contrary to the life we embody, to the love we are called to embody, to offer, to serve.
even as some descend into madness, may we rise up with minds of focus and clarity, luminous as stars across a darkened night, with strong backs, open hearts, and fierce compassion to end harm as generations have before us.
may this moment bring forth the bodhisattvas in the world and the bodhisattva within each of us.
may there be an end to ignorance, an end to aggression, an end to harm, an end to suffering.
learning to become friends with ourselves and relate to the world and others in a more open-hearted, calm and steady way is a beautiful and beneficial skill we can acquire through meditation practice. but this isn’t the only benefit a consistent meditation practice can bring. did you know it has numerous benefits for your own mental, emotional, and physical health as well?
a consistent meditation practice has been shown to reduce tension, lower blood pressure, reduce stress and stress related illnesses, improve sleep, and increase happiness.
it’s a skill and practice we can learn that can benefit our relationship to others and to ourselves, a beneficial path we can travel in our daily lives, and a refuge to return to again and again.
if you’d like to learn the practices of Mindfulness Awareness and Lovingkindness, join me this coming weekend for either Self-Care Saturday or Sunday at 9am PT- or both. the sessions are offered for free or pay-what-you-can, with suggested donation of $10. www.linktr.ee/jaysenwaller
have a great week!
~j
⭕️❤️🙏🏻
if you’d like to support my teaching and art sharing with a donation – thank you! you can do so through one time donation on Venmo or PayPal, or through regular giving on Patreon. there are 7 levels of support beginning at $3/month with various unique and beneficial rewards. www.linktr.ee/jaysenwaller
we don’t have to be Buddhist to sit like a Buddha.
we sit upright with confidence and dignity, with an open heart and humility, breathing in and out with awareness, attentive to the present moment, not lost in distraction, or grasping, or aggression.
it may take practice, but it’s possible, because we are embodiments of life, of love.
~j
⭕️❤️🙏🏻
if you’d like to sit together and practice, consider joining me next weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 9am PTeither day for Mindfulness Awareness Meditation practice and Lovingkindness Meditation practice. sessions are free or pay-what-you-can donation, with suggestion of $10. visit www.linktr.ee/jaysenwaller for links to join 👍🏻
if you find this post, my writing, photography and/or art beneficial, please consider supporting my practice and sharing, with one time donation on Venmo or PayPal, or regularly monthly giving through Patreon. visit www.linktr.ee/jaysenwaller for links 👍🏻
one of the hallmarks of meditation practice is beginning again. when our attention drifts away from our breath and we become lost in thought, once we are aware of this, we simply return to placing our attention on our breath. we begin again without judgement or criticism. we are practicing gentleness, rather than harshness.
we can take this practice into other areas of our lives as well. whatever it is, we can take an attitude of gentleness, of grace, and just come back, returning again to our commitments, to our vow, to our choice to be present, open-hearted, and embody love.
and yes, even if it is a thousand times and more, just return, begin again.
~j
⭕️❤️🙏🏻
if you’d like to practice beginning again within meditation, join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturday or Sunday or both. donations appreciated. www.linktr.ee/jaysenwaller
if you’d like to consider ongoing support for my art and teaching, please check out my Patreon. www.patreon.com/jaysenwaller
when we meditate we often use the breath as our object of observation or as our anchor for our attention, touching the feeling of our breathing and staying with it as it cycles in and out. this is mindfulness. and sometimes while having our attention placed on the feeling of our breathing, we also open our awareness to sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts.
we can also use nature for this. we can place our attention on the sounds of birds or the breeze flowing through the trees, or keeping our attention with the breath we can open our awareness to these sounds of nature. and though we may not know what the birds or the breeze are saying, we can still feel a connection, and even awe. afterall, we too are nature, are life – though we often forget,- so when we pay attention to other life in nature, we are in a way also paying attention to ourselves.
nature can also be a comforting reminder that we are a part of something much more vast than we are often aware of. we don’t have to feel alone. we are a part of a beautiful tapestry, each thread a part of the whole. life is at once both intimate and vast. ⭕️❤️🙏🏻
hello friends! join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturday or Self-Care Sunday – or both!
this 1 Hour Group Meditation includes Mindfulness Awareness Practice & Lovingkindness Meditation Practice.
this session is online via Zoom. video is optional. session will not be recorded. no previous experience necessary, just a willingness to sit, breathe and learn some technique for working with our thoughts, and opening our hearts. introduction, instruction and guidance will be given.
DM if you have any questions. hope to see you this weekend!
~j
⭕️❤️🙏🏻
if you would like to support my work with ongoing generosity, please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber. if you would like to support my work with a one-time donation, please consider PayPal or Venmo. all links: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller
may this day be an invitation to go deeper in our love for others and ourselves, to expand our view of love to include even that which we have decided is unlovable, and to touch the Great Love that is the ground of all being, our foundation, our compass, and destination (spoiler alert – the destination is here and now, as we are, with the world as it is).
may our eyes and hearts open to the love that is not boxed in by fleeting feelings of affection and the ever changing tides of emotion, but set free by intention and vow – to choose love and the work of love for people and a world in need.
holding all of you – you who are embodiments of love, along with this world, and this life in my heart and practice with love. ~j ⭕️❤️🙏🏻
in life there will always be change, movement and obstacles. even as life brings changes and obstacles arise on our path, we can still commit to a path of love, of contributing to the healing rather than the harm. we can keep moving and walking towards what is love, what is beneficial. the path of love is buoyed by practice. when we sit, when we settle down and pay attention to our breath, coming home to our bodies and this moment, when we touch the tenderness and warmth of our own heart and direct that feeling and aspiration to love towards ourselves and others, we support a foundational quality of being that can also be accessed and practiced as we go about our daily lives in situations and conversations. ~j
⭕️❤️🙏🏻
*if interested in meditation practice, working with your mind and heart, join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturday or Self-Care Sunday at 9am PT. Links below 👍🏻 For Saturday 2/12: https://buytickets.at/jmwartmeditation/649352
i love this quote by the late and great bell hooks 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
with meditation practice, we practice allowing space, and that space supports the opportunity for our heart to open and awaken to who and what we are, which is love.
reprieve, rather than retreat. when we feel overwhelmed, we may have a tendency to retreat, to close up, to stick our head in the sand. there is an instinct at work there that is calling our attention to a need to rest & take care. however, if we retreat, the challenge, the obstacle doesn’t magically disappear (raises fist to the heavens “but why not??!”). they are still there, we may miss the learning opportunity, & if there is harm being done, then people are still suffering, & as long as some are suffering, there is collective suffering. we are in this together. love moves us to consider both ourselves & the other, & through the lens of love (born of empathy, embodied by compassion) there is a clarity, & we see there really is no other. there is another option. we have the option of a reprieve rather than a retreat. we can simply take a break. though love moves us to care for others, it also moves us to care for ourselves. we need to rest & take good care of ourselves. self-care is an act of love. so it can be an act of love to take a reprieve from the challenges & obstacles we face & to rest. rest gives us the opportunity to loosen our grasp, to refocus, & be open to new approaches. we can be reborn into action that is truly beneficial. love is work. it isn’t a feeling as much as it is a choice. feelings come & go along w/ the tide, but our choice, our commitment, our vow to love can remain constant, even as the sea of impermanence brings changes. the world needs such love & those committed to it. hope is born from such luminous space. i have deep abiding hope, because i still see love at work. the world needs us, our talents, our skills, our love. but the world also needs us rested & not burnt out. take good care. ~j
