I love this season of lights. As we open our hearts to one another, there's a deeper sense of appreciation for the little things. Spending quality time together, giving from the heart versus the wallet, purposeful community, and focusing on peace. The highlighted sense of gratitude this time of year brings is quite wonderful, especially as the days are colder and darker and we venture inward.
    
Extending the season of love and joy to last all year long is a habit we can begin right now while the act of giving and loving is fresh and vibrant. To start things off, I came up with a few simple things you can try on. Get your kids involved as well, paying forward the season of lights and love to many generations.

Make a Gratitude Jar. Every day slip in a little note of something that you are grateful for in a big jar. At the end of the year, read and reflect how you highlighted the time. You can also pull some out throughout the year if you are having a tough day.

Express appreciation for one another. As the family is gathered at the dinner table, have everyone offer an appreciation for each person - some small thing that they admire or notice in genuine goodness. We do this at Thanksgiving but who says every day can't be filled with thanks and giving?

Acknowledge your inconspicuous supports. How often do we say thank you to the postal worker, garbage collector, or police officer? These folks hold pretty important jobs that would have a negative impact if they stopped. Acknowledge their dedication and persistence with a hearty "Thank you!".

Write little notes of appreciation. Not an email or a text - an actual hand-written note. Secretly drop it off on your colleague's desk or your kid's pillow and watch them light up and smile. How did they make your day easier or what little thing did you notice they did well? Appreciation for the little things goes a long way in deepening relationships and fostering community.

Volunteer and give back one hour per week to a homeless shelter, nursing home, animal shelter, community foundation, or neighbor. Find some way to create connection, selflessly lifting the spirits of those who are in need right now even if it's just sharing a meal, walking a sick person's dog, or driving an elderly person around town to do errands.

Invite an elderly neighbor to dinner. Living alone and away from family can be tough. Make a regular practice of checking in with your elderly neighbors. You'll be amazed at how fun and educational dinnertime history lessons can be.

This holiday season, enjoy who you are with, love what you do, and create droplets of peace wherever you go.

Peace,
Shanti

Shanti Douglas
Mindfulness & Stress Management Coach
Eden Energy Medicine Certified Practitioner
8 limbs Holistic Health, LLC

     “The Miracle of Mindfulness”… the miracle of showing up for your life as it is right now… noticing what’s there… in all of it’s many forms… with deep awareness and acceptance.
     You hear me say (or write) variations of this quite frequently but what is mindfulness really? While there are thousands of studies quantifying the beneficial impacts that mindfulness has on the physical and mental body, work productivity, concentration, relationships of all kinds, and overall health, and while we cognitively understand mindfulness to be present to this moment, again, what is it really?
     Stepping away from the view that it is a tool that will help us achieve greater goodness, we must, if we are to truly understand mindfulness, realize first and foremost that it’s an embodied practice. It is a state of being, not a performance enhancement too or a therapeutic technique.
     Recently I spent six days at Blue Cliff Monastery in New York with 400+ practitioners living as many moments as we were able to in mindfulness. I say “as many as” since, no matter the strength of our practice, there seems to be an ebb and flow in and out of this practice of presence. “The Miracle of Mindfulness” was the retreat’s theme, celebrating the publication of this titled book by my teacher and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh 40 years earlier. Out of the 400 retreatants, about one-third were brand new to a retreat in the Plum Village tradition, a tradition which emphasizes integrating mindfulness into everyday normal activities and occurrences. Each moment of life is an opportunity and a gift so why not show up and be more fully aware of them?
     The retreat day begins and ends in silence - an opportunity to connect with the voice inside - and in between we are fed with nurturing practices such as mindful meals, sitting and walking meditation, working meditation, Dharma talks (teachings), and sharing from the heart. Each step along the way is an opportunity to recognize our wholesome and unwholesome mental formations (ideas, thoughts, judgments, labels), i.e. discursions that typically hold us back from an open view of possibility. As we mostly seeking to control and reformulate our surroundings, there’s a continual backdrop of mind chatter that works to unconsciously sort and categorize our experiences, pulling or pushing our mental and physical resources into all sorts of directions in an attempt to make life more to our liking. In the retreat setting we are gifted with a slower pace, making it easier to notice this habituated mind activity and to create attitudes of openness and curiosity, awakening us to the many details we miss as we busily go about our day. We have an opportunity to notice our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations of all kinds, all aspects of ourselves that are lost in the commotion of mind and body multitasking.
     There is so much depth to the simplest of things - drinking tea or coffee, walking, bathing, picking up things, noticing a landscape, eating chocolate. How is your moment of life when you are sipping your tea in the bright sunshine? Noticing… what responsibilities are weighing heavily on your shoulders and in between your "should" blades? Can we soften our body just a smidgen and return to the tangy flavor of our tea, drinking in the refreshing elements of Nature in the tea leaves and rain clouds? How are we now?
     Each time we let ourselves open to experience what is in front of us, we capture a part of ourselves that we would otherwise have missed. We get to know what’s underneath and behind the busyness that has become our habit and, for that wonderful moment, notice the Self that is noticing the self. As we bring more and more awareness to ourselves and our experience, even if it contains pain or uncomfortableness, we can begin the journey of taking care of our true selves (behind the roles and ego) more fully. This awareness of self is the first step in healing the pains and points of suffering. From this place, understanding and then reconciliation may arrive. In this way, mindfulness is a miracle for, with the simplest of attention, we can gift ourselves the preciousness of our life.
     So try this on. For a few minutes right now, stop what you are doing and bring awareness to your breathing. You’ve been doing it all day long and it’s been supporting every action you’ve taken. As you pay attention to it, don’t do anything different to it - just leave it as it is. Now also sense your body with the breath, noticing the subtle movements of it as you breathe in and out. Staying here for a few minutes, let everything else settle down - your mind, your thoughts, your to-do’s. The only thing to do in this moment is to pay attention to yourself, breathing. Stay here and rest. Open to being and breathing. What’s there that you may have missed before? What miracle of mindfulness is yours?

