When we have difficult decisions to make, or difficult conversations to have, it can be so helpful to pause and align with our truest intentions and our deepest values before acting. This is a short practice that will guide you through doing just that, as you align with head, heart and gut before  reaching your conclusion. Wishing you clarity and peace as you move forward in this issue.

Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

Image / mavoimage



Mindful
by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for--
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world--
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant--
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these--
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?



Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

Image / primus1 


Thank you
by Ross Gay

If you find yourself half naked
and barefoot in the frosty grass, hearing,
again, the earth's great, sonorous moan that says
you are the air of the now and gone, that says
all you love will turn to dust,
and will meet you there, do not
raise your fist. Do not raise
your small voice against it. And do not
take cover. Instead, curl your toes
into the grass, watch the cloud
ascending from your lips. Walk
through the garden's dormant splendor.
Say only, thank you.
Thank you.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

When stressed, worried or anxious, our heart and breath rhythms are moving out of sync, continuing to give the brain messages that all is not well. If we can pause as soon as we notice we're experiencing distress, we can use our attention and our breath to create coherence. With practice, we can do this quickly, reducing the time we spend in suffering and wasted energy.

A few weeks ago, I introduced the Quick Coherence Technique to get you started in a brief coherence practice. If you've been working with that for awhile, you're likely ready to add some time and an additional step to your practice. (If not, please go back to that post and begin there, returning to this page after a few weeks of regular practice.) Today we'll be working with the Heart Lock-In Technique, and the song above will play for up to 28 minutes, so you can begin to steadily increase the amount of time you spend in practice. Start with 5 minutes, twice a day, and add a minute or two every week, until you are consistently practicing for 20 minutes a day.

1) Focus your attention in the area of the heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your
heart or chest area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.
Find a balanced rhythm with your breath: breathe in for a count of 5, breath out for a count of 5.

2) Make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling such as appreciation or care
for something or someone in your life as you continue to breath in and out of the heart area.
(You might try to re-experience the feeling you have for a pet, a special place, someone you love,
or focus on the feeling of calm or ease.)

3) Radiate that renewing feeling to yourself and another/others. You can offer this renewing feeling back to the being or place that helped you create the feeling, to someone in your life who needs positive energy in their lives, or to all beings everywhere. Sharing your renewing feeling with others benefits them, and especially helps recharge and balance your own system.

Practice daily, and then let me know what changes you begin to notice! I'd love to hear from you.
Practice, and all is coming.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

This simple and beautiful guided meditation touched me when I first heard it some years ago. I've found myself sharing it several times with individuals in the past few weeks, so am sharing it here in case some of you out there need to hear it, too. Lie down, make yourself comfortable, and remember...


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/