Tag: Meditation for families

Meditation and Memory: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Neuroscience

Among the well-known benefits of meditation, which include physical relaxation, attention enhancement and better sleep, the mind-body intervention of meditation has been found to contribute positively to the neuroplasticity of the human brain. 

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form structural and functional neural connections throughout life. At a young age, our brains grow exponentially, and during adolescence, this means organizing thoughts and memories to create a healthy understanding of our life experiences. Neural adaptation allows the brain to learn new skills, recover from injury, and adapt to changing environments. Many studies have shown that meditation helps our brain’s memory capacity and cognitive function. So it seems we can teach an old dog new tricks and meditation is one way to go about it.

Practicing meditation trains your brain to focus, and when we add the power of mindfulness — paying attention, on purpose, to one thing in the present moment — it helps us redirect our minds when we get distracted. An article by Dr. Scott Loeb published in Lone Star Neurology explored meditation and memory, stating: “By repeatedly focusing attention and cultivating meditation, it strengthens specific neural pathways. Mental exercise through meditation builds stronger connections between cells.” 

Meditation practitioners learn to work with how they perceive the world, ourselves, and others. This can positively affect our lives, behaviors, and relationships.

In the book “Altered Traits,” psychologists Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson discuss research they performed on masters of meditation vs. novice meditators. Using MRI data and gray matter voxels, they examined the brain of Tibetan yogi Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, who began meditating at nine years old and comes from a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism teachers and masters. Rinpoche’s brain looked about eight years younger than what would be considered normal for a 40-year-old. 

Additionally, the ability of master meditators to keep their minds focused for long periods indicates that meditation develops areas of the brain engaged in structural growth. Meditation can stimulate changes in the brain that encourage development in the hippocampus, a region vital for memory. As we age, using meditation to stimulate brain areas that enhance attention and memory may be another reason to bring these practices into our lives. 

In Buddhism, meditation practitioners learn to work with how we perceive the world, ourselves, and others. This can positively affect our lives, behaviors, and relationships. Although the Tibetan master Rinpoche didn’t need proof of the benefits of his lifelong practice, it was interesting that science corroborated what he already knew from Buddhist philosophy. He has since written extensively about his experience collaborating with brain scientists in the book The Joy of Living. 

Meditation also helps maintain attention and working memory during stressful times. Indeed, this is one of the most common impetuses for bringing meditation into a family’s routine. One study on human resources personnel, as explained on neurosciencenews.com, “showed that those who underwent MBSR training were able to maintain their attention and working memory capacity, even during periods of high stress, compared to a control group that did not receive the training.”

What about the most problematic aspect of memory loss, dementia? A study published in the National Library of Medicine in which “the effects of Kirtan Kriya meditation and music listening on cognitive outcomes in adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline, a strong predictor of Alzheimer’s disease,” suggested that the practice of meditation “can significantly enhance both subjective memory function and objective cognitive performance in adults with subjective cognitive decline, and may offer promise for improving outcomes in this population.” 

Another study done in Boston and published in Virginian Rehabilitation & Wellness found that meditation strengthened the cerebral cortex, an area of the brain that handles mental functions such as learning, concentration and memory: “Regular meditation increases blood flow to the brain, which leads to a more robust network of blood vessels in the cerebral cortex, which reinforces our ability for memory capacity.”

The potential for using meditation to enhance the brain’s neuroplasticity is exciting. Harvard researchers reviewed more than a dozen recent studies examining the effects of either mindfulness or cognitive training on older adults with MCI (mild cognitive impairment). “For people with MCI, practicing mindfulness over several weeks to months seemed to sharpen attention, memory, and other mental skills, and ease anxiety and depression. Similarly, cognitive training was associated with better memory, executive function, and mood.” Indeed, it is exciting to scientifically notice fundamental changes in key brain areas that traditionally change and weaken over our lifespan. 


Regardless of how it’s been proven, incorporating meditation into a family’s daily routine seems like a win-win option for members of all ages, and practicing meditators will confirm these benefits in their own lives. Many options exist if you want to incorporate meditation into your daily routine or your family’s daily routine. Pre-recorded practices can easily be found online, and Mindful Frontiers offers a wide range of guided meditations on Insight Timer and YouTube. A personalized workshop can also be arranged if one-on-one guidance works better for you.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC, a Benefit Corporation (BCorp) based in Taos, New Mexico, whose mission is to welcome a mindful future, one present moment at a time, and is dedicated to promoting community wellness through mindfulness and meditation. We offer individuals, families and organizations a variety of practices designed to support and nurture positive social-emotional growth. Anne-Marie, lifelong Taoseña, is a certified meditation leader and labyrinth facilitator. Mindful Frontiers can be found on social media and the Insight Timer app. The website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠.

