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chocolate-brownies · 5 years

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Catch Eoin’s new series Introduction to Blissology on Wanderlust TV. For just $9.99 per month, you can get unlimited access to premiere yoga instructional videos, inspiring documentary-style shorts, and more. Sign up now to start your free trial.

Eoin Finn is celebrated for a myriad of reasons, namely his ability to inspire bliss and create joy through his nature-centric yoga practice. Yoga Journal calls him the “Thoreau of Yoga” for this level of eco-activism and Oprah lauded him as “one to watch.” His own yoga system, Blissology, is dedicated to exploring methods for bringing more love, joe, and awe into our daily lives.

It’s no surprise then that we’re bringing Eoin and his love for the natural world out to the North Shore of Hawaii for Wanderlust O’ahu. We hope you join us—until then, here are some of our favorite words from Eoin.

On Work

Being busy is not always a virtue. We’ve inherited a world where busyness is a badge of importance but it’s not a sustainable path. I’m reminding myself to create spaces of slow, conscious breaths to center my mind and body throughout the day for health, energy, flow, sanity, and (counter intuitively) maximum productivity.

On Love

Love fearlessly. In moments like this, I have no problem being vulnerable. I just show up and let Love come through me.

Love is the strongest force in the universe. When we tune into it, our life has immense meaning and purpose. Nature opens the door to our deepest heart. Go somewhere beautiful and get quiet. Feel the beauty inside and out.

On Community

There are many who want to divide us but we say no. We are one and our hearts know it.

On Teaching

For me, I have never felt that I am just teaching yoga poses. I want to get in touch with my highest vibrational self and let that ripple through me in all actions. I let go of expectations of how my offerings land and just share from the most authentic place in my soil in hopes that we can be kinder to ourselves, each other, and nature.

On Yoga

Mobility is the new jacked! I love alignment based yoga but it’s so important to get off the grid and move in fluid, circular ways. I want to develop muscles that move. They can be strong when they need to be strong and loose when we want them to be.

My yoga practice is about freeing myself from the cafe of my turbulent mind where I can merge with the wild and expansive sky. Light and shadow pass by on the clear canvas of infinity and I know no other state but boundless joy.

Y.O.G.A. You’ve only got attitude! I’m working on keeping mine as positive as possible.

On Meditation

Sometimes we need to close our eyes to see better. Sit with a group of people and you can feel the presence of others around you. It is not the same feeling as sitting in your apartment alone. My definition of energy is “subtle communication system.” My goal is to use mindfulness and presence as a tool to become more aware with the way our energy is flowing. Without checking in, our daily energy is directed from outside sources and tends to become dull. Moments like this recalibrate our hearts and energy fields back to positive flow.

On Growth

The universe is remind me daily that Enlightenment is not a radical transformation. It is about slowing down enough to feel that joy in our hearts when we make the space to sense the miracle of small things. It will all be over soon and a distracted mind misses the juiciness of all things.

On Nature

If we were more still we would be more connected to nature. If we were more connected to nature, we would be less willing to fill the air and water with gasoline and noise. What we learned as kids is true: Silence is golden. Find some time today, drop into a pose and hold it for a while, draining stress and worry out of your tissues. Connect your breath back to nature. Let peace permeate.

The more I blur the lines between where I end and nature ends, the happier I am.

What inspires your practice? Tell us in the comments below.

The post 12 Quotes From Yoga Legend Eoin Finn To Reignite Your Practice appeared first on Wanderlust.

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chocolate-brownies · 5 years

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Experiencing a Medicine Reading Ceremony with Mama Medicine

Experiencing a Medicine Reading Ceremony with Mama Medicine:

Experiencing a Medicine Reading Ceremony with Mama Medicine

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chocolate-brownies · 5 years

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The room smells of palo santo and sage, and is decorated as you’d expect a wellness space in Soho to be: White walls, crystals and plants on every surface, pillows in pale pinks and purples arranged in a circle on the floor. Behind the check-in desk is a circular shelving unit built into the wall that houses several large jars filled with dried herbs and teas. I can’t help but feel butterflies in my stomach as I see Deborah Hanekamp sitting serenely on a pillow in the circle, holding space for the women entering. I’ve followed Mama Medicine on Instagram for years—as is often the case at events like these, it’s a bit like meeting a celebrity.

I was there for a Medicine Reading Ceremony, a group healing circle capped at 10 people that Deborah hosts a few times a month. She was wearing a light and airy white flowing shirt and jeans, and had a smile that was immediately calming. Full disclosure: Though I’ve long been a fan of hers, I still walked into the room with a certain degree of skepticism. A medicine circle? Led by a white woman in one of Manhattan’s poshest neighborhoods? Cultural appropriation much?

Once the group had filed in and her assistant shut the door, Deborah opened the circle by inviting everyone to say their name, and their personal definition of healing. She then described what the circle would entail, and gave us a rundown of her training—eight-years in the Amazon (eight!), studying with various teachers from varying lineages and backgrounds. My inner skeptic cowed her head.

