I experienced a tremendous sense of loss yesterday and along with grief were intense anger, confusion and the injustice of it all. I cried and cried then stopped a while and then cried some more and the day moved on regardless. I awoke this morning to intense feelings of hopelessness, more sobbing, anger, and feelings of confusion and injustice.

My mind running amok with scenarios of how to deal with this situation included many thoughts around how to end the situation, fix the issues if only others would see my perspective and how hurt I feel. I’m sure you can imagine mindfulness was a distant relative in all of this however I am grateful to realise it was present. The self-awareness was enough to prevent me to taking any disempowered action. I desperately want to “do something” to make the situation better for everyone – and the desperation was the problem. Realising my internal process I took myself away to try and process my grief and anger – grateful and sorry at the same time that I didn’t “do something” to trying and fix it.

I wrote in my journal about my experiences and the feelings about it last night and this morning while still in the depths of despair I watched my thoughts unfold. Watched the anger play out, watched the grief scenarios, watched the denial scenarios too. I watched my inability to cope and the utter hopelessness of the situation and the tears kept flowing.

I spoke to someone today who shared their story of a painful experience along a similar vein and as I listened compassionately to their experience, their reaction and intended action, and felt my pain in their pain, I realised, like the other person, the scenarios in my head were so unhelpful and would only perpetuate my own grief and suffering. Listening to the other person’s story with acceptance highlighted the reflection of the part of me that is not loving and compassionate. I understood wholeheartedly how they felt.

Serenity prayer

I opened my eyes and ears and travelled from my head and my ego to my heart to know the truth of my deepest desires. They are always for relationship and reconciliation, and that ALL people are free from suffering and its causes and that we can ALL enjoy happiness and its causes. This is our most natural desire as a human and I am aware of how often we get lost in our grief, anxiety, sadness, feeling how we are being wronged; forgetting our intrinsic nature. Focusing on others who are not recognising this is not the solution and does not help the situation. It’s blame wearing another jacket. We have no control over others we can only be responsible for our own thoughts, feelings and actions.

My grief still runs deep and acceptance is all I can do with that for now. I can only ever ask myself “what would love do now?” and love would never consciously hurt another human being. I read the following quote and associated article which helped me shift my focus in alignment with my own insight about reacting:

“Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance.” ~Unknown Taken from Tiny Buddha Website – highly recommended reading.

The love of right mindfulness and right action is the seed I choose to water and allow it to grow and blossom. Storms and drought will at times challenge its growth and if I don’t neglect these seeds and keep watering and nourishing them, they will grow and take over from all the weeds in the garden of my mind.

We are in relationship with everything in the universe and the quality of that relationship is impacted by what we bring to it – our thoughts, intentions, feelings and actions. I choose love.

“We can never erase the past – we CAN stop living in it.” – Jen Hall

Spiralling upwards in light

On this road to growth and development of mind body and spirit, we can often feel shifts in energy. These shifts can be subtle or powerfully felt. Imagine a spiralling upward kind of feeling as we experience circling life at a certain level, experience a certain perturbation and then push through to a smaller more focused circle at another level.

I relish the thought of growth and love it when I am consciously aware of these moments, even the ones where powerful lessons are experienced challenging me to the core of my being.  Those powerful ones still happen on a regular basis! How do I know that I’m spiralling upwards and not down? The challenges I experience – some of them are dramatic and overwhelming at times – are less likely to throw me off balance. I can still feel great depth of emotions, grief, sadness, elation, fear etc. The difference is my awareness of these emotions and my willingness to accept them, experience them and embrace them for the opportunities for growth they represent.

As a result of my recent awareness of many people’s financial struggles, the conversations of many people in Australia about the political climate and what it means to our economy, I have decided to hold one of my regular  Weekly Meditation and Mindfulness groups for the fee of donation only and only if you can afford to pay a donation. I have experienced great financial difficulty myself and understanding my own suffering enables me to see how financial difficulties can be a massive barrier to people finding ways to improve their health and well-being – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I feel this is one way I can relieve suffering of others and contribute to my community. I hope you will find this helpful and it will bring some joy and encouragement to your world.

