The Phoenix · Minding the Mind “Mindfulness allows you to live deeply every moment that is given to you to live.” Thich Nhat Hanh Zen Buddhist master, teacher, and writer Thich Nhat Hanh died in January of this year at the age of 95. He introduced many Westerners to the practice of mindfulness and the| The Phoenix Spirit
I am a person in long-term recovery. What that means to me is that I have not used alcohol or drugs in 24 years. I have found great joy, love, success, and health in my recovery, and have also experienced profound loss, pain, and failure. But my recovery has given me the hope and stability| The Phoenix Spirit
“I’m a veteran of mental illness combat,” declares a gray-haired man with years of untrimmed beard from the History Theatre stage in downtown St. Paul. David Beebee is reading from his personal writings to a crowd of friends and supporters of Vail Place, a clubhouse in Uptown for people with severe mental illness where David| The Phoenix Spirit
Her college-age daughter had died unexpectedly in an accident. In a state of shock and controlled focus, she and her husband had reached out to friends and family, made funeral arrangements, housed out-of-town family members, carried on conversations. Now the house was empty; guests were gone, her husband had returned to work, a neighbor would| The Phoenix Spirit
“For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” Lily Tomlin Our yoga instructor asks us to come to a standing position “one vertebra at a time.” I am not that well acquainted with my vertebrae. How many are there? Do I take them in sequence? What if they aren’t interested in going alone? Yoga familiarizes me with the inner workings of| The Phoenix Spirit
Part of human existence, and having the ability to reason, is seeking answers to the question, Why? As a child, when we become aware of our surroundings and start to learn the way of things, we begin to ask why questions. We are curious, we want to know how things work, why they are the| The Phoenix Spirit
About this time last year I ventured to the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN, for three days of basket weaving. Yep, Basket Weaving 101. Ostensibly, the adventure was to create and take home our very own, personalized, Birch Bark Berry Basket. In reality, the trip was much more profound. None of us| The Phoenix Spirit