For years, speed skater Katherine Adamek struggled with chronic professional self-doubt, despite having won two Olympic medals. The anxiety and insecurity were bleeding over from the ice into her personal life. A hip injury forced her into retirement in 2013.

After three years, though, Adamek was craving a comeback, but I wanted to do things differently this time, she says, building my confidence and learning how to be present for my teammates, how to enjoy my successes and learn from my mistakes instead ruminating and judging myself for them. She reached out to an Olympic sports psychologist with whom shed previously trained, who agreed to help, with one caveat: Adamek needed to start using a meditation app.

Between grueling workouts, Adamek interspersed three-minute guided meditations, building to 10- and 20-minute sessions. Within a few weeks, negative emotions passed more easily. I noticed changes in my relationships with my family, friends and teammates. I could enter a strength training session feeling confident, even if my last workout wasnt great. Adamek set a new American record at her first World Cup Circuit back from retirement in 2016.

Related: The Best Free Meditation Appsand One You Should Pay For

In the early 90s, when Phil Jackson (Nickname: The Zen Master) introduced mindfulness to the Chicago Bulls, the concept of athletes using meditation to tune into their bodies and minds and live in the moment was novel. But as meditation has moved mainstream among the American publicmore than tripling from 2012 to 2017, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionmore and more athletes have embraced the technique.

Kobe Bryant, who learned to meditate when Jackson began coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, has said 15 minutes of daily morning meditation act like an anchor for his day, leaving him calm, set and ready for whatever may come my way. Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and an ardent believer in mindfulness, hired a sport psychologist to teach meditation, deep breathing and visualization to his athletes as a means of calming their minds during stressful plays and helping them enter the zonethe mental state of peak performance where an athlete can seemingly do no wrong. And Nike has partnered with the Headspace meditation app, offering subscribers features like mindful guided runs as part of a holistic athlete experience.

Orthopedic surgeon Mark Schickendantz, MD, director of Cleveland Clinic Sports Health and head team physician of the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team (yes, they employ a mindfulness coach), says meditation doesnt make players run faster or hit the ball with more force. It allows athletes to grow more grounded and centered, he explains and that mental stillness translates into them being able to tune out noise from the crowd, or not let a strike out wreck their performance for the rest of the game.

Schickendantz says it can do the same for everyday folks watching from the bleachers. Think about the stressors that come into our lives and catch us off guard; we tend to react mindlessly, yelling at the person who cut us off in traffic, for example. With practice, meditation and other mindfulness techniques help you respond to stress in a calmer, more present manner.

Practice gratitude. It can reduce depression and anxiety, lower your risk of disease and flood the brain with feel-good chemicals like serotonin. Work gratitude into your daily routine by reaching out to say thanks to someone who means a lot to you.

You dont need a candlelit yoga studio or an NBA locker room; just find a quiet, comfortable place where you can sit upright and be comfortable. Choose something to focus on; your breath, a mantra, an object. Feel your feet on the floor, connecting to the earth, and take three deep cleansing breaths, inhaling through your nose and out through your mouth, Schickendantz says.

Outside thoughts, like your looming To Do list, are bound to arise. Not only is that perfectly OK its the point of meditating. Mind-wandering isnt bad, he assures. Dont judge it. Just recognize it, label itWhoops, my mind is wandering and bring yourself back to the meditation. This continual re-centering is what builds mindfulness muscles, helping you better filter out stress and distractions and respond to life in a calmer, less-judgmental manner.

Creating a formal daily practice can maximize your benefits, but Journal of Clinical Psychology research found that meditating for five minutes a day, five days a week was enough to slash stress, elevate happiness and enhance the sense of connection subjects felt with others. Try grabbing it throughout the day, encourages Schickendantz, who practices while stuck in traffic. Do it while standing in line at the coffee shopinstead of automatically grabbling your phone [and mindlessly scrolling,] just stand there and be with yourself. (These are sometimes called micro-meditations.)

Related:The Four Sacred SecretsAuthors Share Their Favorite 6-Step Meditation for Beginners

Thanks to modern-day addictions like smartphones and social media, along with the tendency to over-analyze our words and actions, many of us neglect to tune into our thoughts and emotions, causing us to miss out on everyday moments, big or small, and disconnecting us from our bodies, says ChristianSlomka, Community Manager for the Calm meditation app. For athletes, losing focus can mean the difference between a huge win or loss; for you, the stakes range from sad (your little one feels ignored when you appear to choose your tablet over her) to sick (constant rumination triggers the bodys stress response, which is linked with an exhaustive laundry list of illnesses) to devastating (a texting-while-driving car accident).

