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You may remember Stephanie if you have watched any of the Shinzen Young interviews on youtube. (You will want to watches these for sure) Step is a mindfulness meditation and acting coach and is someone who has helped me more than I can say. I have experienced much generosity on her part too.Santa Monica Mindfulness meditation happens in style with Steph.

Oops, almost forgot the youtube video. I have watched it 3 or 4 times and absolutely love it. So…check it out–>

And click here to check out her site –> acting and mindfulness coaching.

Technorati Tags: acting coach santa monica, Mindfulness Meditation, mindfulness meditation coach santa monica, mindfulness santa monica

Last night I discovered another best kept secret. The Senior Mindfulness Teacher, Shinzen Young, actually receives your calls and returns them. He then answers your questions and if you want he works with you on getting clear about your practice. Never have seen this kind of generosity. Does he do it for everyone? No, of course not. But he does do it for anyone who is on his home practice program or otherwise attends in local retreats. And, there is even another secret to tell, which I hope won’t be a secret for much longer. I just don’t know why the whole internet isn’t buzzing about this amongst those of use who have done some kind of spiritual practice in their lives.

What’s that other secret you say? Well, the 4 hour retreats are only $20! Usually on a Friday there is a 2 hour session and it is only $10! If you are like me and it is has been hard to impossible to get a way for a retreat, then you, like me, should be overjoyed to hear this. You can do more than one 4 hour retreat in the monthly retreat weekend. Last month I did 3 – 4 hour retreats and the 2 hour on Friday. I meditated for two hours–never before have I done that.

I know I sound a bit enthused here, but it is because I am honestly happy to know that any human who suffers needlessly can easily get affordable help. This has been a major search for me most of my life. I speak from experience too. And I have much I will be sharing about my experiences. Bookmark me or subscribe to my feed if you are interested. And do comment here and I will respond

I have been meditating for years and Shinzen’s cd’s have helped me tremendously and have given me a big head start as well as much clarity and assistance. I actually listen to them everyday. However, I can tell you that the interactive practice brings so much more clarity and just catapults you up to a whole other level in terms of understanding what we do when we meditate.

You can still sign up for December 11th to 13th programs. Deadline is December 9th. For $20 you have a experience you will want to repeat. If you realize the need to practice for longer periods or if you just want to learn mindfulness practice this is your chance. If you can’t this month, they are held every month. Hope to “hear ” you on one of them soon.

Click here to learn more => Mindfulness Meditation Practice

You want to check out Shinzen’s youtube videos too. Here is one of my favs:

Technorati Tags: best kept meditation secret, mindfulness, Mindfulness Meditation, mindfulness meditation retreat

So…what might depression as a process look like? Is it possible that the reason(s) for the depression does not really have to be to our detriment, and if only we would allow the process, it is actually for our good? Let’s use the words “depressive process” so as to begin to see it more as a dynamic process instead of a static list of symptoms. Consider the true undefinability of depression. If you have symptoms a, b, and d you are depressed, BUT if you have symptoms a, b, and c, you have something else wrong with you, and don’t worry we (the professional and authority), will come up with a name by next week. Because when we have a name, then we can find a drug to fix it, and the beat goes on!

There is help for depression, but in our normal silver bullet approach, it will not go to the crux of the problem. Mindfulness techniques are really an unsung hero in this regard. Lots of research has been done on it and this is really good and worth checking out. For me, as I am experiencing it, mindfulness meditation does not deal directly with a concept (diagnosis) called depression. Something much deeper is happening. (Incidentally, this is how it works for any issue in our lives.) I am addressing depression by writing this, not just to publish on my blog; as it turns out, it has become an inquiry that I seem to be doing here as I write this and “feeling” you who may read it. Maybe you wish to follow along with me in this post and the next.

As much as I would like to never feel depressed, I am more interested in going deeper and not just understanding this as a concept, as an idea or to seek some pat answer, but to understand it at another level where I no longer need answers. Sometimes I “taste” this, or I would not be writing about it.

The surface mind wants an answer, the deep mind and heart has something much more profound and real to give us and to help us release the unconscious pain that is there. I see the depressive process as Nature or God if you wish, taking us deep to allow that to happen. If we think something is terribly wrong then the process will go in the wrong direction. (Of course if you are suicidal or something like that, you need to get help, as you surely cannot wait for the meditation to work for you. BUT you can still meditate and work with it on a deeper level.)

