Going for Refuge
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores how suffering and stress can be dramatically altered when you turn to Awareness, Truth and Love.
You’ll learn various interpretations of each Refuge and how you can pragmatically use these teachings to influence your life journey.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
The Hero’s Journey
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores the elements of the hero’s journey as reflected in the life of the Buddha.
You’ll learn how you can apply the steps of the hero’s journey in your own life as you feel called into greater aliveness and vitality.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
News from Jonathan Foust – April 2015
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Happy Spring!
We’re in that wacky transition time here in the mid-Atlantic when the emerging daffodils and crocuses are covered with snow, but warmer weather seems inevitable.
The term ‘global warming’ is perhaps better described as ‘global weirding,’ (a term coined by Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute).
Whatever weirdness you may be experiencing, I wish you well.
Pain with No Suffering
I was about six when I got my first migraine. I lay in bed trying not blink as any movement felt excruciating. Someone slammed a door downstairs and the sound waves passed through my body like a tornado with claws. I desperately tried to figure out what I’d done wrong. I can still access that memory of deep confusion and suffering. Since then I get regular, severe headaches. Sometimes they come in clusters, sometimes I’m free for months and start to feel cocky, only to succumb again. There is a popular formula offered in the mindfulness world: PxR=S. Pain times Resistance equals Suffering. Just as it’s possible to feel pain, resist it mightily and suffer mightily, it’s also possible to feel pain, not resist it and not suffer. It doesn’t mean the pain isn’t there. It simply means you are not adding anything to it. I’ve gotten pretty good at separating out the sensations of pain from my reaction and narrative about it. It’s come with a lot of practice. Grudging practice, I must add. No matter what is happening in your life, one thing you do have control over is how you relate to it. Recently I was at the dentist getting a deep cleaning on my teeth. I noticed that I kept fixating on the sensations in my mouth and tensing up. I scanned my body for where I actually felt OK. My hands felt fine. As we continued through the session, when I noticed I was fixating on the unpleasant sensations of her digging and probing into my gums, I came back again and again to the sensations in my hands and again and again, re-relaxed. I didn’t make the unpleasant sensations go away, but I was able to accompany them without tensing. If you like, you can listen to a talk I recently gave on this topic called “Transforming Your Relationship with Pain”. Below I'll share one of my favorite techniques for working with unpleasant sensations.
Upcoming April Events
April 6:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
April 9-15:
Guiding Meditation and Advanced Asana at Dream Yoga, McLean, VA Learn More
April 13:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
April 17-24:
IMCW Spring Retreat Weeklong Learn More
April 27:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
March in the Mid-Atlantic
A Blue Jay contemplates Spring
First, it started like this: Ice forms on the edges.
Then this: The ice continued to creep and close in our winter visitors.
Then this: The local waterfowl finally give up and move on from a frozen river.
And now to this: Things are flowing again. Muskrats and beaver are out and the neighborhood is busy.
Five Breaths / Five Scenes: At the Dam
I'm in nature almost every day. It's where I go to get balanced and inspired.
Five Breaths / Five Scenes offers up five select clips from my wanderings, with a twist. As the images come and go you do focused, deep breathing throughout and at the end end, take a moment to relax and feel.
It's an interesting way to relax in under two minutes.
Latest from the Blog
Guided Meditation, Relax and Pay Attention
On Change, Happiness and Selflessness
News from Jonathan Foust, March 2015
Meditation: Resting in Embodied Presence
How to Transform Your Relationship with Thoughts
Weather Systems
A Few Apps that Support Mindfulness
How to Transform Your Relationship with Pain
Transforming Your Relationship with Pain: Zone #1 and Zone #2 Meditation
Ever notice how positive events are like teflon and painful events are more like velcro? We tend to take positive experiences for granted and fixate on the painful ones. The following meditation can be helpful for working with pain. The trick is how you pay attention. You can read the directions below and if you like, follow the guided instructions in my talk, "Transforming Your Relationship with Pain."
