mindful monday

Mindfulness is tidying up your attention. Everything about mindfulness is about relationship to what is happening. What's happening is less important than how we relate to what is happening. Life and healing has its own rhythm. Mindfulness helps us develop the skill to be different with our thinking, not to stop thinking. We seek intensity just to feel alive. Metta practice is to make everyone your friend without agreeing with them. Every moment of mindfulness erases moments of conditioning. Mantra: May I meet this moment fully, may I meet it as a friend. Each moment is pregnant with potential for watching the mind. The more we have compassion for ourselves, the more we can have compassion for others. -- Takeaways from mindfulness daylong with Sharon Salzberg and Sylvia Boorstein

On Saturday I had the pleasure of sitting with Sharon and Sylvia for a daylong mindfulness practice and penned the above takeaways into my ideas book. My favorite takeaway is the reminder that what's happening is less important than how we relate to what is happening. Juicy, eh?

When I woke up this morning, I had a feeling of downshifting. Being in overdrive mode for the past months producing, editing, and shipping the Anthology and Daybook, celebrating the studio's 15th year, releasing the TranquiliT fall collection, and honoring our team at last night's holiday fete, I'm experiencing a savory focus on exhalation.

Over the next few days, traffic will begin lightening. Emails, too. Parking will become available {a true treat for city-dwellers} and the holiday parties will come to an end. This gives us the opportunity to tidy up our attention, our homes, and our schedules.

All three are a focus of mine over the hollydaze: crafting an ideal 2015 schedule, decluttering the Pink Palace, and basking in down time. 

As you may know, what we focus on grows. May the final moments of 2014 allow you the space to focus on what you'd like to see grow in the new year. For a facilitated journey, join me on December 31 at Tranquil Space for a mini yoga and mindfulness retreat.

Finally, 60 minutes did a segment on mindfulness last night that you may enjoy watching. It's amazing to see the practice getting more and more attention.  

Wishing you a mindful Monday filled with ease and downshifting. Bisous. x