mindfulness Archives | Ed and Deb Shapiro

It’s My Ego, Not Yours

May 16, 2018 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

Ever caught yourself trying to defend your words or protect your actions, despite them being clearly inappropriate or even downright wrong, but your egomind just won’t let you do it? No way will you admit you were off the mark! Sound familiar? The ego is the “me-centered” part that gives us a strong sense of […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, love, meditation, mindfulness Tagged With: awareness, ego trip, happiness, inspiration, kindness, meditation, mindfulness, self-imrovement, stress

Dinner with Monica Lewinsky or How to Make Friends With Yourself

April 1, 2018 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

Monica Lewinsky has been in the news recently, which reminded us of the time we met her at a friend’s dinner party in London, England. As we left we thought about how tough it can be to move on in life beyond difficult or challenging times, such as Monica had experienced when her life played […]

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

Are You Hanging Out With Fear?

March 6, 2018 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

There are many things to feel fearful about these days. While anger is hot and loud, fear is more subtle and pervasive. It also has many different disguises. On the one hand, fear is a natural response to physical danger, but on the other it can be self-created, such as the fear of failure, of […]

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

Taming The Dragons In Your Mind

January 23, 2018 by Ed and Deb Shapiro Leave a Comment

Soon after Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years in jail Bill Clinton asked him if he was angry about how he had been treated. “Tell me the truth, when you were walking to freedom, didn’t you hate them?” Clinton asked, referring to Mandela’s jailors. “You must have been so angry!” “Sure I was,” Mandela […]

Filed Under: awareness, happiness, inner life, joy, love, meditation, mindfulness Tagged With: anger, awareness, compassion, fear, happiness, inner life, inspiration, kindness, meditation, mindfulness, negativity, tolerence

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 1 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

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