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Virtual Events:
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Winter Feast for the Soul: January 15-February 23, 2014. Join the worldwide 40 days of meditation practice. Listen to meditations with
some of the world's best meditation teachers including Sarah McLean. Check it out here. FR*E!
Experience Your Life Without Limits. Starting right now, shift your awareness and transform your life. It costs you nothing! Featuring Sarah McLean on January 16 with a weekend replay. Find out more here.
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Wild New Program Offerings You'll Love!
The Beatles & the Vedas, a multimedia presentation and conversation about how the Beatles spiritual journey to India changed spirituality in the West. with Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. February 29, 7:00 pm ($10 donation) at the Sedona Creative Life Center. There is a 1/2 day workshop with Phil the next day at the McLean Meditation Center. Don't miss any of it! Find out more here.
Summoning the Sacred, with Deepak Chopra, Jean Houston, and Sarah McLean May 28-June 1, at the Sedona Hilton.
Embark on your own hero's journey. Learn sacred practices to help you access your higher self through sacred mythology. Find out more.
 The Creative Soul Writing Retreat for Women with Sarah McLean and Dr. Susan Eirich, founder of the Earthfire Institute, June 27-29 in Teton Valley, Idaho.
Discover yourself and your natural, wild creative soul at a 40-acre wildlife sanctuary and retreat center near Grand Teton National Park. Immerse yourself in silence, be present to wildlife and nature's beauty and wonder. With deep meditation practices you'll listen to and trust your own voice. Though expansive writing exercises you'll transcend your inner critic and express yourself from the womb of creativity. Read all about the program here.
More and More Wonderful Programs
(Simply click the icon to find out more)
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Resources:
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Being authentic is to be established in present moment awareness,
responding to life in real time by saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
It means making choices that are in alignment with your deepest vows. It requires being aware of who you are, and maintaining that awareness of your true nature
as well as seeing
the same in others.
Authenticity happens when you navigate life from your soul-center, and are compassionate
and powerful.
It's so freeing and peaceful
to live that way.
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A consciousness evolution conference with workshops and events by 108 presenters.
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Happy New Year! Every moment is new though, isn't it!
In the past few issues we've been highlighting lessons from my book Soul-Centered: Transform Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation. This month we'll look at approaching life with a Beginner's Mind. A mind free from preconceived notions and ideas. It's so refreshing!
Speaking of refreshing, I've come up with some great new programs for you this year, from a Soul Radiance Retreat in an old abbey in Oxford, England to a woman's creativity retreat at the Earthfire Wildlife Sanctuary in Idaho. I'll also be working with Mii amo Spa to offer nourishing 5-day immersions, and offering a retreat at the new Awaken Center at Unity Village in Missouri.
I've also been invited to work with Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston at the Sommoning the Sacred retreat, and am part of the Sedona World Wisdom Days, and the Sedona Yoga Festival, and will be at Esalen again this year I am really excited as I write this. And hope you can join me, if not, check out the array of virtual events (see the links on the left) Visit my website for a full calendar.
Feel free to share this newsletter with your friends using the links on this page. There are free meditations and great opportunities to dive into self-awareness. Let's meditate together sometime very soon!
With love and peace,
Sarah McLean, Director
McLean Meditation Institute
(982) 204-0067
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Some Pretty Good Resolutions
 Here are 25 resolutions that I aim to keep:
1. When you wake up each morning, imagine what you want to put your attention on for the day. What matters to you? What do you want to enliven in your life? It could be that you want to keep an eye (or an ear) out for beauty, or intuition, or you want to remember to love yourself, or to practice being a good listener, or be more mindful or to experience joy, or notice the way the universe communicates with you via synchronicity and coincidences. One thing's for sure, what you put your attention on is enlivened in your awareness. Decide what you want to focus on.
2. Slow down once and a while. Life is delicious, but you can miss it when you are racing around with your attention on accomplishing the next item on the to-do list. No matter what activity you are engaged in, whether eating, showering, talking, driving, exercising, walking, reading, working, or giving a gift, take your time, or rather give yourself the time to savor the moments. Don't rush or blow yourself and your emotions off. Give yourself the gift of the present. And receive. Read more here.
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Approaching Life with a Beginners Mind 
"Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory." Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A beginner's mind is a way of perceiving life with an open attitude. As you let go of ideas, judgments, and expectations, the simplest things appear as new and exciting-even if you've experienced them many times before.
I first learned about beginner's mind during my training at the Zen Center, but you don't have to be a Buddhist to have a beginner's mind. Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, wasn't a Buddhist, either. Brought up Hindu, he renounced his religion and went looking for freedom from ideas and beliefs. He wanted to experience life directly and went on a quest for the beginner's mind.
The following Zen koan (wisdom story) illustrates of beginner's mind:
A Zen master received a university professor who was visiting the master's monastery to learn about Zen. The master served the professor tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then he kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "The cup is over-full! No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," the master said, "you are full of your own opinions and expectations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
Many of us are like the visiting professor, searching for wisdom with a mind already full with expectations and judgments about what is right or wrong, true or untrue. It is overflowing with what we already know.
As you practice meditation with a welcoming, non-resistant, innocent attitude, it cultivates a beginners mind. It transforms your perspective both in and out of meditation, and your inner monologue of I know what that is, or, I know what's supposed to happen next, begins to quiet down. You let go of being an expert and walk through the world with fresh eyes openness, innocence and a child-like curiosity. You empty your cup, making room to receive life as it meets your senses.
Bonus! 