This decision is based on an experience I had at a recent retreat I attended in Bowral, where the fee is based on a tradition called Dãna. Basically it means generosity and giving. I am aware of being a beneficiary of generosity in so many ways and here I have opportunity to give back. I am very grateful for this opportunity.

So NO MORE EXCUSES – no financial ones anyway. I would love to share my knowledge, expertise, kindness and compassion with you by making this Weekly Mindfulness and Meditation group at Caboolture available to those willing to make the effort to attend.

What’s stopping you?

In love and light always…………………………..

There is no I - only All

Every thought I think consciously

I share with the world.

Every meal I consume consciously

I nourish and feed all beings, body and soul.

Every act of generosity I consciously engage in

I share myself with all of life.

Every conscious act of loving kindness

Loves all that is in existence.

Within every conscious act of compassion

I feel the pain and suffering of the world.

Every time I heal a part of my self

All beings heal, little by little.

Every breath I take consciously

I breathe for all of life.

There is no I

There is only All.

~ Jen Hall ~

9 Feb 2012

“Present moment – wonderful moment” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh

The present moment is all there is – all else is an intangible illusion!

The breath is always in the present moment. Breathing in is the first thing we ever do and breathing out is the last thing we’ll do as we die. Stop now as you’re reading this article and notice your breath –  I mean REALLY notice it. Notice the “in breath” and notice the “out breath”, notice the space between the breaths; there is a beginning and end to each breath and a space in between.

Now back to reading; when you were noticing your breathing what else was there? Only what’s right in front of you. How did it feel? If you’re not sure take a few moments now and focus only on your breathing as mentioned before…………………………..

How does it feel? What do you feel? Where in your body do you notice your breathing?

This is what a mindfulness breath meditation is all about. It’s about being fully present with what is: focusing your mind. Nothing to do with what was or might be – ONLY Here and Now!

Throughout your day take moments to notice your breathing. It only takes awareness and you can continue doing whatever you’re doing and notice you’re still breathing while life goes on; it’s always been that way.

When you actually take 20 minutes out of your day to sit and notice your breath, over time you’ll notice changes taking place – some subtle and often, some very profound changes to health, emotional, well-being, energy levels, mental processes, how you engage with others and so many more possibilities.

If 20 minutes sounds like it’s too much time out of your day why not sit for 5 minutes and start your day that way. When you wake, sit upright in bed with your back nice and straight and relaxed and just stop for a moment and be aware of your breathing – don’t try to change it just notice it in its natural state. Be with it for about 5 minutes or even better 20 minutes! When your mind wanders off just bring it back to your breathing; it’s still there waiting patiently for you to notice it again.

Remember when you learned to ride a bike. Did you become proficient the first time you did it? When you go to the gym does it take one workout to notice any changes to your weight? Meditation is like that. It’s over time you’ll notice the benefits. I challenge you to put a regular time aside each day for a month – at least 5 minutes and maybe even 20 minutes at the same time each day and create a habit that may change the rest of your life.

And when you do – just notice you ARE breathing!!!!!!!!

Loving Kindness is a term and practice familiar to many religions and philosophies world wide and for over 2000 years at least. Specifically it is an important practice in Buddhist teachings and a powerful foundation for any personal development or spiritual practice. One term for this which I love to use I learned from Pema Chodron is “Unlimited Friendliness”.

In my Weekly Meditation Group we often revisit this practice and I encourage this philosophy to be explored by my clients as a powerful point of focus and another of many ways to practice meditation.

The practice of maitr? (sanskrit) as it’s sometimes called usually starts with an experience Loving Kindness to ourselves. We then express Loving Kindness to someone we easily and genuinely feel this state towards. Then expanding our experience of Loving Kindness radiate further to include in our practice people we deem as neutral – people we have no strong emotions associated with, either negative or positive. To expand even further we can then introduce this feeling of loving kindness to those we feel negative feelings towards – a perceived “enemy” and then finally we expand to include all “sentient” beings in the universe; this of course includes “self”.

Thich Nhat Hanh (Thây), expresses this as not only to have the intention of Loving Kindness – to also have the capacity for showing or expressing this loving kindness to self and others.

