​Sometimes it is interesting to pause and reflect on how you have changed over the years. If life were always rosy, you would have had no need to evolve and change. Honor all those times you were challenged, as they continue to mold who you are becoming every day. You are changing, and yet in many ways you are becoming who you already were, underneath the layers of life’s conditioning.
 
How have you changed over the course of your life? Have you become more “comfortable in your own skin”? Did you let go of a biased perception? Are you less quick to anger? Do you choose your relationships more carefully? Have you learned to slow down? Have you found your voice? What is changing within you now? What is being revealed that has been there all along?
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

​Well, there’s a word that may have sparked a groan upon reading. Discipline…ugh. Discipline may evoke a feeling of having to do something we’re told, when we’d really rather be doing something else.
 
What if we reframe our approach and consider that discipline does not close us down but rather opens us up? Doing something regularly, even tediously, gives us the opportunity to reconnect with our senses, to discover the profound within the simple, and to explore old information in new ways.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

The word discipline comes from disciple, someone who is in a position to learn. ―Jon Kabat-Zin

This week, we honor the power of the pause. Before you jump right into the next word, meal, activity, or reaction, remember to pause. This interrupts your autopilot. A well-timed pause may just invite a deeper breath, a wiser thought, and a calmer heart, followed by skillful action. That brief moment between trigger and response can be empowering.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

It is interesting to observe how often we adapt to those around us. We may have a “work self,” a “partner self,” a “parent self,” and so on. Yes, we often need to modulate our words and actions to get along and to facilitate a smooth flow in relationship with others.

And it is also vital to have time spent alone, to explore your true nature, without influence. Whether it is on the yoga mat, the meditation cushion, or just resting in nature, your true self is calling.

​In mindful presence,
​Lori Furbush

​You are an energetic being. The universe is an endless ocean of energy. If you’ve been feeling small and insufficient, expand your field of awareness and let oceans, skies, and vast realms of space breathe through you.

In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

This is an invitation to allow the word here to be with you this week. Like a touchstone, here echoes in your mind throughout the day, as a reminder to come back to this moment now. To feel your body. To sense the ground and space around you. Like a mini-meditation, you remember to be present. After all, when is it ever not now?
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

​Did you ever notice how it feels when a darkened, cloudy sky slowly clears? When a raging storm passes? When turbulent winds settle? There is a calm. Nature is resting. You too can just rest. Sitting, breathing, observing. And after a while, you may find that your inner clouds and storms and winds are still there, but you have become more like the sky, open to observing their forming and passing.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

​We practice breathing, mental focus, body connection, and mindfulness for many reasons—to boost physical health, to promote mental well-being, to learn how to relax, to come back to center. Practice sharpens the tools in your toolkit. When everything feels uncertain, out of control, and unpleasant, if we have cultivated a steady practice, it is easier to ground, to center, and to be present with clarity and strength.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

It is easy to get caught up in noticing what needs fixing—in others and in the world around us. In fact, your problem-solving brain loves to look for ways to right what is wrong. This gives us a feeling of being in control, which in turn helps us feel safe and satisfied.
 
It is also easy to continually notice what is not working within ourselves—that familiar soundtrack that, on one hand drives us to learn and evolve, and on the other hand judges our every move.
 
What would happen if your inner voice focused only on what is working well today? How might that shift your attitude and experience? Focusing on the unbroken has a ripple effect through your physical body and your whole being.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

​At any given moment, whether you’re active or resting, your mind is often in narrative mode…commenting, judging, deciding, wanting, resisting, blaming, questioning, blah blah blah. After reading this sentence and before moving on to the next sentence, you might explore pausing in the silence in between thoughts, even if it only lasts a fragment of a second…starting now.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

This is a word with many meanings. We can “be present”…simply existing. We can “maintain a presence”…establishing an influence in a situation. We can “feel a presence”…sensing someone is with you when they are not. And we can practice “presence of mind”…keeping calm while taking quick and sensible action.
 
Sometimes we cope with challenging situations by distracting or diverting our attention. And sometimes that coping style can be appropriate.
 
Another approach is to stay with the challenge, to be powerfully present. That is, to bring your mind into your body, ground your body to the earth, and just breathe. All of your resources coming back home to where you are.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori

​Awakenings can come at any time. Awakenings can be quick…surprising words spoken by a friend, a flash of insight that opens your mind. And awakenings can be subtle…a series of smaller events and shifts, accumulating over time. This year, having spent many weeks and months with more time at home may have awakened you from your slumber. Perceptions change, priorities change, and you may have even decided to make this a turning point. What are you leaving behind? What are you creating space for?
 
In mindful presence,
Lori

Surely since the dawn of humankind, there have been inequities and injustices in the world. This is nothing new, and becomes more apparent every day as headlines scroll across your screens. It is easy to feel overly saturated by news and media, and at the same time, perhaps it is exactly this excess of global communication that is helping us shed even more light on the world’s crises and keeping these issues on the front burner. If we’re paying attention, we are also urged to look within, to reveal our own hidden shadows, and reexamine what we are putting out in the world.

​In mindful presence,
Lori

A harsh word quickly incites us to anger. An added challenge sparks anxiety. There is often just a nanosecond between a trigger and your reaction. If we can only slow ourselves down with just one inhale and one exhale, we may find the clarity we need to soften the reaction and respond with integrity.

In mindful presence,
​Lori

It is so easy to be pulled into comparison mode, measuring ourselves against someone else’s merits and feeling inadequate. How quickly we give away our power. Sometimes dropping beneath the surface of thinking and resting into your body can bring you back to center, helping you rediscover the temple within.
​
In mindful presence,
​Lori

Our sense of worth is often woven into what we do, what we create, what we contribute. We love to find meaning and purpose. It feels good to have goals and direction.
 
And what if your purpose is also to fully own who you are…to be this glorious and flawed human being, and to let that be enough.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

​A metaphor for life, holding a yoga posture is like suspending your body and entire being in the space between pleasure and discomfort. Sensations and emotions give rise to waves of craving and aversion. Somewhere in between strength of presence and softness of spirit, you may find home.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori Furbush

​For most of us, the mind chatters on about self-worth. Whether that inner voice is boasting about your accomplishments or chastising your shortcomings, the chatter is still all about you. So what is humility? Perhaps it’s that ability to set the smaller self aside and open to the humbling vastness of the cosmos, the amazing wisdom within the rhythms of nature, or the wonder of life manifested in the human or creature next to you.
 
In mindful presence,
Lori