“There’s BEARS in the pool!” squeals one of the little owners of a New Jersey family’s backyard pool that’s just been invaded by a mama black bear and her cubs trying to beat the heat.
As the camera scopes out the furry intruders, the cubs are filmed tumbling down a toy slide, wrestling pool toys, and splashing about in the water.
They look like they’re having so much fun, one can’t BEAR to see them leave!
(Share With Your Friends Below!)
With all of us going through so much change in a lifetime, some of our friendships can’t last forever, nor should they.
Sometimes friendships gently fade away from starvation, as each person invests their resources in more satisfying pursuits. Other times, things like hurtful behavior, negative feelings, and attachment to memories of better times can make these break-ups a little more complicated and confusing.
When a friend mistreats you, or your relationship is on the rocks, it’s distressing. The connection that has, at least in part, satisfied your fundamental human need to be seen, heard, and cared for, is now in jeopardy.
Especially since you’ve probably let your guard down with the person, the pain, frustration, and disappointment of the situation can readily transform into defensive, empowering emotions like self-righteous anger.
5 Things We Need To Teach Our Girls About Female Friendships
See if you can recognize and let go of those secondary, reactionary emotions, though. For one thing, they generally don’t serve a useful purpose in the dialogue between the two of you. Animosity tends to breed more animosity, and holding onto that isn’t a pleasant or healthy activity for either party.
Plus, the real problem isn’t in those feelings. It’s in the underlying mismatch and, for the purposes of the relationship, all that ultimately matters is whether that mismatch is capable of being remedied or not. Making that determination is easier with a more rational, less emotionally charged perspective.
Here’s an example: say your best friend started making fun of you in front of other people a while ago. You’ve communicated to her a few times that you don’t like being made fun of. She said she understood and apologized, but she’s kept doing it.
Now you’re torn because you know that being friends requires some degree of vulnerability and intimacy with someone, and yet you aren’t comfortable being those things with her anymore. At this point, angry thoughts and feelings might well pop up: “Why can’t you just stop? Why are you doing this to me?!”
While the answers to those questions might be interesting, they don’t really matter, do they? You’ve expressed to your friend that her behavior is unacceptable to you. She’s either willing and able to stop, or she will continue. If she continues, you have a decision to make: accept the ongoing mistreatment or end the relationship, at least as it currently exists. That’s it.
Being the healthy person you are, you’d also need to consider if you have a part in whatever the problem is. If there is, then the same principle applies to you: are you willing and able to change things that are contributing to the problem, or not?
The point is that all you’ll ever control, and all that you’re responsible for, are your own words and actions, and the same holds true for the other person. Pretty simple, right? What is there to get worked up about?
Of course, it isn’t always easy to maintain this rational perspective. Consider a best-case scenario: both of you have tried what you’re willing to try, and it just isn’t working because of an irreconcilable impasse. Even now, it may still easy for you to get stuck because of the positive feelings you still hold for your friend, and her good intentions: you believe that she isn’t intentionally trying to hurt you.
How To Rescue A Wild Leopard From A Well Without Injury
This situation is similar, in some ways, to the distinction between murder and manslaughter. Whether someone’s death was caused intentionally, it makes for an important moral, intellectual, and legal distinction to the prosecutor and defendant. But does it make any difference to the deceased?
If you knew that if you left the house today you would either be killed by a falling piano or an car accident, would you need to be certain which one it would be before deciding to stay home?
Sorry for using morbid example! But look: if someone is consistently hurting you, does it make a difference whether it’s because they’re unwilling to change or just unable to do so?
Lest you think that this perspective is dispassionate or non-emotional, let me be clear: I’m not recommending divorcing yourself from or denying your emotions. Far from it!
In fact, it’s by paying attention to them that you are able to determine what need of yours isn’t being met in the first place, so you can communicate effectively and determine how to take care of yourself.
What I am recommending is letting go, as much as possible, of the blame and anger that clouds your clear-eyed judgment and keeps you stuck. When toxic situations carry on for too long, with each person expecting or demanding that the other change, even though neither is willing and/or able to, that’s when the hard feelings really bloom.
They may last a lifetime: the gift that keeps on taking! It’s much better simply to keep perspective, keep lines of communication open, be clear on needs and expectations with others, be clear on what you are willing to give and take, and when an irreconcilable mismatch develops with someone that causes your quality of life to suffer, move on to people who are a better fit for you.
