Mindfulness Archives - Lori Volpe

What is PTSD?

March 5, 2019 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that typically occurs after individuals have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a serious accident, natural disaster, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault. In the past, PTSD went by different names. During and right after the years of World War 1, the […]

Filed Under: Trauma / PTSD Tagged With: Avoiding Situations, Flashbacks, Intrusive Thoughts, Mindfulness, Nightmares, Reactivity, Somatic Experiencing

Remember the Heart

December 15, 2018 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

My son had a piano teacher who lives and breathes music. While to me it was great accomplishment that a 10 year old could play a complicated sonata with only a few mistakes, this teacher cared less about wrong notes and much more about the emotion expressed by the passage. “This phrase is the voice […]

Filed Under: Mindfulness Meditation Tagged With: Connection, heart, love, Mindfulness, Presence, Remember

Listening to the Whispers in Your Body by Ed Feldman

November 25, 2018 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

Trungpa Rinpoche, Pema Chodren’s Buddhist teacher, observed in his visit to the United States that “Most people don’t feel themselves properly.” This leads to a lot of ‘over-efforting’ in daily life which results in a lot of unnecessary tension and work being done by the body. This ‘compulsive’ efforting is not without cost. Many of our […]

Filed Under: Trauma / PTSD Tagged With: Embodiment, Feeling, Mindfulness, Stress Management, Trauma

The Falling Leaves

October 31, 2018 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

Ah … fall. With its glorious colors, crisp air and even some blue skies (finally!). In my pine forest backyard, some leaves have dropped, but many more are still clinging to their twigs and branches. How does a leaf know, I wonder, just when to let go? With the changing of the season, I’ve been […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Clutter Clearing, healing, Letting Go, Meditation, Mindfulness

I can’t meditate!

March 8, 2018 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

I can’t meditate! It makes me feel anxious. I’m too restless. I have too many thoughts! If you think, “I can’t meditate,” it might be interesting to try again while looking carefully at your actual experience. And then determine if it’s really true that you can’t meditate, or whether you were seeking a different experience […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Acceptance, Cherry Hill, Discomfort, Meditation, Mindfulness, South Jersey, Stress Management, Voorhees

Mindfulness for Stressful Times

October 13, 2017 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

Floods, fires, nuclear weapons, mass shootings … the ominous threat of world war III! The President casually warning, “It’s the calm before the storm.” Even without having lived through a recent disaster, it’s hard not to feel vulnerable and uncertain. These are stressful times. Earlier this week, I was heartened to hear the perspective of […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: compassion, healing, love, Mindfulness, political, stressful, unity

Summer Outdoor Meditation

August 7, 2017 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

Have you ever felt that each summer seems shorter than the last? That you were so busy you barely had time to enjoy a juicy slice of watermelon on the deck, to watch the fireflies flashing on and off in the back yard, to dig your feet into warm sand . . . to just […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Mindfulness, Nature, Outdoor Meditation, Summer

Earth Day Meditation

April 22, 2016 by Lori Volpe Leave a Comment

My daughter’s bedroom used to face a wooded lot. When she was a baby, I’d nurse her in a rocking chair in her room, sometimes gazing out a window at the nearby trees. One morning, I noticed a bird carrying a twig to a tree limb. I continued to watch that bird make many more […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Earth Day, Meditation, Mindfulness