Schickendantz says relief comes by treating pain just like an unwelcome thought: You identify it, label itTheres that pain againand let it go, accepting it as something that just happens to be a part of your life right now. Its not easy, he acknowledges but it can work. In a recent study by the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, meditation and mindful breathing helped patients manage chronic pain, sometimes lessening the need for opioid medication. Other research showed a single 10-minute meditation session could feasibly replace painkillers, boosting pain tolerance and reducing pain-related anxiety.

Whether youre an injured Olympian coping with an injury or a parent attempting to keep cool during a toddler temper tantrum, meditation can help you respond to life in a calm, mindful, less judgmental way. The practice also elicits multiple calm-inducing health effects, such as decreased heart rate and blood pressure, and reduced stress hormone production.

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The National Sleep Foundation says people who meditate fall asleep faster, sleep longer and catch higher quality zzzs.

Pre-meditation, Id bring work home with me and it would affect my interactions with my husband, Adamek described. After six weeks of using the Vision Pursue meditation app (cofounded by 10-year NFL veteran Jon McGraw), I brought less stress home with me and could be present, asking him about his dayand really listening. Back on the ice post-retirement, her new mindful skills helped her tune into teammates having bad days, encouraging them to open up. Today, as owner of a coaching company called Fix Your Mindset, Adamek helps athletes and organizations reach their next level via mental toughness skills including, of course, meditation.

Try a mealtime meditation with this easy exercise.

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5 Benefits of Meditation: Why Athletes Meditate and You Should, Too - Parade

Mindfulness can prove useful tool for managing stress, overwhelming emotions

Even meditating for 15 minutes a day can improve overall quality of life by increasing focus and reducing tension in the body.

LAUREN PETTIT | DAILY EVERGREEN ILLUSTRATION

Even meditating for 15 minutes a day can improve overall quality of life by increasing focus and reducing tension in the body.

LAUREN PETTIT | DAILY EVERGREEN ILLUSTRATION

LAUREN PETTIT | DAILY EVERGREEN ILLUSTRATION

Even meditating for 15 minutes a day can improve overall quality of life by increasing focus and reducing tension in the body.

RAINY SHARMA, Evergreen columnistOctober 25, 2019

Stop for a second. Take a deep breath, filling your stomach, not just your chest. Let your shoulders drop, unclench your jaw and exhale.

Even something simple like this can make a big change in your daily life. As human beings, we experience stress every day. One way to help reduce this is therapies like meditation and qigong.

Shallow breathing may increase stress and anxiety. This is when our lungs do not receive enough oxygen. When such a situation arises, we may feel stressed out because our body does not have proper energy.

Sometimes breath [or] energy gets trapped in some parts of the body like neck or shoulders due to our sitting posture and we do not realize it. This generally happens due to shallow breathing, said Liz Lee, licensed acupuncturist and traditional East Asian medicine practitioner at Pullman Regional Hospital.

This is where meditation and qigong come in, as both techniques involve deep breathing. Meditation is focusing the mind, breathing normally and letting go of all the other thoughts. This helps a person to stay emotionally calm and can eventually reduce stress.

Meditation helps you become yourself. It relieves you from the stress and uncertainties that you may be feeling in society, in your life, said Nitivia Jones, international student adviser at WSU. I think it can liberate you and free you to be more confident in the knowledge about who [you are] and thats the best thing you can be.

Some people find it difficult to focus their mind during meditation. In that case, qigong can be helpful as it involves slow physical movements along with visualization and deep breathing through the abdomen. Visualization means to focus on the flow of energy through body while doing the physical movements. This can help increase concentration.

While both meditation and qigong have many positive aspects, they can harm the body in a negative way if not done properly. Hence, it is always suggested to do it with a group of people that are already doing it and under the guidance of proper instructors.

The basic qigong exercises like hand movements and breathing need not require much guidance, Lee said, but if you are moving towards advanced qigong, it is essential to do it under expert guidance.

