Often during our meditation practice, we encounter a state known as “busy mind,” which is when there’s a kind of ongoing flow of anxious or repetitive mental chatter that tends to keep us locked in the realm of the past or the future, and therefore, mostly distracted from the reality of the present moment, or … the life we’re actually living. This talk explores how this particular mind state is created, and how we can use our mediation practice to mindfully observe and slow down the flow of thoughts, and in turn calm both the mind and body. It includes a meditation at the end.  

During difficult times, allowing ourselves to pause, breathe, and come back home to the present moment is exactly how we can regain our footing, become more grounded, and shore up our ability to more wisely respond instead of automatically react to whatever’s happening. This talk offers us a variety of ways that our meditation practice can help us learn to rest our attention in awareness itself, and discover more calm, compassion, and wisdom in the face of our challenges. It includes a brief meditation at the end.

An essential aspect of our meditation practice involves training ourselves to very consciously and compassionately navigate the truth of constant change, instead of allowing ourselves to become so unconsciously distracted by the swirl of it that we end up missing out on the life we’re actually living. This talk explores how we can use our mindfulness practice to discover more kindness, presence, and a sense of safety - especially during the more major periods of change and grief in our lives. It includes a 10-minute meditation at the end.

Instead of resisting, denying, or trying to ignore a big change in our lives or in our world, the Buddhist teachings invite us to open up to it and deeply acknowledge: “This Is It,” and then ask ourselves: “now what?” Meaning, what’s the wisest, most compassionate response to this change? How can I relate in a way that is going to open my heart, rather than shut it down? This talk explores how we can use our mindfulness practice to help us remain calm in the midst of chaos, and discover the most beneficial answers.

Our common experience of doubt – in ourselves, and in our ability to make good decisions for ourselves, especially - is actually the very last thing the Buddha himself struggled with just before he became enlightened. In fact, his own awakening was his profound message to us: that we all have the innate capability to discover for ourselves what will lead us towards more happiness, and what will lead us towards more suffering. This talk explores how we can use our healthy doubt as the antidote to our unhealthy doubt in order to reveal what is true.

Whenever we experience pain or suffering, our common tendency is to believe that not only is the cause of our suffering in some way wrong, but that our own response to it is also wrong. And therefore, we tend to surmise that we, ourselves, are also somehow wrong. Happily, the Buddhist teachings are designed to help us notice this common pattern, and learn how we can bravely open up to our own suffering and really get to know it – very intimately – so that we can become wiser and more compassionate, and eventually, become free of it. This new talk from Shell explores how we can better allow ourselves our own feelings through the lens of a half-a-dozen different teaching phrases. It includes a meditation at the end.

The Buddha insisted that our relationships make up the “whole” of our spiritual life, and and urged us to use our mindfulness practice to become more aware of who we’re choosing to associate with in order to assure our sense of peace and well-being. Happily, his teachings offer us numerous ways that we can use our meditation practice to better discern whether our relationships are offering us poison (or, something that makes us feel bad), or medicine. This talk explores how we can tap into our wise bodies and hearts to help us make these important decisions. It includes a meditation at the end.

As opposed to the act of “striving,” which involves a kind of unhealthy or stressful clinging to some sort of expectation, and typically arises from our more self-centered mind, or ego - the quality of aditthana (or determination, in the Pali language) almost always arises from the heart, as in, from our heart’s desire.

And because our heart is just naturally wise and compassionate, if we commit ourselves to following it, it will almost always lead us towards more joy, ease, and peace in our lives.

This talk explores how we can not only use our meditation practice to establish this powerful quality, but learn how to more mindfully discern whether we’re being driven by our tricky minds, or by the much vaster space of our heart. It includes a meditation at the end.

Whenever we perceive that some sort of harm is being done – either by another person, people, or even on a more national or global level - how can we best confront this without nurturing aversion in our own hearts, or letting it consume us in some way? This talk explores the Buddha’s teachings on how we can use our meditation practice to help us to say “no” or maybe “that’s enough” without doing further harm to either ourselves or others, or allowing our aversion to shut down our hearts. It includes a meditation at the end.

This talk addresses the question: How can we flow between all the different roles, hats, or identities that we place on ourselves every day, and that kind, wise, compassionate presence within us that is actually free of those often-limiting identities, or beliefs about who we think we “should” be? The answer involves using our meditation practice to examine how we can begin to loosen our strong grip on all of our toxic “shoulds,” and uncover and find comfort in what is often called our Buddha Nature, or, the truth of who we really are. It includes a meditation at the end.