This post originally appeared as, 15 Red-Flag Warning Signs You Need A Retreat (+ What To Do About It), that I wrote for the Lake Louise Wellness blog. You might be familiar with this scenario: you set an intention to adopt good habits that support your health and wellbeing. Then one day, you realize you’ve gone drastically off course. Your health is suffering,…
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Twenty years ago when I opened a Hotmail account, I wrote my first email to my grandmother from Mysore, India. Toppy and I had exchanged letters regularly since I was a child, and I was thrilled by this magical device that let me see her letters in a matter of hours, rather than weeks. Fast forward 25 years, and my…
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Can meditation help you cultivate emotional balance? That depends. Through developing alertness while in a settled state of mind, you might begin to notice things that are “trending” in your consciousness. If you pay attention to your emotional landscape, you can respond appropriately. But, if you are simply relaxing the mind, or spacing out and calling it meditation practice, the…
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We live in crazy times. Sometimes it feels like staying sane is a full-time job, and amping up daily. Political turmoil, immigration issues, environmental disasters, human rights scandals. Then, places where many people go to find solace fall apart as spiritual communities disintegrate under the burden of unethical leaders. Where do we turn for self care? The short answer is:…
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Most people begin meditation practice because they think it will make them feel better. Fair enough: many people’s first introduction to sitting practice is a technique called shamatha meditation. Shamatha, in Sanskrit, translates as “developing peace.” But the development of this peace is often anything but peaceful. When you first sit down to observe your mind in shamatha meditation, it may feel…
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