“I consider myself a seeress,” Deborah told me a few days later by phone. She has felt called to this type of work since she was a child. “I really was a very spiritual kid,” she says. “I was not as into dolls as I was going outside and looking at different rocks. I was a little bit of a strange kid in that way.” Her family was Baptist, and tradition dictated that she wouldn’t be baptized until she was in her 30s. When she was just eight years old, Deborah practically demanded that her pastor baptize her because she felt such a strong calling to deepen her relationship with the spiritual world.

“I also always could see auras around people,” says Deborah, which is how she came to call herself a seeress. “By the time I graduated high school I had realized there was really no school that you could go to that I was interested in… So I just began putting myself through training.”

Deborah in The Space by Mama Medicine. Photo courtesy of Deborah Hanekamp

The Path to Become Mama Medicine

Deborah first began practicing Zen meditation, and was then called to do a yoga teacher training. After that, she made her way to Thailand, where for five years she studied sound healing, crystal healing, and Reiki. The next phase saw her traveling back and forth from the Amazon jungle for nearly a decade.

“I studied what is here called Shamanism, but there they just call it healing,” says Deborah. “It’s basically healing with plants, specifically Ayahuasca.” Once she received her initiation, however, Deborah realized that she didn’t necessarily feel called to work with the Grandmother Plant. It wasn’t really until after she had her daughter that Deborah’s vision for the type of work she wanted to do crystallized.

“After having her I really felt true confidence in who I am,” she says. She finally felt that she need not hide behind any tradition or lineage to offer what I can just do very naturally. “That’s what I asked the universe: ‘OK, well what have you want to work through me?’ And that’s when I got the name Medicine Readings. That’s also when I got a whole formula for it and how it’s meant to be practiced,” she says. The rest is history.

Experiencing a Ceremony

To experience the full effect of Deborah’s work, a one-on-one session is recommended—though the Medicine Reading Ceremonies are powerful in their own right. Once introductions had been made (and Deborah humbly quelled immediate doubts by nodding to her education), we all laid, head-to-circle-center, on pillows and heated pads. Deborah began by invoking a mediation and guided breathwork, and then began sharing the art of Icaros, sacred songs from the Amazon, passed down in the oral tradition.

“The Icaros is not necessarily a hymn, in the sense that there is no reference to a god-figure,” she told me. “Traditionally, all the Icaros are calling in the animal, plant, sky, the Earth; all the different aspects and elements of nature to come feel and bless and cleanse and protect the auric field.”

As she sang, she presumably walked around the circle, playing different instruments and smudging with different herbs. My eyes, of course, were closed, and I had the sensation of being in an intense soundbath. Time slipped by, and I drifted in and out of deep meditation, at times feeling as if I were floating above my body; at others, frustrated that I wasn’t dropping in fast enough. The woman next to me was crying.

After it was over, Deborah asked people to share their experiences, if they felt so moved. One woman immediately raised her hand, and said that she had seen a vision of an owl and a snake, and was curious about their totem significance. Deborah smiled, and kindly told her that she didn’t feel comfortable ascribing meaning to her vision. “What do you think they meant?” Deborah asked the woman. If I was harboring any remaining doubt that Deborah was the real deal, this defeated it.

Becoming Our Own Healer

By refusing to put her personal spin on the woman’s vision, Deborah walked the walk of having earlier said that we were each our own healer. Though this idea gets thrown around a lot in the modern wellness world, facilitators, teachers, and leaders often don’t follow through in practice. This can manifest, for example, as over-adjusting in yoga, or considering one emotional response more “cracked open” or “receptive” than another.

“Facilitators are only there to set an example and you have to do want you want from the example that you are given,” says Deborah. “If it speaks to you, great. If it doesn’t that’s great too. I show up as a mirror to you. Everything that you see in me is already in you,” she says. This is why she doesn’t recommend that her clients come in for a one-on-one Medicine Reading more than once a month; this signals to her that her client is relying too much on her, rather than accessing the ability to heal from within.

In that same vein, Deborah doesn’t think that spirituality is some sort of elite club reserved for people who are familiar with yoga, Ayahuasca, or medicine circles. “We all are already spiritual because we all have the potential to love,” she says. “To me, the most spiritually-enlightened you could possibly be it has to do with how kind you are. Not kind in a passive way—or in a doormat type of way—but kind in a way where you can see the truth. You can walk in your truth, but you aren’t trying to change other people you’re living your life with respect and honor for your environment and the beings that inhabit it, including yourself,” says Deborah.

Regardless, being in her Space and learning from her in person, is a helpful reminder of that spiritual connectivity. Come see for yourself at Wanderlust Brooklyn, September 7–8. For tickets and more information, click here.

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The post Experiencing a Medicine Reading Ceremony with Mama Medicine appeared first on Wanderlust.

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chocolate-brownies · 5 years

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Leading people is one of the most challenging roles we can take on in life. It requires a dizzying array of skills, a strong education, and passion. Most often, when we take on a leadership role, we do so because we want to make a difference. As leaders, we take for granted that we will work long hours, make great sacrifices, and ride the roller coaster of success and failure.