Initially published in The Taos News, May 8, 2025

Welcoming a Mindful New Year: How to Bring Meditation into Your Family’s Routine.

Many people will resolve to change something as they prepare to start a new year. Most New Year’s resolutions start with honest determination and end within a few weeks or months with lassitude. 

Meditation and mindfulness benefit the entire family and here are some tips on bringing it into your family’s daily routine and making it stick. It isn’t difficult; like any change, it takes willingness, vulnerability, and practice. Meditation is a “practice” for good reason: it takes repetition, just like an exercise routine, to make it part of our schedule. So how can a family bring mindfulness meditation into an already-busy schedule? It’s simple: one breath, one present moment at a time, and practice.

The reasons for bringing mindfulness meditation (vipassana meditation) into your family’s life are well-researched and proven. 

  • Families learn how present-moment mindfulness awareness can bring relaxation and social-emotional well-being into their homes.
  • Children learn that they aren’t judged by their thoughts, sensations, and feelings.
  • Mindfulness is a way to feel good, just as we are as we settle the nervous system.
  • Parents model what it means to be confident yet relaxed, happy, and at ease and accept that life is never perfect.
  • Families build strong bonds through a shared activity; the time spent together invests in compassionate relationship-building.

When sitting on my meditation cushion, I invite presence and calm to my body through mindfulness. Usually, I start the day with a brief moment of watching my breath and noticing sensations in my body and thoughts that arise in my mind. This happens upon waking, while still lying in my bed. I spend a few minutes just noticing what’s happening inside me. Then, as I slowly reach full awakeness, I look around my room and see the colors and light coming through the windows. The sun’s rays stream into the room through hanging prisms that cast rainbows of color on the walls. This practice is at the root of how I treat myself and my family; some days more successful than others. I’m not immune to bouts of sadness, anger and frustration. I believe that practicing what’s called Engaged Parenting is a positive way to live. We may think we aren’t doing enough as parents, but I deeply believe that mindful parenting is enough. “The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment,” says Thich Nhat Hanh. As we care for our children in the present moment, we care for the future.”

Four ways to bring mindfulness into your family’s daily routine:
Mindful Disconnect. Decide as a family when each person will put away their mobile device and engage in a physical activity such as going for a walk, bike ride or drive to the mountains. Even just sitting and staring out the window can be a mindful activity.
Mindful Travelling. When the family drives to and from school or another activity, we can notice sounds, sights and feelings internally and externally in our environment. Electronic devices are put down for a short period of present-moment mindfulness. 
Daily Mindfulness. During an active time, we can do some mindful movement. Dancing, yoga, walking, and just jumping around can be an opportunity for mindfulness. Encouraging children to notice what their body is doing, how it feels in the different limbs to move, what sounds are generated by the activity, and if this is happening outside, noticing nature is a great mindful activity.
Mindful Wind-down. Before settling in for the night, the parent can lead a body scan to bring mindful relaxation to the bedtime routine. Bringing attention to each body part, starting from the feet or the head is very relaxing. Imagining a butterfly landing on each body part can add visualization to the body scan.

I suggest experimenting with these for a week and then discussing with your children which ones they enjoy most. Then, rotate between these mindfulness activities occasionally to keep the experience fresh. Children (and parents) like having a predictable routine and can get bored with the same thing after a while so changing it up may make it stick.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC. Mindful Frontiers LLC is a Benefit Corporation (BCorp) based in Taos, New Mexico, dedicated to promoting community wellness through mindfulness. We offer schools and organizations a variety of mindfulness meditation tools designed to support and nurture positive social-emotional growth in individuals. Our mission is to “welcome a mindful future, one present moment at a time,” guiding people towards greater awareness, emotional balance, and a deeper connection with themselves and others. Anne-Marie is a certified meditation leader and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Featured practices can be found on the ⁠Welcoming a Mindful Future⁠ podcast and Insight Timer app. Our website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠.

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Calming the Nervous System With Meditation

Using the five senses to settle and relax.

There are many ways to work with the stress of life. Listening to music, making art, exercising, etc. Mindfulness meditation is a practice that can be done anywhere, anytime. In as little as ten minutes a day, meditation can soothe the effect of anxiety on the body and mind over time and provide a go-to for times of stress. 

