Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds Archives - Page 8 of 11 - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Posted on July 21, 2025
in Meditation, Walking
4 Comments

What happens after the first five to fifteen minutes of a silent walk? Thoughts settle. Mind relaxes. Senses sharpen.  Depending on the season, we may see green everywhere with variegated bushes and myriad scents. Birds in the trees calling our attention. We may notice fungi protruding from the base of a tree trunk. Or we may see a landscape blanketed with white. We hear nothing. Smell nothing. Just the shimmering reflection of sunrays on fresh ice and icicles. We are enraptured by contrasting lifeforms: plants, insects, birds. Cactus in Moonlight, Oil on Canvas, Madhu B. Do you walk in deep winter months when snow has fallen and your neighborhood looks like a fairytale setting? When the leafless trees lining the roadside are frozen with transparent covering and reach through the blue air...

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Thursday, July 17, 2025

Posted on July 16, 2025
in Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Originality, Spirituality, Walking
4 Comments

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than one seeks.” John Muir Walking mindfully in wooded spaces is a pleasure and necessity for mental and physical wellbeing. However, you may not find wilderness close to where you live, because it would mean an uncultivated tract of land, deep and dense with majestic trees and undergrowth, uninhabited by humans, inhabited by forest critters and blessed with solitude. I do not suggest trekking through unfamiliar woods alone. Ask a friend to accompany you. My husband and I used to explore new treks together. The appeal of adventure midst the grandeur of towering trees and charm of ferny undergrowth was tantalizing. The great variety of flora growing without human intervention energized us, as did the vibrant colors, nature sounds, and refreshing scents. Watercolor...

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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Posted on July 14, 2025
in Journaling, Nonverbal Activities, Travel, Walking
4 Comments

My husband and I started traveling in our early sixties. We planned to travel twice in a year: within the country (preferably a National Park) and to a foreign country. We also decided against “seeing everything” at any place because that amounts to experiencing nothing. However, walking in any new destination always added to the adventure. As our feet moved with slow pace; our senses got engaged. Pacing reminds me of the mosaic sidewalks in Lisbon, Portugal, streamside sauntering in Kyoto, Japan, and making space through the throngs of people on the sidewalks of New Delhi, India.  Moonlit Night, Oil on Canvas, Madhu Wangu Entering little mom-and-pop shops, eating at hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or talking to street vendors gave us an opportunity to communicate with local people and get a flavor of how they...

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Thursday, July 10, 2025

Posted on July 9, 2025
in Walking
4 Comments

Walking after sunrise and before sunset is popular. But have you walked at night when the sky is ink black-blue and stars are twinkling brightly, or when the moon is full? If you have, you will know how nighttime walks heighten our senses of hearing and smell, titillate our body and mind. In the dark, the sense of sight diminishes but hearing takes over. Focus on the breath, and the inner stillness feels stronger in darkness. Slow your pace, stop, tilt your head upward and gaze at expanse of stars. Wonderment! Awe! Moonlit Landscape Madhu Bazaz Wangu You have to walk under the majesty of the night sky to feel its serenity and magical spell. It clears the mind, it calms, even makes you forget petty problems...

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Thursday, July 3, 2025

Posted on July 2, 2025
in Walking
4 Comments

Since we moved to Ashby Ponds, meditation and walking have turned out to be par excellence nonverbal activities for me. But for you and many others, equally good nonverbal activities are gardening, any visual arts, playing a musical instrument, traveling, dancing, cooking and so on. Wordless hobbies give our mind time to daydream and contemplate about ourselves.  Before moving to Ashby Ponds, I used to cook three to four times a week throughout the year—Indian, Italian, Chinese and American dishes. Outdoor, during early spring I tended to our garden—cleared the soil of fall debris around the perennials: tiger lilies, rose bushes, gerbera daisies then planted annuals: impatience, zinnias, naustrasiums etc. Our garden bloomed and blossomed in variegated flowers and lush leaves in changing seasons. Now my nonverbal activities are limited to meditation, working...

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Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Posted on July 1, 2025
in Daily Reflections 2025, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
6 Comments

Though this post feels like it is meant only for seniors (Mindful Creators Group at Ashby Ponds), go ahead and read it anyway. I feel it would be beneficial for younger, middle-age generation (Mindful Writers Groups) as well, albeit in future. Different phases in life bring different transitions. It just so happens that we all are in the final stage of our lives. Some of us living here at Ashby Ponds are comfortable and at peace. But some others with a major health issue or death of a spouse may feel thwarted or terribly lonely. Some may experience sadness/relief after years of caregiving to a spouse with dementia who passes away. Yet some others may dislike being dependent as they are no longer physically fit and thus unable to live on...

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Tuesday, June 24,2025

Posted on June 23, 2025
in Flourishing, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Sharper Brain after Retirement
6 Comments

Today's inspiration is geared more toward Ashby Ponds' Mindful Creators than Mindful Writers because, if I remember correctly, the age range of MWs is younger. But it never hurts to know things in advance to prepare for future health benefit. So here it goes: By the age 85 and older, about a third of people have dementia. Prevention is the most powerful antidote to this illness. You can’t prevent something you cannot see and dementia is one such illness. It increases exponentially after age 65. The mental decline is linked to lifestyle: physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, social isolation, poor sleep, lack of mentally stimulating activities and misuse of alcohol. All opposites of the eight good habits we’ve been reading about and hopefully practicing.  Prevention should start early. Our Ashby Ponds community may...

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Thursday, May 29, 2025

Posted on May 28, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Flourishing, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
8 Comments

“In the beginning nothing comes, in the middle nothing stays, in the ending nothing goes,” wrote the Tibet’s eminent twelfth-century poet, yogi and sage, Milarepa. What does it mean, we wonder. Matthieu Ricard, the American yogi who lives in Tibet unpacks this puzzle in this way:At the start of meditation practice, little or nothing seems to change in us. After continued practice, we notice some changes in the way of our being, but they come and go. Finally as practice stabilizes, the changes are constant and enduring, with no fluctuation. Instead of being temporary states they become altered traits of the practitioner. The beginners impact begins from under 100 total hours of practice. Long term meditators range from 1,000-10,000 hours. Yogis tested at Richie’s lab averaged three times more than long term...

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Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Posted on May 26, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
2 Comments

Once the Dalai Lama urged the neuroscientist, Dr. Richard Davidson to test meditation rigorously and extract its value for the benefit of the world. For such a task, Davidson needed the help of advanced yogis in Tibet. Though kind and cordial, they flatly declined the invitation to get tested in a faraway land. However, one American monk they respected and trusted was Matthieu Ricard. He had abandoned his promising career in biology and become an advanced yogi in Tibet. At his recommendation they agreed to participate in the mapping of their brains.  In 2002, the first Tibetan yogi tested in the lab was Mingyur Rinpoche. The number of his lifetime meditation practice hours were 62,000. His qualities of endless patience and gentle kindness truly impressed the researchers and were useful during...

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Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Posted on April 21, 2025
in Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
4 Comments

Not too far back I read about a monastery. It said, in 1957 an entire monastery in Thailand was being relocated by a group of monks. One day while moving a giant clay Buddha, one of the monks noticed a large crack. On closer investigation, he saw golden reflection emanating from inside. The monk used a hammer and a chisel to chip away the clay exterior until an image made of solid gold was revealed. Art historians believe that centuries earlier, monks covered an image of the Buddha made in solid gold with clay to protect it from attack by the Burmese army. The news fascinated me because here was a perfect metaphor about life hidden in the discovery. Our Authentic Self (Consciousness, Presence, True Self) is the golden Buddha shining...

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