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Tag Archives: valerie spain
Well-Intentioned Violence
My weeks away from here have been consumed writing a grant due May 30th. This grant money replaces federal money recently cut from our program, so there’s a lot of pressure to succeed. Intense periods periods of work test the … Continue reading
Posted in Mindfulness, Simplicity, Work
Tagged joy, meditation practice, picasso, simplicity, success, thomas merton, valerie spain, work
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#3 Execute: A Feeling of Strength in Reserve
To pursue the disciplined pursuit of less, Greg McKeown says successful people use routine and ritual to focus on the essential. Artists in all disciplines intimately understand the power of routine. In 2006, Twyla Tharp called creativity a habit in her book, The Creative Habit, and … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Mindfulness, Simplicity, Work
Tagged disciplined, disciplined pursuit of less, greg mckeown, less, picasso, simplicity, twyla tharp, valerie spain
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#1 Explore and Evaluate
I’d like to review Greg McKeown’s work for this and the next few posts. He distils his essentialism advice to 3 points: Explore/Evaluate Eliminate Execute In order to get to the essential and discard the unessential McKeown suggests constantly narrowing the … Continue reading
Posted in Mindfulness, Simplicity, Work
Tagged essentialism, greg mckeown, simplicity, simplify, valerie spain, work
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Spring
Don’t go outside to see the flowers. My friend, don’t bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has a thousand petals. That will do for a place to sit. Sitting there you will have a … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Poetry
Tagged art, drawing, fun, house, humor, Kabir, spring, valerie spain
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Michael Pollen goes into the kitchen to cook, and finds answers to pressing health, environmental, social– even spiritual– problems. “…what is the most important thing an ordinary person can do to help reform the American food system, to make it … Continue reading
The Art of Presence
At an IMS retreat in Barre MA, I asked Rodney Smith, one of the teachers, what is being present like? How does action come out of non-action? How do you maintain a large awareness of the life you are living, and live … Continue reading
Posted in Mindfulness
Tagged awareness, meditation, presence, rodney smith, spiritual practice, valerie spain, vipassana
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Why Do We Eat?
This is the first of 6 questions developed by Megrette Fletcher and Michelle May for people with diabetes and their caregivers to ask. Their approach is outlined in Eat What You Love and Love What You Eat with Diabetes. I … Continue reading
Posted in Mindfulness
Tagged craving, diabetes, eating disorders, food, kindness, mindful eating, nourish, valerie spain
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How do we know…
How do we know if our practice is a real practice? Only by one thing: more and more we just see the wonder. What is the wonder? I don’t know. We can’t know such things through thinking. But we always … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Mindfulness, Simplicity
Tagged charlotte joko beck, diabetes, meditation, meditation practice, mindfulness, valerie spain, wonder
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Nourishing the Heart
The disorders of desire discussed in a previous post are the emotional and spiritual hungers that lead to craving (desire) that then lead to all forms of dis-ease. Certainly to the emotional dis-eases of greed, jealousy, rage, etc., but as more and … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Mindfulness
Tagged attention, awareness, disorders of desire, mindfulness, present moment awareness, ronna kabatznick, valerie spain
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