However, the busyness that accompanies being a leader in today’s 24/7/365 interconnected world often distracts us from what’s important and limits our ability to lead with excellence. When we are really honest with ourselves, we may have to admit that there are far too many times when we feel as though we’re spending the day putting out fires and wasting time rather than doing our best work.

Does it need to be this way? Happily, the answer is no.

When you are able to do so, you are much more likely to make the conscious choices we need our leaders to make. These choices often lead to a win-win-win scenario: good for the organization, good for the employees, and good for the community.

Why Do We Need Mindful Leadership?

To answer that question, let’s begin with a look at what it means to be mindful.

When you are mindful of this moment, you are present for your life and your experience just as it is—not as you hoped it would be, not as you expected it to be, not seeing more or less than what is here, not with judgments that can lead you to a conditioned reaction, but for exactly what is here, as it unfolds, meeting each moment with equanimity.

As we consider the challenges leaders face today, it’s relatively easy to see how much we need to cultivate mindful leadership. The environment we live and work in is constantly evolving. Time is now often measured in internet microseconds. There are new and complex economic and resource constraints on our organizations. We are attached 24/7 to an array of technological devices that regularly generate anxiety-producing information overload and a sense of disconnection that can overwhelm and isolate us. The world is changing so rapidly that people training for a career today may find their career path radically altered by the time they are ready to enter it. One paradigm after another is shifting. The volume of information at our disposal is, in fact, leading to less rather than more certainty. The number of voices and opinions we can hear on any given issue is so dauntingly large that we often don’t know who or what to believe or follow.

It is also true, though, that these tumultuous times can offer great opportunity and ample possibilities for innovation, as the world becomes smaller and we begin to see the potential to meet the complexities of the day in ways that are truly creative, productive, and compassionate. It’s a time to take leadership, and to redefine what it means to lead with excellence.

In my own experiences, first as a Wall Street associate, a community volunteer, an employee in three large organizations, and an officer of a Fortune 200 company for fifteen years, and then in the work I have done in offering mindful leadership training to leaders from around the world, I’ve consistently found that the best leaders’ qualities go far beyond “getting the job done.” The best leaders are women and men who have first-class training, bright minds, warm hearts, a passionate embrace of their mission, a strong connection to their colleagues and communities, and the courage to be open to what is here. They’re driven to excellence, innovation, and making a difference.

Yet time and again, they feel as though their capabilities and their leadership training are inadequate. They tell me that even as they execute well and meet the quarterly goals, they simply do not feel they are living their best lives—at work or at home. They feel something is missing. But what?

The most frequent answer is: Space

We often simply do not have the space, the breathing room, necessary to be clear and focused, and to listen deeply to ourselves and to others. How can we expect to generate the connections with our colleagues and communities that we need when we are so busy that all we can really do is check off boxes, squeeze in a perfunctory hello to our coworkers, and get through the day’s meetings and calls? Can we realistically expect leadership excellence when we spend whole days on autopilot—looking at our watches and wondering where the day went, looking at the calendar and wondering how it could be spring when just yesterday it was Thanksgiving?

Whether our leadership affects millions, hundreds, or a handful, we can no longer afford to be on autopilot in our lives, with our families, or in our organizations.

We can no longer afford to miss the connections with those we work with, those we love, and those we serve. We can no longer make decisions with distracted minds, reacting instead of responding or initiating. We can no longer lose touch with what motivated us to lead in the first place. We need mindful leadership to lead with excellence.

So far we have been exploring the need to be present for leadership roles in the workplace. There is an equally, or perhaps more, important need to be present for your leadership roles in your personal life. Excellence involves making conscious choices about not just how you work but how you live your life and how you connect with your family, friends, and community. We need mindful leadership to live with excellence.

What Exactly Is a Mindful Leader?

A mindful leader embodies leadership presence by cultivating focus, clarity, creativity, and compassion in the services of others.

Leadership presence is a tangible quality. It requires full and complete nonjudgmental attention in the present moment. Those around a mindful leader see and feel that presence.

Once, a friend of mine decided to attend a local rally to see if he could get an important healthcare question answered by then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. Of course, when he arrived, he faced a teeming, screaming crowd, but he maneuvered his way to the police barricade and waited. Clinton soon arrived and began walking along the barricade shaking hands. As my friend stretched out his hand and Clinton took it, he yelled out his question. In that moment, the candidate stopped, faced him, and responded to the question. Later my friend told me, “In those few moments when we spoke together, it seemed as though Clinton had nothing else on his mind. It was as if there was no other person there.” He felt heard and respected. That’s leadership presence: you give your full attention to what you’re doing, and others know it.

Leadership presence is powerful. In your own life, you can probably recall times when you experienced leadership presence, either in yourself or someone else. It might have been in a one-on-one conversation, or it might have been in an audience filled with people. Presence can be felt even from far away.

You can undoubtedly recall the much more common experiences when you feel only partially in the room, or you feel the person you’re speaking with is not really there. Like all of us, even when you have every intention to be focused, your mind becomes easily distracted—thinking about the past or the future, and only partially in the present if at all. In those moments, you are not embodying the innate capacity everyone possesses to be present.

