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Tag: mindfulness retreat

  • Summer Meditation Retreat: 6 Mindfulness Practices for Self-Care

    Summer Meditation Retreat: 6 Mindfulness Practices for Self-Care

    Summary

    • During the summer mindfulness can become an invitation to savor things more completely.
    • Rather than only appreciating the best experiences, savoring every aspect of life allows us to discover the gifts that often hide within unwelcome or challenging moments.
    • Savor the summer with a free collection of 6 guided meditations from expert mindfulness teachers.

    The word “savoring” crops up a lot in instructions for mindful eating, but why stop there? Inspired by that notion, I decided to challenge myself to a week of savoring things. As I started out, I began to see that I was automatically leaving lots of things out—things that were, well, unsavory—so the challenge had to undergo some immediate reengineering. It would have to become about savoring everything. Yikes.

    If I was going to savor the unsavory I would have to be thankful somehow for whatever came my way.

    That immediately led me to the understanding that if I was going to savor the unsavory I would have to be thankful somehow for whatever came my way. I would have to embrace the artificially sweetened (but still valuable) “attitude of gratitude.” It was a bit of a revelation. What I was prepared for was taking time to really enjoy things, in the present moment. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much it would challenge underlying attitudes and assumptions. When the week was over, I came to some conclusions about how savoring can reach into every area of life.

    6 Ways to Savor the Moment

    By Barry Boyce

    1) When things are good…savor the joy

    When things are good, it should be easy to savor them. But it took more effort to savor something I already appreciated than I would have imagined. Joy came in the sudden realization that the body is always in the present, no matter where my thoughts take me, and I can always return to that.

    2) When it’s every kind of bad…savor the resilience

    I can glimpse the fact that pain, whether physical or emotional, is something that lets us know we are alive. And as we try to manage it as best we can, we are humbled, we are vulnerable, we seek help. We find a way. We bounce back. And, as we savor the equanimity, we learn to take the good and the bad.

    3) When it’s boring…savor the freedom

    As we all keep discovering in meditation, we don’t really need to keep ourselves occupied with extra thoughts. It’s peaceful to take a break from that. My savoring challenge helped me learn (once again) to savor the freedom from the need to entertain myself every minute of the day.

    4) When it’s unwieldy…savor the laughter

    When things go haywire, the same tendency we have with hassles—to indulge in some “why me?” time—can easily take over. But, I’m starting to really appreciate the antidote that a meditation teacher friend of mine told me about: Just say “Why not me?”

    5) When you’re alone…savor the space

    In the right doses, being by ourselves can be deeply restorative. It can help us discover a deep reservoir of contentment that does not need to be chased after. That kind of space—a space of awe and wonder and simplicity—is well worth savoring. It may be the most savory treat of all.

    6) When you’re with others…savor the companionship

    The sheer joy of a shared laugh. The moments of listening when you need to be heard. The shoulder to cry on. Someone to share ups and downs, without caring which it is. I’m blessed with friends all over the world, people I can connect with within minutes no matter how long it’s been. Other human beings…what’s not to savor?

    Summer Meditation Retreat: 6 Mindfulness Practices for Self-Care

    Day 1: Connect With Presence

    By Sharon Salzberg

    If we can practice savoring the present moment when we’re sitting in formal meditation, we can also practice while standing in line at the grocery store, sitting anxiously in a doctor’s waiting room, or sitting down for a meal in good company. A portable exercise in meditation is focusing on the sensations of the in- and out-breath. If the breath is not a comfortable place for you, choose another object of attention like the sensation of your hands touching your knees.

    A 10-Minute Breathing Meditation

    This variation of breath meditation can be especially supportive if you feel restless or bored. Savor the freedom to simply let your mind be. It doesn’t matter how many times your attention wanders or how long you may dwell in distraction during this summer meditation. The practice is gently letting go and, with kindness toward yourself, beginning again.

