Back when I became interested in meditation, I wanted to find a community of people to meditate with. I went to a few groups and never felt like I was with “my people”. I like to wear makeup and color my hair, plus, my beverage of choice when I’m on the meditation cushion is coffee (I’m not kidding). I get really excited about things and talk loudly…
They were really lovely people and I would go for a while and try it and then I would start to dread it. And then, eventually, I would stop. I dedicated myself to a home meditation practice and reading all I could by my favorite teachers, like Pema Chodron and Jon Kabat Zinn to name two of my favorites.
The first time I ever felt at home in a group of people meditating was when I went to Kripalu for yoga teacher training. It was one of the most exciting discoveries of my life – there were other people that were interested in yoga and meditation, with nicely highlighted hair and loud, excited, voices. I would take the long walk with some of the other teachers in training to the closest town to have coffee on our day off – Sunday. It was such an amazing experience on so many different levels, but one thing it brought home for me was that sense of belonging to a group of people that you really relate to and have a common interest with.
I am such a deep believer in meditation that I ask all of the people who work with me to consider making the art of doing nothing part of their lives – even for 5 minutes a day. The difference that it can make is nothing short of life-changing and miraculous. For people who being coached, I consider it necessary to make the maximum amount of progress toward happy and away from stress! My hope is for everyone to experience and enjoy the benefits of doing nothing. To that end, on the first Thursday of each month won’t you join in a free community call on More Happy, Less Stress: the art of doing nothing to improve nearly everything. To get a jump-start, the first call will be next week, on October 22nd, via Talkshoe. See?
The next community call after next week, will be on Thursday, November 5th. I hope you can join in to one or both. Each call will be 45 minutes with an introduction, instructions on the practice, and a brief meditation with time for Q&A about the practice or thoughts and feelings that bubble up. The calls will be 9:00am EST/6:00am PST, which is PERFECT meditation time in my opinion! Bring your coffee, ’cause you know I’ll have mine.
If you are interested in additional help, guidance, coaching, and support to develop a practice in the art of doing nothing, you might enjoy the 6-week tele-course More Happy, Less Stress, which includes lots of goodies so definitely check it out. It will be fun and practical and you will learn lots of ways to approach meditation, all of this with a community of good-looking, like-minded others.
As a bonus, for the first three blog readers that sign up for the 6-week course, I will offer up 1 hour of FREE one-on-one coaching. Simply put in the paypal notes to seller field, blog reader!
Next up: you know it. Friday’s fix of gratitude!!
Photo courtesy of Barabeke via Flickr under a creative commons license.
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This sounds interesting, Nona. I will put this in my calendar and listen in. I love Kripalu yoga!
Stacey. Someone told me Kripalu now serves coffee AND meat. True or False?
So happy you will join in! I would love to build a community of people who come together to do nothing each month.
xx
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