m2h blogs by Marcia Hansen

One slow deep breath to…
..bring balance into the day
..enjoy the satisfaction of a great morning workout
..remember to have patience with other morning drivers
..be grateful for wonderful family and friends
..reaching out with compassion for others who also begin this day
..and lest you think it’s all peace and light, another slow deep breath before I rush to [...]

One of the ways Chodron talks about breathing is breathing in the dark and heavy and breathing out cool and light.
She teaches the Tonglen practice (briefly it is):
1) resting your mind
2) visualize breathing in what is hot, dark and heavy and breathing out light, cool, and bright
3) breathing in a painful situation [...]

I’ve been debating what word to choose for this year, as Christine discusses.
I first thought about choosing “change” as my word. Doing so could encompass all of the things I want to do in the new year. However as I thought more about it, for me, choosing change would be at the “do” level [...]

I came across the following quote by John Burroughs quite by accident. It expresses just what I’m feeling today.
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see. [...]

This weekend, I finished reading Mosaic: Pieces of my life so far by Amy Grant. If you have time, Mosaic is an inspirational read.
One take-away: Grant says she begins her day by going outside, whatever the weather, and says (out loud) “This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in [...]

I’m loving my work these days. I love that I can:
–be super productive and help move projects forward
–work with others and troubleshoot/resolve issues
–take initiative and be trusted to manage details
–work on visible projects
–work on social media and community building projects (more on this in the coming weeks)
At the same time, I have to confess that [...]

I’ve noticed that at what could be the most stressful part of my commute home, when traffic is backed up for miles, and we’re all inching forward only a yard at a time every few minutes, there are sunflowers planted on the right hand side of the freeway.
Every night I look over at those sunflowers [...]

When I was at Mizzou, I was lucky enough to participate in a mindfulness based stress reduction class. (you can also check out the linked site above for new meditation mp3 downloads.)
Today, while scanning mindfulness news, I discovered the following info on introducing children to mindfulness practice.
The Hawn Foundation (started by Goldie Hawn) supports teaching [...]

Betsy Carter has an article on equilibrium in the November issue of O magazine (ok, so I know it’s the exact opposite of the dense reading I was talking about yesterday).
She cites Herbert Benson, author of The Relaxation Response, who says:
Prayers, words, mantras, songs, crocheting, swimming, exercise–anything that involves repetition…allows the body to rebound and [...]

Watch this!
Posititve Pause
—–