1. Take a few moments to feel your whole body.
2. Notice where you feel sensations the most predominant. (unpleasant)
3. Label this area "Zone #1."
4. Take a few moments to sense the shape, texture or any colors associated with Zone #1.
5. Notice anywhere in your body you feel sensations that are either pleasant or neutral.
6. Label this area "Zone #2."
7. Your practice now is to keep your attention in Zone #2.
8. Let your attention move freely in Zone #2 and label, as best you can, the body part and the quality of feeling. (Example: "Left palm, open". "Right hip, relaxed".)
9. Your attention will want to go to Zone #1. When you notice this, escort it back to Zone #2.
10. Notice anything that might shift or move inside.
When I practice this, almost every time I have a realization that goes something like this: "Wow! 94% of my body actually feels OK! 6% is freaking out, but 94% is fine." Something shifts for me. I find when I practice like this I move from being reactive to a sense that I can "be" with the pain. You may notice a sense of Zone #1 'bleeding' into Zone #2. The edges might blur and you may feel a bodily felt shift toward greater relaxation. If it feels safe and you have the presence of mind, you can then investigate Zone #1, labeling the body part and quality of sensation. If your pain is content and chronic, do seek appropriate medical help!
The Energy Intensive
For the last fifteen years or so, a few times a year Shobhan Richard Faulds and I offer a three-day intensive program at Kripalu Center called The Energy Intensive: Yoga, Meditation and Breathwork. Yoga says you are made up of two fundamental elements: Awareness (chitta) and energy (prana). Balancing these two elements can be described as the path of yoga. Through intensive yoga, meditation, deep relaxation, bodyork and breathwork, you’ll be guided into a journey into what can be for many, profound transformation. You can read more in depth hereand sense whether this might be the time in your life to take a step back and dive into some intensive, rejuvenating practices.
Have You Had a Personal Encounter with a Higher Power?
The States of Consciousness Research Team at Johns Hopkins needs your help.
We're conducting an anonymous, internet-based survey to characterize experiences of personal encounters with God, Higher Power, or Ultimate Reality.
If you have ever had such an experience, we would greatly appreciate it if you would take our survey. If you know of others who have ever had an experience of such an encounter, please send them the link and encourage them to participate. This includes people who had such an experience long ago.
As you may know, our team has conducted survey and laboratory studies investigating spirituality, religion, and altered states of consciousness. This new survey is an important extension of our published and ongoing research on mystical experience, spiritual practice and spiritual transformation.
Please share.
Flyer.EncounteringTheDivine.org
http://www.encounteringthedivine.org
We deeply appreciate your help. Thank you.
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
IRB approved application NA_00054696
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please signup here.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Five Breaths / Five Scenes: At the Dam
Special AUDIO:
I’m in nature almost every day. It’s where I go to get balanced and inspired.
Five Breaths / Five Scenes offers up five select clips from my wanderings, with a twist. As the images come and go you do controlled deep breathing throughout and at the end end, take a moment to relax and feel.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Virginia Blue Bells
I’ve been waiting for this.
Out of the frozen muck come the Blue Bells. Riverbend Park is renowned for having some of the most dense populations of Blue Bells. In peak season, acres of them.
Though it was cold this morning (around 22 degrees), the one’s closest to the water’s edge have started in earnest.
Spring has arrived!
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Guided Meditation - Relax and Pay Attention
Special AUDIO:
In this meditation you’ll start with a few slow, deep breaths and be guided to sense and relax specific body parts. You’ll select an anchor for your continued practice. You'll hear a few reminders inviting you to deeply relax and pay attention to what is changing and at the end of the meditation, to rest deeply in awareness itself.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
On Change, Happiness and Selflessness
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores the Three Characteristics of Reality and how you might more readily remember them in your practice and in your life.
