by Martha Brettschneider | May 10, 2018 | Life Lessons, Mindful Parenting, Mindfulness, Motivation
At my recent Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) teacher training session in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to share a hotel room with a Boston-based cohort member named Åsa (pronounced Oh-sa). Åsa and I had never met before, but we clicked...
by Martha Brettschneider | May 3, 2018 | Mindful Photography, Mindful Photography, Mindfulness, Motivation, Photography
Yesterday at 6:20 am, I was perched on the top level of a tall step ladder in the middle of my neighbor’s dogwood tree, literally going out on a limb. Fortunately I had asked permission the previous day to use their tree as a photography subject, since at times the...
by Martha Brettschneider | Apr 22, 2018 | Life Lessons, Meditation, Mindfulness
I promised in last week’s post to reveal the personal gunk that churned up to the surface during my recent 10-Day Goenke Vipassana meditation course at Dhamma Delaware. As I said in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, the no speaking, no reading, no writing, and no...
by Martha Brettschneider | Apr 12, 2018 | Life Lessons, Meditation, Mindfulness, Motivation
My husband must be getting tired of hearing me answer the question, “What was it like at the 10-day silent meditation retreat?” My reply evolves in subtle ways with each passing day. My first response is always, “This was NOT a retreat. It was hard, not relaxing.” And...
by Martha Brettschneider | Apr 5, 2018 | Meditation, Mindfulness, Motivation
“Great bar conversation — what is harder? A half marathon or staying quiet for 10 days? And how many people actually can answer that with any credibility?” A friend of mine posed this question a couple of weeks ago when I was packing for my 10-Day Vipassana...