The same applies for meditation as well. There are many health risks associated with meditation if not done properly. It can lead to seizures due to changes in the normal functioning of the body like blood pressure and heart rate. In some cases, it may lead to increased levels of stress and anxiety and even panic attacks.

One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that meditation is a slow process and it takes time to show its effects. It is important to be patient and not expect results very quickly. A casual approach toward meditation can hamper the results. Even the Dalai Lama himself cautions people against a casual approach toward meditation.

Another thing that can be done when you are stressed or do not feel right is to communicate. Sometimes people might feel the signs of stress and anxiety in their body, but they do not share it with anybody and keep it to themselves. This may worsen the situation. It is always better to let go of the thoughts and reach out for help.

Some people find it harder to reach out as they dont want to look stupid, especially if they feel it is something very basic, Jones said. But this should not be the case. If [you do look] stupid, its OK and you should reach out for help.

While in many cases, meditation and qigong show effective results, in extreme cases of depression and sleeplessness, it may be important to take medication; however, this should only be done following the consultation from a medical professional.

Its for a medical professional to decide whether pills are the appropriate choice, Jones said.

It is also helpful if medication and meditation are done simultaneously as they are not mutually exclusive, but this should not be done without proper consultation.

Along with pills, people should also think if they are having proper food and proper breathing. They should not only depend on pills, Lee said.

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OPINION: Meditation can be used as treatment for depression, anxiety - The Daily Evergreen

Adult coloring books have been having a moment. A trendy take on the childhood classic, they are filled with whimsical scenes of landscapes and gardens or interconnected geometric patterns rather than the old cartoon characters. And while picking up some colored pencils and trying to stay inside the lines (or not, no judgment!) may feel a bit juvenile, art therapy is actually a well-regarded treatment style. Of course, sitting at your desk coloring isn't quite the same thing as working with a licensed art therapist, but you can still reap some major benefits from a good old-fashioned coloring session.

In fact, one study found that mindfulness-guided mandala coloring decreased anxiety in participants. And in another study, students who colored a pattern, rather than free-drawing, saw greater improvements in anxiety as well. Study authors hypothesized that "the complexity and structure of the plaid and mandala designs drew the participants into a meditative-like state that helped reduce their anxiety."

And the next big thing in coloring might be tracing. This stripped-back version of coloring offers another way to focus on a specific task, tapping into mindfulness. You can try it for yourself in the new 72-page workbook Trace by Baron Fig and Kyle T. Webster. As co-founder Joey Cofone explains, "Tracing and coloring fall into similar categories. They're both passive mind activities that help one relax by providing a simple set of directives."

Maybe it is the nostalgia of spending worry-free childhood days with crayons in hand that makes it so calming, but Cofone has another theory, adding, "The act of tracing engages a different part of the mind. It doesn't require active thinking but, rather, passive thinking in which our busy thought-centers are allowed to take a break."So sharpen those colored pencils, and start creating; you might just sharpen your mindfulness skills at the same time.

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4 Ways To Practice Active Meditation If You Can't Sit Still - mindbodygreen.com

If you think you have a lot of Apple stuff, think again. It looks like Microsoft Apple employee Jimmy Grewal has you licked after he shared photos of his new Apple meditation room.

Quite how anyone can meditate while surrounded by so much awesome, I'm not really sure!

Looking through everything in that collection I'm not sure what my favorite item is. There's an Xserve which you don't see very often. And who doesn't love Power Macs and cheese grater Mac Pros?

And if you're wondering if that's everything, it's not. There's more!

Grewal says that there are still computers that need to be moved in from his office so the awesome is going to get even more...awesome. I can't wait to see this room/shrine/museum/best thing I've ever seen when it's finished.

Jimmy Grewal previously worked as the Program Manager on Microsoft's Mac Internet Explorer team and is currently a director of Elcome International.

Do you know of a room that can beat this? Can you? I'd love to know in the comments down below. The more obscure the Apple memoribilia, the better!

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This is what the ultimate Apple-inspired meditation room looks like - iMore

I sit down to meditate and my mind explodes with catastrophic thinking. I dont get a moments peace from my mean inner critic. Whats the matter with me? I even fail at sitting still with nothing to do.Said by every traumatized meditation student I have ever worked with.

