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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Athens:20240719T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Athens:20240719T210000
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CREATED:20240624T162113Z
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SUMMARY:Love\, Desire & Nonattachment
DESCRIPTION:Learn what nonattachment really means; it is often misunderstood as not caring\, but it is not that at all: it is a loving\, freeing practice. Understand what nonattachment means in relationships and how to practice it mindfully. Release from clinging that causes suffering. Let go of past loves and hurts and from fixating on the future. Love and desire more fully and freely in the present. This can be tough to do\, but there are supportive teachings and practices from diverse wisdom and liberation traditions that can help us. If you are struggling presently\, or generally struggle with clinging or letting go\, or needing someone/s to be a certain way that they really can’t be\, having a tendency to control\, this is for you. And even if you are in ongoing healthy relationships\, this can help you keep it fresh and generous. \nThe session will include meditation and other mindfulness practices\, teaching and sharing (there is no obligation to share). It will not be recorded. \nCurious about what nonattachment in love relationships means? \nNonattachment does not mean that we are not loyal or faithful\, if that is our arrangement. It does mean that we release from clinging and fixation\, and open to the changing nature of all emotions\, beings and relationships. \nEveryone and everything is impermanent; emotions change; relationships change and end\, even if it’s at life’s end. If we accept at the beginning that everything ends\, then we can begin to let go of constant planning\, measuring and worrying about the future and where the relationship will go. We can be more fully aware and alive in the present\, more curious\, open and clear about where we are now. We can also be clearer and braver in deciding when it’s time to let go of someone. \nWant to know more about nonattachment and breakups? \nNonattachment does not mean that we do not take care of hurt from past relationships. It does mean that we learn and let go\, that we leave the past and live fully in the present\, allowing ourselves to grow\, change and be who we are now\, and our ex/es to do the same\, outside of our control. \nWhat about nonattachment and desire? \nNonattachment does not mean that we let go of discernment and boundaries. It does mean that we can be curious and open-ended\, without a fixed goal. It does not mean that we must be super-sexual or even sexual. It does mean that we release from craving and take time to sense into our longings and their sources\, the different ways we might meet them\, and how they may shift and alter. \nIt has always seemed to me that an essential distinction in meaning exists between the choice of “detachment” and “nonattachment”… Detachment implies the extinction of feeling. In nonattachment the river-life of emotion continues\, only our relationship to it alters. ~ Jane Hirshfield \nInstead of focusing all that longing on a particular person\, I wanted to experience the immensity of its reach. I wanted to dive into longing\, into communion\, into the love I knew was its essence. I invited the longing—”Go head\, please. Be as full as you are.” I knew then I could finally let go. ~ Tara Brach \nBecause the object [of desire] is always unsatisfying to some degree\, it is our insistence on its being otherwise that causes suffering. Not that desiring is negative in itself. We can learn to linger in the space between desire and its satisfaction\, explore that space a bit more. By renouncing clinging we actually deepen desire. Clinging keeps desire in a frozen\, fixated\, state. When we renounce efforts to control or possess that which we desire\, we free desire itself. In psychodynamic language\, this is the ability to have a relationship between two subjects\, instead of a subject and an object. Can you give your lover the freedom of their subjectivity and otherness? Admit that they are outside of your control?  ~ Mark Epstein
URL:https://equallanguage.com/event/love-desire-nonattachment/
LOCATION:Zoom
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Athens:20240515T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Athens:20240515T203000
DTSTAMP:20260405T093657
CREATED:20240416T134715Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240417T152542Z
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SUMMARY:May Mindfulness offering ~ You are enough\, a deeper dive: Meeting the Inner Critic and the Comparing Mind
DESCRIPTION:Refresh your relationship with yourself\, cultivate self-kindness and gentleness\, as you hold space for the inner critic and observe the comparing mind. What can blossom if you loosen around limiting self-beliefs\, including the beliefs that you are separate\, not enough\, and less than others? Mindfulness offers deeply helpful teachings and practices\, so I warmly invite you to join. \n\n\nIt is entirely possible to create new\, mindful\, positive habits. This is certainly possible with the practice of loving speech and deep listening toward ourselves. ~Sister Dang Nghiem \nThe Inner Critic relies upon an idea of a self—a small self—that is imperfect and must be fixed. It feeds on comparing\, on thoughts of past and future\, of mistakes and anxieties. The Inner Critic has no traction in the present moment. When our minds become quiet\, when we are resting in this very moment\, there is no past or future\, there is no comparing. The small self expands to become a huge field of calm awareness in which sensations\, thoughts\, and voices come and go. ~Jan Chozen Bays \nMindfulness and concentration practice has allowed me to become more aware of my urge to compare. Over time\, I’ve gotten to know the folds of my mind that like to compare one breath to the previous breath. Knowing that this state of mind is not unique to me\, knowing that there was no “problem” with me has been the greatest gift of this path. ~Eda Ocak
URL:https://equallanguage.com/event/may-mindfulness-offering-you-are-enough-a-deeper-dive-meeting-the-inner-critic-and-the-comparing-mind/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240424T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240424T130000
DTSTAMP:20260405T093657
CREATED:20240220T103436Z
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SUMMARY:Travelgems School of Well-Being Talk ~ You are enough
DESCRIPTION:I am honored to be on the faculty of the brand new online School of Well-Being launched by Travelgems\, Europe’s leading well-being retreat company. As Mindfulness & Meditation Guide\, I join other expert coaches in modalities like sound healing\, counseling\, yoga\, nutrition\, fitness and more\, in this inclusive and affordable platform focused on weaving well-being practices seamlessly into everyday life. My first offering in the curriculum Module 2: Fostering Acceptance & Cultivating Self-Love is this meditation and talk\, which will be accessible by live-stream and recording: \nWeek 4: You are enough | Patricia Billings (April 24th at 12pm EST)\nExploring the truth that you are enough. Noticing habits of self-doubt and cultivating trust in the enoughness of you\, and us. \nTo attend the live stream or watch the recording\, please register for the School of Well-Being.
