Author Archives: Teresa Jordan

Mindfulness of the Body and Working with Pain

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The body scan is a wonderful way to ground yourself in your body and in the present moment. Here is a 20-minute body scan from Tara Brach, and a 30-minute meditation from Jon Kabat Zinn. These guided meditations are wonderful, but know that you can do your own body scan, anywhere and anytime. Just start at the top of your head or at the bottom of your toes and work your way through your body, bringing a loving awareness to everything you encounter on the way.

 

Zinn is one the leading voices in mindfulness based stress reduction and ways to use mindfulness to deal with illness and pain. A good introduction to his work is the book Full Catastrophe Living. You can read about the book here and order it through your local bookshop or Amazon.com and other online book services.

Tara Brach has compiled a wonderful list of resources for working with pain, including a summary of mindfulness strategies and links to talks and guided meditations. You can access it here.

From Danna Faulds, this lovely poem about trusting prana — which is the breath or life force.

Trusting Prana
by Danna Faulds

Trust the energy that
Courses through you Trust,
Then take surrender even deeper. Be the energy.
Don’t push anything away. Follow each
Sensation back to its source
In vastness and pure presence.

Emerge so new, so fresh that
You don’t know who you are.

Welcome in the season of
Monsoons. Be the bridge
Across the flooded river
And the surging torrent
Underneath. Be unafraid of consummate wonder.

Be the energy and blaze a
Trail across the clear night
Sky like lightning. Dare to
Be your own illumination.

Some additional resources for mindfulness of emotions

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The extreme disturbances of the past few months have challenged us all in unprecedented ways. Sometimes those challenges are opportunities for growth. New York Times journalist Emily Esfahani Smith has spent much of her career studing how people respond to adversity. In an article titled “On Corona Virus Lockdown? Look for Meaning, not Happiness,” she looks at why some people experience post-traumatic stress while others – equally disturbed by the events – experience post-traumatic growth.

And poetry always helps:

Stone
by Charles Simic

Go inside a stone.
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle;
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.

I have seen sparks fly
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill—
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.

You can find more readings from poet Naomi Shihab Nye and Margery Williams’s The Velveteen Rabbit here.

 

Mindfulness of Emotions and RAIN

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Painful experiences are a part of everyday life, and can invoke any number of difficult emotions—anger, anxiety, fear, and so many more. The many disruptions of the past months including the pandemic, the fires over the summer, and now the election, have taken a toll on us all. Bringing mindful presence to our emotions helps us understand them and open space around them in order to  respond in healthy ways.

Toward this end, RAIN is an invaluable tool. The acronym stands for:

R: recognize what is going on inside you

A: allow yourself to be fully present with it

I: investigate where the feelings reside in your body; what is familiar about them; what is most vulnerable

N: nurture what that vulnerable part needs

You can read more about the process in this introductory chapter from Tara Brach’s book Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN here.

Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of R.A.I.N. – Chapter One

Guidance with the process is helpful, and Tara Brach offers a number of guided meditations and other resources on her website:

RAIN can be particularly powerful when practiced with a partner. Tara explains the process, and offers a guided practice, here.

No Class Thursday, October 29

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Thursday is a huge day for Switchpoint, the ribbon-cutting on beautiful RiverWalk Village. Because of the festivities, we won’t have class this Thursday, but will pick up again on Thursday, November 5. Class is from 1pm to 2pm on Zoom. If you would like to attend and are not already enrolled, email Teresa at MindfulnessTree.com and she will put you on the class list and send you a Zoom link.

And in the meantime: Come to the ribbon cutting, in person or online! You can learn more about RiverWalk Village here. And below is the scoop on the ribbon cutting celebration from Development Director Linda Stay:

The event will be held outside, and masks will be required of all in person attendees.  This keeps you, our residents, and staff safe. We also ask you to maintain a social distance, as hard as that may be.
For those of you not comfortable coming to be with a group we will be streaming LIVE on both Youtube and Facebook.  You will be able to click the link and ask questions or give shout-outs in the comment section if you like.
Live Stream Simulcast on:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/nw8bJzZVbYE

WHEN and WHERE:  October 29th at 11:00 am online and onsite at 2333 E Dinosaur Crossing Drive, St George, Utah 84790.
We are most grateful for all your support as we take one more step towards ending homelessness in Washington County.
Most gratefully,
Linda

Welcome, Switchpoint Class!

