Welcoming everything in our experience - a report from a recent retreat
Meditation Room, Serenity Ridge, Shipman Va Just back from a meditation retreat in the tradition of Tibetan Dzogchen Buddhism. It still amazes me that a spiritual tradition originating over 2500 years ago can still hold so much relevance to us today. Though Tibetan Buddhism is of course a religious tradition, this is not at all about being a Buddhist (or not), it is about the psychological ideas and practices that have survived for so long, with good reason. According to the
May 115 min read
Are you orienting towards Presence or the Amygdala?
The question in the title can be rephrased as: where do I usually, or often, put my attention in daily life: on the awareness and relative egolessness of being fully present, which we can come to after some meditative practice, or by our historical anxiety, i.e, the amygdala, the small walnut sized part of the brain, which is the seat of fear? This can be a very frustrating part of the meditative or spiritual journey; having practiced meditation for a while, we often experien
Mar 178 min read
Panic and Panic Disorder
What is the difference between a panic attack and panic disorder? Many of us have had an isolated panic attack, without it developing into something more, and mostly it doesn't. What is the difference between high anxiety and panic? It's not always clear, but often there is a strong sense of losing control, a sense of being totally overwhelmed by the intensity of the fear, which is not characteristic of everyday anxiety, at least not as much. For some of us, the fear of havin
Feb 167 min read