Love and peace to you!
Shanti

Shanti Douglas
Mindfulness & Stress Management Coach
Eden Energy Medicine Certified Practitioner
8 limbs Holistic Health, LLC

     Has anyone figured out what this life is for, why we are here, what this whole thing is about? I know, silly question to ask since it’s the ultimate one we all have about our existence but it’s one that I’ve really been pondering quite a bit recently. I’m trying to connect with the great Master Plan that I envision must be out there, held by the Universe far, far beyond what my little humanity has been able to reach so far. Yes, I know we are here to do good, to promote and spread love, and to continue the path of enlightenment for all beings. I have a nag inside, though, about this Master Plan, envisioning that it lays out the purpose behind everything we try to make sense of. Sometimes I feel like a marionette in a puppet show, acting out the story but never having the script of where it’s supposed to lead. It’s like a constant improv. I really think the performance I could give would be a lot more meaningful, vibrant, and fulfilling for all parties involved if I knew, though. Yes, this is my mind sometimes, showing me that I might be a little too goal oriented and just need to loosen up! (I hope you are amused and not frightened for me.)
     As a summertime treat I’ve been watching BBC’s Planet Earth series and am continually blown away by the immense diversity, spectacular-ness, and innate intelligence of the life that is contained on this breathtaking planet, including the amazing assortment of ecosystems. In my wildest imagination I couldn’t come up with all the uniquenesses of the thousands of species; the colors, shapes, reliances for survival, patience, habits of traveling thousands of miles for food or procreation just to do it all again next year. For me, I still can’t wrap my head around the workings of our brain or body. It’s way beyond science fiction and makes me even more desirous to have insight into the Master Plan.
     After a time, I finally ask myself “Does it really matter?”. In reality, probably not and I’m sure it’s best for me to spend my time creating peace, emitting love, and spreading light and positivity into each moment instead. To do what I can do and to trust the process , to “let go and just be”. I’m sure the Master Plan folks would appreciate that. And in writing those words, I do need to laugh at how many times in my life I’ve been told to simply “trust the process”. Haha. Another contemplation is provided.
     Well, if you have any answers or insights, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to add some comments below.

Peace and LOTS of joy in Being.
Shanti

Shanti Douglas
Mindfulness & Stress Management Coach
Eden Energy Medicine Certified Practitioner
8 limbs Holistic Health, LLC