CLP Retreat: Pictures

(A quick note before we get started: You can click on any picture to make it larger.) Here’s one of the first things I saw when I arrived at the St. Thomas Gainey Conference Center: My accommodations: The room did have a TV (a nice one, too) – but I didn’t turn it on even [...]

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Mindfulness and Meditation Methods to Try

Most people find a residential retreat a powerful experience; and I have found them incredibly helpful in creating (and now sustaining and deepening) my daily meditation practice.  But mindfulness isn’t just about sitting stone-still for a set period of time each day; indeed, “real” mindfulness is cultivated everywhere, all the time. However.  In my “all-or-nothing” [...]

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“Fire” by Judy Brown

What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between, as much as to the wood. [...]

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CLP Retreat: Postlogue

I turn the key in the car’s ignition, and though it is a hard start, mercifully the engine turns over, the car sputters, and then it comes to life.  I place the car in reverse, back up a few feet, then shift into drive – and I’m off. And then I hit a detour. Literally. [...]

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CLP Retreat: Day 5 (10/3/10)

6:30-7:30 am: Early meditation session. We did 20 minutes of silent sitting meditation, then 20 minutes of walking meditation, then 20 minutes of silent sitting meditation. Yesterday’s meditation sessions were quite “easy” for me – i.e., I had a sense of lightness, focus, and ease that I really haven’t ever experienced before in meditation – [...]

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CLP Retreat: Day 4 (10/2/10)

As today was a day of silence, I didn’t have the opportunity to take many notes; so my reflections regarding this day will likely be brief.  But, let’s see what unfolds.  :) 4:15-4:30 am: Time to wake up. Waking this early is my own personal preference; rising at this early hour was not required by [...]

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CLP Retreat: Day 3 (10/1/10)

6:30-7:30 am: Early meditation session. We did 20 minutes of semi-guided sitting meditation, then 20 minutes of walking meditation, then 20 minutes of silent sitting meditation. 7:30-8:30 am: Breakfast. 8:30-9:15 am: Guided meditation on thinking and emotions. Whenever I have tried to open to thoughts during meditation, I have been unsuccessful in maintaining awareness, and [...]

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CLP Retreat: Day 2 (9/30/10)

7:30-8:30 am: Breakfast. It was a standard buffet-style meal like one would find at a nice hotel: cold cereals, oatmeal, yogurts, eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, juices. 8:30-9:15 am: Exploration of clementines. This was a riff on the Jon Kabat-Zinn raisin meditation – where you use all of the senses to examine all of the facets [...]

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CLP Retreat: Day 1 (9/29/10)

3 pm: Check-in. I arrived at the St. Thomas Gainey Conference Center.  The retreat experience doesn’t officially begin until 6 pm, but I had no idea what city traffic would be like (rush hour, construction, flooding) – so I gave myself plenty of time.  I’d rather be early than late. I entered the main hall, [...]

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Cultivating Leadership Presence through Mindfulness

Eleven months after my 10-day intensive retreat where I began my meditation practice in earnest, I am once again on a structured, semi-intensive residential meditation experience. However, this experience was wildly different from my previous retreat.  Here are the quick highlights (click on the links for details of each day): Day 1: Laying the groundwork. [...]

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