    1. Sit comfortably and relax. Let your attention settle on the feeling of the breath at the nostrils, chest, or abdomen. As you breathe in make the silent mental note “in,” and as you breathe out you can count “one.” This becomes inhale “in,” exhale “one,” inhale “in,” exhale “two,” all the way up to ten. When you get to ten you can begin again.
    2. If your mind becomes distracted, and you lose touch with the breath—that’s OK. You can begin again. Stay connected to the rhythm of the breath with the mental note and the number.
    3. See if your awareness of the breath can be full and complete. Your attention is wholehearted with “in, five,” “in, six,” “in, seven,” all the way through to ten. Each breath is full and complete on its own—with the counting there to support you.
    4. When you feel ready, you can move into the rest of your day.

    A 7-Minute Meditation to Rest Your Attention

    Our habitual tendency is to grasp a thought or a feeling, to build an entire world around it, or push it away and struggle against it. It can be helpful to instead note what is painful, pleasant, or otherwise. Here we stay even, balanced, and calm, as we recognize what arises and bring our attention back, one breath at a time.

    1. Sit comfortably or lie down. Settle in to a comfortable position.
    2. Center your attention on the sensations of the in- and out-breath, at the nostrils, chest, or abdomen. As you feel the sensations of the breath, you can make a mental note of “breath” with the in-breath and then again with the out-breath.
    3. When a thought or feeling arises that’s strong enough to take your attention away from the breath, note it silently as “not breath.” You don’t have to judge yourself; you don’t have to get lost in a thought or elaborate it. Recognize that it’s simply not the breath.
    4. Bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath. Some of your thoughts or feelings may be tender, caring, cruel, or hurtful, but they’re not the breath. You can recognize them, let them go, and bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath.
    5. When you feel ready, come back to your surroundings.

    Day 2: Connect With Yourself

    By Sebene Selassie

    Belonging is the sense of ease and joy we can savor when we are truly present. Often we don’t feel like we belong because we’re caught in feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and doubt. Feelings of not belonging are learned over time and lead us to think that there’s something wrong with us, that we’re not enough, that we don’t belong—but we do. By the very nature of our existence, we belong. Mindfulness helps us remember this by allowing us to experience belonging in any moment.

    A 9-Minute Meditation to Listen to Your Body

    Meditation can help us be more present to life, and mindfulness of body and breath help ground that presence. It’s only when we’re present with each moment that we can savor our experience. This summer meditation invites you to try grounding yourself throughout the day, feeling the body and using the inquiry, “What’s happening in my body right now?”

    1. Find a comfortable posture. You don’t have to do anything special, just make sure that you’re relaxed and alert. Lower your gaze and give yourself the opportunity to go inward.
    2. Bring awareness to the sensations you notice while sitting. It can take some time and practice to feel sensations in the body rather than think about them. Is there a sensation in the body that’s particularly strong or clamoring for attention? It’s OK if you don’t notice anything. Just recognize your experience as it is and see if you can bring a sense of curiosity to it. You can ask yourself, “What’s happening in my body right now?”
    3. Whatever is happening, continue this inquiry. Notice the sensations that are present. When the mind starts to wander, gently bring your awareness back to the body. Again, ask yourself, “What’s happening in my body right now?”
    4. Bring the same curiosity to your breath. If the breath is not a comfortable place for you, continue grounding in sensations of the body. Otherwise, take a moment to connect to the natural rhythm of your breath. Notice your belly rising and falling. You can always ask yourself, “What’s happening in my body right now?”
    5. Know that you can come back to the body at any moment, as you come back to the space around you.

    A 7-Minute Meditation to Welcome Open Awareness

    Open awareness meditation is often associated with the metaphor of the mind being like an open sky. We can observe thoughts, sensations, sounds, but they simply pass like clouds in the sky, or they can flow like a river savor the space between you and what drifts past. The sky is not bothered, the river is not changed, everything is carried by the current of awareness.

    1. Find a comfortable posture. If you like you can gaze down softly at a point in front of you. Allow your body to soften and rest. Feel the connection between your body and the floor or the chair beneath you.
    2. Bring your awareness to the sensations of being right here, right now. Begin to listen to the play of sounds around you. You can notice sounds that are loud or soft, far or near—just listening. You don’t need to name the sound, or follow the sound, just listen in a relaxed and open way. Notice how all sounds arise and vanish as you listen.
    3. Sense that your awareness is expanding to be like the sky—open, clear, vast. Allow your awareness to extend in every direction. Sounds come and go, moving through the sky of your awareness, appearing and disappearing as you rest in this open awareness. You might notice that thoughts and images also arise and vanish. You can let them come and go without resistance or grasping.
    4. Allow the breath or sensations in the body to move like a breeze in this open sky of awareness. Notice that this awareness is naturally clear and spacious. Allow all sounds, thoughts, and sensations, feeling that spaciousness.
    5. As you lift your gaze, pause for a moment to reorient to the space around you.

