lara simmons

In session three, we worked on bringing more presence into our lives. We began with a forty five-minute full body meditation . Taking a few deep breaths and then bringing awareness to each part of our body, starting with our toes. Feeling into each part of our bodies, feeling its structures, its movements, its energy. After the meditation we began to explore the concept of small stones. This exercise was created by Fiona Robyn a writer in England whose website is called Writing Our Way Home .  A small stone is "a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment." Writing small stones can help us be more present to our lives and to our writing. We read some examples of small stones from Writing Our Way Home, then we went out and wrote small stones of our own for 15-20 minutes before coming back together to share our experiences and our small stones. HOMEWORK: Write at least one small stone every day. It can be short or long, perfec...

"Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in the world. Kindness can change the lives of people." --Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Daw Aung San Sun Kyi , a Burmese pro-Democracy leader who spent nearly 15 years under house arrest as a political prisoner ( with thanks to my friend Jonathan for the quote.... ) I wasn't planning to talk about kindness today, but my friend Fiona has a new edition of her book, "Small Kindnesses" coming out today (and a FREE download on Amazon.com today only!) and I want to support that. Plus, as we move into the holiday season with all of its hustle and bustle, it is easy to forget to be kind. Some of the greatest kindnesses that have been shown to me in my life have been the small ones. Last night my husband walked the dog for me when I was exhausted and couldn't imagine doing one more thing. It was such a gift that at that moment I would not have exchanged this small kin...

"When you practice mindful connections with others your life feels meaningful and so it is." --Mbali Creazzo, from the book "29 Gifts: How a month of giving can change your life" by Cami Walker My friends Fiona and Kaspa over at Writing Our Way Home are having a busy week. They are hosting the first-ever Mindful Writing Day , they are preparing to teach not one, but two, mindful writing e-courses in November ( Finding Your Way Home and Writing & Spiritual Practice ) AND they are promoting our new anthology, :" A Blackbird Sings: a book of short poems ." Yes, I said our . One of my small stones is going to be published in this lovely collection of mindful moments. AND this book will be available for FREE download on Amazon.com for one day only, Thursday, November 1st. So hop on over to Amazon on Thursday and grab your free copy. Write a rave review - and your own small stone - and have it published on their blogzine,...