Why is that? What do we know about being present?

As a beginning, you might recall a moment when you experienced full awareness in a situation. When there seemed to be nothing else but whatever you were noticing. This might have been a momentous moment like the birth of your child. In that moment, time seemed to stand still, and nothing else existed but the warmth of that miraculous being softly sleeping in your arms. You were not distracted by the to-do list or the noises in the hall. Your full attention—mind, body, and heart—was completely absorbed in that moment.

Or it might have been an ordinary moment, the kind often overlooked and not particularly celebrated. You may have lingered to notice a sunset. Perhaps you recall that it stopped you dead in your tracks and held you in its beauty, all of you, for what seemed like forever but in clock time might have been just a couple of seconds. In those seconds, you became aware of the shades of pink and orange, the intricate play of light and shadow, your body’s absorption of the waning energy of nature, and the feeling of belonging to something bigger than yourself.

Maybe you were at the coffee shop in the morning, your mind racing through the details of the upcoming day, and you looked up from your coffee and actually noticed a piece of art on the wall or the warm, comforting aroma of the shop. Whatever it was, it interrupted the busy mind, and you were living that moment of your life more fully.

Leadership presence is not only critical for us as individuals but also has a ripple effect on those around us: the community we live in, and potentially the world.

Such moments—when we fully inhabit our bodies and our senses are at work on more than an internal storyline, checklist, or rehearsed conversation—are what give life true meaning. Beyond that, for those of us who hold positions of influence, the ability to be present, to embody leadership presence, is not only critical for us as individuals, but it also has a ripple effect on those around us: our families and friends, the organization we work within, the community we live in, and potentially the world at large. Just as a pebble thrown into a still pond can create ripples spreading throughout the whole of the pond, so too can the cultivation of leadership presence go far beyond the effect it has on us alone.

Transforming Leaders into Mindful Leaders

When the Institute for Mindful Leadership works with an organization to bring mindful leadership training to its employees, we witness an example of the ripple effect. We often start with retreats or courses for the more senior leaders, and as the training begins to change how they lead, those around them notice the change and soon ask to enroll in the training as well. It’s not unusual to hear people tell stories of the transformation they noticed in their manager. As leaders we know that we often underestimate the impact, for better or worse, that we have on those around us. When we are present and engaged, the effect is very different from when we are distracted and on autopilot. But it isn’t enough to want to be more present, to want to have a positive ripple effect. We need to train the mind.

If you’re like most of us, you probably take pride in your ability to multitask, to be incredibly efficient by simultaneously listening to a conference call, writing a few emails, and eating your salad at your desk.

Sound familiar to you? And yet, when you were listening in on the call, did you actually hear anything? Did you share your best thinking in the emails? Did you enjoy your lunch, or even notice you ate it?

Perhaps one of my most memorable lessons about the cost of multitasking came early one morning as I sat at my desk, getting things ready for a day filled with meetings and reviewing the latest emails. One of the messages that morning came from my husband, who was forwarding a message from my daughter’s teacher. It was asking us to choose one of the available parent-teacher conference slots on her calendar, and my husband wanted to know which one I wanted before he replied. I wrote to my husband, “Thursday at 10 would be great. Love you forever, thanks for last night.” Fine. Except that in my haste and partial attention, I wrote those words to my daughter’s teacher. Needless to say, when I finally realized what happened, it became a moment to remember.

A few moments of people-watching in the hallways at work or on the sidewalk in front of your building can also give you a taste of the disconnection that results from multitasking. You’ll notice people texting and checking email as they walk, barely avoiding walking into walls and each other. It has even become acceptable to do this while walking—and supposedly having a conversation— with someone else. Once upon a time, this would have been considered rude. Putting manners aside,though, continuous partial attention can also be exhausting and inefficient. Neuroscience is now showing us that the mind’s capacity for multitasking is extremely limited. We’re really built for doing one thing at a time.

The hallways of offices used to be places for informal greetings and impromptu conversations. Valuable connections could be made in the hallways. Physiologically, a walk down the hallway used to allow a few moments of space when you could leave behind the thoughts of the last meeting and arrive at the next with a bit of openness. Today, few if any connections are made, as everyone rushes down the hall with thumbs blazing on smartphones. As a result, everyone arrives at the next meeting still attached to the last one.

The work of developing leadership presence through mindfulness begins by recognizing how much time we spend in a mental state that has come to be called continuous partial attention.

We lead hurried, fractured, complex lives, and we seem to be more easily losing the richness and engagement that come from being in the present moment.

With all the many ways we are enticed to get distracted, to drown out our intuition, and to fragment our attention, we can easily go through our entire lives without ever bringing all of our capabilities and attention to any given moment.

What do we do about that? Is leadership presence a natural gift possessed by a special few, or can it be cultivated? Can we train our minds to support our intention to live life with focus, clarity, creativity, and compassion even when our lives are hurried, fractured, and complex?

Thankfully, we can.

Leading with excellence, being fully present for what we do, and connecting with others—these are innate abilities we all possess. In my experience, those who are good leaders, and those who aspire to be good leaders, are eager to cultivate these abilities. Mindful leadership training can do just that. By following simple practices that hone your attention and your ability to be aware of what’s going on in your body and mind at any given moment, you can utilize all of your capabilities—clear minds and warm hearts and wise choices—and begin to see the results of leading from an authentic place.

A Mindful Leadership Meditation

Taking note of the qualities exhibited by leaders we admire can help all of us pinpoint how to become better leaders ourselves.

1) Begin by sitting comfortably and closing your eyes. Notice the sensations of your breath. Allow your mind to let go of distractions.

2) When you’re ready, bring to mind a person you believe embodies leadership excellence. This could be someone you know personally or a leader you have read about.

3) Ask yourself the following questions, allowing yourself some time to let the answers arise:

Why did this person come to mind?

What is it about this person’s leadership that made you think of him or her when asked about leadership excellence?

4) Be patient; hold the questions in your mind with a sense of openness and curiosity. You don’t need to overthink the question. Set aside the first answer or two to see if more qualities emerge. As you open your eyes, you may find it helpful to write your answers on a piece of paper before reading further.

5) Observe what actually came up. When you listened for your responses to the reflection questions, you might have noticed that they did not include too many of the typical measures of organizational leadership. For example, you probably did not put consistently makes his quarterly numbers as the reason you admire the person as someone who leads with excellence. Rather, your list might have included some of the qualities named by other leaders who have explored this reflection with me:

Respectful

Open thinker

Compassionate

Clear vision

Able to inspire

Great listener

Creative

Patient

Collaborative

Kind

Teacher

The Two Qualities of a Great Leader:

It’s not that hitting the quarterly numbers isn’t important; it is. What sets people apart as leaders, however, is something much bigger than quantitative metrics. The people we call to mind in this reflection have touched us, inspired us, and made us feel their leadership. The qualities can be rolled up into just two capacities of leadership excellence, and these two capacities are embodied by those we identify as leading with excellence.

1. Ability of a leader to connect—to self, to others, and to the larger community. Connecting to self is how we stay connected to our values and our ethics. It’s the rudder we steer within the midst of the chaos. How deeply we are able to connect authentically with others is the difference between an organizational environment that values inclusion and one that is insular and divided into silos that rarely communicate with each other. Connecting to the community comes from being able to see the bigger picture and not get caught up in the minutiae of a single objective. That wider connection is how great organizations give meaning to their existence and inspire their employees.

2. Ability of a leader to skillfully initiate or guide change. The important word is skillfully—leading not by command and control but by collaborating and listening with open curiosity and a willingness, at times, to live within ambiguity until a decision becomes clear. It’s also this capacity that fuels a leader’s willingness to take a courageous stand, lead the organization or industry into new arenas, and accept failures as experiments from which to learn.

Excerpted from Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership by Janice Marturano. Copyright ©2014 by Janice Marturano. January, 2014, by Bloomsbury Press. Reprinted with permission.

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The post Transforming Leaders into Mindful Leaders appeared first on Mindful.

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Need to Improve Digestion? Add This Ayurvedic Principle to Your Meal Prep

Need to Improve Digestion? Add This Ayurvedic Principle to Your Meal Prep:

Set the stage for stronger digestive fire with this essential kitchen practice.

Craving change but feeling too stuck, sluggish, or restless to take aim? Join John Douillard, founder of LifeSpa.com, and Larissa Hall Carlson, Ayurveda Yoga Specialist, for Ayurveda 201: Six Weeks to Transformation and Bliss Through Ayurvedic Psychology. In this new online course, you’ll experience: unique yoga practices; inspiring discussions backed by science; and recipes, herbs, and a short, gentle cleanse. The results? Clarity, brilliance, and balance so you can create lasting shifts in your life and well-being. Learn more and sign up today!

According to Ayurveda, there’s more to optimal digestion than eating for your dosha (constitution) and planning sattvic (pure, balanced) meals. In fact, it starts before you take your first bite. Here, Larissa Hall Carlson, who co-teaches our upcoming course, Ayurveda 201, with John Douillard, reveals the ideal way to prepare your meal.

Watch also Relieve Tension with a Daily Ayurvedic Head Massage

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Think You Can’t Meditate? Vedic Meditation May Be the Practice For You

Think You Can’t Meditate? Vedic Meditation May Be the Practice For You:

Think You Can’t Meditate? Vedic Meditation May Be the Practice For You

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James Brown (not that James Brown) is one of the world’s leading experts in Vedic meditation, founder of Flow Meditation, and a Wanderlust teacher. Learn from him IRL at Wanderlust San Francisco and Wanderlust Squaw Valley! For tickets and more info on Wanderlust San Francisco click here; for Squaw Valley, click here.

I had tried it all—Buddhism Mindfulness, guided meditations, Vipassana… And at one point in my life, I finally gave up. I was convinced my mind and my life were just too crazy to meditate. And then I discovered Vedic Meditation.

