This guided meditation begins with an awareness of the unfolding of experience and an invitation to let go in to it. In the second half, we'll move from the anchor of the breath and the body to asking, "What is this?" whenever a thought, emotion or sensation arises. The goal is not to figure it out instead to sit with whatever arises.

Solitude can be elusive, even when we are all by ourselves! This talk and guided practice offer approaches to connecting with solitude in any situation or circumstance.

In times of uncertainty, remembering our deep connection with the earth and other beings can be centering and grounding. Enjoy this practice as a way to begin your day or reset throughout the day.

Despite the constraints of social distancing and the limitations of moving through the world in the time of Covid-19, many of us find ourselves still quite busy. The mind is always working, producing new thoughts, ideas and emotions. As we practice, we learn to be aware of this unfolding without getting stuck in it.

The following practice invites one to observe the unfolding of their experience without trying to change it or make it a certain way. As Jack Kornfield says, "the point of meditation is not to perfect yourself, but to improve your capacity to love." By sitting with our experience and letting go of our expectations, we can arrive at presence and peace.

We began our weekly gathering with the story of the 2 Bad Bricks. We are inclined towards seeing the negative but often miss the positive within it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiu7iHzYQhQ.

This meditation invites the practitioner to reflect on the 'good bricks' in our experience and settle into a feeling of wellbeing and balance.

This talk and guided practice offers everyday tools for being with our experience. These practices help us create a space between stimulus and response so that we can bring compassion, intuition and reason to our actions.

The challenge of our time is how to be with what is happening right now. Being aware of it and allowing it to be as it is when we have no control. That doesn't mean we are "OK" with it but instead we learn how to respond thoughtfully to our conditions so that we may see them change and evolve. The guided meditation on working with difficulty inspired by Ajahn Brahm's story, Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung. Watch Brahm describe it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx2dnLxO2nM as well as the Body-Centered Inquiry work of Jonathan Foust (jonathanfoust.com).

The following practice is a complement to the full talk and guided meditation on working with difficulty inspired by Ajahn Brahm's story, Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung. Watch Brahm describe it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx2dnLxO2nM

Today we offer a gentle body scan to connect you with your experience as you drop into presence. Visit us at www.center4selfcare.com to learn more.