“Anxiety is something most of us have experienced at least once in our life. Public speaking, performance reviews, and new job responsibilities are some of the work-related situations that can cause even the calmest person to feel a little stressed”. (University of Rochester Medical Center).

  The effects of continued stress and anxiety, if not managed, can be quite unsettling. At Harvard Medical School, radiology instructor Gaëlle Desbordes is part of a community of researchers who have been studying how meditation works in recent decades. Desbordes and her colleagues have found that “there are a handful of key areas — including depression, chronic pain, and anxiety — in which well-designed, well-run studies have shown benefits for patients engaging in a mindfulness meditation program, with effects similar to other existing treatments.”

As a mindfulness and meditation instructor, I guide and coach students and individuals in practices that grow resilience into everyday life. Meditation is a centuries-old practice that has been proven to soothe stress and anxiety by bringing our moment-to-moment attention to what is actually happening in the present moment, and in doing so, we move reactions from the limbic part of the brain to the frontal cortex where logic and reason can take place. 

Ruminating is something that keeps us stuck in our anxiety and stressful thoughts as a spiral that keeps going around and around without end, much like recycling thoughts. The frontal and outer parts of the brain are where we can stop the spiraling of rumination by engaging our five senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell.

The following five-step exercise can be very helpful during periods of anxiety or stress by helping to ground us when our mind is recycling uncomfortable thoughts. Before starting this exercise, we pay attention to our breathing for a few minutes. Slow, deep, long breaths can prepare us for a structured meditation practice. Once you are comfortable following your breath, go through the steps that ground the mind and body by moving attention away from the rumination into a space where your entire body can be calmed.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Practice for Individuals and Families

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you SEE around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, or anything in your surroundings. Breathe deeply as you acknowledge these things, really noticing the details.

4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can TOUCH around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet. Breathe into these feelings and notice the texture.

3: Acknowledge THREE things you HEAR. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that also counts! See if you can move that attention to sounds outside the room you are in. Breathe as you are noticing the sounds and maybe even pay attention to the silence between them.

2: Acknowledge TWO things you can SMELL. Maybe you are in your office and smell a pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell perfume. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside. The sense of smell can be rather subtle so allow yourself time to fully appreciate the scents.

1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can TASTE. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch? If you don’t taste anything, that’s okay, too. Just identify what you taste and breathe with it, naming it as well.

When your practice has come to a close, sit with the breath a while longer, noticing how you feel. Next time you find yourself with anxiety or fear, do this practice as soon as you notice yourself starting to ruminate to invite grounding and relaxation.

Originally published in The Taos News, August 14, 2024

Photo credit: Chris Ensey for Unsplash

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Inviting and Welcoming Silence: 

Building the capacity to be fully present through listening.

Awaken to the mystery of being here

and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.

– John O’Donohue, poet

Have you ever just stopped what you were doing and listened? Deeply listened to the sounds and silence around you? Seems like an oxymoron to be encouraging silence and listening. The kind of silence I’m referring to is one where we are mindful of what is going on in the present moment, encouraging a deep awareness that comes from listening to what’s going on inside and outside the body. It is an invitation to put down electronics, the to-do lists, turn off social media engagement, and just be with our surroundings and our senses.

The first time a person tries to sit in meditation can be daunting. I’ve heard many times from those who say they’ve tried meditation and it “didn’t work” for them because they “couldn’t sit still” or they “couldn’t stop thinking.” Both of these expectations are myths to be debunked once and for all. 

Indeed, it is impossible to just sit down and stop thinking. Our minds are made to think and when we sit in meditation, there will be thoughts, lots of them. Sometimes, it can be quite challenging to calm the mental chatter, especially if it contains painful or fearful memories. In the beautiful book, “The Joy of Living”, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan monk, recounts how difficult meditation was for him as a child. “From earliest childhood, I was haunted by feelings of fear and anxiety… even after three years of sitting [in meditation] my anxiety increased…” After asking his father for meditation guidance his anxiety continued and his mind wouldn’t rest. “Years later, I would come to realize I … was simply becoming more aware of the constant stream of thoughts and sensations I’d never recognized before.” When we sit in meditation, there may be a period of hyperactivity as the body and mind learn to settle down and our awareness becomes more attuned to the silence.

