All posts tagged: Susan Piver

[WATCH] Susan Piver on Writing as a Liberatory Practice

Published by Travis Newbill

If meditation is about releasing attachment to thoughts, why would anyone want to put them in ink? If this age-old question ever gets in the way of your ability to sit down and write, you may find relief in this reminder from Susan Piver that there is a way you can tell your story that can liberate you from that story. Watch the two minute clip below: We hope this helps you along towards the writer’s desk this winter. And if you’d like a bit more encouragement — and blocked off time to actually write — check out our upcoming online program with Susan on writing & meditation: About Susan Piver Susan Piver is a Buddhist teacher and award-winning New York Times bestselling author of many books, including The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation and her latest, The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relationships. Known for her insight, clarity, and humor, Susan has an international reputation for being …

[VIDEO] Susan Piver Gets Personal

Published by Travis Newbill

And that’s part of what makes her such a great teacher. She notes that she doesn’t have fancy credentials, so what she has to offer—rather than some expertise from on-high—is the way meditation and Buddhist teachings influence, and manifest within, her life experiences. It’s helpful to hear that someone who I regard as being a serious practitioner still experiences things like claustrophobia on an airplane, or disappointment in relationships. And, it’s also helpful to hear how these everyday bits of suffering can transform us into more gentle & delighted people if met by the touch of a practitioner. In our recent interview, Susan discusses her personal approach to teaching and living the path, and also the importance of retreat. ABOUT SUSAN PIVER Susan Piver is a Buddhist teacher and the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, and Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation. Her latest book is The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relationships. …

Susan Piver on Meditation

Published by dmcblog

By Susan Piver // When you can honestly say I am comfortable in myself, the world opens up in a way you could not imagine. You take care of your home as a gesture of self-respect. You love your body and feed it with joy and ease. Good relationships grow stronger and difficult relationships become more workable. You trust your instincts. You laugh more. You also cry more. The world of emotion is revealed as a source of richness. You go out into the world to do your work, your service, your part with confidence and resilience. You become a source of strength for others. The path to an open-hearted life begins with the practice of meditation. In the Open Heart Project, meditation is not a life-hack. It is not practiced for self-help or self-improvement. It is the practice of self-kindness, the very foundation of compassion, wisdom, and power. Though there are many places you can go to learn meditation, most of them present the practice as a scientifically proven method for achieving excellence. That is great because it …

Susan Piver on Meditation and Creativity

Published by dmcblog

By Susan Piver // The other day, I read a tweet from someone looking for advice about taking up meditation for creative reasons. Could it help one become more creative, they wondered? I’ve had ample opportunity to study this question. I lead meditation and writing retreats that are about reconnecting with our own creativity and, beyond that, with the moment of inspiration. And after all, what is creativity, exactly, besides a continuous series of moments of inspiration? Which raises the questions: What is inspiration and where does it come from? Can my meditation practice help? When it comes to the latter question, the answer is “absolutely” and “maybe not.” Fascinatingly, Dictionary.com offers us this definition of “to inspire”: “To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by inspiration.” And this: “To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale.” At no point is the definition offered: “to be clever” or “to impress.” Rather, the definition points …

[VIDEO] Susan Piver on Fearlessly Creative: A Meditation and Writing Retreat

Published by dmcblog

Susan Piver has led the annual Fearlessly Creative: A Meditation and Writing Retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center for the past several years. In this video, she reflects on her experience of the retreat and looks forward to the 2018 installment — coming up Dec. 12-16. About the Author Susan Piver is a Buddhist teacher and the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, and Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation. Her latest book is The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relationships. Piver has been a student of Buddhism since 1995, graduated from a Buddhist seminary in 2004 and was authorized to teach meditation in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage in 2005. She teaches workshops and speaks all over the world on meditation, spirituality, communication styles, relationships and creativity. She wrote the relationships column for body + soul magazine, and is a frequent guest on network television, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, Today, and CNN. Her work has been featured …

How I Discovered the Four Noble Truths of Love

Published by dmcblog

By Susan Piver // Some time ago, my husband, Duncan, and I were locked in a state of ongoing disagreement. This disagreement had no center, theme, object, or subject. It was more like a demonic presence. Whatever we discussed gave rise to conflict, whether it was about what time to leave for the movies, if the dishes in the dishwasher were clean or dirty, which bank to use, or if we belonged together as a couple. Once we even argued about what time it was. Even a question as simple as “Where do you want to eat dinner?” could provoke talk of divorce. (True story: When I posed this question one night, we were driving on a country road and, for some reason, we exploded at each other. I made him pull over and let me out of the car… in France. I had no idea where we were. I didn’t care—I just wanted out. I walked into a field until I got scared and went back to the car, arms folded.) When we were …

Susan Piver on the Benefits of Meditation

Published by dmcblog

By Susan Piver // A comprehensive list of all the benefits of meditation would be very long indeed. My friend and fellow meditation teacher Jonathan Foust has said that if it were a medication, meditation would be heralded as the miracle drug of the century! Some of the benefits that have been demonstrated recently through modern scientific inquiry include the following: It relieves stress (by lowering the stress hormone, cortisol). It improves focus and memory (by raising the level of gamma waves). It prevents relapse into depression by 50 percent (according to studies by Jon Kabat-Zinn, MD, and Zindel Segal, PhD). It boosts immunity (in one study, meditators demonstrated higher levels of antibodies than nonmeditators in reaction to a vaccination). It actually makes you demonstrably happier (by reducing activation in the amygdala and increasing it in the prefrontal cortex). The health benefits don’t stop there. In addition, it has been demonstrated that meditation can help with the following: lowering blood pressure decreasing symptoms in illnesses with a stress-related component (ulcers, for example) decreasing serum cholesterol …

On Being a Teacher

Published by dmcblog

By Susan Piver // I just finished teaching two retreats at Dechen Choling Retreat Center in France, “The Open Heart Retreat” followed by “Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat.” On the last day of the last program, a student kindly asked what it felt like for me when a retreat was over. Our group was sitting at the breakfast table in the main building, a chateau dating back more than a hundred years. The land was in full June bloom and the only sounds were bird calls. We were so far away from our regular lives, whether in New York, London, Amsterdam, or right down the road in the village and I could feel the glow of retreat all around. There were expressions of appreciation for what we had experienced and also sadness at leaving this place and each other. “Retreat magic” refers to the feeling one gets after days and days of quieting the mind and turning inward. It is far from sleepy. It is not particularly “relaxing,” rather, it is enlivening, a …

WATCH: Susan Piver on Writing, Magic, and Meditation

Published by Travis Newbill

You probably already know who Susan Piver is — because she is famous for helping people through her writing. She’s a New York Times Best-selling author of titles like How not to be Afraid of Your Own Life and The Wisdom of a Broken Heart. You probably already know that! But, what you may not know, what may come as a surprise, is that the main impetus for this writer — who has helped tens of thousands of people through her writing — is not to be helpful, necessarily. Rather, it is to discover something. If this makes you wonder about what it means to be a “helpful person” or an “artist” — good! In our recent interview, Susan spoke powerfully about the creative process and its healing potential, and how discovery is a phenomena that a writer can experience themselves, but cannot quite provide for readers. Rather, perhaps, they can set the stage. Susan also speaks about meditation — which she has been teaching for decades — and how this relates to writing. And also …