You'll learn about the characteristic of impermanence and how your relationship to what is changing determines the degree to which you will feel happy or suffer. You’ll explore the characteristic of ‘not self,’ inquiring into the teaching, “Nothing is to be clung to as “I” or “Mine.” This talk includes a number of short guided reflections
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
News from Jonathan Foust - March 2015
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Warm Greetings
We've been locked in a deep freeze here in the DC area. This weekend we ended a retreat early and my return home, which normally takes about 25 minutes, took 3 hours of white-knuckled navigation. I called on every bit of training I've had as a resident of Wisconsin and New England to navigate through slush, ice, blizzard conditions and most dangerous of all, traumatized southern drivers.
Blessings in your winter experience and may you have some warmer weather soon!
Slip and Slide on the Beltway
The Backward Step
Tara and I recently made our annual trek up to the Forest Refuge in Barre, MA for a period of self-guided meditation. The Forest Refuge was created for long-term meditators. I was on my own for the entire time with no set schedule. The only requirements during a week are two 15-minute interviews with a teacher, two evening talks and a daily 'yogi-job'. I seemed to be pegged now as prime pot-washer material when I go up there. I love waking up in the morning on a retreat knowing that I will be in silence for days and days ahead and with open, unstructured time other than the grueling mid-day encounter with pots and pans. You may know this classic analogy for meditation practice: Imagine a glass of muddy water set on a countertop. Over time, the muddy water settles. The mind becomes clear. My mind was not just muddy. It was as if it had just been poured out of a high-speed blender. The more I tried to settle my mind, the more I experienced restlessness and agitation. Eventually I recognized the agitation as some kind of generalized anxiety. Restlessness begat more restlessness and I became more and more frustrated with the unending sessions of fidgeting and unease. I looked closer and saw that what I called 'anxiety' was more like plain old fear. In a morning meditation I had a thought that screamed something like this: "Screw this! Quit dancing around with this anxiety. Let's go to the root." A great yogi once said, "The greatest wonder in the world is that everyone dies. The second greatest wonder of the world is that no one thinks they will." "I am not afraid of death," Woody Allen said. "I just don't want to be there when it happens." The Buddha said when you intimately and sincerely investigate the 'Heavenly Messengers' of sickness, old age and death, it can radically reframe your life. The more I kept my attention on the fact of my eventual death and the inevitable death of everyone I know, the more I surfaced waves of fear, anxiety and grief. I'm not a stranger to death. I grew up on and worked on farms for many years and was present and often responsible for the death of many a creature. I was with my father for his last exhalation last year and have accompanied a handful of people through their transition. Despite all of this, I could feel a consistent clench, a dread, inside. At one point I recalled a near-death experience I had when I was revived in an emergency room after going into anaphylactic shock. As I replayed the event - the trip to the hospital, my experience of slowly but quite consciously losing a sense of time and space and the quite clear memory of floating near the ceiling watching six people feverishly work on my body - I remembered that the process was surprisingly interesting and even blissful. When spatial and temporal awareness became more distorted and fell away, there was a rush of 'home coming,' a widening of awareness that felt light, free and vast. Over time on my retreat, the inner clench relaxed. The more I embraced the reality of death and impermanence, the more I saw how I held back from life. I recalled relationships where I had not forgiven and others where I need to ask forgiveness. I understand more deeply than ever that my capacity for aliveness and creativity is directly related to my capacity to die fully into each moment. If you can make the time to take a retreat this year, I consider it one of the best investments you can make. You can listen to a talk I gave called "Lessons Learned on My Retreat" here. Here is what happens to me on retreat - it's a two-minute video: "The Blessings of Stillness":
Upcoming March Events
March 2:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
March 16:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
March 21:
IMCW Daylong retreat in Fredericksburg, VA Learn More
March 23:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
March 26:
“Accessing Your Inner Wisdom” daylong retreat at Psychotherapy Networker Conference, Washington, DC Learn More
March 30:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
Recent Photographs
Wind-Blasted Trees at the Forest Refuge
Early Morning by the Frozen River
Above Great Falls
New England Snowscape
Latest from the Blog
The Blessings of Stillness
On Concentration and Mindfulness
Winter Cold Snap
Meditation: Willful Breathing to Relaxed Awareness (26 minutes)
Lessons Learned From My Retreat
A Room and My View
Meditation: 10 Minutes on Aliveness and Awareness
Five Breaths, Five Scenes: Winter
Forming Wholesome Habits
The Year of Living Mindfully started this last weekend and I'm revisiting again how I might develop routines that give me more energy and focus.
