Month: February 2022

In the Times of Coronavirus: How to Be Informed Without Being Overwhelmed

Published by dmcblog

By Megan Prager // Is it possible in this time to stay informed and not be totally overwhelmed? Like many, I find myself consuming a large amount of media. There are beautiful stories of people supporting one another, as well as many stories and statistics of suffering that can leave us in wonder and fear. Recently the World Health Organization put out a list of Considerations to Support Mental Health in the times of COVID-19, with one recommendation being: Minimize watching, reading or listening to news about COVID-19 that causes you to feel anxious or distressed… seek information updates at specific times during the day, once or twice. The sudden and near-constant stream of news reports about an outbreak can cause anyone to feel worried. Important advice indeed. When we aren’t intentional about consuming news related to COVID-19 both in terms of content and amount, we can easily experience feelings of distress and overwhelm. Here is the thing about overwhelm: It doesn’t feel good! We suffer when we feel it. What we know about optimal adult learning (based …

New Name for SMC: Drala Mountain Center

Published by Dhi Good

Red Feather Lakes, Colorado • Friday, February 18, 2022 Shambhala Mountain Center announces its new name: Drala Mountain Center. Why the name change? When SMC became a fully independent nonprofit organization last fall, we came to an agreement with the Sakyong Potrang to change our name by the end of March. We are grateful to the Sakyong Potrang for working with us to effect these changes, which are essential to fulfilling our mission. What does Drala mean? When people reflect on being at SMC, they talk about how vividly they experience the power of the land itself. We can experience drala by directly connecting to the world through our sense perceptions. By opening to this experience, we encounter vast wisdom in ourselves, those around us, and the world itself. Much more can and will be said about drala as we grow together into the meaning of our new name. Also see the FAQs below. What About Shambhala? Our roots run deep in Shambhala, and we endeavor to uphold the teachings of our tradition. We will …

Meditate to Cultivate Healthy Habits of Mind

Published by dmcblog

By: Dhi Good The meditation journey is all about getting to know one’s mind – learning how it works and observing the tendencies we have. Most people know and accept that we have behavioral habits, but fewer consider that we also have habits of mind that are worthy of our benevolent attention. More about benevolent attention in a bit, but first, habits. Habits are not necessarily bad. In many cases they serve us well. Thank goodness we don’t have to sort out how to ride a bike every time we jump on a 2-wheeler. We just get on and start pedaling. Adopting habits saves us time and the wear and tear of considering each and every decision about what we’re going to do next. It can be helpful to have a pattern so we don’t get stuck deciding what to do next. And when circumstances force us out of habitual patterns, we tend to get cranky if not outright upset. Similarly, we have certain go-to patterns of handling the ever-changing circumstances of life. They govern …

Leading with Genuine Care: An Interview with Rob Dube

Published by dmcblog

Rob started his first business in high school selling Blow Pops out of his locker. For the last 30 years, he’s served as co-founder and co-CEO of imageOne, ranked as one of the Top 25 Small Businesses in America by Forbes. Rob has been an avid meditator for over 15 years. He’s also the host of the Leading with Genuine Care podcast where he’s talked with mindful leaders including Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, Shantum Seth, Dr. Andrew Weil, and more. Rob is the organizer of the Leading with Genuine Care Leadership Retreat, author of donothing: the most rewarding leadership challenge you will ever take, and a senior contributor for Forbes. We recently had the opportunity to interview Rob and learned more about how we might “slow down so we can speed up.” Rob also shares his experience of how we can “practice the pause” in all manners and relationships, how to work with the moment between stimulus and response, and how it can affect us and those around us, in all areas of our lives. *Originally published August 11, 2021. Updated February 8, 2022.

Inhale Life Deeply and Slowly

Published by dmcblog

By: Blake D. Bauer Excerpt from the international bestseller You Were Not Born To Suffer, By Blake D. Bauer The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms … Smile, breathe and go slowly. Thich Nhat Hanh If we can learn to be present to our breath in any given moment, we can find our way back to the strength, peace and love that already exist within us. Although we tend to overlook it, each inhalation offers a pathway down into the depths of our being, where unlimited space and stillness are always patiently waiting. Our breath is an anchor that has the power to keep us centred during the most turbulent of times. Regardless of how strong a thought or emotion is in our moment-to-moment experience, we’ll always find a wealth of joy and clarity below these mental and emotional waves. Through our breath we can immediately step out of illusory thoughts about the …

Karuna Training: Cultivating Intimacy through Compassionate Exchange

Published by dmcblog

By Melissa Moore We live in a time where we connect within a second of space and time around the world. We can connect with millions on social media platforms simultaneously! And still, person to person, family to a family member, lover to partner to spouse, friend to friend; we possess a deep longing to be seen, heard, understood, and authentically met in a heartfelt, compassionate presence. As a practitioner of Contemplative Psychology and as a teacher, I’ve seen how we are starving to death for genuine heart connections. We’re forever seeking a mutual exchange versus regular exchanges encountered daily, fraught with jockeying for position, domination, and status. You know the interactions I’m speaking about, where we or someone else is vying for position, importance, confirmation, and approval. This jockeying for status can be subtle; we notice how someone tells us about their excellent plans for the weekend at work; all the while letting us know how their projects are so exotic or expensive. Or we can sense when a family member makes non-verbal assumptions …