Blog | Mindfulness, Meditation, Journaling & Walking in Nature
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Writings and Readings Blog

Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Posted on March 10, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
6 Comments

In the first month of this year we focused on “Mindfulness and Journaling.” You’re learning to converse with your Authentic Self. This Self knows you better than you know yourself. It never fails to lend its ear and points you toward the right direction. You may connect with it at any place, any time. It is your personal therapist, wise and kind.  The second month our focus was on, “Mindfulness, Attention and Awareness.” You are learning to differentiate between conceptual thought and deep awareness. We discussed how attention can be cultivated and how awareness rises when you stay embodied and live in the present. Attention on breath and being alive to the present moment is the beginning of the practice of mindfulness.  This month we are learning about, “Mindfulness and Meditation.” You are...

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Thursday, March 6, 2025

Posted on March 5, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

Misconceptions and Myths about Meditation Mindfulness is relaxation. Relaxation may be one of the outcomes of our practice but it seeks  attention andawareness. The goal of the mindfulness meditation (Vipassana) is insight in our true nature. We practice and transform our everyday life into an extraordinary life. Meditation puts you in a trance. No, it is not hypnosis. When we meditate we are very much under our own control. The attention and awareness are simply stepping-stones on the route to heightened awareness which cultivates mindfulness. Meditation is Mysterious. Meditation deals with levels of consciousness that are deeper than conceptual thought. Such things can be understood without words or logic such as walking, swimming and biking. We learn them by practicing. Similarly we experience meditation by practicing. Meditation is an adventure every time we practice because we can never predict exactly what will come up during any particular session. Each moment...

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Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Posted on March 3, 2025
in Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
2 Comments

By now you know the meditation we practice is Vipassana or Insight meditation. Vipassana is pure exercise in attention and awareness. When we practice it, we have to toss everything in our mind except pure awareness of sitting. This is not easy to do. We keep practicing diligently and one day our conscious thought, the ego, moves like a cloud and lets the sun of awareness shine. The pure awareness hides behind our ego which is nothing but our reactions to people and events and mental images that hide awareness.  To clear the cobwebs of ego we focus on our breath, the inhalations and exhalations at the tip of our nose. Such focus takes us deeper and deeper and makes us aware of our sensations, feelings and thoughts, in short our life experiences. We learn...

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Thursday, February 27, 2025

Posted on February 26, 2025
in Daily Reflections 2025, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Spirituality, Writing
4 Comments

In The Happiness Project: Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, bestselling author Gretchen Rubin writes that she had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places – a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she thought. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her own happiness. Reading her musings, I remembered how many decades ago it occurred to me that I could not change the world but I could change myself. But how? I reread the world wisdom books, researched new scientific literature on meditation and mindfulness, and read tons of...

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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Posted on February 25, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
6 Comments

Just as plants have the capacity to bring scented flowers to life, as black rock can crystalize into a glittering diamond, and as an egg can grow to become a captivating dancing peacock, you too can transcend into an Authentic Self. When you are fully present in the now, when you are embodied, whole and grounded, you are at your truest self. Let the intelligence of your body,  your mind and the emotions of your heart inform you, awaken you, and guide you days. How can you do this? How can we become true to yourself? How can you get linked to your Authentic Self?  By practicing journaling, breathing exercises and meditation. These practices will remove the masks you tend to put on to be someone you are not. Be present as you are....

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Thursday, February 20, 2025

Posted on February 19, 2025
in Daily Reflections 2025, Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
4 Comments

Can we do something, anything about the happenings going on in our country and around the world—wars, fires, famines, floods? Darkness everywhere!  Or as the activist Valarie Kaur says, “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead but a country still waiting to be born? What if the story of America is one long labor?” And what is going to birth is something wonderful.  “The place to start is within ourselves,” writes Bhante Gunaratana in his book Mindfulness in Plain English. He goes on to say, “Look carefully inside yourself, truthfully and objectively and see what role I have to play in all this. If you do this and as soon as you make such a change within yourself, change will...

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Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Posted on February 17, 2025
in Journaling, Reading
6 Comments

Paying attention and being aware of what is happening outside is important but not as important as being attentive and self-aware of our inner landscape. Such an attitude leads you to a better understanding of yourself.   Physical changes and impermanence are perpetual. When life’s transient nature registers in our mind we hear the whispers of the primordial questions, “Is that all there is?” “Is there anything permanent?” “What is authentic about my life?” “What is that which truly makes me happy?” In our younger years we pay attention to only our outer appearance, what we see reflected in the mirror. Our awareness is directed outward upon things, people, and places. With age, if we are fortunate, we turn inward towards the things that give meaning to our life, help us find a...

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Thursday, February 13, 2025

Posted on February 12, 2025
in Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
0 Comments

We are not naturally mindful. But mindfulness can be cultivated and developed through the deliberate use of attention and awareness. Eventually with practice, the two faculties merge to become one. This results in an expansion and strengthening of our conscious power. With the daily ritual of deliberate breathing exercises and journaling, you are training your mind to pay attention to the thing in hand as well as to “stand back” and become aware of it. When this happens, it changes everything about the way you think, speak and act. You get glimpses of your Authentic Self. What you trust, what you truly value and believe in. You begin to pay attention to the intuitive ideas that cross your mind. Your creative flow is effortless and insightful. All this reflects in the quiet...

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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Posted on February 10, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
2 Comments

Some notes on Attention and Awareness. ATTENTIONWe are born with limited conscious power. But there is a way we can expand and strengthen it. Fortunately we are already practicing the two of these breathing exercises (which will eventually train us for meditation) and journaling. The job of attention is to focus on one object at a time outside of the general field of consciousness. It is energized by our conscious power. For instance, as you breathe, you pay attention to the sensations of air going in and out of the nostrils; as you journal, you pay attention to the words you are writing; and finally when you read you step into a literary dream the book creates.   AWARENESSLike attention, awareness also gets its energy from conscious power. As you pay attention to the...

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Thursday, February 6, 2025

Posted on February 5, 2025
in Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
6 Comments

The word “meditation” is often confused with “mindfulness.” Meditation is the discipline of sitting still in a particular posture in silence and solitude with focus on the breath. (You will learn more about it in Month 3.) Mindfulness is a state of total awareness of the mind that results from the daily practice of meditation. Mindfulness Meditation is also name of a meditation and is one of many meditations people practice such as Body Scan, Loving Kindness, Guided meditations and so on.   You have practiced focusing your attention on your breath. In so doing, you watch your own mind in the present moment. You witness yourself from a short distance. This is similar to looking at your own reflection in a life-size mirror. The way you study your face, your torso, the...

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