Begin the new year on a positive note! Learn all about mindfulness and start down the road to better health, happiness, and well-being.

We’re very excited to announce “The Mindful Life” – a new introductory meditation online course starting January 2. It’s a comprehensive four-week course on mindfulness – not only the how-to of meditation, but also ways to bring more awareness and aliveness to your life overall. It combines the wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings with the latest research in neuroscience and psychology – so you get the best of both worlds. Weekly “daily life exercises” help you take what you learn into action in life.

The things that …

It’s discouraging, isn’t it, to watch ourselves fall repeatedly into our same old habitual traps. We try to practice mindfulness, but it can be frustrating. Do you ever have days where you’re so caught up that you realize only at night, despite your best intentions, that you weren’t mindful for even one moment?

And it’s especially hard when we’re face to face with lifelong tendencies that resist change in a big way.

But don’t lose heart. It doesn’t mean you’re no good at this. After all, you NOTICED that you weren’t being mindful. That noticing is a positive event. Even though it happened after the fact, …

People often come to my meditation courses because they want to learn how to slow down their crazy busy lives.

So you start sitting for 10, 20, or maybe even 30 minutes a day. But after some weeks of this, you still feel like things are crazy busy and all over the place. So your meditation isn’t working, you say to me.

Here’s my first thought. I’m wondering if you’re thinking of meditation as something you can drop into your life for say, 30 minutes a day, and have it counterbalance the other 15 or so hours that your mind is on full tilt. (I’m assuming you spend …

Feeling ready to invest in your own health and well-being? Want to make the effort to grow in a new direction? And begin feeling more at ease with yourself and your world?

You can learn how with Wildmind’s meditation courses. They’re all personally guided by Sunada, an experienced meditation teacher who provides ongoing feedback and support.

Beginning October 3, 2011:

• The Path of Mindfulness and Love (4 weeks)
• Change Your Mind (4 weeks)

Read more about our courses here.

I remember feeling very frustrated – and frankly a little baffled – when I was first learning the metta bhavana practice. Especially around the fourth stage, the difficult person. How was I supposed to feel warmth and affection for somebody I admitted not getting along with?

It was a tall order, and the whole idea left me feeling inadequate. I often sat there wondering what the heck metta was supposed to feel like, because I just didn’t get it. I figured there must be something wrong with me. I’m wondering if you’ve ever found yourself in a similar place.

Stress is a fact of life for many of us, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Mindfulness meditation can make all the difference between feeling stressed out and well-balanced.

For those of you in the Boston area, Sunada Takagi is offering a course on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to help you start down the road to health and wellbeing. The program centers on the ancient practice of meditation, presented in a pragmatic, common sense way. You’ll learn how to build up your inner resources for healing and growing — so you can start taking charge of your life.

MBSR is based on Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s pioneering work …

• Stressed?
• Living with chronic pain, illness, anxiety, or depression?
• Looking for more peace of mind?

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) helps you discover your natural capacity for ease and confidence.

In this program, you’ll learn how to develop the life skill of mindfulness. It’s your natural human capacity to pay wise attention to your moment-by-moment experience. It helps you become clearer and more focused – and better able to respond creatively to whatever life throws your way.

The program centers on the ancient practice of meditation, presented in a pragmatic, common sense way. You’ll learn how to build up your inner resources for healing and growing — so you can …

Feeling ready to invest in your own health and well-being? Want to make the effort to grow in a new direction? And begin feeling more at ease with yourself and your world?

You can learn how with Wildmind’s meditation courses. They’re all personally guided by Sunada, an experienced meditation teacher who provides ongoing feedback and support.

Beginning September 6, 2011:

• The Path of Mindfulness and Love (4 weeks)
• Change Your Mind (4 weeks)

Read more about our courses here.

I’ve been working on getting a daily yoga practice going. I thought it might improve my overall energy levels, and help with the chronic tension in my back and shoulders. But it’s been a “two steps forward, one step backward” sort of path. It’s especially on those days when I’m feeling pretty good that I tend to slack off. I think what the heck, I don’t really need it today. But then one day becomes two, then three… And I find myself feeling sluggish and tight again. Ugh.

So I’m re-experiencing firsthand what it’s like to try and get a healthy new habit going. It sure isn’t easy. How do we keep ourselves motivated?

I have a long history of depression. And though it’s thankfully not a constant companion anymore, it still drops by for a visit now and then. This past week was one of them. Being in it again gave me another opportunity for practice. But it also showed me how far I’ve come. I have the confidence that there’s a way out.

When these moods come lately, they go up and down, and usually pass away after a week or two. (Thank goodness! It didn’t used to be that way.) And all the things that seem so hopeless and overwhelming when I’m down suddenly turn manageable when the mood …