Contemplative Practice, Practices for Cultivating Love, Spirituality and Love

Butterfly Meditating: A Contemplative Practice

Recently, I have developed a new contemplative practice I call Butterfly Meditating. I have a wildflower garden in my back yard, and when it is in full bloom, it attracts a lot of butterflies.  All of the photos in this post are taken by me at home or on a walk. I get really excited… Continue reading Butterfly Meditating: A Contemplative Practice

Contemplative Practice, Practices for Cultivating Love, Spirituality and Love

Labyrinth Walking: A Contemplative Practice

I have been building and walking labyrinths the last couple of weeks, and I love it. Spiral art, and I take labyrinths to be a type of spiral art, have long been a part of contemplative practice for both non-religious and religious people. I first started noticing spirals when I was researching art and culture… Continue reading Labyrinth Walking: A Contemplative Practice

Contemplative Practice, Practices for Cultivating Love, Self-compassion, Self-Love and Self-Directed Kindness, Spirituality and Love

Contemplative Practices: A Post for Everyone

One of the most loving and powerful things we can do for ourselves is develop consistent contemplative practices. The phrase contemplative practice may sounds religious or mystical to you. And it can be both of these things, but don't worry. Even if you are not religious and do not practice any faith, contemplative practices are… Continue reading Contemplative Practices: A Post for Everyone

Intentions and Prayers

An Intention or Prayer for Mindfulness

In case you are struggling with worry and rumination today, here is an intention or prayer to help you during this difficult time. You can read this silently or out loud to yourself as centering intention to help bring you back to the present moment. If you would like to turn it into a prayer,… Continue reading An Intention or Prayer for Mindfulness

Healing Difficult Emotions, Spirituality and Love

Prayer: When We Believe and When We Don’t

I have long been fascinated by prayer. One reason for this, of course, is because prayer has been an important part of my life in one form or another since I was young. But I am also interested in prayer for another reason. Over the years, I have heard stories of people who didn’t really… Continue reading Prayer: When We Believe and When We Don’t

Politics and Love

Zombies, Imitation and Apocalypse, and the Resurrection

I have had zombies on the brain recently. That is because I am teaching a philosophy of zombies class this summer at a local college. I have really enjoyed planning the class. Philosophers have long been fascinated with zombies because the zombie phenomenon tells us interesting things about the connection between our mind and body.… Continue reading Zombies, Imitation and Apocalypse, and the Resurrection

Healing Difficult Emotions, Overcoming Self-loathing and Anxiety, Self-Love and Self-Directed Kindness, Uncategorized

Step Five: Trusting Love

This is the fifth post in a series about recovering from perfectionism and self-hate, and it is is about trusting love. You can find links to the other posts in the series at the end of this post. Step #5: I asked Love to show me how to trust it. One of the most painful… Continue reading Step Five: Trusting Love

Overcoming Self-loathing and Anxiety, Practices for Cultivating Love, Self-compassion, Uncategorized

Why You Should Listen to Your Dreams

Sometimes we nay feel like listening to our dreams is a waste of time. But that's not true. On the contrary, listening to our dreams is a wonderful use of time. Our dreams are often a more robust, loving version of ourselves inviting us to be more fully alive. Such activity is a wonderful use… Continue reading Why You Should Listen to Your Dreams