It couldn’t have come at a better time. I was married, we’d just adopted our first baby, and I had a terrible job I was in danger of losing. I was exhausted and stressed-out and needed meditation more than ever. I attended a lecture and learned that there was a different way to meditate, referred to as “the householder’s practice.” The term meant this style was intended for people in the world, with jobs, noise, relationships, sex and the complications of it, maybe some kids and the complications they bring, busy schedules full of interruptions… in other words, people like you and me. This approach to meditation was about 1,500–2,500 years older than Buddhism. And it was, the teacher said, easy.

Given my past experience, I was VERY skeptical, but decided to give it a try.

Within the first two sessions I found the Vedic practice to be liberating, enjoyable, and doable. And so I did it, everyday. And because I was meditating every day my life began to change in all kinds of ways: My sleep improved within the first couple of weeks. I started feeling less stressed and more grounded. I found that I was happier, for no particular reason. It worked so well that I left my career as an advertising creative director to become a meditation teacher.

So what exactly is Vedic Meditation?

To start, take everything you think about meditation and throw it out the window. In Vedic Meditation you don’t focus on the breath, or try to follow along with a guided meditation, or try to think happy, grateful, loving and compassionate thoughts instead of angry, silly, banal, annoying thoughts.

In Vedic Meditation you sit comfortably, and if you’re uncomfortable you can move. You close your eyes and begin to think your mantra (given by your teacher) silently in the mind, and learn how to disengage the part of you that tries so hard to do a good job at everything and allow yourself to simply be. Instead of acknowledging thoughts and letting them go, you are willing to let the mantra go and allow the mind to flow. Whenever one of your thoughts is that you’re off the mantra you see that as a sign of success, and then come back to the mantra, not trying to hold onto it tighter, not trying to do a better job. And the happy irony is you’ll find it’s much easier to experience the deep, blissful state of silence that is at your core then when you’re trying to silence your mind. Because the part of you that tries is the part that keeps you in the shallows.

How does it compare to other practices?

First, I want to be clear that I’m not saying Vedic Meditation is better than other types of meditation. I love all types of meditation and both practice and teach other techniques. But I think of Vedic Meditation as a foundational practice that makes other practices easier and more effective. To use a metaphor from physical fitness, it’s what I’d call “core work.” So what does this core work do for you?

It allows your body to achieve a rejuvenating level of rest that can be much deeper than sleep, triggering what scientists call “the relaxation response,” which is nature’s antidote to stress.

It cultivates a harmonious and balanced brainwave state that looks just like when your brain is in a flow state, so that you have more access to that state when you’re not meditating.

It is a “being” technique, which allows you to turn off your phone and ground yourself in something deeper than your To Do list.

What are the real-life benefits?

I’ve taught thousands of people and am honored to have testimonials and 5-star Yelp reviews testifying to the benefits of the practice. But when people ask me what they can expect I usually bring it back to my personal experience.

When I was about to embark on the final phase of my 2-year teacher training program—a 4-month immersion in India, away from my wife and son—my best friend took me to a baseball game as an intervention. “Dude, this is the worst mid-life crisis I can imagine. Just go to Burning Man with me again.”

I said that this worked for me. He wanted more details. I said that I apologized less, that I was sleeping better, and that I had about 90 percent less brain chatter. He said that sounded nice. And believe me, it is nice. The first two benefits I put down to the fact that Vedic Meditation is the best stress-relieving tool I’ve ever discovered. Being less stressed means I have an easier time adapting to life’s challenges, without overreacting, and so I do and say fewer things I have to apologize for. Being less stressed also means that I don’t take such a cortisol-and-adrenaline-infused body to bed… so I sleep better, without pills, and wake refreshed, without coffee.

But it’s the last point, about not being stuck in my head all the time, that has led to the happy experience of being fully present, almost all the time, without trying to be present. It’s a much nicer way to live. A life of what I call “everyday flow.”

Give Vedic Meditation a try with James at Wanderlust San Francisco or Wanderlust Squaw Valley this year!

—

James Brown is the founder of Flow Meditation and one of the world’s leading experts in the ancient practice of Vedic Meditation, from which the Flow program was developed. Over the last decade James has taught thousands of busy people from all walks of life to meditate, and has led courses and workshops at some of the world coolest conferences and at companies across the country, including some of Silicon Valley’s most innovative firms. He lives in The Presidio with his wife, two rambunctious boys, crazy dog (cattle dog/coonhound mix!) and, according to his wife, WAY too many bicycles.

The post Think You Can’t Meditate? Vedic Meditation May Be the Practice For You appeared first on Wanderlust.

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A Wanderlust 108 Diary: A Day to Remember

A Wanderlust 108 Diary: A Day to Remember:

A Wanderlust 108 Diary: A Day to Remember

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Are you planning on attending a Wanderlust 108 this year? Here’s what you can expect. For tickets, more information, and to find an event near you, click here.

The first 108 Event of 2019 has come and gone, commencing a year of mindful triathlons scattered all over the world. With spring well underway in the northern hemisphere, San Diego, California was, without a doubt, the perfect place to kick the dust off our running shoes and score some post-winter tan lines. Our travel mats, sunglasses and passports are now happily within reach, and we’re looking around the globe at this year’s jet-setting 108 event schedule.