Jim operates a psychotherapy practice, helps people overcome roadblocks to self-actualization as a Right Life® coach, and appears at speaking and teaching engagements. He studied Sociology and Abnormal Psychology at UCLA and holds an MSW from USC, with a specialization in Systems of Recovery from Mental Illness.
Photo Credit: CC Rthakrar
A monthly shot shows promise for breaking the cycle of addiction to heroin and other opioids, like the pharmaceutical painkillers oxycodone and Vicodin, by stopping cravings by dulling the drug’s euphoric effects.
A program in Washington County, Maryland, is administering Vivitrol to addicts after they go through detox in jail. Unlike other anti-addiction drugs for opiates, Vivitrol can be taken just once a month, instead of daily, making it easier for people to stick with a program.
14 Years After Decriminalizing Heroin, Here’s What Portugal Looks Like
Users have to wait a week after last getting high before safely using Vivitrol, which makes it more difficult, at first. But once the incarcerated patients start taking monthly shots, they also receive counseling and group therapy to further support their recovery.
Vivitrol, a new form of an old drug — naltrexone, affects receptors in the brain by turning off the pleasure centers that would normally be stimulated by the opiates, thereby curbing cravings. The non habit-forming drug is also used for treating alcoholism.
City Police Have Brought 109 Addicts to Rehab, Instead of Jail
Washington County’s health department launched the treatment program after cases of heroin addiction skyrocketed. The results have proven so successful that other Maryland counties are setting up similar treatment programs using the shots.
(READ more at NPR News) — Photo: Portland Prevention
Share This Dose Of Good News… (click below)
Employees of a Connecticut movie theater got a major league surprise when members of the New York Yankees dropped in on a staff meeting.
Most of the employees at the Prospector Ridgefield theater are disabled. The players and managers stopped by as part of HOPE Week (Helping Others Persevere and Excel). The program recognizes people who make a difference in their communities.
On Tuesday, they where at the theater to honor its founder, Valerie Jenson, who made it a priority to provide job opportunities to the disabled. About 65% of her 110 employees have some form of physical or developmental disability.
Jensen, who opened the theater last year, calls her employees “prospects,” a play on the name of the theater, but also a way of telling the world about their potential.
• SEE More Inspiring Baseball Stories at Good News Network
Players Brian McCann and Chase Headley, along with manager Joe Girardi and the team’s general manager, Brian Cashman, presented Jensen with a $10,000 check to continue her work. The team also invited Jensen and one of her prospects to throw the ceremonial first pitch in their game against the Minnesota Twins later that night.
(WATCH the video below from NBC News) — Photos: New York Yankees
So great to see our friends from the Prospector Theater toss out the ceremonial 1st pitches at The Stadium! #HOPEWeek pic.twitter.com/eTEptfZJFY
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 18, 2015Make Sure Your Friends Catch This Story, Share It…
A tragedy was narrowly averted in France Friday thanks to the courage of three American passengers and a British man who rushed to take down a heavily armed man after they heard gunfire.
President Francois Hollande hailed the men as heroes. Two of the three men traveling together were off-duty servicemen, Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone (pictured, left) and Alek Skarlatos (center), a National Guardsman.
“It’s my last year in college, I came to see my friends on my first trip in Europe and we stopped a terrorist,” said Anthony Sadler, who jumped into the fight to help along with Chris Norman. “It’s kind of crazy.”
The American men, who are childhood friends, and Mr Norman were awarded medals for bravery by authorities in Arras.
• SEE More Inspiring World News at Good News Network
(WATCH the heroes describe it below or READ more from the BBC) Photo via Twitter
A pack of gray wolves are now wandering the hills of Northern California for the first time since they were hunted to extinction in the state in the 1920s.
Two adults and five, four-month-old pups — dubbed the Shasta Pack (pictured above) — have been spotted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is thrilled by the news.
Wolves have made a strong comeback in the American West in recent years. Packs in Yellowstone National Park have thrived–and their presence has improved the local ecosystem–since being reintroduced there in 1995.
Only one other gray wolf, tagged as OR-7, has been seen in California since the 1920s. That lone wolf wandered into the state only briefly in 2012, before returning to Oregon and finding a mate.
Researchers don’t believe this new pack is descended from OR-7 (given that name because he was the seventh wolf tagged with a tracking collar in Oregon). They have gathered droppings from the Shasta Pack to test for DNA and find out where they came from.