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I’m so pleased to be working with the incredible staff and volunteers at Switchpoint in St. George, who are doing so much to change the face of poverty in Southern Utah. It was great to be with you today, and I look forward to the coming weeks.

Here are some resources to supplement what we worked with in class today.

Some invitations for practice:

  1. Make a mindfulness contract with yourself for the next week: I will practice mindfulness ___ times this week, for ___ each session. I plan to practice –––– (when during the day). Mindfulness is a practice. The more often you do it, the more it will sustain you. It can be hard to establish a practice, but is easier when you are clear with yourself about what you want to do.
  2. I strongly suggest you take advantage of Mindfulness Daily, a 40-day program of 10-minute sessions offered free by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. It is a delight and leads you through each step so you don’t have to decide what to do each day or however many times a week you have decided to practice. Just click on the next session and listen.
  3. In addition: consider choosing some action that you do several times a day and using it as mindfulness time. This could be brushing your teeth, or listening to the turn signal at a stop sign. One thing we are all doing a lot lately is washing our hands. We are supposed to do this for forty seconds, so look at it as a break instead of a chore. Give it your full, mindful attention: the feel of the warm, sudsy water, the massaging of your own hands. Let everything else go for those 40 seconds while you breath deep and enjoy!

We talked about what mindfulness is. Here is a great little summary sheet, provided by MindfulSchools.org, a group that works with educators to bring mindfulness into the schools. You can read “Mindfulness: What It Is, What It’s Not” here.

 

 

 

The Gift of Loving Presence

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Arthur Hedges with his grandson Andy

Our cowboy-songster friend Andy Hedges lost his grandfather, his Zanzan, last night, and this tribute by Andy’s wife, Alissa, moved me deeply. There is no greater comfort than being in the presence of a truly loving spirit. May we all find such generosity and ability to love in our hearts.

Married for over 76 years to the same woman. Not just married, but truly in love, smitten. He said she was perfect, and you knew by the way his voice cracked when he said it that he meant it.

When his family was gathered, he would bless the meal. In prayer, this grown man would pray the most sincere prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving. He often had to stop in the middle of these prayers and regain composure.

He would take every one of my newborn babies in his lap and rock to them and sing to them. “I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around your neck.” Unashamed baby talk from one of the biggest most manly men I knew….

Somehow he managed to make everyone who stepped into his home feel truly loved and valued. He told me he loved me every time he saw me and I believed him. I wasn’t born into his family, but I felt like one of his own….

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The Power of Intention

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In our last class of the Art of Communication class, we talked about the power of intention. When we think to set an intention before we meditate, or as we start out day, it shapes what follows. We also talked about the deep intention, the intention for a life, that comes out of knowing what we care about most. I told this story, drawn from a blog post by Jan Phillips on Krista Tippett’s On Being website, and I just realized I had neglected to post it. So here it is:

Former nun Jan Phillips had been a young postulant in her first theology class when a Jesuit priest asked the students what they believed about God. One by one, the young women quoted lines from the catechism: Continue reading →

John Lewis had some final words for us

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Today Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis is laid to rest. Just days before he died he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that he requested be published on the day of his funeral. His words are elemental in their clarity and truth. Read the full article in The New York Times. Or access a pdf here.

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Some excerpts:

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity. Continue reading →

Pray for Peace

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Thank you, Louis, for sharing this beautiful poem from Ellen Bass.
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Pray for Peace

Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekhina, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.

Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.

Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.

To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.

Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.

Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.

If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.

When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else’s legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.

And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail,
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, twirling pizzas–

With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.

Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.

Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your Visa card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

— Ellen Bass, The Human Line