ABOUT: During this challenging time, it is important to explore ways that we can sustain our emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual well-being. We’ve put together a collection of resources intended to help our community pause, reflect, and create.

This adaptation of Pause, Reflect and Create offers a virtual space to channel your inner creativity, explore mindful writing, and to spend time in personal reflection. It provides an opportunity to pause and explore mindfulness through reflective expression. The sections are sequential and designed for a week of practice each.

These opportunities are about the individual personal process. Contemplative practices allow us to quiet ourselves, become more mindful and in the moment. 

WHAT TO EXPECT: Flexibility of time and space. You can explore the activity on your own time, in your own space. 

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Breath Meditation

This week, we will start the grounding practice, the breath meditation. Our goal is to become diligent about our practice. Renowned Tibetan teacher Dilgo Khyentse (2007) defines diligence as the "joyous effort and active determination to carry out positive actions, without any expectations or self-satisfaction." We have to be diligent at two levels. First, we have to be diligent about our intention to sit for meditation. Second, we have to be diligent during our practice. This week's goal is to work on our Diligence to Sit (DS) and Diligence in Practice (DP). You can listen to or download the guided breath meditation below (15 minutes).

Ideally, practice the meditation daily. After completing your meditation, take a few minutes to journal about your practice.

Notice what helps or hinders your diligence to sit (DS). For example, finding time, comfort, lack of energy may interfere with your DS. Also, take a few moments to notice the distractions that undermine your diligence while practicing (DP). For example, inner dialogs, wandering thoughts, emotions, or worries may distract you from practicing breath meditation. Counting or labeling, or noticing the sensations of your breath will help you focus on your breath. Make a brief note of these observations after you complete your practice.

These notes will help you to become more diligent

Link to Breath Meditation
View or Download Breath Journal Here

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Loving-Kindness

This week, we will practice loving kindness meditation. This practice helps us to cultivate self-compassion and compassion for others. In addition, we will continue our efforts to become diligent about our practice.

You can listen to or download the loving kindness meditation below. The meditation is 30 minutes long. The first 15 minutes is breath meditation. Loving kindness meditation starts in the second half of the recording at minute 16.

After completing your meditation, take a few minutes to journal about your practice. Continue to notice what helps or hinders your diligence to sit (DS). Take notice of the distractions that undermine your diligence while practicing (DP). Reflect on the daily prompts on kindness and compassion.

Link to Loving Kindness Meditation
View or Download Loving Kindness Journal

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Sympathetic Joy

This week, we will practice Sympathetic Joy meditation. This practice helps us to cultivate joy from other people’s happiness. In addition, we will continue our efforts to become diligent about our practice.

You can listen to or download the sympathetic joy meditation below. The meditation is 30 minutes long. The first 15 minutes is breath meditation. Sympathetic Joy meditation starts in the second half of the recording at minute 16.

After completing your meditation, take a few minutes to journal about your practice. Continue to notice what helps or hinders your diligence to sit (DS). Take notice of the distractions that undermine your diligence while practicing (DP). Reflect on the daily prompts on joy, happiness and rejoicing.

Link to Sympathetic Joy Meditation
View or Download Sympathetic Joy Journal

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Mindful Mindset

You have been practicing for the past few weeks on being diligent about practice. This week we will focus on mindful journaling. BLI director, Ram Mahalingam, developed a mindful mindset framework drawing from Buddhism, critical intersectionality theory, and social justice perspective. The mindful mindset refers to a worldview that our lives are interconnected at the intersectional and phenomenological levels and that our identities are fluid, intersectional, and interdependent. There are seven features: compassion, sympathetic joy, critical intersectional awareness, negative capability, cultural humility, wonder, and generosity — one for each day of the journal. Our goal is to be intentional about cultivating a holistic, mindful mindset.

After practicing the meditation, follow the daily prompts for your journaling. The prompts are suggested guidelines to reflect on your experience and emerging awareness. Feel free to be creative in exploring your experiences with a deeper commitment to cultivating a mindful mindset.

You have practiced three types of meditation so far (breath meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and sympathetic joy meditation). Choose any meditation and practice using the guided meditations or any other you are using.  

We will continue our efforts to become diligent about our practice. Continue to work on our Diligence to Sit (DS) and Diligence in Practice (DP). Take a few minutes to note down what helps or hinders your diligence to sit (DS). Also, take a few minutes to notice the distractions that undermine your diligence while practicing (DP). 

Link to Mindful Dignity Lab Meditations
Link or Download Mindful Mindset Journal

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Poetic Engagement

This week, we will deepen our meditation practice and focus on writing a short poem every day to engage, respond, and connect to lives around us. Writing a poem every day as a meditative practice has positive health benefits, as well as heightening your creativity. After completing a meditation practice, using the prompts below, write a poem daily. Your poem should be a minimum length of three lines or 11-14 words. An option is to write Haikus.

Your poem does not have to be perfect. Rather, it is an exercise to cultivate self-compassion while learning to be present with an awareness of the interdependent nature of our lives. Your poem can be a narrative, reflection, a conversation with nature, an ancestor, or your favorite person. It can also be a collage of impressions, feelings, and thoughts. In short, it is a journey of poetic inquiry with your life. It is free-style compassionate writing. The prompts are only suggestions for writing your poem. If you decide to write a poem on some other topic, that is fine as long as you write a poem every day.

You have practiced three types of meditation so far (breath meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and sympathetic joy meditation). Choose any of these 15-minute meditations for your practice or any other meditation you choose.

After completing your meditation, journal about your practice and create your poem. Continue to notice what helps or hinders your diligence to sit (DS). Take notice of the distractions that undermine your diligence while practicing (DP). After you complete your poem, read it aloud.

Link to Mindful Dignity Lab Meditations
View or Download Poetic Engagement Journal

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Diligence and Engaged Living

You have been practicing for the past several weeks with an overarching goal of being diligent about your practice.  We also focused on Diligence to Sit (DS) and Diligence in Practice (DP). You learned several contemplative practices while journaling about DS and DP. Your journaling notes will help you identify systemic hindrances (personal and situational) that might impede your practice. Take the time to explore some practical strategies to be vigilant (e.g., finding time or space, tempering or sitting with disruptions, getting back on track) about your practice.

We hope these practices help you pause, reflect, and creatively engage with your lives with a commitment to personal and social change. We encourage you to practice every day for at least 15 minutes. Be diligent about your commitment to generate, receive, and sustain joy in and around your life. You are welcome to choose any of the tools you have learned over the past weeks to deepen your practice.

In the final week, we will focus on being diligent in our actions — our mindful engagement with our lives. This week, we will deepen our meditation practice and focus on Diligence in Action (DA) by setting intentions to deepen your connections. We will continue our efforts to become diligent about our practice and continue to work on our DS and DP. You have practiced three types of meditation so far (breath meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and sympathetic joy meditation). Choose any of the three meditations we’ve practiced or any other meditations you are using.

After completing your meditation, take a few minutes to journal about your practice. Continue to notice what helps or hinders your diligence to sit (DS). Take notice of the distractions that undermine your diligence while practicing (DP). Reflect on the daily prompts on gratitude, kindness, happiness, inspiration, and joy.

Link to Mindful Dignity Lab Meditations
View or Download Engaged Living Journal