Archive for the ‘winter solstice’ Category

Fibromyalgia: Christmas/Hannukkah/ Bodhi Day/ Al-Hijira/ Yule/Kwanzaa AND Women’s Work

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

” You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose” , Indira Gandhi

Here we are once again in the season of  religious holidays for many  during this hectic month. Even if a person does not believe in or celebrate any of the holidays, it is impossible not to get caught up in the frenzy and activities of the month. Universally it is generally the women who organize and prepare the food, buy gifts, plan social events and deal with the family relationships which are often fraught with challenges . In the Western world language it is often ”Mrs. Santa Claus” who does the majority of the work!

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Fibromyalgia and Buddhist Practice of ‘Tonglin’

Monday, December 1st, 2008

1577314417” There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, Leonard Cohen

While I have read about and practiced (somewhat… and not diligently), mindfulness meditation, I have not often successfully been able to ‘let go’ of the pain messages from my brain, which seems to be from where anxiety and stress originates. Certianly there has been good success with mindfulness meditation for fibromyalgia (See the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn). Meditation is a life long undertaking and the practice itself is intended to be daily. Now I have been told of another way to facilitate bringing more peace into our lives and ‘letting go’. It is called Tonglin Practice. Although I am not a Buddhist, I do believe that there is much to be learned from Tonglin. It too appears to be another way to work with the breath and training the brain.

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