We can encounter many versions of this practice and finding one that resonates with you is the key. Having the intention is a great place to start and helps us to develop the capacity to express Loving Kindness.

Here is one of several ways I choose to teach this process to my weekly meditation group and you can find this in an excellent book “The Attention Revolution” by B. Alan Wallace. I have quoted some of his words exactly from his book.

First, taking time in sitting meditation to experience the breath; just noticing breathing and not trying to change it, allowing the nervous system to settle and noticing the physical sensations in your body. Become the observer of your experience allowing a sense of softness (relaxation) stillness and clarity.

Taking the time to sit and settle allows you to settle into a place where creativity and imagination can become more powerfully experienced.

Next – allowing your imagination to express itself ask yourself 3 questions allowing time between each question to fully explore the potential answers with your imagination creativity and intuition.

1. “What would I love to receive from the world in order to have a happy, meaningful and fulfilling life? Some of these things may be tangible goods, such as food, lodging, clothing and medical care. Other requisites for your well-being may be intangible, such as harmony in your environment, the warm companionship of others, and wise counsel to guide you on your spiritual journey.”
2. “What kind of person do I want to become? What personal qualities do I want to possess?”
3. “What would I love to offer the world, to those around me and to the environment at large? What kind of mark would I like to leave on the world?”

In all three questions think of the tangible and intangible aspects of your desires. Looking at the practical and the heartfelt maybe one way to experience these aspects.

Allow your imagination to guide you from your intuition as well as consciously visualising that which you are already aware of as desires to meet your basic needs. In doing so expand holistically to include all possibilities of the people who might assist you in your quest. Expand to see yourself gratefully receiving all you need and want and seeing how your receiving your desires helps fulfil the desires of other people.

In allowing your imagination free reign in this meditation you may be surprised where your intuition takes you in inspiring you, and finding new ways to achieve your dreams.

As you see yourself with the answers you seek allow your feelings of fulfilment and gratitude spread out to all other beings, knowing you wish for them to also experience the genuine happiness you experience, as you fulfil your grandest dreams and see others fulfil theirs too.

Take a few moments to come back to breath awareness, allowing yourself to be fully present in your body and taking time to just be.

Writing down your experience in a journal is also a powerfully important practice and allows integration of the information on another level. After writing about your meditation, drawing a picture (simple or elaborate as you like) helps integration of this experience on another level again.

May we all enjoy happiness and its causes!

Here are some links to more information where you can learn about Buddhist Loving Kindness practices.

Chenrezig Institute

Langri Tangpa Centre

Santa Barbara Institute

HH Dalai Lama

Buddhanet

Love and light to all

We often go about our daily lives in a distracted state, not present and unaware of the fullness of our lives on every level.

Miracles have been talked about, logged by religious organisations, sung about – Sainthoods awarded according to miracles attributed to people’s actions or mere presence, causing amazing and often unbelievable events.

Recently I watched two parts of a TV series about the Human Body. The in depth exposé on creation, conception, pregnancy and birth to death, reawakened my mind to the miracle of life itself. The simple fact that a person exists – made it into being—is a miracle all by itself!

This reawakening of the miracle of my existence reminded me of the many miracles I experience and how I create them through my feelings, thoughts and actions.

Whatever we choose to focus on we will have more of attracted to us. Focusing on the miracles, no matter how small or how amazing will attract more of those miracles to us.

 Miracles may appear as answers to your questions and desires from unusual sources, surprise encounters, opportunities opening up, serendipitous and synchronistic (co-incidental) events just to name a few.

Here’s a dictionary definition of “Miracle”

1. an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
2. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
3. a wonder; marvel.

Source Dictionary.com

So many events are wondrous and marvellous when we choose to see them with eyes wide open. Look at your life as extraordinary and look for your miracles and acknowledge them, observe how more and more seem to unfold for you as you do.

 You came into this world against the odds of nature – meant to be – a miracle!

The following excerpt of powerful and deeply meaningful words were shared with the Weekly Meditation Group this week and very relevant to mindfulness practice. To be in a true state of acceptance we let go of resistance to what is. It is futile to deny events, feelings, people or anything that is part of our experience.

