Welcoming a Mindful Future

The Practice of Patience: Meditation Helps Navigate Uncertainty

One of the most important wisdom truths is that the only constant in life is change. We have all experienced chapters of uncertainty in our lives. How can we navigate these times of fear and confusion? I believe we can learn patience and acceptance as well as the compassion that comes from knowing we’ve made it through each time. Meditation is a tool that helps to navigate uncertainty by showing us how to find the still quiet heart center that knows all will work out one way to tap into the heart’s ability to respond wisely to life. Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC, 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 provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Featured practices can be found on the ⁠Welcoming a Mindful Future⁠ [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mindful-frontiers] podcast and Insight Timer [https://insighttimer.com/amemanuelli] app. The website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠ [https://mindfulfrontiers.net/].

Meditation Foundational Practices: Breathing, Open Awareness, Mantras and Visualizations.

Most meditation traditions use the breath as a concentration anchor. Counting breaths, following the breath through its entire cycle, and being aware of the sensation of the breath going in and out of the body. The breath is used as a focus anchor in most meditation practices because it is ubiquitous. Additional focus anchors would be sound, sensations, body scanning, and eventually, open awareness where we sit without choosing a specific anchor. As we sit and pay attention to the present moment with the help of an anchor, we recognize, acknowledge, and investigate thoughts, body sensations, and feelings/emotions – without attachment or engagement. When we get distracted, we gently bring our attention back to the anchor over and over again. The following family meditation practices are effective ways to introduce a mindful moment into your daily routine.  ***************** NOTE: At any time, when you need extra time during the practice, pause the podcast for as long as you'd like and come back to finish up. 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 provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Featured practices can be found on the ⁠Welcoming a Mindful Future⁠ [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mindful-frontiers] podcast and Insight Timer [https://insighttimer.com/amemanuelli] app. Our website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠ [https://mindfulfrontiers.net/].  All our links are compiled and can be viewed at Linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers [Linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers].

What Does Desire and Boredom Have in Common? Understanding grasping and clinging through meditation.

Sometimes life can be boring, right? Boredom is a feeling we get when we wish things were different – more exciting or engaging – or as children say, more “fun”. Essentially, when we’re bored we have the desire for life to be different than it is right now. Buddhism calls this “grasping” and “clinging” and is said to be caused by thoughts (ideas) of how our mind wants things to be.  In meditation traditions, we are asked to look at the grasping and clinging directly. We practice letting go of expectations and accepting what is right here in this moment – the only reality there is – instead of wishing for things to be different. When we investigate grasping and clinging, we may realize that discontent is a state of unrest. We can calm this through meditation which is being mindful of what is going on right now by following the breath that connects us to reality. NOTE: At any time, when you need extra time during the practice, pause the podcast for as long as you'd like and come back to finish up. 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 provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Our website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net [https://mindfulfrontiers.net/]⁠. A compilation of all our links can be found at Linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers [http://linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers].

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 meditation practice offered in this episode 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. NOTE: At any time, when you need extra time during the practice, pause the podcast for as long as you'd like and come back to finish up. 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 provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Our website is ⁠⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠ [https://mindfulfrontiers.net/]⁠. A compilation of all our links can be found at ⁠Linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers⁠ [http://linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers]

December 2023 - Inviting the Power of the Heart Through Meditation

Where we place our mind’s attention is where our 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 means that our brains are malleable (adults and youth) and we can change how we think and act throughout our lives with intention, purpose, and practice. 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 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. NOTE: At any time, when you need extra time during the practice, pause the podcast for as long as you'd like and come back to finish up. 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. ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠ [https://mindfulfrontiers.net/] Linktree page [https://linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers]