People are already pressuring themselves with “What do you want for Christmas?” Even people who don’t celebrate Christmas feel it. The decorations went up before Halloween. And can you hear those jingle bells revving up? It can feel more like the Indianapolis 500 than peace and love. This year, when someone asks you what you [...]
If you don’t get wound up for Thanksgiving you won’t have to unwind — much less go on a diet — a few days later. The day is coming though, and I am hearing the litany of obligations, pressures, worries and stress. Let’s take a moment to breathe. Breathe in and breathe out, noticing the [...]
I used to believe that whatever I believed was true. I was very small when I first started thinking this way. “I think it, therefore it is.” This gave life meaning, my meaning, which was the best kind. Then, somewhere along the line, I slowly began to grow up and learn about presumptions, assumptions [...]
Happy Birthday to those who love the November born. Their birthday is the topaz, considered the stone of the seeker. Give the gift of a birthstone Jizo to your beloved November-baby. Topaz is also considered the stone of Sagittarius, all the way into December! Find him at www.jizoandchibi.com. What could be better than a gift [...]
By the time you read this you will likely be more anxious than when I wrote it. It’s Hallowe’en. You’ve likely been busy with costumes, candy, kids… or thinking you should be. And that is just the beginning. Less than two months away is Christmas. A few weeks away is Thanksgiving. And, yes, some folks [...]
We are a tense gang, us Americans. Most of us are wound incredibly tight and we don’t even know it. We are driven, programmed from early on, to achieve success, happiness, and more success. When we don’t achieve this Utopia that we have been encouraged to seek, we struggle. We suffer. We brace against disappointment. [...]
Teaching children to meditate is easier than teaching adults. Children like consistency. We are the ones who usually introduce inconsistency to them at a very early age. Nobody is perfect, right? Rather than sitting and breathing in a circle, start the meditation process with a child by walking back and forth through a hallway or [...]
I listen to people. Often, they tell me they are anxious, afraid of the unknown. And many don’t even know that they are anxious — just “uncomfortable” and looking for ways to get out of the discomfort. Kids get anxious, too. And when they do, they usually don’t talk about it. Instead, they rev up [...]
I am writing from my bed, coughing, feverish, achey. Awake. Feeling every symptom coming and going like little weather patterns across the hot afternoon sky. Los Angeles has been experiencing 100F+ temperatures and so am I. The flu gives me a window into what I am attached to when it comes to wellness. There is [...]
Jizo Bodhisattva has many names. The original was Sanskrit: Ksitigarbha. It’s translation to English is roughly Earth Womb or Earth Treasury. As the Bodhisattva who promised Buddha he would remain on the earth until everyone was finished suffering, his role is like that of Mother Earth. The earth holds each plant, each seedling and each [...]