One key to creating habits is to start small.
Too many times I set a high bar, hoping to invoke some kind of massive change. Each time, I fall short.
Then I heard about "the minimum effective dose," from Tim Ferriss. What is the smallest amount of effort that will result in the maximum amount of change?
For me, this meant lowering my standards, starting small and creating routines that are easy to keep going.
A few successes:
1. Seven minutes of yoga every day means I do something daily and often more because I enjoy it and don't feel guilty when I do the minimum.
2. Journaling with no targeted word count means I write a few times a day, sometimes at length.
3. Shooting one photo and one video clip a day means I'm more inclined to get into super-creative flows and generate ideas for projects.
4. Meditating until I feel 'done' means I sit every day, guilt-free, often more than once and sometimes for longer sits.
You might enjoy this article from James Clear, who speaks of what gets in the way of creating change.
telesangha
If you are interested in a painless way to be reminded to meditate, check out telesangha. Created by Mo Edjlali, founder of ZenCEO. You can sign up for a time when you'd like to meditate each day. At the appointed hour, the phone rings and you are connected with a community. You'll sit for 20 minutes, have a brief check in and get on with your day. This is an amazing way to join a community, create accountability and track your efforts.
"Guiding Kripalu Meditation and Aasana" to be offered in the DC area
If you are interested in working toward your 500-hour Professional Certification in Yoga and want something local to Washington, DC, you might check out an eight-day training I am co-leading with Michelle Dalbec called Guiding Kripalu Meditation & Asana: Exploring the World Within, schedule for April 8 -15 at Dream Yoga in McLean, VA.
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please signup here.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Meditation: Resting in Embodied Presence
Special AUDIO:
You’ll start with a simple stretch and a slow motion release of your hands. Conscious slow breathing draws your attention inward. After a few minutes you’ll release control of the breath, relax key parts of the body and select an anchor for your continued practice.
Some gentle reminders though this meditation will help you to re-relax, sense your capacity for self-observation and what it feels like to rest in effortless awareness.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
How to Transform Your Relationship with Thoughts
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores the relationship between what you think and who you are as the one who is aware.
You’ll learn about the antidote to over-identification with thinking and how deep investigation of beliefs can lead to a heightened sense of freedom as well as provide insights into the nature of awareness itself.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Weather Systems
One of my most favorite things is long-distance adventure swimming. Fortunately for me, that’s also true for my wife.
The Caribbean sea has qualities we both enjoy. It’s clean, warm and while pretty safe, it also has currents and when snorkeling off rocky points, a certain element of engaging danger.
We were surprised this year with the intensity of the storms. Quite often we’ve not dared venture out on the deck, risking getting blown over. The storms lash the house and anything not tied down is gone.
But we've caught a few windows here and there when things lighten up and have managed to get out into the ocean.
Drama over the water
The coral continues to degrade. I’ve come down here since I was in college and the change is remarkable. There are rock formations deep underwater I consider friends and I enjoy visiting each time I’m here. Many of them used to be covered with life are now mostly barren.
It’s still beautiful, but a different kind of beauty. The geography and light are gorgeous and we both love diving.
Drama under water
We often talk of moods, emotions and states of consciousness as ‘weather systems.’ They come, they go and they are subject to the laws of impermanence. We are not the weather, but the awareness itself. When you open to the awareness of what is changing, you can’t help but open to awareness itself.
Robert Frost summed it up succinctly:
Life.