Nonetheless, the benefits of sitting in meditation are well worth the effort. Some of these include positive mood and outlook, self-discipline and clear attention, healthy sleep patterns, and even increased pain tolerance.  To reap these benefits, meditation practice must be consistent so I encourage families to carve out a daily mindfulness moment, and if it is at the same time each day, the body and mind will look forward to the break. 

Rather than encouraging a purely Zen style of meditation (Zazen or Shikantaza) where we are supposed to “just sit, following the breath”, mindfulness of sound is something more attainable for beginning meditators, and especially for children. One of the great benefits of meditating on sound is that gradually we learn to detach from reacting to what we hear around us. This is called equanimity and is very helpful in dealing with life’s stresses and experiences. “You can simply listen to what other people say with a much more relaxed and balanced attitude, without being carried away by an emotional response.” (Rinpoche) We stop assigning meaning to sounds and we just notice them as basic content or just the stuff around us. Welcoming moments of silent awareness helps the body relax and be present. Mindfulness invites us to be at ease with all that is going on around us. 

The following practice offers a way to bring mindfulness of sound into your family’s routine and I encourage you to set aside fifteen to twenty minutes for this practice since it may take family members a little time to settle down at first. And it would be especially nice to do this practice outdoors.

Meditating on Sound

  1. Begin by just allowing your mind to rest for a few moments and for your body to relax into a comfortable posture. Take several deep, flowing breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth as you also stretch the shoulders and neck muscles.  Also, notice the whole body and where it is in contact with your sitting area.
  2. Gradually, allow yourself to become aware of things you hear. Start by noticing sounds close to your ear, such as your heartbeat or your breath, and then move your awareness to things that occur naturally in your immediate surroundings. We can also extend that area to sounds further and further away.
  3. Cultivate a simple acknowledgment of sounds as you hear them. Just notice sounds and even find the pause or silence between the sounds you hear. It is easier to allow yourself to just be aware of everything around you, rather than to focus on a specific sound for too long so let yourself jump around a bit from sound to sound.
  4. Avoid being too rigid with your attention. As with most meditation, you will probably find that you can focus on the sounds for only a few seconds at a time before your mind wanders off. That’s okay. 
  5. When you notice that your mind has wandered into thought, just bring your focus back to a relaxed state and then return to noticing sounds and the silence between them.
  6. As your practice progresses, allow yourself to alternate between resting your attention on sounds and then allowing your mind to simply rest in a relaxed state. This is what is called open awareness practice. In time, the silence becomes more pronounced and our body and mind become more relaxed. We may even forget the sounds completely and just enjoy the whole experience with equanimity and complete presence.
  7. Young children can be encouraged to sit and color or write about what they hear. This allows them to be a bit active since sitting still may be difficult for young meditators. In time, all ages can sit in silence and listen to sounds around them. 

When your practice is complete, discuss what each person heard and how they felt about the sounds. Did they notice how to body responded to hearing these sounds? Journaling about the experience is also something that can be added to the practice.

Originally published in The Taos News, January 18, 2024

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC. Mindful Frontiers LLC is a Benefit Corporation (BCorp) committed to Community Wellness by providing schools and organizations with mindfulness meditation tools that nurture positive social-emotional growth. With over two decades of meditation experience, Anne-Marie leads meditation workshops and provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader as well as a certified labyrinth facilitator. A full audio version of featured practices can be heard on the ⁠Welcoming a Mindful Future⁠ podcast. Our website can be accessed at ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠.

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Inviting the Power of the Heart Through Meditation: 

Building resilience and meaningful relationships with others and ourselves.

“Your heart was made for love: for connection, belonging, and meaningful relationship with other people, beings, and the earth.”

Oren Jay Sofer Your Heart Was Made For This

In the recently published book entitled Your Heart Was Made For This, Oren Jay Sofer expounds on the power of the heart to meet a world in crisis. An important premise in his book is that “whatever the mind frequently thinks upon and ponders, that will become its inclination.” Where we place our mind’s attention is where our personal character and habits of thought will gravitate, much like a rut in the road that grabs us. This is part of the concept of “neuroplasticity” which basically means that our brains are malleable (adults as well as youth) and we can change how we think and act throughout our lives with intention, purpose, and practice. Sofer further explains that “If we do not shape the heart, the world will do it for us, and the world does not have our highest welfare in mind.”

One of my favorite meditation practices is Tonglen. The word tonglen comes from the Tibetan language and translates as giving and taking. Tong means giving or sending, and len means receiving or taking. Tonglen is similar to Loving Kindness (Mettà) in that we are using the transformative power of the heart to channel compassion. We acknowledge the suffering of the world and its beings and then visualize the suffering being transformed in the heart into compassion and then release it outward with intention, on an out-breath, for the betterment of the world.