These days, meditation is becoming a recommended treatment to heal everything from fibromyalgia to panic attacks. It is true that healing is a powerful side-effect of meditation. It is also true that relaxation and breathing practices heal the nervous system and improve our physical and emotional health.

Giving your inner critic more air time isnt meditation. Its torture. Forcing ourselves to sit through storms of self-recrimination traumatizes us more.

We need a certain amount of healing from trauma and the compulsions of our mind before practicing meditation will allow us to experience stillness and peace.

Meditation is the seventh rung of Raja Yoga, a holistic comprehensive system from India. The first two rungs guide us in daily life through principles like kindness, truth, and non-attachment. Rungs three and four bring in yoga poses, breathing, energy work and relaxation. Five and six help us develop the capacity to withdraw our attention away from distractions of daily life and focus inward.

Relaxation, breathing and yoga can open up space and glimpses of peace and stillness. Then, with our life working better, and with our body breath and mind somewhat healed, we are able to meditate and enjoy the stillness within.

Mindfulness and the Inner Critic

Children who grow up without stable attachment with parents feel unsafe and unprotected. This is the root of the current epidemic of anxiety and depression and often drives addiction as a way to escape our pain. We need to get away from feeling unworthy and broken.

Someone is angry and abusive with us. We feel alone and without resources. We are humiliated,afraid and helpless. Our nervous system goes into fight/ flight/ freeze/ fawn strategies to ensure we will never feel that terror and hopelessness again. Hating ourselves feels safer than completely disconnecting from our parents.

Critical voices of our parents become our own inner critic. We experienced their abuse or neglect as evidence something was fundamentally wrong with us and this belief is deeply lodged in our unconscious mind and in our body. We take over shaming ourselves.

In Vipassana meditation, a popular form of mindfulness meditation in the West, the practice is to observe what comes and goes in the mind. In this way we get to know ourselves. The first step in change is awareness. We cant work with what we dont see.

Trauma informed mindfulness is where we notice what is going on in our mind, then we intervene. We are firm with our mind to stop compulsive, catastrophic and worst-case scenario thinking. Bathing in toxic thoughts makes us feel worse about ourselves.

Beliefs of your unworthiness are not true. These are false core deficiency beliefs.

You were hurt, alone and not to blame for what happened. As adults, we can see that we couldnt cure moms depression or dads temper or whatever was contributing to their unhappiness. It had little to do with us. We were made to feel that their frustrations with life were our fault. This is not true.

A childs strategies dont work because they are not responsible for, and do not have the power to heal a parents mental health, addictions or to stop violence.

From our perspective now, witnessing can help us see our fears, beliefs and the strategies we tried. We become familiar with the energy and feelings in our body and they dont scare us anymore. We feel safe enough to be present because we know that sensations are not here to hurt us.

We develop the capacity to stay grounded and steady even when our mind is stirred up and we feel afraid. We become respectful, patient and kind with ourselves. We know when to move closer and when to take a break to breathe and become grounded again.

Safety IS the treatment. Dr Stephen Porges

We do not need to push or be aggressive with ourselves. Acknowledge that you do want to heal and you are doing the best you can. Kindness and compassion for ourselves is possible and essential. Be patient and understanding with yourself. It takes courage and time to heal.

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This is NOT the Time to Meditate - Thrive Global

This article is part ofHives Mental Health Week initiative. To celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10th, were hosting a panel all about mental health at work. To compliment that panel, were releasing articles throughout the week about mental health in an effort to open and improve dialogue around mental health.

Meditation has become a buzzword in the wellness community over the last 10 years and is now the fastest-growing health trend in the United States. There aredozens of meditation apps on the market,meditation studios where you can practice with a group, and evenweek-long meditation retreatsthat you can sign up for.

When it comes to meditation, the science is definitely there to back up any anecdotal claims of its benefits it really does helpreduce negative activity in the brainand increase activity in the part that aids in positive emotion and attention. Meditation has also been shown toalleviate anxiety and depression, increase focus, make you more creative, andenhance our ability to connect and empathizewith others.

Weve written before about howmeditation is becoming the next big productivity tool its effects on focus, memory and positive emotions are hard to argue with. And being the forward-thinking tech startup we are, we decided to conduct an office-wide Hive experiment to see how much of an impact meditation really makes on our ability to get things done. To kick this experiment off, we brought a meditation expert into the office fromMNDFL, one of our partners throughout our Mental Health Week initiative (which you can learn more abouthere). MNDFL is a meditation studio in New York that teaches a variety of class types, ranging from breath to mantra classes, and also offers corporate in-office sessions.