Unless you think I am someone who has gone mad, this is what Psychologist Robert Sardello has said, “The depressive process is the very process by which we digest the meaning of events at a level deeper than words, letting things “get to us” and change us. It is the process of deepening.” This can sound like another concept, and in a way, it is.

So, I personally, don’t ask am I depressed any more. I have an opened question now. My quest is not to get final answers, but to explore, and to allow what just may have no answer to emerge from within. I know this is possible because I am, although to a very small extent, living it now. You have, in a way, lived some of this yourself. Haven’t you grappled with a problem and then just given up only to have the answer or the clarity you needed just come to you out of the blue sky?

As I have said elsewhere, I see the light at the end of tunnel for the first time in many years. I only share below what I have used myself. I hope you come back for my next post. Some friends have wondered whether it is a good idea for me to share my deepest feelings on the internet- such as my poetry- which I intend to do in the future. I feel I should since perhaps it may touch you or someone else. This post is not too personal, but it is a beginning and it feels right.

Technorati Tags: am I depressed, how to treat depression, mindfulness for depression, mindfuness meditation depression

How to treat depression has been a focus for a long time.  I might have called unhappiness or traumatic symptoms or grief.  But depression was definitely part of it. I am not talking about being clinically depressed.  Although I wondered at times, but I truly felt as if I were dying.  I found out that clinical depression means you are not taking care of yourself, not eating right, not resting etc. etc.  That was never the case.  Very trusted professionals and therapists  have confirmed that mine is was not a clinical depression.

I have decided to share about my struggle with depression and my years of spending large amounts of money and time to get help without going the medication route.  Although I have practiced some type of meditation for at least 35 years or more and I know it has all helped, even before the last years of caring for my Mother, where it was a majorly stressful situation,  I still always battled with the question: ” Am I depressed ? ”

Now I have comprehended, that I didn’t understand it in the way I needed to, nor was I practicing meditation in the way that would finally dig me out of the hole.  I have begun to see the light at the end of tunnel, with some very wonderful surprises along the way.  More on this later.

I realized that 35 years of learning, studying, trying many modalities, therapy, bodywork, meditation has helped bring me to this point. It has all helped, but it wasn’t until recently that a light went off in my head about why mindfulness training and meditation has begun to make the difference. I have decided to write about it.  In a way it is a daunting task, because I don’t want to overwhelm the reader with a lot of data, yet I want to present the viewpoints and the insights I have had that have brought me to this conclusion.   Of course, besides the major changes in my behavior and my feeling states.  For example, food cravings seem to have dropped away on their own!   A very natural change, no forcing, manipulation or any thing of the kind.   Just Nature working in me.

It doesn’t matter what your faith is.  I doesn’t matter if you have none.  We can all agree that there is love in the world and loving kindness, inspite of all the atrocities we may be subjected to by the bias news.  Just this little bit can keep us going.

Probably the most difficult thing for me has been and still is allowing myself to not always think I have to have answers and allowing what is called the “don’t know mind”.  This is a whole other subject.  Well, this was going to be a short post and then I decided to revisit it.  And this is what happened   Please feel free to comment, if it is a real comment, I will approve it and even respond.

Please subscribe and come back soon. I am working on a short ebook which I will make available for just a few dollars. But I will also keep posting.

Meantime, if you are depressed, don’t give up and check out Shinzen Young.

Shinzen Young Mindfulness Meditation CD’s will take you deeper and give you much more than stress relief.  It is his style of mindfulness that has helped me more than anything else with depression =>

Shinzen Young: Save $10 now on orders over $50 at Sounds True. Use coupon BESTLS. Offer expires 12/31/09

I recommend all of his “stuff” but I am very partial to the Break Through Pain Series which is how I was introduced to Shinzen style mindfulness practice.  I will share what happened on the nextpost and link it here after I do

Shinzen also offers Teleconference Mindfulness Training retreats!  I feel like I have died and gone to heaven to have this available.    Once you listen to the free interviews  you will understand why I feel so strongly about it.  There is help and it lies within us, in our own hearts and minds.

Technorati Tags: am I depressed, depression, how to treat depression, mindfulness for depression