URL:https://equallanguage.com/event/travelgems-school-of-well-being-talk-you-are-enough/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Athens:20240323T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Athens:20240323T200000
DTSTAMP:20260405T093657
CREATED:20240219T130754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240304T184120Z
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SUMMARY:March mindfulness offering ~ Befriending the wild mind\, and ourselves
DESCRIPTION:For my March offering\, I will invite us to explore how mindfulness teachings and practices can help us to befriend our often busy minds\, which may be causing us as much suffering as illumination. I will share the basic neuroscience of mindfulness and practices for allowing and befriending. Are there ways in which you are a friend to yourself? Are there ways where you find it hard? Can we cultivate unconditional ~ or unstoppable ~ friendliness toward ourselves in the same way we do for beloved others? With gentle\, warm friendliness\, we’ll discover… There will be sitting meditation\, teaching\, walking meditation\, journaling\, and sharing (optional). This class is suitable for all levels of experience\, including for those newer to meditation. I describe some elements of this offering in a video on my Instagram here. \nTwo-hour session on Zoom\nDate: Saturday\, March 23\nTime: 7-9:00am PST / 9-11am CT / 10am-12pm EST / 3-5pm GMT / 4-6pm CET / 6-8pm EET\nPrice: $45; please register and pay at the Ticket link below \nThe mind is very wild. The human experience is full of unpredictability and paradox\, joys and sorrows\, successes and failures. We can’t escape any of these experiences in the vast terrain of our existence. It is part of what makes life grand—and it is also why our minds take us on such a crazy ride. If we can train ourselves through meditation to be more open and more accepting toward the wild arc of our experience\, if we can lean into the difficulties of life and the ride of our minds\, we can become more settled and relaxed amid whatever life brings us… In meditation\, you develop this nurturing quality of loyalty and steadfastness and perseverance toward yourself. And as we learn to do this in meditation\, we become more able to persevere through all kinds of situations outside of our meditation\, or what we call postmeditation. ~ Pema Chödrön \nAn especially potent form of practice for these times is metta. Metta is a Pali word that has been translated as loving-kindness\, universal goodwill\, or loving-friendliness. My favorite translation is “unstoppable friendliness.”    ~ Melvin Escobar \nWe often meet feelings with strategies of escape\, avoidance\, suppression\, indulgence\, or self-judgment. The practice of befriending feelings provides us with another option. We gradually learn not only to tolerate what arises\, but to welcome it and take it into our personal path. ~ Willa Blythe Baker \nAppreciating your basic\, underlying sense of goodness is the birth of unconditional friendliness toward yourself… Meditation cultivates unconditional friendliness through teaching you how to just be—without doing anything\, without holding onto anything\, and without trying to think good thoughts\, get rid of bad thoughts\, or achieve a pure state of mind. This is a radical practice… Allowing yourself the space to be as you are—letting whatever arises arise\, without fixation on it\, and coming back to simple presence—this is perhaps the most loving and compassionate way you can treat yourself. It helps you make friends with the whole range of your experience… Fortunately\, unconditional friendliness does not mean having to like what is going on. Instead\, it means allowing whatever is there to be there as it is\, and inviting it to reveal itself more fully. In trying to help clients develop unconditional friendliness toward a difficult feeling\, I often say\, “You don’t have to like it. You can just let it be there\, and make a place for your dislike of it as well.” ~ John Welwood
URL:https://equallanguage.com/event/march-mindfulness-offering-imperfect-impermanent-impersonal-let-g/
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