Hive employees gathered in our biggest conference room at 11:30 AM, right before lunch, to take part in a 30 minute MNDFL Breath class, which is described as a practice thatgrounds you in the here and now like a cold shower on a hot summer day. Learn to focus on your breathing in order to become more present. Work with the breath in a way that allows you to be calmer and not get too lost in your own head.

For thirty minutes, we worked with a MNDFL teacher to quiet our minds, improve our breathing, and center our awareness. After the class was wrapped, I decided that Hive employees would take part in a little experiment wed anonymously collect the number of tasks they completed today in Hive, and in the days following the meditation, to compare the results to prior weeks. Then wed use that data to posit the effectiveness of the class.

Now I know what youre thinking: Isnt meditation a practice? Dont you need to do it more than one? And the answer is yes. But our staff immediately noticed calming effects, anxiety reduction, and increased focus. And we wanted to see how that played out in our overall productivity.

When I went back over the data, the results were impressive. That one, 30-minute meditation class actually improved our employees productivity by a whopping 47% on average, when compared to the average tasks completed on that day of the week. We also had resounding positive feedback from employees one of our Account Executives noted that After meditating, my head felt totally clear. Once I got back to my desk, I ran through a list of contacts that I had to write in half the time it usually takes. I had a new focus that lasted for hours.

Now, were not saying that all its going to take to improve office morale or productivity is a singular meditation session. But incorporating wellness rituals on a weekly and monthly basis at your company could set the stage for positive improvements at an individual and company level. You cant argue with the science meditation does increase empathy and your ability to connect with the people around you, which is pretty pivotal in the office.

A Hive team member also noted that the office felt lighter, less anxious, and less hectic, which makes sense, because the decreased anxiety on an individual level can lessen the offices anxiety as a whole via emotional contagion, or the idea that emotions, both positive and negative, actually spread among your employees like viruses. (Read more about emotional contagion here.) And if a meditation practice can help prohibit the spread of negative emotions, its definitely a work perk worth looking into.If youre in the NYC area, check out MNDFLs corporate classes here.

Do you practice meditation? Does your company meditate together? Let us know in the comments below.

This article first appeared on Hive.

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How meditation improved this startup's productivity by 47% - Ladders

The taxi driver appraises me with suspicion when I tell him my destination. But youve not got a yoga mat, he says.

Having never been on a meditation retreat before, I was self-conscious of criss-crossing busy train stations with a yoga mat strapped to my back, so Id concealed it inside a Sainsburys bag for life. I point it out now to the driver, and he offers a wry smile as he takes me to the place where, for the next four days, Im to be immersed in an intensive period of me time. Ive never done this before, so have no idea what to expect.

Long-term health conditions can be interesting in all sorts of unexpected ways. You learn about your levels of resilience, and the efforts you are prepared to take to get better. Ive been struggling with low physical energy for almost a decade, my mitochondrial cells malfunctioning after successive flu viruses never quite left my body. Doctors didnt know what to recommend these cells arent easily fixed and so suggested what they suggest to anyone who presents mysteriously: eat better, sleep well. Do yoga, learn to meditate.

Ive spent the last five years dipping in and out of meditation apps, YouTube, Ruby Waxs focus on mindfulness through books and interviews but it was vedic meditation (a close cousin of transcendental, which uses a silent mantra or sound repeated over and over) I kept returning to. I liked it but always let it slip. I knew that to establish a habit I would need to immerse myself, under in-person instruction.

And so here I am, near Arundel in West Sussex, at a large, rambling country house with lush gardens, on a weekend vedic retreat run by Beeja. Its strapline suggests: Meditation for Everyone and its founder, Will Williams, has been teaching vedic meditation for more than five years. After a stint in the music business, and falling ill, he recovered through meditation and began to teach what he had learned. He runs introductory courses in London. Will is a convincing communicator: bearded and smiley, dressed not in robes but in jeans, conspicuously one of us.

