Touching Joy There are many contemplative traditions that emphasize the importance of balance. First Nations traditions - in reference to the Medicine Wheel - will speak of balance, the balance, for example, of the emotional, physical, spiritua

Roll in the Sand

May 24th, 2019 16m 39s

Roll in the Sand As some of you know, this week was moving week on the university campus where I teach. Extensive renovations in one of our main office buildings meant that we moved out of that office building into temporary housing for about

A Blue Moon

May 17th, 2019 19m 35s

A Blue Moon This Saturday May 18, at 6:11pm Atlantic Standard Time, is the Blue Moon. It’s the time to do things that you would only do once in a blue moon! The May 2019 full moon is a seasonal Blue Moon. Usually there are three full moons be

Dance into May

May 4th, 2019 15m 1s

Dance into May In my neck of the woods, in eastern Canada, the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice will be May 5th, at 2 minutes to 4 o'clock in the afternoon. This is the moment when we astrologically step from the end

Being and Becoming

Apr 26th, 2019 18m 26s

Being and Becoming It's wonderful to be back having taken some time away – at semester’s end - to take a deep breath. Today we explore being and becoming. I had a wonderful conversation last week with a remarkable student in one of my classes

Own Your Strength

Apr 5th, 2019 18m 2s

Own Your Strength I received a fun email this week. It said: “Loved seeing a strong woman in a key position of power yesterday. You were fantastic.” Who wouldn't want to celebrate that? So, today we reflect: what is it to own our own strengt

Self-Existing Joy

Mar 29th, 2019 18m 7s

Self-Existing Joy Where do grown-ups come from? Where do the children go? It was my great delight this week to make a new acquaintance, the friend of a mutual friend. This person spent an evening with me and my students in class, bringing the

Sweetness is the Antidote to Bitterness

Mar 22nd, 2019 21m 39s

Sweetness is the Antidote to Bitterness It was a week for an unusual amount of baking. For me, this week, there was baking for co-workers, and baking for students, and baking for classroom guests. Amongst these was baking as part of a thank you

Spring in Your Step!

Mar 16th, 2019 18m 20s

Spring in Your Step! You can feel it in the air. In my neck of the woods in the north, it's this coming Wednesday March 20th, at 6:58pm, that we will astronomically cross the line: the sun will shine directly on the equator – at the moment

A Man, My Son

Mar 8th, 2019 19m 58s

A Man, My Son I see increasingly in some of my male colleagues and students the sense that, if one is born male (and perhaps especially white, and heterosexual, and male, if one is born into a position which many Western cultures would historic

Breathe Through Your Heels

Feb 22nd, 2019 13m 57s

Breathe Through Your Heels “Now, take this huge tree here, son. If someone were to hack it at the bottom, its living sap would flow. Likewise, if someone were to hack it in the middle, its living sap would flow; and if someone were to hack it

We Celebrate Valentine's Day

Feb 15th, 2019 19m 12s

We Celebrate Valentine’s Day “The minute I heard my first love story – I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere – they’re in each other all along.” (Rumi) The Hindu god of love is named

The Space In-Between In Which We All Live

Feb 8th, 2019 13m 7s

The Space In-Between in Which We All Live The house is freshly cleaned. It was deep cleaning that happened this past weekend. The fridge and closets and cupboards – all the storage spaces – were sorted. What needs to be let go, re-purpos

The Beginning of the Beginning of Spring

Feb 1st, 2019 17m 56s

The Beginning of the Beginning of Spring I am told that the North American celebration of Groundhog Day was established in Pennsylvania, with the help of a newspaper story, in 1887. It is said to be an adaptation of a German tradition, where

A Reflection of You

Feb 1st, 2019 10m 55s

A Reflection of You Do you try to squeeze yourself into a box that someone – or something - else has shaped for you? Does it feel artificial, contrived, and far too small? Today we reflect, and observe, that their concept of you is a reflection

Remain Like A Log

Jan 25th, 2019 14m

“To cover all the earth with sheets of leather. Where could such amounts of leather be found? But simply wrap some leather around your feet and it is as if the whole earth had been covered! Likewise we can never take and turn aside the outer

The Precious Human Birth....On Working with Guilt

Jan 18th, 2019 21m 47s

The Precious Human Birth…. On Working with Guilt "This human birth is precious. Our opportunity to awaken. The body is impermanent and time of death is uncertain. The cause and effect of karma shapes the course of our lives. Life has inevitable

Until the Water Runs Clear and the Right Action Arises by Itself

Jan 11th, 2019 16m 54s

Until the Water Runs Clear and the Right Action Arises by Itself Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water runs clear? Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself? I'm Adela, and this is Just Bre

Weeding is the Way to Get Weeding Done

Jan 4th, 2019 16m 34s

Weeding is the Way to Get Weeding Done Hello everyone! Happy new year! At the beginning of the new solar year, many people think back to where we have been, and reflect on where we are going. We dream dreams. We make plans. We plant seeds. To

The Heart is a Muscle: It Expands and Contracts

Dec 28th, 2018 18m 25s

The Heart is a Muscle: It Expands and Contracts The average resting heart rate is somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute. So, if we imagine an average of 80 beats per minute, your heart will beat 4,800 times per hour. Today it will bea

We Celebrate the Solstice

Dec 21st, 2018 16m 20s

We Celebrate the Solstice The solstice: it is a shared human experience. We celebrate, and reflect, as we move together between darkness and light. Today, we celebrate the solstice. I'm Adela, and this is Just Breathe....You Are Enough™. Tog

Skillful or Unskillful: It's a Moving Target

Dec 14th, 2018 18m 32s

Skillful or Unskillful: It’s a Moving Target It is a sign of true nobility in ancient Indian tradition to have the courage to do the right thing because you believe it to be the right thing to do. In ancient times, “the right thing to do” was p

You Are Enough (So Is Everyone Else)

Dec 7th, 2018 16m 33s

You Are Enough (So Is Everyone Else) You are enough. You are worthy. You are sufficient. There is absence of absence, nothing to prove and no territory to defend. It is not possible to be other than utterly perfect…even on those days when we

Working with Change

Nov 30th, 2018 25m 19s

Working with Change Hello everyone! Karma, action, cause and effect: it is said to unfold in the way that the full moon reflects into one hundred bowls of water. The moon has no desire to reflect into them all, but, because there happen to be

Connection Does Not Require a Password

Nov 23rd, 2018 22m 29s

Connection Does Not Require a Password Hello everyone! To connect: it is something we do all the time. We measure speed of connection. We measure speed of bytes and bits. We enter, and change, and re enter passwords. If we are so connected,