|
|
It's February (already!), a time to be in love.
What does being in love really mean? I believe being in love doesn't have to involve a special partner or spouse. Instead it is personal. It's a state of being.
Being in love, being in the field of love. I experience this "being" in love as being fully present in my life. It's an experience of freedom, contentment, generosity, and intimacy with myself and everything and everyone around me.
This being in love is cultivated through meditation too. That's when you can transcend your roles and responsibilities and to-do lists, and directly experience your life and being rather than doing.
I invite you to consider being in love in a new way. Cultivate a new way of engaging in your life as you explore your everyday experiences with a mindful, beginner's mind. Fall back in love with your life. Savor your life.
Please do visit my website to learn more about the powerful meditation and mindfulness programs planned this year. There are lots of resources to support you in your meditation practice on the website, too!
I aim to be the peace I want so much to see in the world. I make it my mission to sow seeds of peace by practicing meditation, teaching meditation, and training meditation teachers.
Won't you join me? Let's meditate together soon!
Sarah
Director, McLean Meditation Institute
|
|
|
 |
Ask Sarah
I have a question for you about mindfulness. I am having a really hard time eating mindfully, because I enjoy reading while I am eating. Is this multitasking? It doesn't seem to me that reading and eating have to be mutually exclusive from the perspective of being mindful. Can I engage in both activities as one mindful experience? What do you think?
The challenge for many of us is to monotask, or unitask. Mindfulness is engaging your continuous stream of attention on what you are doing,while you are doing it, without judgement. It is moment to moment attention.
What happens between bites? Besides, silence, presence, and stillness, there are probably physical sensations, and your meal is likely still in front of you. What happens when you read between bites? It disengages your attention from the full experience of eating.
Mindful eating and drinking involves giving (paying) your full gentle attention to the entire experience, engaging your senses and experiencing the process both inside and outside your body. When mindfully eating, notice the colors, smells, textures, flavors, temperatures, and even sounds. All the while, attend to the sensations of your body, even after the bite is swallowed. Where in the body do you feel hunger? Where do you feel satisfaction? What do these signals feel like? What does half-full feel like, or three quarters full? Reading can certainly distract your attention from any of these sensations, never mind the beauty of the meal in front of you.
Perhaps, instead of reading, you could pay attention to your mind. While avoiding judgment or criticism, notice when shift your attention away from eating and drinking to wanting to read, turn on the TV, go online, or talk on the phone between bites. Notice, then, simply return to being present with your body and the food in front of you which nourishes you. Engage in the entire process, notice everything. And appreciate how your body turns the food "out there" into your bones, blood, and sense organs. This practice will help you to be more self-aware, more in charge of your attention, and cultivate appreciation for your life.
New to meditation or looking for tips to enhance your meditation practice? Send your questions to Sarah@McLeanMeditation.com. Put "Ask Sarah" in the subject line. I'll answer you privately and perhaps feature it in an upcoming issue.
|
|
February 5-8
Sedona Yoga Festival in Sedona, AZ
Deepen your practice and tap into ancient wisdom with three days of yoga, music, and energy work in Sedona. Meditate with Sarah McLean. Held at various Sedona locations.
Think Spring!
May 28-31
Join Deepak Chopra, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sarah McLean & Joan Borysenko for a weekend retreat for women seeking to create their best lives. Want to know more, and get the best price? Call Gabrielle Forleo, your Chopra Center program consultant at 760-494-1639 and tell her Sarah sent you!
Visit www.McLeanMeditation.com for more events!
|
Become a Meditation Teacher
The McLean Meditation Institute Teacher Academy offers a 200 hour-training in the theory, science, and practice of meditation. It begins with a self-paced foundational course followed by an 8-day intimate intensive and teaching practicum in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. Upcoming Intensives are April, July, September, and November of 2015, and Ireland in 2016! The program is led by world-class experts in brain science, meditation, mindfulness, yoga, and earth wisdom. Admissions are rolling, so apply anytime to get started right away so you can be ready for the Intensive.
Learn More about becoming a Meditation Teacher
I knew I was on a golden path when I found this course - and it surpassed in every way. Thank you! ~
Myla Stauber, McLean Meditation Institute Certified Meditation Teacher, Portland, Oregon
|
Guidance for a Soul-Centered Life:
An 8 Week Program in a 5 CD Set
In this CD set Sarah McLean explores the attributes of a soul centered life and shares a variety of meditation practices. Prepare to be transformed as she guides you through brand new meditations with gentle instruction. Become the most aware, connected, peaceful, accepting, loving, authentic, receptive, and nourishing version of you. Order yours via PayPal.
|
|
|
|
 Freedom with a Beginner's Mind
Cultivating a beginner's mind is a way of perceiving things with an open attitude. We've all been in this mind-set before, when we were experiencing something awesome for the first time.
Whatever it was, you met it with your beginner's mind, a state of complete freedom from preconceived ideas. Nothing got in the way of your experience, and it delighted you.
Beginner's mind is a peaceful perspective to have both in meditation and in life, and is an essential ingredient to being soul-centered. As you let go of ideas, judgements, and expectations, the simplest things appear new and exciting - even if you've experienced them many times before.
The following Zen koan (wisdom story) illustrates the importance of the 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 overfull! 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 of expectations and judgements about what is right or wrong, true or untrue.
With a beginner's mind you let go of being an expert and walk through the world with fresh eyes: open, innocent, and with a childlike curiosity. You empty your cup, making room to receive life as it meets your senses. This allows you to approach your life and experiences without preconceived ideas, concepts, or notions about any of it.
With beginner's mind, you address your mind's tendency to label and already know every experience, bringing your focus back to what you're actually experiencing instead of your idea of it.
Read more about mindfulness through meditation in my book:
|
|
|
|
|