An excerpt from ‘The Happiness Trap” by Dr Russ Harris

Life is made up of all kinds of weather - acceptance allows peace.

“Acceptance does not mean ‘putting up with’ or resigning yourself to anything. Acceptance is about embracing life, not merely tolerating it. Acceptance literally means ‘taking what is offered’. It doesn’t mean giving up or admitting defeat; it doesn’t mean just gritting your teeth and bearing it. It means fully opening yourself to your present reality – acknowledging how it is, right here and now and letting go of the struggle with life as it is in this moment”

Practicing mindfulness allows us to observe our lives fully and we can notice (as Dr Harris puts it) there is a “Thinker” and an “Observer” within us.  Through becoming aware of the observer and witnessing the thinker, and our lives as they unfold in each moment there is a greater possibility of change taking place although not necessarily.

If we undertake the objective of discovering the observer because we “have to change” then we are still not in a state of acceptance – we are in a place of resistance to what is. The thinker is as much a part of us as the observer and trying to stop the thinker is a waste of time if not practically impossible.

There are many methods of becoming aware of the observer – some simple and some complex. A daily mindfulness practice in the form of a sitting meditation is the simplest way to get started. This can expand your awareness in profound ways giving you deep understanding and insights into your life enabling you let go of futile resistance and to truly embrace life as it is. A sitting meditation is about taking time to sit and place awareness on the breath and then noticing breathing, body sensations, thoughts as they appear, images that flash into our inner vision and so on. Just allowing them to be and not being attached to their presence.

I personally practice a sitting meditation at least twice each day – morning and usually evening. When I do it’s just a matter of accepting the meditation as it is in each moment – it can be a vastly different experience each time and all I need do is just notice it. Throughout my day, my mindfulness of life unfolding, is expanding and with it my acceptance of life as it is.

Although life is filled with all kinds of weather it IS truly amazing!

Many of us experience anger and it is often directed at other people and sometimes external objects. How many times have you cursed your car when it breaks down and kicked the tire only to hurt yourself: Computers can be a great objects of our frustration and there are many cartoons depicting people picking up their unco-operative PC’s and throwing them out the window? I’ve seen this in action! Anger is often directed at fellow humans and other living beings through violent speech and/or actions. We see the results of this often watching the news as well as having direct experiences of it in our lives.

Anger is usually a secondary response to an underlying emotion often being repressed. Those emotions might be grief, sadness, fear, disgust and so on relating to a negative perspective and anger can also be expressed at times when we have difficulty expressing a joyous moment – anger can arise triggered by these perceived positive events.

Last night I attended a Weekly Meditation Group as I usually do for my own ongoing journey in transformation and part of the program was a discourse and meditation about anger and ways to manage it.

Mindfulness is they to transforming anger. Being aware of the feeling of anger as it arises and knowing the anger is within you is the beginning of the road to anger dissipating. In that moment of recognition we can also be aware of the other person having their personal perspective, feelings and reaction within them – which has the power to create empathy and compassion towards them.

It is wise to remember we all have a very personal experience of life that has created our perception and perspectives we bring to every moment. This creates a filter through which we view the world.

We also experienced a wonderful meditation last night that invited us to remember ourselves as a 5 year old child, feeling our vulnerability at that time and smiling kindly to that 5 year old self with compassion: A truly beautiful experience. Within that experience there was a knowing that my experience as a child shaped each next moment – a ripple in the pond and those ripples expand out to the present moment creating my view of my world and shaping my experiences along the way.

We then imagined our parents as they were at 5 years old and them feeling vulnerable.  I found I could smile with compassion and kindness and felt a great understanding for their life as it is now.

I took my meditation further and remembered my own children each at their vulnerable 5 year marker. Once again great compassion and understanding flowed within me with the knowing of how we all shape our lives and our loves from very young experiences.

There is such beauty in this knowledge and we can develop our feelings of compassion as we expand our Awareness. Humans have a gift of intelligence that allows us to continually learn new knowledge and powerful ways to apply it. We are in a constant state of flux; ever changing and with consciousness expanding we can choose ways to experience understanding; from that understanding we’ll find acceptance, pro-activity (instead of reactivity) and love emerges.

