Meditation, Mindfulness & Relaxation Blog for Peace and Inner-Strength

How To Get Your Motivation Going

September 19, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

We watched as an eager young CNN television reporter asked the Dalai Lama what was the first thing he thought of when he awoke in the morning. We thought that this revered teacher and probably the world’s most well known meditator would say something deeply profound or insightful, such as along the lines of vowing […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, love, meditation, mindfulness, peace Tagged With: anger, awareness, compassion, fear, fearlessness, happiness, kindness, meditation, mindfulness, negativity, self-imrovement

Why We Look For Happiness In All The Wrong Places

August 29, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

Our search for happiness becomes ever more urgent in our increasingly crowded and competitive world. An article on the HuffPost stated there are “over 75 million Google search results for the term and 40,000 happiness-related books available for purchase on Amazon… And it’s not necessarily helping us to become any happier.” Maybe that’s because happiness […]

Filed Under: love, meditation, mindfulness, peace, presence Tagged With: awareness, compassion, happiness, inner life, joy, kindness, meditation, mindfulness, self-imrovement

You Have Three Great Powers: Body, Speech and Mind

July 23, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

Effectively, whether we are aware of it or not, everything we think, say and do has an effect on everyone and everything else: our thoughts and actions can lead to chaos and destruction as easily as they can to healing and friendship. This means we have enormous resources within to us. “Do not make the […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, mindfulness, peace, presence Tagged With: awareness, change, ego trip, fearlessness, inner life, kindness, self-imrovement, transformation

Are You Here And Now? If Not, Where?

June 12, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

Do you live in your head? In your body? In your emotions? In your desires? Normally, we spend our time either living in what-could-have-been or what-might-have-been or if-only, or in the expectation of what-could-be or what-might-be, anywhere but here, constantly in either the past or the future. This is like being in a dream as […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, meditation, mindfulness, peace, presence Tagged With: awareness, compassion, freedom, happiness, inner life, kindness, meditation, mindfulness

Are You Happier Today Than You Were Yesterday?

May 17, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

We were in Thailand, attending a ten-day silent meditation retreat in the middle of a coconut grove. Every day Ajahn Maha Dharma Tan, a Thai monk, would come to teach, and each day he would ask us the same question: “Are you happier today than you were yesterday?” As he said this, a wide smile […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, meditation, mindfulness, peace Tagged With: awareness, compassion, happiness, inner life, meditation, mindfulness

Mindfulness & Meditation: What’s the Difference?

May 8, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro 1 Comment

“In any one day there are moments where there is nothing going on, but we link up what is happening from thought to thought without any space. We overlook the spaciousness that it’s all happening in,” Gangaji, from our new book The Unexpected Power Or Mindfulness & Meditation. Nowadays, mindfulness and meditation are often used […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, love, meditation, mindfulness, presence Tagged With: awareness, freedom, happiness, inner life, meditation, mindfulness

The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness & Meditation

April 13, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro 2 Comments

There is a sanity and brilliance to mindfulness and meditation, from awakening inner strength, kindness and fearlessness to inviting radical change. As an activist in a Chinese jail, Kiri Westby used meditation to maintain her peace amidst the hardship. Seane Corn used yoga and mindfulness to work with teenage prostitutes in LA. Play therapist Megan […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, love, meditation, mindfulness, peace, presence Tagged With: awareness, compassion, freedom, happiness, inner life, kindness, meditation, mindfulness

Seeing With New Eyes

March 21, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

By paying attention you see all things just as they are. A monk asks, ‘Is there anything more miraculous than the wonders of nature?’ The master replies, ‘Yes, your awareness of the wonders of nature.’ Angelus Silesius We lived in Devon, on the south coast of England, and each day we would walk along the […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, mindfulness, peace, presence, relaxation Tagged With: awareness, compassion, freedom, happiness, mindfulness, relaxation

The Art Of Patience

March 8, 2017 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

On a recent trip to India we had tea with Mary and Don, a devoted couple from Texas who, for over twenty-five years, had been running a clinic for disabled and handicapped children, for the poorest of the poor, in Chennai, South India. We wondered how, when they first arrived, they had coped with the […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, mindfulness, peace, presence, relaxation Tagged With: awareness, compassion, happiness, kindness, mindfulness, relaxation, tolerence

One Way Your Ego Trips You Up

April 6, 2016 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

One Christmas, when we were living in Brighton, England, we volunteered at a church that regularly feeds the homeless and needy at that time of year. But it was more than the hungry ones who got fed that day. After we happily dished out large helpings of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, followed by pudding […]

Filed Under: awareness, inner life, joy, meditation, mindfulness, Uncategorized Tagged With: anger, awareness, compassion, ego trip, happiness, judgment, kindness, mindfulness, tolerence