Calgary Mindfulness Weekly Meditation

Welcome to Calgary Mindfulness weekly Sunday 15 minute practice! What a great way to start your day. In today's practice, we move into several new anchors for meditation - mindfulness of thoughts, emotions and sound. Sound is a very good anchor for those who are easily distracted, and have a hard time staying focused on the breath. Also a reminder that our work in meditation is not about emptying...

Today we explore the third anchor of mindfulness meditation, and that is the body scan. We have touched upon this in our previous two classes this year, but today's practice focuses entirely on the body, and builds in the skills we learned in the first two classes. To join our weekly Sunday 8:30am meditation, please write Calgary Mindfulness at Gmail dot com. To watch a video of today's meditation...

In today's practice we explore applying mantra to the inhalation and exhalation to train resilience and focus. In this case, each inhalation we call upon and explore our inner strength, and each exhalation is an opportunity to release thoughts and emotions that chip away at our self-esteem and self-confidence. To join our weekly practice, please email me at calgary mindfulness at gmail dot com. We...

Welcome back everyone! In this practice, we go over two basic anchors of mindfulness meditation--the body and the breath. Join us by writing calgary mindfulness at gmail dot com every Sunday morning 8:30 mountain time.

What better way to bid adieu to the old year and ring in the new year than to sit with our thoughts and lay down some intentions for 2024. I'm not talking about losing 20 pounds or exercising 3 times a week, as in traditional resolutions, but exploring spiritual qualities/gifts/blessings we'd like to develop--the ability to give and receive love and forgiveness more easily, wisdom, ease, peacefuln...

Today's intention was submitted by a participant, and furthers our practices from the last few weeks, whereby we explore the irrational pressures we place our ourselves to be perfect in order to be happy. At this time of year that can seem like an insurmountable set of tasks, goals and also there may be emotional and financial hardship that makes the holiday season extra challenging. Join us for a...

Greetings folks! Sorry about the first portion of this meditation; I was muted and didn't realize. I've trimmed the muted part of our mindfulness body scan, but won't have time to re-record it today, so I hope this will do. After our usual body scan we began a meditation based on the submission of a class participant, and that is how to handle the stress that seems to snowball at this time of you....

We continue our exploration of heart-mind-body congruence with a meditation today on developing equanimity - that is, accepting what-is. This is not natural for humans, and it is pretty hard for some people depending upon our personalities; eg, if we are more easy-going, or more high-strung etc. That doesn't mean we have to like circumstances beyond our control or be happy about them; nurturing ou...

In our meditation today, we continue our exploration of heart mind body congruence, whereby we are working to align our thoughts, feelings and how the body physically feels regarding stressors. Our first step on this process is to identify and sit with mental and physical comfort and discomfort compassionately. Write calgarymindfulness@gmail.com

In this meditation, we explore via breath and body scan as well as visualization the incongruency of mind-heart-body, where we think we're calm until something sets us off and then we're overwhelmed with the flight-fight state and not able to conduct ourselves in a way that aligns with our highest and best. For more information, please visit www. CalgaryMindfulness.ca and write to join our weekly...

Greetings and welcome back after our holiday last week, where I was busy with Remembrance Day tributes. Today, our short practice centres on being available to ourselves emotionally and physically during our practice. It is a meditation-based response to a question submitted by one of our listeners, about being tired and stressed all the time. There are many reasons at root--some could be medical/...

In today's meditation, we explore directing loving kindness toward ourselves, and also toward others. This topic was inspired by a class member's submission regarding how to handle anger and a sense of victimization. A practice where we remind ourselves that others are not our enemies is vital to correcting chronic anger and resentment.

In the spirit of Halloween and All Soul's Day, in this meditation we begin with a grounding mindfulness practice and then continue into a loving kindness meditation to honour all those loved ones that journeyed on this planet before us, bringing us to this point. To join our weekly meditation, please email calgarymindfulness@gmail.com and visit our website at calgarymindfulness.ca

In this practice, we use the breath and body as focus anchors to explore the importance of respecting, honoring and accepting ourselves in order to offer the highest and best to ourselves and others. Often we are distracted with thoughts of our flaws, pain, imperfections and feel unworthy for giving and receiving our highest and best to ourselves and others. Today, we use the inhalation to remind...

In this episode, I respond to a listener question. The listener was struggling with the fact that despite therapy, meditating and many other modalities of self-care, he was still feeling at the whim of experiences, and tends to crash when circumstances get hard. Meditating helps us expose the root-cause thoughts of fear, shame and basically "unlovability" that keeps dragging us down despite our po...

For Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Always an excellent time for a gratitude meditation. In today's community meditation, I discuss some questions submitted to me this past week about anxiety. One of the fastest meditation anchors that can lift us out of being stuck in anxiety is gratitude. In our lives, service to community and others can also lift us out of being stuck in anxiety. While w...

In today's practice, I respond to a couple questions received from participants about what type of meditation is best, and how to use meditation to get more done. What exactly is it that we need to get done to feel like we have enough control, are good enough, are successful enough anyway? Today we unpack these expectations with a body scan meditation. To register, please email calgarymindfulness@...

Greetings! This is our final outdoor meditation at Lake Midnapore, since I believe it will be raining this coming Sunday. Today's practice focuses on traditional mindfulness anchors, and relaxation as well. Enjoy!

Today, we begin our practice with a basic mindfulness meditation and move into a community loving kindness practice. Recorded at Lake Midnapore in Calgary on September 17, 2023. Enjoy!

Welcome back to our new season of mindfulness meditations. Covering the basics of mindfulness today to help you get to know the basic anchors of breath, body and sound. Recorded Sunday September 10, 2023.

In this meditation, we connect the strong, flexible posture for meditation and the breath (whether we're sitting, standing, lying down) to the image of a mountain, which is immense and stable, yet yielding and life-giving. An introductory meditation. Originally aired January 12, 2023 by Calgary Mindfulness.

In today's meditation, we complete a body scan with the goal of locating and releasing stress. This is the single-most requested topic I get! Originally broadcast January 29, 2023 by Calgary Mindfulness

Today's stress release meditation was inspired by a class member's concern over how meditation can help with the challenges she is facing in her day to day life of feeling overwhelmed with medical and personal situations that she can't fix. Originally broadcast by Calgary Mindfulness on February 12, 2023.

In today's meditation, we explore our shared human connections - both the little joys, the little pains and the bigger aspect of suffering; of holding our pain and that of others in compassionate awareness. Originally broadcast February 5, 2023

In this short Sunday practice, we review essential anchors for mindfulness practice (posture, body, breath) and connect each with deep gratitude. In doing so, we bring stillness to our lives quickly and connect joy to our small actions. Originally broadcast February 26, 2023