There are 15 in attendance, eight women, seven men, ranging from 24 to 70. Were a cosmopolitan bunch: theres a Saudi, a Lebanese, one from Guadalupe, another from South Korea. Two from Essex. Some, like me, have medical issues, others are struggling with anxiety, depression and such pronounced social media addiction that handing over phones upon arrival proves problematic. Im to share a dorm for four but mercifully theres just two of us this weekend.

After an introductory dinner of nut loaf, Wills co-instructor, Niamh Keane, reminds us of the house rules: up at 6.45am, in bed by 10.30pm; respect one anothers confidentiality. No sex and no solo sex, as Niamh puts it, just unbroken serenity and purity of mind. Were detoxing, so can have neither caffeine nor alcohol. No breakfast either, a fact that horrifies us all initially but becomes curiously unimportant by day two.

On a meditation retreat I find you meditate, and do precious little else. Beejas version comprises a succession of rounding exercises: 15 minutes of yoga, five minutes of alternate nostril breathing, 20 of meditation, and 10 of the flat-on-your-back yoga pose, shavasana. Were all given an individual secret mantra to repeat silently (though whos to say we dont have the same one?!). For three days.

At first, most of us choose to do our exercises communally, in the living room, but increasingly we drift off in pursuit of solitude. I thought Id struggle, because meditating at home is difficult, but here, with no distractions, I slide into it as if it were a hot bath. Hours pass, then hours more.

Respite comes in the evenings, after simple vegetarian food (rice and dhal, Thai soup), when Will sits, Buddha-like, with us at his feet while he shares his vedic-derived wisdom. Hes a practitioner of many years and is so convinced of his disciplines ability to heal the world that he can tend towards the over-prescriptive. He condemns most diets in favour of an ayurvedic-approved one, and proffers opinion on antidepressants, climate change, and Trump voters. He tells us that the introduction of 5G will kill off the insect world, that we should never cross our legs, and how we must avoid eating onions because the skin contains properties that promote selfishness. Much of what he says is fascinating, plenty else sails far above our heads.

He asks how our sessions are going and when I tell him that during one of mine my hands began to levitate and my fingers grew like intertwining tree branches, as if I were morphing into a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, he beams with pleasure and says: Youve shifted some serious energy there, fella.

The more we meditate, the more our protective bubble expands. When we come to leave, Niamh implores we take care upon re-entering the world outside, as we will be newly hypersensitive to light, noise, other people. Be gentle with yourselves, she advises.

The trip back home is complicated by the usual travel chaos delays, overcrowding but we endure it without any obvious adverse effect on our hitherto delicate dispositions. But then meditation affects different people differently and any long-term benefits may only announce themselves over time. What I know right now is that Ive never had a weekend quite like it, never been so still, or rested, never spent so much time with myself, or by myself.

It wasnt quite bliss, but I did attain something conspicuously rare in a life otherwise filled with such perpetual distraction: peace.

Four-day, three-night weekend retreats cost from 594 for a twin room, 534 for a dorm room, and include food, drink and instruction; six-monthly payment options available, beejameditation.com

Nick Duerdens memoir, Get Well Soon: Adventures in Alternative Healthcare, is out now (Bloomsbury, 12.99). To buy a copy for 11.43 visit The Guardian bookshop

Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips

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No sex please, were meditating: peace and positivity on a weekend retreat - The Guardian

Photograph by Felix Kunze.

For those of you struggling through a Headspace session alone in your apartment, fear notyou can now meditate with a couple hundred of your closest friends.

The Big Quiet will be in DC on October 23 for a mass meditation at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The group expects over 300 participants will show up to settle onto meditation pillows before being guided through breathing exercises, vocal-toning, and a sound meditation. A series of performances by live artists will round out the event. (The musicians are a surprise, says a Big Quiet spokesperson, but theyre all local and have their own meditation practices.)

The series was started in 2014 by Jesse Israel, who started gathering a group of friends in his New York apartment for meditation sessions. He wanted to create a way for folks who arent yogis or mindfulness experts to dip their toes into meditation. Since then, the group has held over 25 events across the country in spots like Madison Square Garden and Fenway Park.

As part of a 10-day tour, the Big Quiet has made its way through cities like Los Angeles, Denver, and Nashville en route to DC.

Tickets for the event are $35and include a complimentary Tuft & Needle meditation pillow. A percentage of ticket sales will be donated to Choose, which battles climate change, and Kula for Karma, which introduces folks recovering from trauma to meditation.