Heart-based meditation practices such as tonglen and mettà are healthy ways to channel compassion into the world and our own lives. Focussing on the breath going in and out of the heart center is where we start this transforming process. One of the most powerful daily mindfulness practices is to watch where we place our mental attention as we go about our day. Taking a break from scrolling on an electronic device to sit in meditation is a valuable activity that shifts our focus from the external world to our internal environment and helps us notice what our mind is doing. Noticing what we are thinking or ruminating about, and then redirecting our focus back to the body and the breath is a liberating way to change the way our brains control and create ruts of behavior. It is worthwhile to take time to contemplate conscious attention throughout the day as we go about our lives as well as when sitting in meditation. This kind of attention is called heart-mind awareness. Setting aside five to 10 minutes a day to do a heart-mind meditation practice is a healthy way to nourish wise attention and encourage a shift in our mind’s behavior.

This month I invite you to do a short tonglen practice that can be offered for those who are ill, dying, or passed on, or people we know (or don’t know) who are in pain of any kind.  This can also be an on-the-fly practice in which we send compassion to people we encounter throughout the day, offering heartfelt intentions of wellness and ease. 

Tonglen practice for families and groups.

Note: Young children can be invited to draw during this practice and use their creativity to channel compassion.

  1. Sitting in stillness with eyes closed. Begin by breathing in and out, noticing where the breath is the clearest in the body, and then bring your attention to the heart. Welcome feelings of kindness – this could be a golden light, an image of the Buddha or personal deity, or just an overall feeling of warmth. You may also choose to place your hands on your heart.
  2. Visualization of a person’s suffering using the breath and sensations. Breathing in and out welcomes an awareness of your or someone else’s suffering. Name the suffering (sadness, grief, pain). See the situation in your heart-mind just as it is.
  3. Receiving and taking in suffering. Focus on the situation by seeing an image of the suffering. Use the in-breath to receive the image and with the out-breath, transform it into something more positive. You may try using smoke that changes into white light. You can also see the person as being in pain and then visualize their face turning into a smile. As you do this, recite several times: May this pain and suffering be released.
  4. Expanding compassion outward by extending it to all who are suffering. Using the same in-and-out breath process described above, visualize and welcome an awareness of a world that is suffering. On each out-breath offer the mantra to the world: May this pain and suffering be released. 

Conclusion of the practice. Sit in silence for several more breaths, enjoying the feeling of release and transformation. Conclude with a final recitation of the mantra: May all beings be well and live with ease. When ready, open your eyes slowly, shifting your attention to your body and then to the space you’re in by noticing some objects around you.

Originally published, December 13, 2023 in The Taos News

******

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC, a Benefit Corporation committed to Community Wellness through the practice of meditation. With over two decades of meditation experience, Anne-Marie leads meditation workshops and provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader as well as a certified labyrinth facilitator. A full audio version of featured practices can be heard on the Welcoming a Mindful Future podcast. Our website can be accessed at MindfulFrontiers.net.

Grounding the Body and Calming our Emotions through Meditation

Using the five senses to settle and relax.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety in your life? Do you listen to music, do art, exercise, something else? All of those activities help distract our mind at the moment for sure. They also require that you stop what you’re doing and devote some quality time to the activity and, in my opinion and experience, they only work while you’re actually doing it. Meditation is a practice that you can do anywhere, anytime, and doesn’t require that you interrupt what you’re doing, change your clothes, and either go outside or take a break from your work and has long-term benefits. In as little as 10 minutes a day, meditation can soothe the effect of anxiety on the body and brain over time and provide a go-to for times of stress. 

“Anxiety is something most of us have experienced at least once in our life. Public speaking, performance reviews, and new job responsibilities are just some of the work-related situations that can cause even the calmest person to feel a little stressed”. (University of Rochester Medical Center).

  The effects of continued stress and anxiety, if not managed, can be quite unsettling. At Harvard Medical School, radiology instructor Gaëlle Desbordes is part of a community of researchers that in recent decades has been studying how meditation works. Desbordes and her colleagues have found that “there are a handful of key areas — including depression, chronic pain, and anxiety — in which well-designed, well-run studies have shown benefits for patients engaging in a mindfulness meditation program, with effects similar to other existing treatments.”