"As a meditation novice, I experienced one of Sarah's guided meditations first hand at a recent seminar. The intense clarity and relaxation gained as a result inspired me to buy her CDs. Sarah's gift is divine and her audios are an essential companion for anyone wishing to enhance their life." -Bonnie, Scottsdale, AZ
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Winter Feast for the Soul
Are you in Sedona? If so, join Sarah McLean
for an Opening Ceremony & Meditation Gathering
Wednesday, January 15 from 5-6 PM at the
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Soul Radiance Retreat: Meditation, Mindfulness & Self Discovery  At the
January 31-February 2 & October 3-5
June 1-6
Almost everyone needs a little time to unplug from their hectic lives now and again. The Soul Radiance Retreat is the ideal solution: it's a one-of-a-kind meditation vacation with Hay House author Sarah McLean and friends. Reconnect with your spirit, awaken to your full potential, and strengthen your soul connection with meditation, mindfulness in motion, self-discovery exercises, and silent and guided meditations. Whether this is your first retreat, or you're a retreat junkie, it's guaranteed that you'll leave transformed and inspired.
Learn more here or call (928) 204-0067.
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Is it Time You Learned to Meditate?  Learn an effective meditation method that will help you live a more creative, fulfilling and happy life. Develop an unshakable sense of peace - no matter what the world "out there" is up to. Learn the Simple, Easy, Every Day Meditation Method (SEED Meditation Method) with a certified teacher in North America - find one near you.
Meditation can help you to be more centered, peaceful, healthy, self-aware, creative, and present. The SEED Meditation Method parctices are powerful, yet simple to do, and easy to keep doing. Classes are also held regularly in Sedona, Arizona - for dates check out the online calendar or call (928) 204-0067.
NEW for 2014!
From the comfort of your own home you can take the Simple, Easy, Every Day Meditation Class via teleseminar with Sarah McLean! It's taught in a 2-session program of 1.5 hours each. Call in and attend via Skype or phone. The program is recorded so if you can't make either of the calls, you can listen at your convenience. Classes are limited to 10 people. Call (928)204-0067 or register online.
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Become a Certified Meditation Teacher
Are you a therapist, counseling professional, educator, life coach, executive, manager, healer, yoga teacher, or simply someone who wants to deepen the work you're already doing in the world? Are you committed to being a guide for others and feel called to serve a greater cause? Then the McLean Meditation Institute Teacher Certification Program is designed for you.
The 200-hour professional training course in the theory, science, and practice of meditation consists of a 200-hour training: an Online Learning and Personal Practice Course followed by a 7-day Intensive in Sedona Arizona in an intimate retreat setting led by world-class experts in meditation, mindfulness, contemplative practices, yoga, Ayurveda, energy, sound healing, and earth wisdom.
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Field of Love: Power, Love & Fortune on the Road to Enlightenment by Martin Birrittella It's a true story of passion, fortune and transcendence which begins with an inspiring account of a young boy who enters the seminary with the dream of priesthood, and later becomes a multi-millionaire entrepreneur whose heart's desire is to commune with the Divine. Order it here. Or, wait until Amazon features it for free on January 17, 18 or 19th!
Colette is the most inspiring woman who knows what it is like to have a love/hate relationship with diets and her body. Order it here.
She'll show you how compassion curbs your appetite...and how to stop bullying yourself and fire your inner drill seargant...She'll explain why a big heart can give you a big backside. Join her for a fr*e live teleseminar on January 15 at 8:00 pm Eastern. Simply sign up here to listen, learn and love yourself.
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 I am very excited to be a part of Your Life Without Limits international telesummit with Debra Ponenman. I met Debra while I was on retreat this summer and she truly gets meditation. I found her to be one of the best interviewers I know. You'll enjoy it! I'll be featured on January 16, with a weekend replay! Check it out here. |
Community Discussions & Meditation Gatherings at the McLean Meditation Center
 Whether you live in Sedona or are visiting, discover a place where you can gather with like-minded people to meditate, discuss, and learn. No need to preregister, but you must arrive on time to participate. See the entire schedule here. Sundays 2:00-2:45 pm Guided Meditation Gathering Offering guidance, Q&A, and varying meditation techniques from week to week.
Sundays 4:00-4:30 pm Silent Meditation Gathering
A self-directed, silent meditation period. Participants should have meditation experience as no guidance or instruction is offered.
Tuesdays 3:00 - 4:30 pm Personal Spirituality with Barbara Mayer Discussion and meditation experience on topics such as attitude, intention, meditation and love with the author of Beyond Religion. Tuesdays 6:00-7:30 pm & Thursdays 9:00-10:30 am
Self-Inquiry & Meditation with Martin Birrittella Author of the Field of Love and founder of the Free Process, Marty conducts a Q & A session about connecting to the field of love, the transcendent realm of awareness.
Saturdays 10:00 am-12:30 pm February 15 - March 22
The PEACE Program: Project for Empathy and Compassion Education with Lisa Doskocil
Join a 6-week program on the history, modern applications, and science of compassion and empathy. Learn practices to increase your own compassion. $75 for the series. Call (928) 204-0067 to sign up. Find out more here |
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MMI was founded in 2006 by best-selling Hay House author Sarah McLean who has been teaching ancient and contemporary wisdom for 20 years. Known for creating an environment for deep personal transformation, Sarah headed up programs for Deepak Chopra's Center for Wellbeing, spent years as a trainee in a Zen Buddhist Center, and has traveled much of the world seeking and sharing the secrets of meditation. Author of the book, Soul-Centered: Transforming Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation (Hay House) and the forthcoming book, Love & the Power of Attention, Sarah considers herself an American Transcendentalist. She invites you to visit the McLean Meditation Center, home of MMI, in the heart of Sedona, Arizona, 411 State Route 179 #8, Sun-Sat 1-5 pm, or connect online at www.McLeanMeditation.com.
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