This is the first of several essays based on an interview with Dr. Susanna Williams of the University of Virginia Mindfulness Center. To find your authentic self, put it in writing. That’s a too-short summation of the work of Dr. Susanna Williams, whose eight-week workshop on writing and mindfulness helps students grapple with the question of how to access the more creative parts of the brain. Mindful writing can “allow the person to really reach their authentic self,” Williams explained in a recent telephone interview. “A lot of people feel blocked by writing, they sit there with their pen above the paper and can’t quite get it out, can’t quite put it down.” But in a concentrated study program with her six students, “I help people get around their own obstacles…I use different techniques for that, including mindfulness and meditation, … Continue reading →

Relationships present the ultimate landscape for finding inner balance and spiritual advancement. To some, such a statement may sound odd. We tend of think of difficulties in our relationships. How could the person we hound about dirty dishes, the person who nags us about trivialities, the union that seems to breed so many twitches and glitches — how could this relationship actually be a conduit to find God, our Higher Awareness, or the loving embrace of the Universe? The answer is very simple: Your significant other — the one you wake up next to every day, the one who greets you after a hard day of work — is the primary being in your life. Through this individual, through the physical proximity you share day in and day out and simply through visual or physical cues, the tools exist — … Continue reading →

▪   This guest essay is contributed by a reader of Nathan J. Snow’s new book, Break Your Addiction to Conflict: 12 Tools To Quiet the Mind. Early in his book, Nathan Snow asks, “…do I view my home as a sanctuary of strength?” That question becomes more and more significant as one thinks deeply about the connections between our living spaces and our search for serenity. Is our home a place where we worry about presenting ourselves to the world? As Nathan asks, “If I don’t obsessively manicure my home, (will) people will gossip about me?” And how do we “balance our home lives” to achieve inner peace and foster good relationships? This area of likely conflict becomes especially crucial when it affects our relationships with our neighbors, the people who affect us daily because they are, literally, so close … Continue reading →

This guest essay is contributed by a reader of Nathan J. Snow’s new book, Break Your Addiction to Conflict: 12 Tools To Quiet the Mind. A resolution to change can be bolstered with outside disciplines—12-step programs, religion, or therapy, to name a few. As you set off to meditate or go to church or a self-help gathering, as you weave your way through traffic or walk down a bustling street, view your actions as a pilgrimage. You are on a quest to improve yourself and break free from the bondage of conflict. But what if the place you choose for help actually suffers from its own conflict? Even the best churches and other religious centers can fall into the same negative dynamics that you experience in other walks of life. One church in Boston, for instance, “stirred dissent” by voting … Continue reading →

This guest essay is contributed by a reader of Nathan J. Snow’s new book, Break Your Addiction to Conflict: 12 Tools To Quiet the Mind. One of the most painful areas of conflict comes from the collision between family issues and the law. A current adoption court case involving a Native American child demonstrates these complexities and tensions. “The tribe has an interest in the child which is distinct…” a U.S. Supreme Court justice wrote, “a relationship that many non-Indians find difficult to understand.” When we face conflict stemming from situations that are difficult to understand, we face our own issues of self-will and honesty. We must keep in mind that our primary spiritual goal is to quiet the mind and find union with our Higher Awareness. Eliminating self-will widens the doorway to our Higher Source, that power. Relinquishing self-will … Continue reading →