By Sharon Salzberg and Diana Calthorpe Rose This article originally appeared in Newsweek. It’s been a long plague year. COVID-19 hospitalization rates are declining, but the stress level of health care workers remains sky-high. We’re in the pandemic’s third wave, and only a few weeks away from peak hospitalizations in early January. New, more contagious strains of the virus could increase…
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped all of our lives. Not least of these, the lives of healthcare professionals working on the front-lines. Yet amidst the long, challenging days in the hospitals, the medical staff across the country consistently demonstrated care and compassion for their patients. How do they cultivate such enduring resilience?
Mind in Life by Dr. Rick Hanson The Seven Steps to the Highest Happiness I’ve hiked a lot in the mountains, and sometimes a friend farther up the trail has turned and looked back and encouraged me onward. Such a friendly gesture: Come join me . . . watch out for the slippery ice . . . you can…
Mary Anne Best, a practitioner of Centering Prayer, facilitated an hour of contemplation to help bind the wounds and anxieties being experienced right now. She opened with a quote from Fr. Thomas Keating: “By opening yourself in contemplation, you are praying for everyone past, present, and future. You are embracing the whole of creation. You are accepting everyone, everything, all…
Celebrated Buddhist teacher and author Ethan Nichtern joined Garrison Institute Retreats Director Jane Kolleeny for a conversation about some of the profound, often painful, and life-changing lessons being learned from the global pandemic and its effects on our psychological state of mind. They began by exploring the Buddhist teaching of groundlessness and its connection to this moment, as Nichtern said:…
The deepest roots of the highest happiness are in the living body. At the intersection of modern science, ancient wisdom, and practice—which could be called “neurodharma”—we can find very effective tools for resilient well-being. In this live webinar, psychologist and best-selling author Rick Hanson explained the foundations of neurodharma and the transformative potential it has to protect, nurture, and free…
Lama Surya Das, an American lama in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition, led the Virtual Sanctuary community through a guided meditation and reflection on how we can deepen our meditation practice and integrate it into our daily lives. We are living in unprecedented times of uncertainty, stress, and even bewilderment. We are called upon to pay attention and try to stay…
We welcome for the first time Oren Jay Sofer, who will be teaching a virtual retreat at the Garrison Institute August 28 – 30, 2020 based on his recently published book, Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication (Shambhala, 2018). The interview below is based on details from his book. To learn more about the upcoming retreat and…