The next step for the Department is do work on a management plan, to make sure the wolves can establish a foothold in Northern California and live alongside ranchers in the region.
California biologists are excited about their chances in California.
“These are very resilient critters,” Karen Kovacs with the Fish and Wildlife Department told the Los Angeles Times.
(READ more at the Los Angeles Times) — Photos: Fish and Wildlife Dept.
Share This with Your Pack…
Life in jail, or six months at camp training to become a better person?
For inmates at the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Center in Florida, the choice was simple, but the work was grueling.
Thats why actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stopped by their graduation ceremony to tell them that he’s “very, very proud” of the group who volunteered for a six-month prison boot camp. The star of “Ballers” and the “Fast and Furious” franchise spoke at their graduation.
The inmates volunteered for the program as an alternative to serving sentences ranging from five-years to life in prison. The bootcamp aims to change the inmates’ attitudes and rehabilitate them so they can go on to live crime-free lives once they leave.
Johnson pointed out that more than 75% of ex-convicts return to a life of crime, but the rate is only 8% for the Dade County boot camp program.
“They leave the program not just as free men, but as better men,” he said in his speech.
Officially started production on our new HBO Documentary Films project, "ROCK & A HARD PLACE". From armed robbery to...
Posted by Dwayne The Rock Johnson on Sunday, February 8, 2015
Johnson, who started getting arrested himself when he was just 13 years old, said he may have ended up in the same place as these men if he hadn’t turned his life around.
“I wanted them to know that life does go on and they’re going to have another opportunity,” Johnson told WFOR News.
Johnson is working on a documentary about their boot camp experience called “Rock and a Hard Place.”
(WATCH the WFOR News video below, or READ more at attn.com) — Photo: Dwayne Johnson, Facebook
Release This Story To Your Friends, Share It…
By Saturday morning, more than 214,000 people had signed an online petition calling for the former host of “The Daily Show” to moderate one of the 2016 Presidential debates.
The petition at Change.org says Jon Stewart is “more than qualified” for the task and asks the Commission on Presidential Debates to request that Stewart host one of the three general election debates during next year’s campaign.
Among those signing the petition, at least one Democratic candidate for President, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who urged people through Twitter to support the petition.
Signed. Jon Stewart moderating or not, #WeNeedDebate. http://t.co/6EGRAv8ypn pic.twitter.com/PN48kZ29fr
— Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) August 20, 2015
“Mr. Stewart has interviewed 15 heads of state, 22 members of the United States Cabinet” and dozens of members of Congress, the petition reads, “while establishing himself as the most trusted person in (satirical) news.”
The petition is no joke. It highlights a way to get more American youth involved in the serious business of picking a candidate and voting in the 2016 primary elections.
Start A Debate With Your Friends, Share This…
Love is blooming along a Wisconsin country road.
A stretch of farmland usually reserved for corn and soybeans is now home to over four miles of beautiful sunflowers, planted in memory of Babbette Jacquish, who died of cancer in last November.
Jacquish was known around town as the “Sunflower Lady” for her love of the tall yellow stems, so, in her honor, her husband planted the big yellow blooms in five neighboring farms near Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
While she was alive, Jacquish had the idea to plant the flowers and harvest the seeds to sell as birdseed, giving the proceeds to charities that support cancer research and patients.
To keep that dream alive, her husband and daughter created “Babbette’s Seeds of Hope.”
“She always loved flowers but sunflowers were her favorite,” her husband Don told KARE TV. “They fit her personality. She’d walk into a room and her smile would light up the whole room.”
(WATCH the video from KARE-TV or READ more at The Leader Telegram)
Spread the Love… (share it below)
If you’re over the age of ten and you’ve got a tail to wag, then you’ve got a friend at House With A Heart Senior Animal Sanctuary.
For nearly thirty years, Sherry Lynn Polvinale and her husband rescued dogs and cats. As the years went on, though, they got more and more calls from people who just “couldn’t keep” their senior dogs.
“I got to a point where I couldn’t stand trying to find the right home for these guys and not knowing if the owners will be committed for life. This way, we know that they’re totally safe,” Polvinale told Good News Network.
“I thought, ‘I’m getting older, and a treat for myself is going to be rescuing seniors and keeping them safe until they pass away’.”