I have been to a handful of three-day festivals, though this was my first 108. And I’ll let you in on a secret: I was a tad nervous. See, I’m no runner. I wasn’t worried about the distance itself, just the whole “group run” thing; likely in the same way an unsuspecting first-timer feels during a vinyasa class.

Upon arrival, I was immediately at ease. The vibes that morning weren’t anything like your conventional race. Rather than nerves and competition, it was merriment and a mounting enthusiasm. There were bright colors, curated costumes, bachelorette parties, couples doing “couple goal”-worthy things, acro-yoga exhibitions, people dancing, meditating, handstanding… you name it. It was all happening. The 5K timer had yet to go off, but the collective celebration had begun.

Photo by Kit Karzen

After mats were laid and hats were donned, our MC took the stage and rallied us in a group warm up. There was music. There was attitude. And—you better believe it—there were spirit fingers. This was Wanderlust, after all. With bottled up charisma and sights eager for savoring, we headed out on our run.

San Diego—you couldn’t have photoshopped a better scene. Our footpath paralleled the water. Boats bobbed in the harbor. We had a panoramic view of picturesque Coronado Island. My feet busied themselves keeping pace, while my mind and senses indulged in their seaside surroundings.

While running, I got a flashback of elementary school. We used to have these things called “Fun Runs.” But trust me on this one: you can’t just slap a title on something and expect it to be fun. This, however, was a Fun Run! There were solo runners, friends old and new jogging together, and moms and daughters walking in tandem. Regardless of your style, speed, or choice of companionship, you were as much a part of it as the person next to you. And you were rockin’ it.

The forecast had threatened rain earlier in the week, though the sun must have heard Wanderlust was in town. Rightly so, she came to play. With such zest, in fact, that half way through the run I was wishing for shorts. A little retail therapy, via the coolest conscious brands set up around the lawn, aptly scratched that itch. As if the sun realized she came on a teensy bit enthusiastic that morning (this was early spring, after all), an afternoon breeze picked up just in time for yoga.

Photo by Kit Karzen

Our yoga instructor, Chelsey Korus led a practice that was the perfect blend of community, self-expression, and unleashing your inner-wild. My favorite moment in class occurred during a pause in Uttanasana—a standing forward fold. Chelsey said something along the lines of, “If it wasn’t yours to carry, now is the time to lay it down.” Right there in that forward fold, she urged us to let it slide off our shoulders, down our neck and out the crown of our head. Her words brought to mind a poem by Nejwa Zabian: “These mountains that you are carrying, you were only meant to climb.” Her phrase stuck with me, and those burdens slipped silently onto my mat.

Rosie Acosta’s mediation followed. It was the perfect bookend to an energetic morning run and a detoxifying yoga practice. This third-leg offering was deeply grounding. It was a moment to stray from the collective energy and to return to our individual centers, yet still with the palpable support of the surrounding community.

With coastal hums and a gentle ocean breeze, I couldn’t entirely forget where we were—and was happy for that. Gratitude spilled over me, accompanied by the spring sun.

Photo by Kit Karzen

A friend once told me she feels like there is string attached to her heart, which connects her to special people she’s met from all across the world. In an abstract sense, I think this is what Wanderlust is. Strangers show up side-by-side; they celebrate community, movement, self-inquiry and connection; they become family. This is when the strings are forged. And they’re pulled taut as we roll our mats and make our way home.

As this year’s 108’s continue to spread across the world, so too will these vibrant strings – weaving a broad, colorful tapestry that wraps the globe, as uniquely beautiful as the people at each end.

—

Kacey Janeen Waxler is a California-based yoga instructor and writer on the hunt for adventure and good stories. Her words can be located amongst noteworthy brands including Corona Extra, Athleta, and Darling Magazine, and in the flesh she can be found reading unapologetically from the glow of a headlamp, geeking out over sequencing, or neck deep in a deliciously hot bath. Follow her adventures at @kaceyjaneen or kaceyjaneen.com.

The post A Wanderlust 108 Diary: A Day to Remember appeared first on Wanderlust.

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Six ways to embrace #zerowaste this Earth Day

Six ways to embrace #zerowaste this Earth Day:

Six ways to embrace #zerowaste this Earth Day Read more on Exhale.

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In recent years, a number of wilderness therapy programs have cropped up to help people who suffer from mental health challenges. These trips often involve physically and emotionally engaging experiences—like backpacking or rock-climbing in remote areas—combined with therapeutic work from caring professionals. Something about being engaged in nature seems to help hard-to-treat patients open up, find new confidence, and focus their lives in more positive directions.

Psychologists who conduct these programsbelieve there is healing power in nature, bolstered by research that suggests green spaces are good for our health, our well-being, and even our relationships. But what is the secret ingredient in nature that brings about these benefits?

A recent study, led by researcher Craig Anderson and his colleagues (including the Greater Good Science Center’s faculty director, Dacher Keltner), suggests it could be awe—that sense of being in the presence of something greater than ourselves that fills us with wonder.

