Mind Taming

While camping this weekend I was watching my daughter and wife play in the creek, the beauty of the scene and peacefulness of our surroundings was something out of a fairytale. I felt pure joy and happiness arise, but only for a moment. Almost immediately following those euphoric feelings I felt my mind shift to wanting more, dreading our return to civilization, dreaming of a month on the road exploring natural wonders.

My body was still there, sitting by that creek watching my family, but my mind was off, tumbling into the future and tugging my emotions with it. These moments, this is why I meditate. That practice of sitting and continually returning the mind to focus on the present moment, allowed me to step outside that stream of thought, recognize it rising and make a conscious choice; either continue down that thought path, or return to the present moment. It was an obvious choice, submerge myself in that moment and soak it up for as long as I could.

Driving home the next day I still longed to spend more time in nature with my family, we still talked about taking a long trip through California, but I didn’t dread our return to civilization and my longing was out of joy, not frustration. These are the little wins, the little bit more happiness, the little bit less suffering. This is the everyday battle to live more mindfully.

An Honest 10% Happier

Who better to write a book about meditation than a beginner, a skeptic, someone who thought, “meditation is for people who like incense, crystals and John Tesh music.” An ABC News anchor that couldn’t understand what Depak Chopra was talking about, couldn’t believe what Eckhart Tolle was saying and called B.S. on the experts highlighted in The Secret.

10% Happier by Dan Harris is perhaps the most honest account of meditation found in hardcover. There are no major breakthroughs, no miracle cures, just an honest account of a person who has found meditation to make them 10% happier – a 10% that has slowly but surely changed his life.

In the video clip below from Nightline, the ABC news program Harris co-anchors, he walks the viewers through his path to meditation. While done in a slightly overproduced manner, the story is powerful in that it illustrates how so many of us find meditation, the incremental ups and downs of life that lead to something so simple it can be easily dismissed or overlooked. 

There are no transformational trips to Bali in this story, no epic tails of monasteries or gurus, just a guy seeking a bit more happiness in everyday life – even if only 10% more.

Sitting Is Hard

“I rarely sit alone, it’s too difficult to maintain a practice” – the reality of a meditation practice being discussed between two teachers; lived in a monastery kind of teachers; teaching for 10 years and practicing for 20 kind of teachers.

Yeah, this meditation stuff ain’t easy. We’re battling a brain still built for fighting off tigers and foraging for food, that is now immersed in a world grasping for its attention every second of the day. We quite literally have the world at our fingertips and we’re being asked to put that world aside for 10 or 20 minutes. That challenge is harder than ever and because of that, it’s now more important than ever.

The only solution for these teachers was the support of others. By joining or starting meditation groups they are forced to show up, forced to remain focused through discomfort, distraction or just plain tiredness. We show up for practice because the rest of the band or team shows up; because to let our brothers and sisters down is bigger then letting ourselves down. 

We all need help, we all need support to navigate the hard stuff, to overcome the challenges. Their is no expectation we can do this alone. So, grab a buddy, join a group, there are people meditating everywhere and more than enough tools to find them. Remember, we have the world at our fingertips, let’s use it to support ourselves and each other.

Mindful Matter:

We believe that all beautiful objects have nature as their inspiration

1. Beautifully shaped hand turned bowls in natural oak by Kihachi Studio.
2. Love it all:  the simple arrangement, the palette and  the light
3. Olio Lusso's signature mix of  delicate jasmine and a hint of neroli is the essence of well being.
4. Spring has sprung with this beautiful cotton crochet lace dress from Velvet. 
5. Nothing is so expansive as the ampersand sign. We love this letterpress print from Sugar Paper. 
6. Ceramik B is a Montreal-based ceramic concept studio that produces refined porcelain pieces.

Right Now

Photo courtesy of Rachel Titiriga

What if this is as good as it gets?

This year.

This month.

Today. 

Now.

Could you find peace?

Landscape Art

Your meditation practice is just that – it's yours. Yours to make into what ever you would like, what ever you are inspired to do or not do. For Andreas Amador, his practice is landscape art, using the beach as his canvas and a rake as his brush, he creates intricate yet temporary pieces. 