In 2006, they began operating with official nonprofit status for their Gaithersburg, Maryland home and have continued to transform it into a haven for four-legged residents who hail from all over the country.
While her husband was still alive, only ten dogs lived in the home; when he passed away, she made room for thirty.
Today, a roster of 55 volunteers do everything from poop-scooping and manning diaper-stations to laundry and, of course, cuddling.
The home relies solely on donations from people who want to give, or those who want to board their pets there instead of dropping them at a kennel.
All of the pups spend their days eating and just enjoying life, despite some doggy dementia and wheelchair needs. Some still have plenty of pep in their step, and love to frolick in the yard.
Feeding time for 24 specific diets is no small fete, but at 4pm sharp, meals that have been prepared throughout the day are always ready to go. All of the residents dine in their assigned rooms with their main companions.
When you meet these little guys, it’s impossible to imagine someone giving them up.
Sugar (pictured above left), a little four pound Mi-Ki, a cross between a Japanese chin, Maltese, Papillion, and Shih-Tzu, has yet to touch the ground with her tiny paws because she is always being held and cuddled by volunteers.
Then there’s Papa and Petey, two little 11-year-old dachshunds with no teeth who always sleep together in a big bed under the blankets.
At night, Sherry sleeps on the couch so she can be close to the pair and hear if they need her.
“Petey will sneak out really quietly from the covers and fly up on the couch with me. He’s trying to sneak away because Papa will wake up and be upset,” she explains. “Last night, Papa couldn’t get comfortable, so I got up with him five times.”
Sherry wakes up at 5:30 every morning, and goes to bed around 1am.
“Never do I feel like oh my gosh, what a pain, you’re waking me up. I never feel like that. As long as he needs me and is barking, it means he’s still here and he’s still alive,” she said.
“It’s probably the most expensive dog bathroom in the world,” Sherry admitted. “But when they get older, they can’t go outside in certain weather. You wouldn’t send a 90-year-old woman to use an outhouse, would you?”
At the moment, they can’t take in any new dogs that are not over the age of 14—Sherry says she doesn’t want to take in any dogs that might outlive her—but is currently planning to begin a grant-giving program that will help other people start similar programs or adopt and care for senior dogs themselves.
“I don’t think this can go on for than another 5-10 years unless someone comes out of the woodwork to do what I’m doing,” she said.
Any takers?
To donate, click here.
(WATCH the video below from Montgomery County Council to learn more) – Photos from House With A Heart on Facebook
When an Irish businessman opted to take a day trip to the largest indoor amusement park in the world, he decided to flip the script and give his driver a ride.
As they pulled up to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, Liam Murphy’s cab driver mentioned that after 14 years of dropping off tourists at the park, he had never been inside.
The tickets were pricey and he sent most of his money back to family in India. He said he usually sat in the cab, waiting for park goers to return — a wait that could last several hours.
Instead of making him wait, Murphy, who was traveling alone on business, sprung for an extra ticket and told the driver to park the cab and come along.
SEE These Inspiring Taxi Driver Stories at Good News Network
The two rode roller coasters, ate pizza and judging from the pictures on Liam’s Facebook page, had a great time.
After riding the fastest roller coaster in the world, the United Arab Emirates cab driver was glad to be back on the road behind four wheels that were moving below the speed limit.
(READ More at The Irish Examiner) Photos: Liam Murphy Facebook
Inspire Your Friends to SHARE with Strangers! (below)
For two years, Heather McHugh held on to half-million dollars.
After being awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant for her poetry, she just couldn’t decide what to do with the money.
That changed after her godson and his wife had a baby born with severe disabilities.
McHugh decided to use the money to send full-time, unpaid caregivers—many of whom she’d never met—on week long vacations to British Columbia, Maine, and Napa Valley, California.
“It was obvious to me when that baby was born that in 10 years, they were going to need a break,” she told KPLU News, talking about her godson and his wife.
About 40 million exhausted Americans “need a break,” as McHugh put it, from the rigors of round the clock attention devoted to disabled relatives.
That’s why she set up CAREGIFTED, a foundation to provide vacations for caregivers and she often goes along to be a personal assistant for them and tend to their needs for a change.
CHECK Out: Son’s Essay Moves Stranger to Buy Family a Wheelchair-Ready Van
She says they will usually want simple things — like a walk by themselves or time to read a book — things taken for granted by most people. Full-time caregivers quickly learn that time, like their family, is precious.
