I know..I know.. when I started this blog, I had hoped to have way more opportunity to share some ideas and ponderings but alas life got in the way (in a good way!) but here I am…

We just finished the six-week meditation series From Problems to Progress – Positive Energy for Our Everyday Lives!
We sold out and I got to meet some amazing people! It was wonderful to hear how practicing a meditation over six weeks had an impact on people’s personal lives and how they were in relation to others both personally and professionally.

I love the meditation we used because it is so helpful in keeping our focus on enhancing positive qualities that we possess and then use these qualities to make the world a better place. Of course, it also reminds us of those parts of ourselves that we wish to improve on and gives us an opportunity to do so.

Thank you to the amazing people who attended!

My plan is to run another session in the future so if you might be interested please contact me for more information. You can also send me your email or subscribe to my blog to get notices of upcoming events.

I am also available to do this for private groups that would like to bring a more positive atmosphere to their setting, so again please contact me if you might be interested.

And now to new beginnings…

For me spring is always the time for new adventure and beginnings…
It’s also a time when we get outside, plant our seeds and get our hands in our gardens to see what we can help cultivate and grow…

As I think of this I am reminded of something I learned from the writings of Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, scholar and peace activist and spiritual teacher.  Thich Nhat Hahn describes our mind like a piece of land with many different kinds of seeds: seeds of joy, peace, love and understanding; and also seeds of fear, craving, anger and hate. He says these seeds are always ‘sleeping in the soil of our mind’. The quality of our mind depends on the seeds we choose to water. Just as if we plant tomato seeds in our garden, tomatoes will grow –  if we water our seeds of peace, peace will grow. When we water our seeds of happiness, we will become happy. The seeds we water most often will grow the strongest.

In my role as a social worker and caregiver, I am often witnessing moments of sorrow, anger and fear. I share with my clients the importance of tending to their ‘joy seeds’ to make sure their gardens are not over run by the ‘sorrow seeds.’ And similarly,  I constantly remind and challenge myself to make sure that I engage in activities that water my ‘joy seeds’ everyday.

As such, I am going to be offering an eight session group “Watering Our Joy Seeds: Cultivating Happiness in Our Lives.”  In this course we will use tools from the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin along with other meditations and exercises. It is my hope that in community we can learn to ‘water the seeds of joy in ourselves’ every day.

Please contact me if you are interested and I will post further information as it becomes available.

and now I am off for a walk with my family on this gorgeous day.  Off to water my ‘joy seeds’…

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