It goes on.
Rain, sunshine … what’s left but to celebrate?
200 miles to St. Croix
A break in the Clouds over Peter Island
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
A Few Apps that Support Mindfulness
Recently in my talks I’ve been yakking about helpful and supportive apps. What follows are a few that have impacted my capacity for building clarity and paying attention.
Organize your Life with OmniFocus
https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus
"Your mind should be like water," says David Allen, the founder of "Getting Things Done." You only have so much psychic ram to hold information. You need systems that have everything written down so you don’t have to waste mental energy to retain your ideas, projects and to-do's.
I’ve been a disciple of “Getting Things Done (GTD)” for years . I re-read the book about once a year and study different systems for organizing and tracking projects. OmniFocus may be beyond what you need, but if you manage multiple projects and are willing to learn the system, it’ll handle anything you throw at it.
A cross-platform program and instantly available on my mac, iPhone and iPad, I have every single project, list, action item, and hair-brained idea written down and categorized. Once a week, I review my projects and ideas and select what I’m going to work on that week.
Here’s one thing brilliant about the GTD system: Each week I not only decide what I’m going to do, but more importantly, what I’m NOT going to do and I put concern for it aside. I don’t worry I’m going to forget, because I’ll look at the full project list again the following week.
OmniFocus is not free and has a learning curve but it’s amazingly, reliable, flexible and robust. As far as I can tell, it’s by far the most sophisticated organizer out there.
Organize Your Life. Evernote
https://evernote.com
Evernote is my digital file cabinet. I scan everything paper, forward important electronic documents, tag ‘em and when I need them they are right there with a quick and simple search.
This little article was written in Evernote. Because it’s cross-platform, I could work on it using different devices.
Time Your Meditations and Connect with a Network with Insight Timer
https://insighttimer.com
If you want not only a great device for timing your meditations but also a way to track your progress and connect with other meditators around the world, Insight Timer is a great app. It’s clean, simple and I must say, pretty inspiring to see other people meditating around the planet in real time.
Change your Brain through Binaural Beat Technology. BrainWave
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brain-wave-32-advanced-binaural/id307219387?mt=8
About fifteen years ago I spent $150.00 of my hard-earned money on a sound/light machine with about 50 different dual binaural beat programs. I wanted to learn how to identify different brainwave states that are part of the meditation experience.
Now you can get all that and more in an app that only costs a few bucks.
Dual binaural beat technology has been around for a long time. You listen with headphones and the frequency between different tones in each ear tends to induce different brainwave states. You can dial in a range of frequencies that range from focus and concentration to meditation to falling asleep and perking up your dreams.
I’ve used this app for years. It’s highly customizable and useful for screening out excess noise when I’m concentrating, timing and supporting my meditations and helping me get back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night.
Best Journaling App. DayOne
http://dayoneapp.com
DayOne is an elegant, simple and surprisingly sophisticated app that lives on my macbook pro, iPad and iPhone. I can capture a moment in a few words, dive into a long journal entry, record a photo and automatically capture information such as location, weather and even how active I’ve been through the integrated HealthApp. If I come up with a great idea I can tag it and come back and find it again easily.
I set a prompt four times a day when a reminder pops up suggesting I write something. I’m now in habit of capturing what I’m doing right at that moment and then going on with my business. Occasionally these short prompts will inspire me to write something longer.
I particularly like using DayOne in conjunction with meditation. After a sit I note the time and jot down anything of interest. Quite often the writing brings up something just under the surface I hadn’t quite noticed before.
Manage Your Sleep. Sleep Cycle.
http://www.sleepcycle.com
"You can manage what you can measure," say efficiency gurus. As I’m prone to sleeping light, waking early and not getting back to sleep, I decided to try to track my sleep patterns to learn how I can get the most out of my downtime.