    Day 3: Connect With Everything

    By Jessica Morey

    We tend to focus our minds on what is wrong or threatening or what could harm us so that we might be better protected through the vagaries of life. But if we allow that bias to run rampant, we risk missing out on what’s beautiful, joyful, and nourishing in our lives. Not to mention, we grow less equipped to cultivate beauty and joy and nourishment in ourselves.

    A 14-Minute Summer Meditation to Appreciate Joy

    Perhaps it seems strange to investigate what we consider to be a positive emotion, but we often miss joy. We don’t pay a lot of attention to it and let it slip by without much notice. The good news is, there are practices to cultivate joy. It can be sparked by something enjoyable, or we can attend to and support joy in our felt experience. One of the great ways to do that is to savor—really stop and savor—what’s beautiful and good in life.

    1. Take a seat or lie down if you’re in a place where you can do that. Take a few deep breaths, lengthening your inhale and your exhale. During these opening breaths, notice how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling tired or drowsy, emphasize the inhale. If you’re feeling agitated or restless, emphasize the exhale. Then allow your breath to come to its natural rhythm.
    2. Now bring to mind recent joyful moments. Alternatively, you could reflect on things you’re grateful for in your life. Choose a few moments of joy and gratitude to focus on.
    3. Reflect on receiving the joy of these experiences. Bring your attention into your body. Notice how you experience joy in this moment. Where do you feel it in your body? The chest, the belly, the throat, the face? What do you notice? Is there a temperature to the joy? Is there a flow or movement to the energy of joy in your body?
    4. If you lose that felt sense of connection, just recall the images, people, or situations that bring you joy. Then return to savoring the felt sense of joy in your body. Breathe into it.
    5. Take a moment to reflect on the people, places, or situations that bring you joy. What were the things that really inspired a felt sense of joy for you? How can you bring more of that into your life?
    6. When you’re ready, bring your attention back to your environment. Take a deep breath. Orient yourself to the space around you and notice how you feel right now.

    A 14-Minute Meditation to Explore What’s True

    Longing is a vulnerable emotion, but it’s also very important. It directs us toward what we want in the world—where we want to go, what we value, what we want to create. When we can stay with the emotion and get to know it on a deeper level, there’s a great deal of wisdom at our disposal. If we can feel into it, be with it, and notice what’s underneath and inside of it, we can then better decide how we want to respond next.

    1. Settle into a comfortable position. You may be seated, or you’re welcome to lie down. Wherever you are, take a few deep breaths. You can cast your gaze down and ahead.
    2. Feel into your body and ask yourself: Is there anything I need right now? Is there anything I’m longing for in this moment? You may want something to be different, or you may be longing for a particular experience. Ask yourself: What do I want? What do I need?
    3. If nothing is emerging for you, bring to mind a recent experience when you really wanted something. Maybe you wanted to be seen or acknowledged; maybe you wanted to connect with a certain person, or you wanted someone to call you or attend to you. Identify a recent experience you had of longing and consider the situation, the people, the place.
    4. Turn your attention toward the felt sense of the wanting. Hold this feeling of wanting, and as you do, see if you can identify what it is that you want—below the particularities. What universal need are you touching upon? Maybe you want respect, ease, joy, or connection.
    5. Consider this question: How could I meet this need? Take a few moments to explore the creative ways this need could be met.
    6. Take a few deep breaths. Feel your body on the chair or on the ground. When you’re ready, lift your gaze.



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  • How a Mindfulness Retreat for BIPOC Helped Me Find Hope

    How a Mindfulness Retreat for BIPOC Helped Me Find Hope

    When youth worker Troy Landrum struggled with burnout and imposter syndrome, a mindfulness retreat for educators that are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color helped him find his way back to himself and his community.

