Teaching Children Mindfulness and Meditation

The past 2 weeks I was reading from an article that described teaching breath meditation to children in school.  The author spoke of his experience at one particular elementary school in New York.  I was touched by how he described the response of these children.   Many of them developed skills that helped them when tense or anxious moments arose in their day.   They would basically anchor their awareness in the breath, even for only a few moments.    They learned that they could find a safe place inside themselves and they could go there whenever they felt the need of it, just by focusing on their breath.   This is a life skill that they will take with them for many years to come.    Maybe one day this will be taught in many schools and children will learn to access their own inner happiness and peace.

"31 Flavors of Craving"

Phillip Moffet wrote an article about craving...   explaining the 3 catagories of desire.
He identified 3 distinct kinds of craving.   The first type is the craving for the 6 kinds of sense desires, the second is the desire  for becoming what you are not and the third kind is feeling so overwhelmed or disillusioned that you want life to cease.
The first type is what we are most familiar with... and there are so many sense desires we can experience in any given moment.
Craving in these instances is a distraction from the present moment, with what is.  Craving creates a sense of insufficiency and moves us away from contentment and gratitude.
Notice each day if you have a moment of craving.   Notice how it feels.   Notice how this leads towards some degree of suffering and away from happiness.  Notice how it feels when you releases it.

ART WALK

Just a reminder... the ART WALK for November is happening downtown tonight.

I will be at 3 OMS Yoga Studio (across from the Blue Horse Gallery on Bay St.) where my art is hanging-  the new yoga calendar paintings.

If you are available please come and see me there...   from 7:30- 9:30pm.   I would love to see some of my wonderful students there.

Blessings and thank you for your inspiration.

The Namaste Blessing

"I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells.

I honor the place in you which is of love, of light, of peace and of truth.

When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me,

We are one."

Namaste