As a mindfulness and meditation instructor, I lead students and individuals in guided meditation practices that help build resilience into everyday lives. Meditation is a centuries-old practice that has been proven to soothe stress and anxiety by bringing our moment-to-moment attention to what is actually happening in the present moment, and in doing so, we move reactions from the limbic part of the brain to the frontal cortex where logic and reason can take place. 

Ruminating is something that keeps us stuck in our anxiety and stressful thoughts as a spiral that keeps going around and around without end, much like recycling thoughts. The frontal and outer parts of the brain are where we can stop the spiraling of rumination by engaging our five senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell.

The following five-step exercise can be very helpful during periods of anxiety or stress by helping to ground us when our mind is recycling various uncomfortable thoughts. Before starting this exercise, we pay attention to our breathing for a few minutes. Slow, deep, long breaths can prepare us for a structured meditation practice. Once you are comfortable following your breath, go through the steps that ground the mind and body by moving attention away from the rumination into a space where your entire body can be calmed.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Practice for Individuals and Families

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you SEE around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, or anything in your surroundings. Breathe deeply as you acknowledge these things, really noticing the details.

4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can TOUCH around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet. Breathe into these feelings and notice the texture.

3: Acknowledge THREE things you HEAR. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that also counts! See if you can move that attention to sounds outside the room you are in. Breathe as you are noticing the sounds and maybe even pay attention to the silence between them.

2: Acknowledge TWO things you can SMELL. Maybe you are in your office and smell a pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell perfume. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside. The sense of smell can be rather subtle so allow yourself time to fully appreciate the scents.

1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can TASTE. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch? If you don’t taste anything, that’s okay, too. Just identify what you taste and breathe with it, naming it as well.

When your practice has come to a close, sit with the breath a while longer, noticing how you feel. Next time you find yourself with anxiety or fear, do this practice as soon as you notice yourself starting to ruminate and invite grounding and relaxation into your body and mind.

An audio version of this meditation practice can be found on our podcast, Welcoming a Mindful Future. The podcast is available on most podcast platforms, including Spotify, Google, and Apple.

Originally published in The Taos News, on September 14, 2023

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Meditating with Mother Nature: Impermanence and Interconnectedness.

Meditating in nature is a satisfying activity that anyone can do, no matter their age or mobility. Many people enjoy sitting under a tree or by a stream, lying on their back in a meadow or just sitting on the porch on a hot summer day. Communing with nature can be a rewarding experience, especially if we can feel gratitude and pay close attention to what is around us, appreciating the incredible colors, shapes, and designs. In the book, Awake in the Wild, author Mark Coleman writes, “Nature has the power to transform and awaken us. For centuries, monks, mystics, and other individuals have lived, meditated, and sought refuge in the forests, deserts, and mountains.” 

We can learn a lot from Mother Nature regarding impermanence and gratitude during the summer when there is an abundance of colorful life around us. All of this beauty is freely offered with nothing asked in return for all that is produced. Gaia’s beauty reminds us that there is beauty for beauty’s sake as well as a deep interconnectedness or interbeing, a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thich Nhat Hanh, (called Thay, or teacher, by his followers), was a firm believer in meditating with nature. “When we look into our own bodily formation, we see Mother Earth inside us, and so the whole universe is inside us, too. Once we have this insight of interbeing, it is possible to have real communication, real communion with the Earth;” from Love Letters to the Earth. The idea of interbeing is very important to Thay and his Plum Village followers. Interbeing is the belief that we are part of Nature, its beings, and all that lives on our planet. We breathe together, hold space together and depend on each other for survival. There is no self separate from our environment and we all need the same elements to survive. What happens to you affects me and what happens to our environment affects all of us.

As I recently read in a Lion’s Roar article by Valerie Brown entitled The True Nature of a Flower, “Interconnectedness can be seen in a garden. A flower does not grow in isolation. It’s permeated by non-flower elements such as sunlight, soil, water, and air. It cannot exist without these non-flower elements. When you really look at a flower, you begin to see this interconnectedness of the roots stabilizing the soil, the nectar providing food for butterflies and insects, and seed heads offering nourishment for birds”. With awareness of interconnectedness, we understand the kinship connecting plant to flower, flower to non-flower elements, and also to everything else, including humans. We cannot exist without sunlight, water, air, and the nutrients plants provide. Using meditation, we can deepen our awareness of the connection (interbeing) we have with our environment and Mother Earth whose abundance and wisdom are immense.

