Your Mindful Coach offers mindfulness & meditation workshops, retreats & consultations
 with a special focus on youth sports, men, middle age and the workplace.

Cultivating The Heart
Welcome to the October issue. This month we'll explore ways to begin the practice of meditation. Join me this Tuesday night or next month for Beginner's Meditation. Or, check out one of our retreatsBest, Marc

Meditation for Beginners
Meditation. It's quite simply really. But it certainly isn't easy. And it is often misunderstood. Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg describes how what we call meditation is actually a translation of the Pali word bhavana which means something closer to cultivation. Looking at it this way, meditation is not a grim, mechanical duty, but instead a practice of "creating the conditions so that what we want can emerge."


Just as in our garden, cultivation entails several themes:
  1. Patience. Our practice goes through periods of nourishing growth and punishing drought. Salzberg tells the story of a great meditation teacher (and terrible gardener) who repeatedly pulled the leafy green tops of his carrot plants in hopes they would grow faster. There's no quick fix. But with intention and repetition, new shoots of possibility appear.
  2. Reconnection. Each spring, we return again to till the soil. Adjusting the quality of the soil, we bring it back to its former state. When we practice, our attention to the profound places and states we already know becomes clearer. States of gratitude, forgiveness and love re-emerge, no matter how long they've been covered with suffering or fear, to become the base upon which our spirit grows.
  3. Making a Home. With seed, soil, sun and water, we create the conditions for our transcendent self to emerge. We make a home of this garden and take refuge in it.
And you start where you are. There is no need to go on a week-long retreat or stiffly meditate for long periods of time. It starts with an intention, just a few minutes to stop, to breathe and to be. My colleague at the Center for Self Care, Josh Gansky, shares some tips in his recent post, Becoming Aware . There's even a guided practice, called Notice and Allow that you can listen to and download.

Start Now
You can learn more at my talk this Tuesday, October 24 at 7pm at the Ludington Library in Bryn Mawr. This talk, Mindfulness is For You! Tools for Self-Care and Stress Management, will explore the science and benefits of mindfulness. It only works if you try it, so we will have time for guided meditation and reflection. 

On Monday, November 27 and December 4, I'll be leading the  Beginner's Meditation: Cultivating the Heart series with workshops on joy and equanimity. Registration is required but there is no fee to attend. You might enjoy the write-ups, recordings and resources from our first two workshops:

Cultivating the Heart: Compassion - Blog Post - Recording
Cultivating the Heart: Lovingkindness - Blog Post - Recording

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My wife is raving about Simple Habit, an app that delivers short guided meditations.

Broadcaster Dan Harris describes meditation in this brief video below. Check it out:

Meditation 101: A Beginner's Guide by Dan Harris


FallFall Offerings From Your Mindful Coach and C4SC

General Programs

Tuesday, Oct 24 7:00-8:15pm, Bryn Mawr

drop-in Monday, Nov 27 and/or Dec 4, 7:30-8:45pm, Strafford

Winter Half-Day Retreat (email for details and to express interest)
tentatively Saturday, December 9, 10 am - 1pm, Strafford 
will be scheduled after 10 individuals have committed to attending

Men's Programs

Friday, November 3 at 7 p.m. to Sunday,
November 5 at 12 pm., Wilkes Barre

Saturday, December 3 from 10 am-1 pm, Stafford


Marc Balcer  brings his experience as a coach, entrepreneur and investor to Your Mindful Coach  and now Center for Self-Care, LLC. He has received training in  Mindfulness-Based Stress Management, Mindful Self-Compassion and Mindful Schools.