Participants in the first phase of the study were military veterans and underserved youth who went on either a one-day or four-day river rafting trip. Rafters traveled through the forested canyons of the American River in California or the dramatic rock formations of Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, encountering up to intermediate-level rapids. While participants sometimes paddled through the rapids themselves, other times they rode while guides paddled. On the longer trips, they camped out in remote, unpopulated areas.

Before and after the trip, the participants reported on their well-being, including their stress levels, mood, and satisfaction with life. During the trip, they kept diaries at the end of each day about their feelings, including whether they’d felt awe, amusement, peace, gratitude, joy, or pride that day.

At the end of the trip, participants’ well-being had increased dramatically, with youth particularly helped by the experience. Analyzing the diary entries, the researchers discovered that awe—above and beyond any of the other positive emotions—seemed to explain these improvements.

“Experiencing awe in nature is a powerful way to impact people’s psychology, even as they’re doing something they really like to do,” says Anderson.

Next, Anderson and his colleagues decided to study whether awe played a role in more ordinary, everyday nature experiences. After all, rafting experiences have many components that could be beneficial, and the participants had not been randomly assigned to go on the trip; they had volunteered.

In this second study phase, undergraduate students kept daily diaries for two weeks, recounting positive experiences they’d had during the day (which might or might not include awe or nature), as well as their feelings and overall satisfaction with life. They also filled out well-being surveys before and after the two weeks.

Analyses of the diaries showed that students who spent time in nature on a given day felt more satisfied with life that evening than those who didn’t.

Analyses of the diaries showed that students who spent time in nature on a given day felt more satisfied with life that evening than those who didn’t, and that experiences of awe predicted that boost more than any other positive emotion. Thanks to this pattern, students who spent more days in nature over the two weeks saw greater improvements in well-being during that time.

This is good news, says Anderson, because sometimes it’s not that easy for people to invest in long, expensive wilderness trips in order to heal.

“Our findings suggest that you don’t have to do extravagant, extraordinary experiences in nature to feel awe or to get benefits,” says Anderson. “By taking a few minutes to enjoy flowers that are blooming or a sunset in your day-to-day life, you also improve your well-being.”

Why would experiencing awe have these effects? Anderson doesn’t know for sure, but he speculates that awe may benefit well-being by inducing a “small self”—the sense that you are in the presence of something bigger than yourself—which may make past worries or present cares feel less significant by comparison.

But he also concedes that there could be other ways that nature experiences improve our well-being, besides inducing awe. In the river rafting trip, for example, the physical exercise or camaraderie could have made a difference to participants, since both are tied to well-being. And some students also experienced gratitude on days they were in nature—and this, too, led them to be more satisfied with life.

More research needs to be done to tease out awe’s specific role in nature’s healing power, Anderson says. But, whatever the case, he believes there’s enough evidence to encourage us to add more nature to our daily life and to protect our national parks—which, he says, are an important part of our public health system.

“Our study illustrates the importance of trying to find moments to enjoy nature and feel in awe of it,” Anderson says. “People need to learn to slow down and make space for that in their lives.”

This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, one of Mindful’s partners. View the original article.

The post Why Is Nature So Good for Your Mental Health? appeared first on Mindful.

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The Four Best Shopping Apps Every Yogi Should Use From Now On

The Four Best Shopping Apps Every Yogi Should Use From Now On:

Here’s how the yamas and niyamas play into how we shop, plus the best apps to help you buy the most conscious goods.

Learn how to shop for clothes using the principles of the yamas and niyamas.

How do we navigate the modern world while striving to practice our yogic principles? The asana, or movement part, no sweat. Many of us have that down. The yamas (ethical observances) and the niyamas (lifestyle practices), on the other hand, can be a bit elusive, especially with so many choices for consumption. How can we practice more deeply these two essential limbs of yoga in our interconnected and entangled world?

It can become overwhelming to attempt to buy things that are in alignment with our core yogic principles, particularly when we start to consider how our purchases effect the environment, labor conditions, animal rights, the political sphere and more. I wish it was as simple as just buying that t-shirt, soap, chocolate, or pair of yoga pants. Unfortunately, it’s not. We are global citizens—whether we like it or not—and can choose with awareness or turn a blind eye.

See also 6 Best Apps For Yoga and Meditation

So, how do we become empowered consumers without being overwhelmed by all the effects our choices? Must we research everything we buy? This could take hours and we might not get anywhere. For many of us, buying things can be a bit of a process, and many times with great sacrifice.

Choosing brands that are aligned with your beliefs are important.

How the Yamas and Niyamas Play Into Our Consumerism

Let’s take a look at how the yamas and niyamas are woven in and out of our consumer lives:

Ahimsa: Nonviolence.

Ah, yes. Were any animals harmed in the making of this product? What about the environment impact? Were things made in a clean way? Is it made with toxic ingredients?

Satya: Truthfulness.

How do we engage more fully with our truth? How can we step deeper into the awareness of ourselves, our planet and our values? It can be easy to talk truth, but living it is hard because there is so much hidden behind the veil.