The following practice is intended for families (or a group of people) to practice together in a natural setting. This meditation takes place in a quiet outdoor place – the backyard, a city park, next to a stream, or in a forest. It is appropriate for all ages.

Meditating with Mother Nature

  • Once you’ve found your spot in nature, gather everyone around and find a place to sit. If you have brought chairs, cushions or blankets, they can make sitting on the ground more comfortable. Barefooted would also be nice.
  • As you take your seat, notice what is going on in the body or mind. We can always be aware of something, whether it is thoughts or sensations. This is Mindful Awareness.
  • Close your eyes and bring attention to the body. Bring awareness to your posture and what parts of the body are in contact with the earth. Sit with as much ease as possible so that relaxation can be present.
  • Breathe normally and feel the entire movement of your breathing as it moves through the body. As you breathe, feel the air coming in and going out and imagine that you are breathing with all life forms around you. Plants breathe, animals breathe, insects breathe, etc…
  • Do this for a few minutes together, allowing everyone to enjoy their own breathing sensations as well as the appreciation that there’s a community breathing together.
  • Now, bring your awareness to the natural environment around you. What do you hear? What do you feel? Are there sensations in relation to the areas that are in touch with the earth? Tickling of grass, Crumbling of earth, Solidity of rocks …?
  • Open your eyes and look around you. What do you see? Trees swaying in the wind. A bird on a branch, an ant on the ground; pay attention carefully and with a curious heart. 
  • Allow everyone time to silently engage with their surroundings so that there is an awareness of the relationship we have with all kinds of life forms – the plants, the insects, the trees, the birds, and even the hidden animals. Acknowledge that we are all part of this living, breathing ecosystem. Even if the family or group can only sense this for a short time, it is worthwhile, and with practice, the time can be extended. (A valuable goal is to sit in nature for at least 30 minutes.

An audio version of this featured meditation is available on the Welcoming a Mindful Future podcast via Spotify, Apple, and Google podcast platforms.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC, an education-based mindfulness meditation center offering workshops, classes, and coaching for children, families, individuals, and classrooms. For more information please visit the website at MindfulFrontiers.net.

Originally published on The Taos News, July 13, 2023

Mindfulness and Social-Emotional Learning

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Mindfulness in Daily Life: Anything Can Be Done Mindfully

“We have the ability to work wonders. If we live mindfully in everyday life, walk mindfully, and are full of love and caring, then we create a miracle and transform the world into a wonderful place.” (Thich Nhat Hanh from “Moments of Mindfulness”, 2013 

Mindfulness can be brought into our daily activities so that anything we do becomes a kind of meditation. Doing the dishes, cleaning the house, driving the car, drinking coffee or tea, and walking with a pet can all be done mindfully. The key to mindfulness is to pay attention to one thing at a time and really enjoy what we are doing. 

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, and peace activist, wrote extensively about mindfulness in daily life. “Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present, and at one with those around you and with what you are doing. We bring our body and mind into harmony while we wash the dishes, drive the car, or take our morning shower.” Thay (as he is referred to by his followers), taught that anything we do can be meditation. 

When we engage in an activity mindfully we slow down and REALLY pay attention with applied concentration and open curiosity. I have noticed that when mindfulness is brought to an activity it becomes really enjoyable. The point of doing daily activities more slowly and mindfully is so that our body and mind may relax as we pay attention to what we are doing right now, rather than thinking about or ruminating about things that happened in the past or that may or may not happen in the future. 

When I teach mindfulness to children and families, we engage all the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. What do we see right now? What do we smell, touch, taste, and hear right now as we are doing this together? These practices help with focussed attention so that we are less distracted as we go about a routine activity and we enjoy what we are doing more. Thay reminds us to smile as we go about our daily activities. This raises feelings of positivity. 

This month let’s really pay attention to activities we engage in together. The following practice can be used during any activity to bring mindfulness into the shared experience.

Mindfulness in Daily Life Family Practice

1. Choose an activity to experience mindfully: Washing the dishes, Walking the dog, Driving to school, Coloring, or Setting the table. You choose the activity. The practice is the same.
2. Begin by consciously identifying what you are doing right now together. Smile to raise the positive attitude of body and mind.
3. The practice welcomes all the senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. The leader in the practice asks the following questions one at a time, allowing for individual experience.
4. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you feel? What do you taste? For example, if we are washing dishes, we identify the dish we are washing and notice its texture, color, and design. What sounds do we hear as the cloth rubs the surface or the dishes touch one another? How does the water temperature feel on our hands? What does the soap smell like and is there a sense of taste? (Sometimes smell and taste are related in the body)
5. Each sense is invited and a quiet moment is allowed for everyone to have their experience. We invite patience and awareness and don’t hurry to the next sense.
6. When the activity is complete, we stand up tall, take a deep breath in and out, and smile outwardly and inwardly. Congratulations on bringing mindfulness into your daily life!

