjoy this incredibly beautiful day.
All the best,
Jenifer
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This is a wonderful conversation. Thank you, Jen, for starting it off. I’d like to also say, as a reminder to all, that we are typing into a public forum. We’re in the world’s Living Room here, so please continue to hold in confidence all that we have learned and shared about the others in our class community. You are welcome to use the Message function to speak directly to each other, to share contact info or other more personal messages.
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Hi Amanda! How are things going for you? I did the body scan yesterday
evening and darn it, if my mind wasn’t checking out a TON. I’m not daunted.
Going to do it again, but definitely sitting rather than lying down. That
just doesn’t work for me with the body scan (I really should know that by
now, by I was getting kind of cocky about it).
I hope you are well,
Jenifer
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Hi Margaret. Thank you for coming! And thank you for sharing this
guidance/reminder about confidentiality.
This is such a wonderful resource, this CFM home. Thank goodness, too,
because I’m having class withdrawal:)
Off now to mindfully walk my dog…not the right situation for mindful
walking, per se, but I can activate my mindfulness muscle in so many ways
out there in the beauty of nature walking along beside his boundless
(puppy) energy and delight.
Thank you again for a wonderful course.
Jenifer
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Hi Jenifer,
Somehow I knew you might be the first to set up this page, and thank you! I have decided to put aside the body scan, does not work for me. I am listening to soft music with ocean waves and seagulls in the back ground. I am listening to the back ground noise and not my breath, and I love it. I try to meditate every morning. I leave to go to work so balanced. This week has been more of a struggle for me, but still working on myself.
Hope you are having a great week.
Amanda
Thank you Margaret. I hope that our class will continue on through this format. I have learned so much already and want to continue my mediation practice. Your continued support is so appreciated. Thank you for all that you have taught us.
Amanda
Hi Amanda! It’s great to “hear your voice.”
The body scan is challenging. Something about that challenge keeps me going with it, though I do sitting meditation the most frequently. Your background music offers such soothing sounds for awareness of sound meditation!
Have a wonderful weekend - the weather is supposed to be continuing to be beautiful.
Jenifer
Thanks Jenifer for setting this up! I was going to try setting up a group on the Insight Timer app, but didn’t know how many people in our group used that as a platform.
I just had an amazing sitting meditation tonight, and was able to really hit on an amazingly present place for 5 or so minutes. Glad to hear everyone else is finding the will to keep going.
Amanda, I have found the Body scan challenging, but realized it might be the recording than the actual body scan. Did you try starting from the head and moving down the body rather than starting from the feet? I found the real amazing power of the body scan almost pulsates out from the head, while the feet are kind of dead. I’m dropping into body scans in free-form meditations more than with the recordings.
I also just saw this awesome exercise that Thich Nhat Hanh talked about on YouTube: When you inhale, Breath in through your eyes. When you exhale, smile to your eyes. It’s been helpful when doing walking meditations!
Thanks again Jenifer!