Can we practice joy? A gentle reflection for Adar on memory, mindfulness, and how small moments of presence can open the door to natural joy.

Inspired by the Jewish new year for trees or Tu B’Shvat, this blog invites you to explore change and growth through the gentle lens of mindfulness. Using the metaphor of planting seeds, it offers a calm and compassionate way to approach change. It includes a short guided practice to support you in setting an intention and nurturing it over time.

Hearing is the fastest of all the senses -- we process sound much faster than sight. Try this guided mindful sound meditation.

How can we cultivate happiness? The holiday of Purim and Adar can teach us how to pause and appreciate everyday moments. And STOP practice

What can we do to deal with a feeling of darkness or heaviness such as at the end of the week? Especially in challenging and uncertain times? Start by taking a breath. Notice what you’re feeling. Continue to breathe and check in with the sensations in your body, and imagine your body softening with every breath. Allow your body to be supported by the ground you're standing on or whatever surface you’re sitting on and allow it to sink down or relax, letting go of any tension a

A Mindful Sukkot The holiday of Sukkot is known as a time of joy -- v’samachta b’chageicha, v’hayita ach sameach , which means you should rejoice in your festival and be fully happy . This celebration comes only four days after profound reflection during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, shifting from a solemn atmosphere to one of joy and thanksgiving as we start a new season: autumn. Autumn is the backdrop of Sukkot, and it fits perfectly with the gathering of summer crops and f

We are in the season of looking inward, reflecting on our behavior, and mending our ways. It may seem daunting. How does this work (for the specifics, you can ask your local Rabbi or read the Rambam’s Hilchot Teshuvah) ? What’s the difference between our self- reflection on Rosh Hashanah and the process of mending our w

This week's Torah portion Shelach recounts the story of the spies sent by Moshe to scout the Land of Cana'an before Am Yisrael enter the...

How Mindfulness Can Help Us in Planting a Seed and Growing New Habits In this week’s Torah portion, Tazria-Metzora, we learn about...

What Mindfulness and Passover Can Teach Us About Freedom The holiday of Passover, also known as the Festival of Freedom, commemorates our...

We all would like to have meaning in our lives and feel good about what we do, which doesn't mean that we should avoid being bored or...

Hearing, Sound Meditation and Parshat Vayelech In this week’s Torah portion, Vayelech, the people of Israel are commanded to listen to the entire Torah at the end of every seven years. Everyone. When we received the Torah on Mount Sinai, we heard the blasts of the shofar and said, “We will listen… to the commandments of the Torah” And one of our most important prayers that we recite three times a day starts with Shema Yisrael, “Hear o Israel…” On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish

Free Will and Parshat Nitzavim In this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, we are told that there are blessings and curses before us, and we should choose life. R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains that “choosing life” means that there must be effort and thought on our part. It doesn’t happen by chance. Free will is one of the cornerstones of Jewish belief. But are we really free to choose? Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah teaches that the question of free will is “longer than the

Mindfully S-T-O-P: Creating a Mindful Space to Choose and Parsaht Re'eh In this week’s Torah portion Re’eh, we are given two paths to...

In this week’s Torah portion, Eikev, we learn about the blessings and the warnings given to Am Yisrael, the Children of Israel, if they don’t follow the commandments and keep the covenant that G-d made with them. The blessings include fertility of the land and the people, health, and protection from our enemies, just to name a few. We ought to be aware of all the good we have and not take it for granted. We should be careful not to get haughty and think that all blessings com

Parshat Masei and Mindful Walking Meditation This week’s Torah portion, Masei, mentions 42 places where B'nei Yisrael, the children of Israel, encamped in their forty years in the wilderness. We are not told the names of all the places. Just imagine the logistics of hundreds of thousands of people journeying through the wilderness and stopping to rest from their wanderings and setting up camp! Why is this mentioned? Sometimes we recall places that we visited fondly or nostalg

How To Start An Informal Mindfulness Practice Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten what you were looking for? Have you ever done something and then not remembered if you already did it? Have you ever driven somewhere, but not remembered any details of how you got there? In the rush to accomplish everyday tasks, you may find yourself losing your connection with the present moment. Our minds get filled with chatter and our ability to be present is lost. Mindfulness ca