four disciplines that help when you are ill
A friend was behind in her book club reading. “I have to read four chapters,” she sighed. Editing herself, she amended “I choose to read four chapters.” I suggested “you get to read four chapters.” She was re-ordering her thinking as we listened. Living with chronic...
Do be a do bee; Don’t be a don’t bee.
I am contemplating the Buddhist paramita of discipline this month. Another facet of meaning of the word in this context is ethics and morality. Traditionally, there are three categories of ethics: refraining from negative actionsdoing what is positivehelping others...
Basic Discipline
The Buddhist paramitas are those actions that result in character qualities associated with enlightened beings. As I learned it, the word means to cross over to the other side. On that side is sanity and wisdom. The six paramitas are generosity, discipline, patience,...
what do you have to give?
A speaker at a conference I attended advised people to give people anything they asked for a day and watch what happened inside and out. He was encouraging people to play around with the idea of generosity. Generosity is one of the Buddhist paramitas. The way I...
What attitudes and actions support you?
When I’m feeling uncertain, I reach for structure. (Twenty years ago, in the days immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I cleaned my house. I realized after the fact that I was imposing order where I could on a disordered world.) Recent health challenges...
Lessons from the latest hospitalization (with journaling prompts)
before they flitter away, I wanted to capture some of the lessons I think the latest hospitalization (four nights last week) brought with it. I don’t mean the practical, body care tasks, but rather the soft skills I want to cultivate as part of my well-being. 1. Ask...
Subscribe to the monthly newsletter
and get the Comfort & Joy 72 page full-color illustrated e-book FREE. Not sure? View a sample
