Snow Lovers

Remembering to be Mindful at this Busy Time of Year

Here is a list of some resources:
Wherever You Go, There you Are: Mindfulness in Everyday Life (Kabat-Zinn, J.)
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (Kornfield, J)
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (Kabat-Zinn, J.)
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of the Buddha (Brach, T.)
The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation (Hanh, T.N.)

The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teaching of Buddhist Psychology (Kornfield, J.)
Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind can Heal the Heart (Bennett-Goleman, T.)
When Things Fall Apart:Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Chodron, P).
Turning the Mind into an Ally (Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche)
Mindflness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (Segal et al.)
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (Salzberg, S.)
Dancing With Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering (Moffitt, P.)
Thoughts Without a Thinker (Epstein, M.)
Insight Meditation (Goldstein)
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond (Brahm, A.)
Calming Your Anxious Mind (Brantley, J.)
Start Where You Are (Chodron, P.)
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart (Epstein, M.)
Losing a Parent (Kennedy, A.)
Peace is Every Step (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Starbright–Meditations for Children (Garth, M.)
Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life (Kashdan, T.)
The Relaxation Response (Benson, H.)
Everyday Zen and Nothing Special (Beck, J.)
Saying Yes to Life (Bayda, E.)
The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens: Mindfulness Skills to Help You Deal With Stress (Biegel, G.)
Undoing Perpetual Stress: The Missing Connection Between Depression, Anxiety and 21st Century Illness (O’Connor, R.)
The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being (Siegel,D.)
Mindful Motherhood: Practical Tools for Staying Sane During Pregnancy and You’r Childs First Year (Vieten, C.)
Mindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body and Mind (Boccio, F.)
Beginning Mindfulness: Learning the Way of Awareness (Weiss, A.)
Breathe! You Are Alive: Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Hanh, T.N.)
The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace (Kornfield, J).
Still Here, Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying (Dass, R.)
Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg, M.)
Mindful Exercise (Jones, C.)
New and Selected Poems (Oliver, M.)
The Essential Rumi (Barks, C.)
Coming to Our Senses (Kabat-Zinn, J.)
Soul Without Shame (Brown)
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (Rinpoche, S.)
Heal Thyself (Santorelli, S.)
The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire (Chopra, D.)
Overcoming Addictions (Chopra, D.)
Awakening of the Heart (Welwood, J.)
Zen Heart: Simple Advice for Living with Mindfulness and Compassion (Bayda, E.)
The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion (Germer, C.)
Teachings on Love (Hanh, T.N.)
Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, S. & Smith, S.)

The Christmas Tangle

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. (Maya Angelou)

My Therapy Dog

Cyrus, my Therapy Dog, checking out the supplies after a busy workshop.

Valley Ridge Story

Valley Ridge Story



Learning Focusing to Help Free the Artist in You
Instructor: Karen Wallace


Do you want to learn how to:

* Be a better listener to yourself?
* Make clear choices?
* Be calm and compassionate to yourself?
* Support yourself through change?
* Feel relaxed and less stressful?

Focusing helps you learn how to be Present and listen to yourself so that you can move ahead in your life in an empowered and safe way. Focusing brings you closer to wholeness and allows you to access your inner wisdom. This helps you move in the direction of your potential. It can help you move beyond blocks and get in touch with your goals. Focusing is a gentle and powerful way to develop a deep interpersonal healing relationship with yourself.

Awareness of sensations in the body can be blocked through habits of dissociation and repression. This is because the sensation maybe uncomfortable or painful, and we are not trained to focus on this inner knowing and awareness of the body. Transformation of energy involves the acknowledgment, and information of the inner movement of sensation. This energy and awareness is essential to reconnect what has been fragmented by life stress, injury or trauma.

In this workshop we will work with:

* artist’s blocks
* money issues that we may have around our art
* time issues that we may have for our art making
* why we can’t get into the studio

SPECIAL NOTE:
This program begins the evening of Friday, September 10 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM, , and continues on Saturday and Sunday between 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM

What is Focusing?
Focusing is “direct access to bodily knowing.” It is a practice that takes a person towards a state of conscious perception that goes far beyond knowing something on a mere conceptual level. As with Somatic Experiencing, Focusing refers to this bodily knowing as a felt sense. As the Focusing Institute’s website explains, “You can sense your living body directly under your thoughts and memories and under your familiar feelings." Focusing happens at a deeper level than your feelings. Under them you can discover a physically sensed murky zone which is concretely there. This is a source from which new steps emerge. This murky zone “opens” as you learn to stay with it longer. Being with it increases the ability to sense feelings behind words or images, even when those are not yet formed. Eventually, you can learn how to let a deeper bodily felt sense come in relation to any problem or situation. It is a subtle process, hard to define in words. Focusing was developed by the philosopher Eugene Gendlin in the late 1960s and early 70s, while he was working with the famed psychologist Carl Rogers.

You will learn the skills of and receive credit for Level One Focusing by taking this workshop. You can continue to take Level 2 to 4 with Karen or another Focusing Teacher after this workshop.




To Register: www.valleyridgeartstudio.com