I love this time of year....moving from the dark night of Solstice into ever increasing sunlight! It is a time of incubation for me and this year what is emerging is a deeper mindfulness practice where I will be taking mindfulness out from my long term personal practice into the community in the form of classes and workshops. I am so excited about this new venture! I spent 2016 training at UCLA to become a Trained Mindfulness Facilitator through their Mindful Awareness Research Center meeting wonderful, like minded practitioners from all over the world. I loved their curriculum of secular mindfulness that included not only mindfulness educational skills, but also neuroscience, research information and curriculum and program development for many different settings. So this year will begin an emergence of something new for me, driven by the intention to create greater peace and presence in our world!

Lately, my personal focus in meditation has been "How do I feel alive right now?" It is an inquiry into my felt sense of aliveness...my body, my breath. I have been amazed at how tapping into the sensation of aliveness has deepened my practice. The easiest doorway for me, into aliveness, is through my body. "What sensations am I experiencing right now that tell me I am alive?" Often I feel a whole body hum or vibration, an energetic pulsation of life that helps me drop even further into the present moment. And then, of course, a thought or distractions interrupts me! And then I have yet another opportunity to return to my body, my breath, my aliveness.....again and again.

What makes you feel alive? What new direction will you launch yourself in 2017? I invite you to be curious!