I admit that I’m a bit of a control freak, and letting go of the illusion that I can control anything other than my own reaction to what happens is a challenge for me.Continue Reading
meditation
Sunday Quotes: Meditation
A regular meditation practice is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. I can’t imagine not starting my day with a brief meditation anymore than I can imagine not starting it with a cup of coffee.Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: Why Coloring Books Are Good For Your Mental Health
Adult coloring books are winding up on bestseller lists around the world, and it turns out that coloring is more than just a fun way to pass the time. Studies show that the structured, rhythmic motion of coloring eases you into a meditative state, which allows you to push negative thoughts and worries out of your mind, and which induces a profound sense of relaxation. Coloring is also a great way to explore your creativity. Spending 15 minutes coloring an image can give you a sense of having accomplished something beautiful, and that can carry over into other parts of your life.Continue Reading
Ruby’s Reflections: Meditating with Mom
Hi, everyone! It’s Ruby! It’s been forever since Mom let me write something here. I’ve been hard at work helping her with product reviews, being Mom’s office assistant, and, my most important job of them all, keeping my sister Allegra in line. What’s that, Allegra? You keep me in line? <kitty snort>
Anyway, one of my jobs is to help Mom meditate every morning. Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: Meditating With Cats
There is no question that meditation is good for us: it helps us handle the stress of daily life, it has numerous health benefits, and it is a wonderful way to get in touch with our true spiritual nature. In fact, there is so much evidence that meditation is good for you that it seems like meditation should be as much a part of our daily lives as breathing.
Once you’ve established a daily meditation practice, you can’t imagine not having it in your life, but until you get there, the thought of daily mediation seems to bring out a long list of excuses for most people. “I don’t have the time.” “I don’t know how.” “I can’t sit still.” You don’t have to meditate for hours to gain benefits from mediation. Even a 5 minute mini meditation can make a difference. Gradually increase the time. Ideally you want to meditate at least 20 minutes a day.
If you need inspiration to get started with a meditation practice, look to your cats! Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: Meditate with Your Cat
The benefits of meditation are endless: from helping us handle stress better to getting in touch with our true spiritual nature, meditation has been proven to make our lives better. In fact, there is so much evidence that meditation is good for you that it seems like meditation should be as much a part of our daily lives as breathing.
Once you’ve established a daily meditation practice, you can’t imagine not having it in your life, but until you get there, the thought of daily mediation seems to bring out a long list of excuses for most people. “I don’t have the time.” “I don’t know how.” “I can’t sit still.”
You don’t have to meditate for hours to gain benefits from mediation. Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: Allegra on Living in the Moment
I don’t understand why humans have such a hard time with what they call “living in the moment.” To us cats, it’s just living. Where else would you be, if not in this present moment? That’s where all the good stuff happens: it’s where the sunbeams are, it’s where the birds outside the window are, it’s where breakfast and dinner are. Why would you ever want to worry about what’s going to come next, or think about what already happened?
When we want to play, we play. When we want to nap, we nap. When we want to cuddle, we cuddle. I know humans have what they call “responsibilities,” the most important one, of course, being that they make sure we never run out of cat food, and I’ll concede that that requires some planning, but I thought I’d give you some pointers on how you can be more like a cat and enjoy the moment.
- Meditate. Cats are really good at this. Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: Take Time For Yourself
Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take
between two deep breaths. – Etty Hillesum
We all have busy lives, and there are days when it feels like we’ll never get everything done. For most people, the first thing to fall by the wayside during busy times is time for yourself. I’ve never met a cat who says”I’m too busy to take a moment to stretch in the sun.” Why can’t we be more cat like when it comes to taking care of ourselves?
The following ten tips can help you carve out some time for yourself even when the world is screaming for your attentionime. I offer this thought to you: you can’t afford not to take the time. Your sanity, and your health, may depend on it.
- Say no to anything that’s not important. I’ve always liked Steven Covey’s system of sorting items on your to do list into urgent, important, not urgent, and not important categories. Surprisingly, it’s the items in the “important but not urgent” quadrant, not the things that are “urgent and important,” that should receive your greatest attention. For example, daily playtime with your cats is important but not urgent. Feeding your cats, however, is important and urgent! For a more detailed (and less cat-centric) explanation of Covey’s important/urgent matrix, visit Practice This or go straight to the source and read Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
- Ask for help. Frequently, people who are constantly busyContinue Reading
Sunday Purrs: the culture of fear
Let go of fear, embrace change, and move toward joy. – Buckley
Fear is a normal response to a threatening stimulus or situation. Without the fear response, neither cats nor humans would survive. Fear prepares us for fight or flight. While our domesticated cats don’t often deal with fear of survival in their environment, some of these fears may be hardwired. The good news is that, with proper support from their guardians, cats can get over their fears. Allegra used to be terrified of bad weather, but has come a long way in the past year in overcoming her fears.
But what happens when fear becomes a part of our daily lives?
We live in a culture of fear. There has never been a time when people have been afraid of so much. Three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: learn to be still
It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom. – William Dean Howells
“Learn to Be Still” is the fourth track on When Hell Freezes Over, the first album released by the Eagles in 1994 after a fourteen year silence. The album title is a reference to Don Henley’s comment after the 1980 breakup that the band would play together again “when hell freezes over.”
The song became my anthem that year.
1994 was an extremely challenging year for me: within a four-month period, my marriage of thirteen years ended and my mother died. After emerging from the initial shock and grief, I went through a period of re-examining my life and beginning my journey of finding my bliss. Those of you who’ve read me for a while already know that cats have been the catalyst (pun intended) for some very major life changes for me. What you may not know is that music is also very important to me. Continue Reading
Sunday Purrs: Routine As The Key to Happiness
Routines are human nature. Why not create some that will mint gold? – Hafiz
Last Sunday, I wrote about the value of embracing change, rather than resisting it. This may lead you to wonder why on earth I would now tell you that routines are the key to a happy life. No, I’m not contradicting myself. I’m not talking about the kinds of routines that keep us stuck in a rut. I’m talking about positive routines.Continue Reading