Sleep Cycle uses your iPhone or Android’s microphone to pick up sounds of tossing and turning and can thereby track and rate the quality of your sleep. Sleep Cycle can also serve as an alarm clock and wake you when you come out of a sleep cycle and not before, ensuring you are optimally rested. (As waking up is never an issue for me, I’ve not tried the alarm function.)
Before you open the app and set it up for the night you can make notes of your activities of the day. For me, I track whether I’ve had caffeine in the afternoon and whether I was away from a screen for an hour before sleeping. The app can tie into your activity monitor via the health app and factor that into a report.
I’ve been tracking my sleep for about three months. The conclusions are rather obvious, actually, but to see the corroboration in numbers and graphs has been quite helpful. Even more impactful has been how I’ve actually changed some habits. Here’s what helps me sleep a full night: restrict caffeine in the afternoon, exercise daily, downshift at least an hour before bed and the most obvious practice of all since I always wake up before dawn: get to bed early.
Weather for the Hour … and More. Dark Sky
http://darkskyapp.com
DarkSky is my ally in helping me step away from my desk and get outside. Living in the mid—Atlantic where it can get overcast and gloomy, it’s easy to look at the sky and write off the possibility of an invigorating outdoor adventure.
DarkSky tells you what the weather will be like for the next hour, with amazing precision.
You can also look ahead at temperature predictions and a forecast for the week at a glance. It’s quite accurate and a brilliant design. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve glanced at DarkSky, saw a clearing, and dashed out for a rejuvenating adventure.
Listen to Dharma Talks (and other things). Instacast
http://vemedio.com/products/instacast With so many great dharma talks and meditations online, podcasts are a great resource. Instacast does a fine job of downloading and organizing them for me.
A few of my favorite sources for dharma talks:
Jonathan Foust (but of course!) http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jonathan-foust/id455422434?uo=4 Tara Brach (it goes without saying!) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tara-brach/id265264862?mt=2 ZenCast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/zencast/id73331418?mt=2 AudioDharma https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/audio-dharma/id75519213?mt=2 DharmaGeeks https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/buddhist-geeks/id211752923?mt=2
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
How to Transform Your Relationship with Pain
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores strategies to help you shift how you relate to pain and physical discomfort.
You’ll learn what the Buddha taught about being with physical distress, how discovering your reactive patterns can reduce unnecessary suffering and how to apply specific techniques that can help you use unpleasant sensations as a transformative practice.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
The Blessings of Stillness
On Concentration and Mindfulness
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores two distinct and critical elements of your meditation practice.
You’ll learn about the qualities and benefits of concentration, tips and tricks for sustaining attention by creating habits and rituals, the qualities and benefits of mindfulness and suggestions as to how you can cultivate balance in your practice and in your life.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Winter Cold Snap
We're in the midst of a cold snap here in DC. The federal government is shut down today and I've been hauling wood and shoveling.
It's been worth trudging through the snow and ice to see the Potomac River. It's frozen over right now. The first shot is from before the recent snow storm and the following shots are from this morning, Tuesday.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Meditation: Willful Breathing to Relaxed Awareness (26 minutes)
Lessons Learned From My Retreat
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores lessons learned on a personal retreat at the Forest Refuge in Barre, MA.
You’ll learn some of the essential factors required for transformational practice: humility, the willingness to face fear, a desire to know the truth and the power of sustained commitment.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
A Room and My View
I’m just back after a week at the Forest Refuge in Barre, MA.
Among a week of perfect silence and a supportive environment, one of my most favorite things about the Forest Refuge has been long walks deep in the New England woods.
Fat chance this time.
A full two foot base grew and grew with snow almost every day. One morning I went out just to say I was out in -27 degree windchill.
Take away something and something else opens up. The lack of nature adventures forced me to slow down and 'make friends' with my over-eager mind. It took days of watching a deep inner restlessness that I finally recognized as fear.
Fear become my inquiry and much grew out of that willingness to sit with angst.
I’ll be sharing some of this in my dharma talk, along with some images I captured in my nordic wanderings.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.