Another month, another question to ponder and share thoughts with other like-minded practitioners: How does your meditation practice affect your relationship to yourself and your relationships with others?

Mindfulness literature portrays the practice of generosity as the first prerequisite to the rest of the Ten Perfections. This precedence emphasizes the importance of generosity. Without generosity, the mind is tight, selfish, bound and shackled by a strong ego. Under such weight, it is not possible to find relief or explore what is possible. 

With your own awareness of body, feelings, and mind, you can notice how generosity feels. It is light and not heavy. It engenders feelings of being at ease, warmheartedness, open and peaceful. It has a sensation of positive energy.

Now consider its opposite — stinginess. Feel the tightness, constriction, tension, fear and lack of ease in your body. In your mind’s eye, experience the burden of your thoughts as consider the concept of stinginess.

Biochemistry shows that how we feel directly affects chemical reactions in our body through hormonal secretions and electrical spikes commensurate to our state of mind. So, if we truly listen to ourselves we know deep down that generosity promotes good health and happiness.

Check out the recent article by Terri Yablonsky Stat on the benefits of giving for your own health and happiness.

Now that our Top of Mind blog is up and running again, our vision is to create a safe place for community sharing on topics relevant to our practice of Mindfulness Meditation. Our time together in class is simply not long enough to learn about all the changes that meditation students are experiencing. So each month we'll start with a reflective question and encourage your responses. Why is this type of  community engagement important?


1.    Articulating your reflections helps balance your mind with positive reinforcement of your growing insights.
2.    As people express their learnings, we realize that we are not alone in our experience of mindfulness. We begin to appreciate the range of life’s possibilities through sharing.
3.    Supporting each others’ practice through sharing our insights creates a synergistic, dynamic, learning community for the benefit of all. 

So find your courage and your voice. Feel free to type in your "top of mind" responses in the comments section below this post so that we may engender a lively dialogue of different perspectives.

Here's the reflective question for the month of September:

How has the practice of meditation changed your perspective on life?