For Mary Oliver, a Pulitzer-prize winning American poet, “the door to the woods (was) the door to the temple.”  Walking in the woods helps us understand ourselves and improve our lives in ways you didn’t yet know we could. A moment on our mindful walk may turn into a portal to a creative activity, an insight or an intuitive idea. We just need to pay attention to things you normally may ignore or think that they are not of our interest. Original ideas flow in when our body is busy moving and we are quiet. We may get lost in thought. When that happens, as you now know, bring your attention back to your breath and ask why, how, what, and when about the days at this stage of your......

Traveling within the country or internationally is supposed to open the closed windows of our mind. As seekers on spiritual path we need clear mind and open heart to see, connect and understand the people different from us.  When we travel Our vision becomes more expansive, our lives are enriched, and new connections make us realize that the divine gem in the lotus of our heart is in each and every human being—irrespective of their race, religion, color or gender. I’ve had numerous such experiences that I’ll share with you in the Month 8, “Mindfulness and Travel.” Here’s one: I occasionally accompanied my husband on business trips. A bit nervous about walking alone around in a new city, I would stay back to write. But the thought of adventuring on......

Only a few astronauts have actually walked on the moon. But our fictional heroes have traveled through space like no body’s business. Here’s Captain James T. Kirk from TV show, Star Trek. “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”  Quite different from what the real astronauts said when they walked on the surface of the moon on which no one had walked before. But each one of these utterances resonate with the same exhilaration for exploration. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” declared American astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, when he put his......