National Museum of Women in the Arts; 1250 New York Ave. NW

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Associate Editor

Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She previously was the editorial assistant at Walter Magazine in Raleigh, North Carolina, and her work has appeared in Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Adams Morgan.

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You Can Meditate to Live Music With 300 Other People at the National Museum of Women in the Arts - Washingtonian

I am by nature a wanderer and a loner. A group of us preachers-in-training sat in a room one day years ago, and I asked the question: I wonder what it would be like to be on staff at a huge church? A colleague laughed his patootie off, then opined: You need to command your own starship and boldly go where no one has gone before!

People in our neck of the woods like to poke good-natured fun at me for my MINI Cooper, my combat boots and cargo shorts and my frenetic, kinetic ways. If my hair was as thick and rich as it used to be, I suppose Id grow my hair out long again and give folks something else to talk about, too. I am not, by nature, a country gent. And yet I have been told on more than one occasion that I somehow embody the best of the red-neck spirit.

Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God. Ive learned to dance in New England, on the outskirts of the Mississippi Delta, and currently, I am enjoying an extended jig in these lovely foothills of Appalachia. And on reflection, it becomes quite apparent that the rabbis were correct: Man plans, God laughs.

When I started preacher school, I didnt realize that my destiny was to be a small-town country parson or any number of other things that I am today. I do still dream sometimes of biking across Great Britain or exploring the African plains or a thousand things Ive never done before. But the real surprise present? You can be a tourist in your own hometown. Unlock treasures outside your back door. Traverse the cosmos without leaving your easy chair. It takes faith. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). Good journey.

The Rev. Eugene Stockstill is pastor of Ebenezer United Methodist Church and Myrtle United Methodist Church in Union County.

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MEDITATION: Don't miss the adventure of a lifetime - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

GENEVA Nanci Rose-Ritter recognizes that people in todays world are leading busier lives than ever before and many are unable to slow down, breathe deeply and reflect.

A Zen meditation workshop and retreat she planned in conjunction with Hobart and William Smith Colleges Associate Professor John Krummel can offer tools to help people.

A good portion of it is geared in that direction, said Rose-Ritter, a teacher and practitioner in the Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist methods of Zen meditation. Some of it will be specific to our current times, but the overall emphasis is on the benefits of meditation for individuals and society at large.

Certainly, the element of compassion, this being a Zen Buddhist-style retreat, will be incorporated, and is always incorporated into this approach compassion for ones self, compassion for ones immediate family, compassion for the wider community and for the world as a whole.

Sessions are planned for 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Fisher Center of HWS Demarest Hall. It costs $10 to participate in one or $20 for both. As of Wednesday, limited spots remained.

The retreat will be offered in the style of Japanese Zen Buddhist sesshin, a focused period of group meditation and personal guidance. There will be information and discussion on specific techniques and philosophies.

Its the first time Rose-Ritter has opened the event to the community at large; she worked with Krummels first-year students on one prior occasion. Krummel, a member of the Colleges Religious Studies department, teaches a class about the Japanese form of Zen meditation.

Part of the workshops focus will be on the heart-mind connection.

Bringing those two together is always important, she said. We dont want to be just thinking creatures or just feeling creatures. We want to be balanced.

Rose-Ritter began studying the Japanese form of Zen meditation about seven years ago. She has taught and practiced the Tibetan Buddhist method for more than 35 years, first becoming interested in meditation as a 20-something.

I was interested in meditation, like many of my friends. I am a child of the 60s, after all, she said. A group of us opened a meditation center on Seneca Lake, near Watkins Glen, back in the early 1970s. We did d lot of comparative philosophy, with a strong emphasis on meditation. From there I found the Buddhist tradition.

She spent six months in Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives. Eventually, she co-authored a book, Living Tibet, that includes a forward written by the Dalai Lama.

Rose-Ritter works as a trauma counselor, and uses meditation with her clients.

She said people have expressed an interest in learning more about meditation, so much so that she is considering the possibility of creating a regular group. Anyone interested in becoming a part of that group should contact Rose-Ritter at (315) 651-2570 or mindfulnanci@gmail.com.

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Meditation workshop, retreat later this week | Lifestyle - Finger Lakes Times