(WATCH the video below) — Photo (top): CAREGIFTED
Inspired? Sharing is Caring…
Those shovels don’t look like much, but in a previous life, they were guns, and one artist made it is mission to turn them into something more useful.
Mexican Artist Pedro Reyes oversaw the transformation because he wanted to show “how an agent of death can become an agent of life.”
His project “Palas por Pistolas,” or “Guns Shovels” in English, is just that — turning 1,527 confiscated guns into an equal number of shovel heads. He has said in past interviews that he wants his art to help change culture.
For this project, Reyes went to the deadliest city in Mexico, Culiacán, and asked the people there to exchange guns for certificates they could use towards household appliances or electronics. Then, he melted the weapons down and turned them into shovels to use for planting trees – and growing a brighter future.
It’s not the only time Reyes has transformed guns into something else. In his “Imagine” project, he converted them into musical instruments and, along with some friends, performed Rage Against the Machine’s “Bullet to the Head” (see that video below).
(WATCH the “Imagine” video and READ more at True Activist) — Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC
Fire Off This Peaceful Transition… Share Below…
In just five days, a popular photographer has raised two million dollars to help fight an illegal practice that borders on slavery.
Brandon Stanton, who publishes the popular “Human of New York” blog, has been documenting bonded labor in Pakistan. He launched a crowdfunding project on Indigogo hoping to raise $100,000 to fight the practice, and, in less than a week, it’s topped $2.2 million.
In Pakistan, bonded labor is an endless cycle of debt. Owners of brick kilns offer small loans to desperate people who promise to work off the debt — often thinking it will only take a few days. The kiln owners later charge the debtor with hidden costs and he learns his debt has actually increased. The longer he works, the more he owes.
“My sister’s kidneys were failing. We tried to raise the money to save her. We sold our cattle. We sold our property....
Posted by Humans of New York on Monday, August 17, 2015
Stanton learned about the problem from Syeda Ghulam Fatima — who he calls the “Harriet Tubman of Pakistan.” She founded the Bonded Labour Liberation Front to educate workers on their rights and to make the government enforce the laws against the practice.
With his fundraising effort we see that Humans of New York — and humans from around the world — really do care. Last year, the photographer raised money for a young boy who told him that his teacher was his hero. More than a hundred thousand dollars funded field trips for the entire class to visit Harvard and imagine a new future.
(SEE more at Humans of New York and READ more at NBC News) — Photo: Humans of New York, Facebook
Spread The Good, Share This With Your Friends…
It worked!
The Ice Bucket Challenge that flooded the Internet with videos of people getting drenched has led to a medical breakthrough.
Researchers have long known that a particular motor-neuron protein—named TDP-43—doesn’t function properly in 90 percent of ALS patients.
Now a grad student at Johns Hopkins Medical, in Baltimore, Maryland, is pretty sure he has figured out why. In experiments with mice, his team made a protein to mimic TDP-43, and after adding to the neurons, the cells came back to life.
“With any luck this could lead to the possibility of a cure or at least a slowing down of this terrible disease,” says pathobiology student Jonathan Ling. “We may soon be able to fix this in patients who have lots of accumulated TDP-43,” says Ling.
He published his discovery in the journal Science last week and credited funding from the ALS Association for making his team’s research possible–money raised through the viral Ice Bucket Challenge last year.
During the social-media sensation’s peak months of August and September, more than 17 million people—including many celebrities—uploaded wet, chilly videos of themselves and drove charitable giving to over $115 million, more than tripling what the organization had earned the year before.
Fixing the dysfunctional protein will take time, Ling and his professor, Philip C. Wong, Ph.D., said in a YouTube video announcing the breakthrough. Time and, undoubtedly, more research money.
Which is why the two are attempting to start the challenge anew.
“We want to… really push this work forward,” Wong says, as big orange buckets sneak into view on either side of the two men.
In the video, Ling and Wong each challenge three people to give more….your move, Bill Gates.
Although with the drought in California, they will probably need to drop glitter on themselves rather than buckets of water.
(WATCH video below and READ more at the BBC) — Photos: Knox County Government
We Challenge You To Pass On This Good News… Share Below
18-year old Sam Ray was working on his 1998 Dodge Dakota when the jack holding up the 2 ½ ton truck gave way, pinning him underneath.