    A year ago, exhaustion decorated my bones like a graffiti-tattered wall. For 10 years I had worked in youth development and education, specifically focused on young people who were incarcerated or marginalized in another way. I had struggled with bouts of secondhand trauma, survivor’s guilt, and hopelessness for the future of our young folks. I had seen the struggles of these young people as they tried to survive a justice system and various institutions that are not made to meet their needs. All of this work had led to deep emotional wear and tear as I sacrificed myself to the point of burnout. 

    During that time, I advocated and supported young people and their families through the legal system, employment, education, and mentored them through hardship. At the time, I wasn’t ready to recognize that, just as their motivation and hope had to come from within them, my motivation and hope had to come from within me. That sense of hope moves us to seek out the help and support that we need, to be honest with others and ourselves about our personal struggles, to believe in the sense of community that will bring about healing, and to act on our plans for our futures. I knew my job was to remind young people that they are the captains of their ships and the writers of their own stories. It was vital for them to be surrounded by a village that would support them to believe this about themselves and help them live into that belief. I wasn’t ready to see that the same was true for me.

    I knew my job was to remind young people that they are the captains of their ships and the writers of their own stories. It was vital for them to be surrounded by a village that would support them to believe this about themselves and help them live into that belief. I wasn’t ready to see that the same was true for me.

    Then I went to my first meditation retreat for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) educators with the non-profit Space Between, which supports schoolchildren by integrating mindfulness practices into school communities.

    Taking My Place at the Retreat

    As I prepared myself for the retreat and a full day of reconnecting to my body, I hoped I’d find a sense of optimism I’d lost to feel better prepared to continue the work of educating young people. At first, I questioned my right to take up space in a place for educators, a role that I felt to be sacred.

    I grew up in a family full of teachers and principals, so I understand the commitment of these roles. To me, an educator meant a teacher, professor, or an administrator—someone committed to specifically educating youth and preparing them for higher education. As a youth worker who went in and out of these young people’s lives—staying just long enough to get them out of trouble or to complete an internship—I felt like an imposter. From the stories I had heard from my mother and grandmother after full days in the classroom, I felt that my work didn’t compare. I was exhausted, but they had it worse.

    It was a place that I could instantly lay down whatever heaviness I had brought with me on the yoga mats and bean bags. I felt an instant peace.

    It was a Saturday morning when I walked into the retreat and was greeted by the smell of coffee and the smiles of some familiar faces. I felt a warmth that I think only BIPOC people could recognize, a silent language that gives a nod of recognition that we are in a similar fight to be seen as fully human in society. It was a place that I could instantly lay down whatever heaviness I had brought with me on the yoga mats and bean bags. I felt an instant peace.

    The facilitators gave us time to eat snacks, connect with other folks, and get situated for a day of connection with fellow sojourners, to ourselves, and to the present moment. We sat down in a big circle of about 10 people from all across the state of Washington and took turns introducing ourselves. I went last. As everyone presented their occupations, their exhaustion, their burdens,  the imposter syndrome rolled off of me like beads of sweat in a sauna.

    Reconnect With Love

    The time we spent together was a meditative rest for our souls, between the sweet rhythmic sounds of singing bowls, meditative walks, the connectedness of our weary voices through profound conversations. It turned out to be a place for those who self-identified or wanted to identify as lights in dark tunnels for others. Here, I understood that there are so many different contacts with young people, so many different ways of connecting oneself to education, so many ways of defining “educator.” The retreat wasn’t exclusionary; it was a place for those who needed to be reminded of the light that they had inside them.

    We had all come to the retreat exhausted, no matter our occupations or connection to educating young people. I’d worn that exhaustion like a badge of honor. Maybe it was to prove that I belonged, or maybe it was a symptom of the myriad injustices society has placed on BIPOC folks, to live our lives as the burden bearers of a system we never created. 

    What this time brought to me was revolutionary to my mind, body, and soul. That day whispered into my ears and said, “Rest and bring all of who you are, no matter who you are. Live out this day and the rest of your days loving yourself, nurturing yourself, listening to yourself so that you may love others just as you love yourself and serve as a reminder of that love for those around you.”



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