This was a reading I shared at my Weekly Meditation Group – Caboolture this week and I have read it myself several times in the past week. I could almost say it has become my current anthem and when reading it, deep feelings rise up within me and inspire me to greater things. 

“It is time to choose life, and to reflect on what such a choice is asking of us. This choice is nitty-gritty, moment to moment, not some colossal or intimidating abstraction. It is very close to the substance and substrate of our lives unfolding in whatever ways they do, inwardly in our thoughts and feelings and outwardly in our words and deeds, moment by moment by moment.

The world needs all its flowers just as they are, and even though they bloom for only the briefest moments, which we call a life time. It is our job to find out one by one and collectively what kind of flowers we are, and to share our unique beauty with the world in the precious time that we have, and to leave the children and grandchildren a legacy of wisdom and compassion embodied in the way we live, in our institutions, and in our honouring of our interconnectedness, at home and around the world. Why not risk standing firmly for sanity in our lives and in our world, the inner and outer reflection of each other and of our genius as a species?

The creative and imaginative efforts and actions of every one of us count, and nothing less than the health of the world hangs in the balance. We could say that the world is literally and metaphorically dying for us as a species to come to our senses, and now is the time. Now is the time for us to wake up to the fullness of our beauty, to get on with and amplify the work of healing ourselves, our societies, and the planet, building on everything worthy that has come before and that is flowering now. No intention is too small and no effort insignificant. Every step along the way counts. And, as you will see every single one of us counts.” - Coming To Our Senses – Jon Kabat-Zinn

You may like to think about what inspires you - maybe even bringing tears of deep knowing and understanding to your eyes. When that depth of feeling arises we are often compelled towards particular speech and or action. This is often an awakening to a calling on how we can contribute to the world and our own evolution.

Take note of what inspires you and engage with it often. It can only impact you in empowered and profound ways.

The following is an article I read today on Authors Den by Greg Pendleton

“Moving upward is always difficult

There are many natural laws that affect and impede us as we attempt the many transitions of life. “One step forward, two steps back” is an anthem I have heard repeatedly in relation to personal growth, as Life is an unending procession of Choices offered and Decisions made. Because we may not always be paying proper attention to the forces that flow around us, often making the”wrong” choice can be seen as disastrous, throwing us once more into a “catch-up” position. Many people so fear the result of a “bad” decision that they resist making any but those deemed safest. Fear is persuasive, but most of the time non-productive. Of the physical laws that govern us, Gravity I see as the most profound. The entire universe is bound by this law, yet the universe continues to expand in defiance of it. Human Beings, as natural elements of the physical universe, mirror this force of Nature. We resist being held down from the moment we enter life, yet at the end of it we return to the “grave”, our physical remains bound once more. The Spirit that animates the body, however, is now released from the natural law and is able to transcend it’s hold, proceeding forward unhindered. Spirit is never bound by gravity. If it were, Man would still be sleeping in caves. Gravity creates the condition that causes us to yearn, that begs us to reach, the struggle commenced, and struggle it is, as moving upward is always difficult. Falling down is easy, as most of us have learned, but getting back up is always the imperative. It is through the struggle of Life that it’s meaning is realized. Fear not the struggle, for a Life of Ease is rarely rewarding. Experience and Relationship are the trails that wind upward. Fear lives in the valley, the gravity that seeks to bind us.”

Greg this is a great article thank you for allowing me to publish it here. Gravity is all about the law of attraction and karma which is only experienced in time and space. In our purest form it is no longer relevant. When we connect with the source of our being which is the source of all things manifest we are no longer bound by gravity.

Gravity is described in science as a natural phenomenon in which objects with mass attract each other. In the area of the human mind body and spirit, the objects are our thoughts and emotions about our self, others and our experiences. We generate an electromagnetic frequency according to the feelings generated from the combination of those thoughts and emotions. We then attract a harmonious frequency of those feelings (attitude) to reflect our self back to us. This is a universal law and is happening in every moment in all time and space.

We all gravitate towards a range of harmonious frequencies.