Ray called for help but no one could hear him. He was lucky to have Siri with him.
He heard Siri’s voice from the iPhone in his back pocket, which had been activated under pressure, so Ray asked her to call 911.
Dispatchers first thought the call from Walterhill, Tennessee was a prank. “We get a lot of pocket dials,” dispatcher Christina Lee told the Tennessean, “and I thought it was a pocket dial at first but then I heard the screams for help.”
Lee sent firefighters to the scene just in time. The 18-year-old said he was starting to feel like he wasn’t going to make it.
While Lee kept reassuring Ray for seven minutes, other sheriff’s dispatchers notified LifeFlight, which medivacked him by helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Ray suffered several broken ribs, a bruised kidney and a concussion but thanks to Siri, he is lucky to be alive – no buts about it.
The grateful young man met and thanked the Rutherford County team, LifeFlight and medical staff during a ceremony at the LifeFlight launch pad Friday in Nashville.
(WATCH the video below) – Photo: Rutherford County Sherriff’s Dept. via FB
SHARE the Siri Love… (click below)
In honor of Lemonade Day, Edgar’s Mission is celebrating one sweet little lamb’s thirst for life.
When Lemonade first arrived at the Australian ranch, he was unable to walk more than a few steps.
But this is one determined lamb, and when life handed him lemons….well, you know.
Little Lemonade treated the staff with kisses and cuddles as they stretched his legs and outfitted him with splints to help build up his tendons.
Bonus: that dog in the video is really, really persistent in acting adorable for attention while mom handles Lemonade.
(WATCH the video below from Edgar’s Mission)
Click to Share the maaa-velous video…
When an Indiana State Trooper pulled over a father who was speeding, he let the man’s daughter in the passenger seat decide between a ticket or a warning — and she laid down the law.
Trooper Darrick Scott “deputized” Ashley Ellrich as an honorary trooper, and told her she had the opportunity to decide her dad’s fate. Ashley said her dad was speeding (after he admitted it), and deserved the ticket.
The officer was so impressed with the girl’s honesty, he knocked the punishment down to a warning.
Ashley’s dad, Dwayne Ellrich, posted the story to his Facebook page saying, “There are some great cops out there.”
The Indiana State Police posted a reply: “We are extra glad that Ashley is on our side!”
(WATCH the WRTV News video) — Photo: Dwayne Ellrich, Facebook
Slow Down And Pass It On…
New research suggests that people may not be the only primates with the ability to speak.
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin made that conclusion after watching Koko, a gorilla that’s lived with humans for more than 40 years and is best known for having learned sign language.
Researcher Marcus Perlman noticed that Koko was able to perform voluntary behaviors that required control over her vocalization and breathing – learned behaviors like playing an instrument, blowing her nose into a tissue and coughing on command. Nothing special for humans but impressive for a gorilla.
“She doesn’t produce a pretty, periodic sound when she performs these behaviors, like we do when we speak,” says Perlman a postdoctoral researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But she can control her larynx enough to produce a controlled grunting sound.”
So will Koko and her fellow primates eventually be able to speak to each other, and us? Don’t start picturing Planet of the Apes just yet.
“Koko shows the potential under the right environmental conditions for apes to develop quite a bit of flexible control over their vocal tract,” says Perlman. “It’s not as fine as human control, but it is certainly control.”
In other words, apes appear to have the foundation for human speech, just like humans had about ten million years ago.
When I first sat down to meditate, I couldn’t sit still. I had what we call in Australia, “ants in my pants.”
For me, the idea of doing nothing felt like hard and lonely work, and I didn’t really connect to the practice until I found teachers and friends with whom I could sit in community. Guided meditations are a great way into the practice, as they offer a certain type of stillness that’s made comfortable by the soothing support of an external voice.
I always tell people that meditation is easier to learn with the help of a good teacher. Under the guidance of an experienced instructor we feel safe to let go and open the door to growth and transformation. Even if all we hear is inhale and exhale, we’ll feel at ease knowing that we have an external metronome and compass to rely on. To get started, try the following guided meditations from Sonima.com featuring renowned teachers such as Deepak Chopra, M.D.
All you have to do is breathe.
Sonia Jones is a wellness advocate and the founder of Sonima.com, a new wellness website dedicated to helping people improve their lives through yoga, workouts, guided meditations, healthy recipes, pain prevention techniques, and life advice.