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder Mindful Frontiers LLC and has 20+ years of meditation experience. She guides vipassana-style meditation through workshops, classes, and labyrinth walks for children, families, classrooms and individuals. Mindfulness meditation and labyrinth facilitation credentials are from Sage Institute, Veriditas, MindfulSchools and MBSR. For more information and to sign up for our seasonal newsletter, please visit MindfulFrontiers.net. 

Originally published, May 18, 2023

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Tonglen practice for awakening compassion

Children have an innate capacity for generating kindness towards others.

One of my favorite meditation practices is Tonglen and a well-known teacher of this practice is Pema Chödrön.  The word tonglen comes from Tibetan language and translates as giving and taking. Tong means giving or sending, and len means receiving or taking. Pema explains that in tonglen practice “we visualize taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath. In the process, we … begin to feel love for both ourselves and others; we begin to take care of ourselves and others.” In basic terms, tonglen meditation uses visualization and breath-focus to transform negative energy into positive.

I first learned about tonglen during a meditation-leader program at Sage Institute for Creativity and Consciousness from which I graduated in 2021. I was so intrigued with tonglen that my final paper was about comparing the practice to the heart language found in poetry. 

Historically, tonglen originated in India and was brought to Tibet around the 11th century as a way to help those who were suffering from serious diseases, and also so people might heal themselves so they could continue to help others. 

Tonglen is similar to Loving Kindness (Mettà) in that we are using the transformative power of the heart to channel healing. Although the overall intention of these practices is similar, tonglen is different in that we actually welcome suffering into our hearts. We feel the pain and sadness before allowing the heart to feel compassion and extending it outward into the world.

Compassion is not the same as empathy. A working definition of compassion says it is “the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.” Empathy is “the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.” (greatergood.berkeley.edu) So, we can understand the subtle difference to be that empathy is an ability to understand another’s emotions, whereas with compassion we also desire to relieve their suffering.

Pema explains the compassion practice further: “Usually, we look away when we see someone suffering. Their pain brings up our fear or anger; it brings up our resistance and confusion. So we can also do tonglen for all the people just like ourselves—all those who wish to be compassionate but instead are afraid, who wish to be brave but instead are cowardly. Rather than beating ourselves up, we can use our personal stuckness as a stepping stone to understanding what people are up against all over the world. Breathe in for all of us and breathe out for all of us. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.”

The following short tonglen practice can be offered for those who are ill, those who are dying or have already passed, or those people in pain of any kind. Although this is a shortened version, tonglen is traditionally an extended meditation practice.

Tonglen practice for families and groups. Young children can be invited to draw during this practice and use their creativity to channel compassion.

  1. Sitting in stillness with eyes closed. Generate open awareness as you watch the breath go in and out, inviting the desire to fully awaken to compassion. Bring your attention to the heart and welcome feelings of love – this could be a golden light, an image of the Buddha, a “feel-good” being, or just an overall feeling of warmth. You may also choose to place your hands on your heart.
  2. Visualization of a person’s suffering using the breath and sensations. Breathing in and out, welcome awareness of yours or someone else’s suffering. Name the suffering (sadness, grief, pain). See the situation as it is in as much detail as you wish. 
  3. Receiving and taking in suffering. Focus on the situation by seeing an image of the suffering. Use the in-breath to receive the image and with the out-breath, transform it into something more positive. You may try using smoke that changes into healing white light. You can also see the person as being in pain and then visualize their face turning into a smile. As you do this, recite several times: May this pain and suffering be released.
  4. Expanding compassion by extending it out to all who are in the same situation. Using the same in-and-out breath practice described above, visualize and welcome awareness of all who feel the same kind of suffering. On each out-breath offer them the mantra: May this pain and suffering be released. 
  5. Conclusion of the practice. Sit in silence for several more breaths, enjoying the feeling of release and transformation, Recite the final mantra: May all beings be well and live with ease. When ready, open your eyes slowly, bringing awareness back to the space you’re in, noticing your surroundings and all sensations that are present within you. 

(Please note that mindfulness and meditation are not a substitute for medical therapy.)

Originally published in The Taos News, January 5, 2022