meditation


In Search of a “Satisfying Spiritual Practice” 12

In January, I created a list of ten personal and professional goals to accomplish during the year. These goals included health, family, writing, home improvement, financial, and spiritual aspects of my life. By far the most nebulous goal was to create a “satisfying spiritual practice.” As a goal, it is […]


Journaling Techniques: Writing on the Stream of Consciousness 22

Stream of Consciousness Writing begins with a simple breath meditation, after which you write associatively, allowing your words to meander along connected images, feelings, and memories. It’s not a timed process and is even less structured than freewriting,  facilitating a kind of subconscious  “mind dump” onto the page. In fact, […]


Clover Heaven

ON A RECENT WALK, the afternoon light filtered softly through a thick web of oak branches and leaves, the tree branches forming an archway that beckoned me into nature’s hall and to some magical place beyond. Spider web  filaments, stretching from branch to branch, danced in the breeze. Beneath my […]


Journaling: Dancing With Life 2

A Meditation On the Nature of Life DANCE—physical movement of any kind, really—has been an important part of my life as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of twirling until I fell down, dizzy with elation. There were countless years of ballet, tap, and modern […]


Perfection 1

I LOVE SUNDAYS. Days to sleep in, take walks, not worry if I’m not really all that productive. Days that feel as if they are entirely mine and it’s okay to slack off, even if I don’t. Which, when I think about it, is interesting, because I create my own […]


Practices for Restoring a Tired Mind 6

I SPEND MY DAYS engaged in creative activities: writing, photography, editing, course development, and marketing. I start early and end late, usually rising to my alarm at 6:30 am and going to bed between 10:30 and midnight. (I allow myself to sleep in at least one weekend morning each weekend […]


Wanting Authenticity

MY JOURNAL PROMPT today was: Ask for what you want. Sometimes I wonder if I want too much or think about what I want too often. Maybe in wanting so much I buck and twist and resist what is, missing the point of life entirely. Perhaps what I need most […]


Making Meaning Through Journal Writing: A Meditation on Simplicity

Simplicity. The word conjures up images of ease, a sense of effortlessness, a lightness of being. It implies leaving things in their natural states, decorating sparsely, and having furniture with clean, straight lines. It yearns for straightforward communication. My life has never been simple, though I’ve often longed for it […]


Remembering to Breathe

In the Editor’s Note, in the recent issue of The Writer’s Eye Magazine, I wrote briefly about how life never seems to cooperate with our well-laid plans and gave advice about what to do when things go askew: take a deep breath and take time to view things from a […]