In this video by Chris Zabriskie for the SF Chronicle, Amador describes the focus he achieves during his work, how the world falls away and it's just him, the beach and his rake. That focus, that total presence, that's meditation, that's mindfulness. If we learn to achieve it for a moment, we can learn to hold onto it for two moments, maybe four, eventually eight, and so on.

Imagine the beauty we can create in those moments.

Secretly Popular

"So, what do you do?" Talk to someone you don't know long enough and this question surfaces – often and unfortunately very quickly. I then pause, trying to read the questioner, thinking how best to explain Mind & Matter, how deep to take them into our vision and beliefs. Will they get it? Will they think I'm crazy? Do they know what meditation is? Can I be a more stereotypical Berkeley resident?

What I've discovered through these conversations, is that meditation is secretly popular. It's the anti-hero in a John Hughes flick, a curiosity to some, a trusted buddy to others, but either way, fully a part of their scene. Stories of their own experiences or that of friends instantly arise, alongside hows, whats and whys. And it's not just Northern California that I experience this. It's in Manhattan, Vermont, Florida, Chicago. 

It's a secret tribe, a sprawling network unaware of its own existence, unaware of it's potential. Is there a better time to start realizing that potential? I'm not talking fist pumping and picketing, just shinning a little light, opening up a bit, sharing with some folks. 

I think we will be surprised by the reaction. At the very least, we'll be doing our part to spice up the small talk.

Is It Really Time's Fault?

Photo courtesy of Justin Kern

It's 10 minutes. Do we really not have 10 minutes? Or are we choosing 10 minutes of distraction over 10 minutes just being, just listening to our body, listening to our breath? 

Maybe we're scared. Maybe we're lazy. Maybe we don't think it could really help us. What ever our excuse, let's be honest with ourselves, there's plenty of 10-minute windows in our day. It's not time's fault.

It's a choice, a pretty simple one too. Prioritize taking 10 minutes for yourself over anyone or anything and chances are, everyone and everything will get a lot more from you than those 10 minutes could have ever given them.

Rhea Cutillo

If meditation is the act of being present, of feeling the body, fully experiencing the senses, then what better way of meditating than experiencing art.

This piece by Rhea Cutillo at Local 123, a small coffee shop in Berkeley, California caught my eye; well actually, it stopped me dead in my tracks, sucked me in and dropped me off seconds later. In the artist statement, a line described her perfectly "There are places where time ceases to exist, where it is after the end but before the beginning. It is vulnerability but possibility. It is a loss, and a gain, of self."

A pretty good description of what meditation can feel like for some.

Def Meditations

Russell Simmons meditates. Yep, that Russell Simmons, the founder of the Def Jam music label and Phat Farm apparel brand, and the brother to Reverend Run of Run DMC. In this video Simmons shares why he meditates and the impact it has on him and the potential impact on people from all walks of life. 

Dylan's Music Meditations

A clip from D. A. Pennebaker's film, Dont Look Back

"I'll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That's the way I meditate. A lot of people will look at a crack on the wall and meditate, or count sheep or angels or money or something, and it's a proven fact that it'll help them relax. I don't meditate on any of that stuff. I meditate on a song." - Bob Dylan,

From a 2004 interview with Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times

Life Practice

We use the term practice to describe some things in life, medical practice, yoga practice, writing practice, because they take a lifetime to master. Perhaps we need to be using it more throughout our life. Perhaps we need to start using practice to describe life itself and all the pieces of life that really matter to us; love life practice, work-life balance practice, health practice, career practice, parenting practice.

Maybe that would take some of the pressure off, relieve some of the self-judgment, dissolve some the cultural expectations of what we should be feeling like, thinking like, living like. Maybe that would give us a bit of space to get comfortable with where we are, to be honest about where we’d like to go, to let our guard down and try something new, fail and try something else.

If life is a practice, if meditation is a practice, then there is no wrong way, no failure, only rehearsals and exercises. Maybe that gives us the space to try whole-heartedly without fear.