Miami Firm Body Audio Journal: Recent Episodes
Miami Firm Body Audio Journal
This podcast is a reflection on living and loving life. We are a wife-husband team interested in fitness, healthy eating, and joyful living who love sharing what works for us.
This is the recording for our fourth week. The focus was on developing a stable practice.
Thank you for listening. This is the audio recording for the first class of a six-week mindfulness meditation course.
This is a reflection on the phrase "the industrial genocide of the Jews" that stayed with me after watching the PBS documentary, *The Last Survivors. I strongly recommend you watch. Here's the link: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-last-survivors/
How do we find out way home? We follow our way back through the many reminders life offers us along the way.
Thinking about the following quote: "Buddha said: Know all things to be like this: A mirage, a cloud castle, A dream, an apparition, Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen. Know all things to be like this: As the moon in a bright sky In some clear lake reflected, Though to that lake the moon has never moved. Know all things to be like this: As an echo that derives From music, sounds, and weeping, Yet in that echo is no melody. Know all things to be like this: As a magician makes illusions Of horses, oxen, carts and other things, Nothing is as it appears."
Here's the quote I reference in the podcast. ...life is born of tension, struggle and difference. That life is not born by virginal withdrawal but by active coupling. Whether the coupling is that of a positive/negative charge that gives birth to an electrical current; whether it is that of oxygen and hydrogen that births the great miracle of the universe called water; whether it is that of the musician coupling with her images of notes and forms; whether it is the sculptor coupling with her wood; whether it is husband and wife coupling in their love and birthing a child; whether it is a widow coupling with memories of a deceased husband: all love is born of the conflict that dialectical consciousness acknowledges. Dualism wants to control conflict, to deny tension and difference. And in the process of such denial nothing is born. It is stillborn. (211) Fox, Matthew. Original Blessing. New York: Bear & Company, 1983.
A reflection on storytelling, mental health, and the principle of maintaining sthira and sukha.
There are no shortcuts. There is no faster way. This episode explores our tendency to muscle through life challenges. We often learn this when we try too hard and find ourselves moving backward away from our goal rather than forward. Finding that right balance of effort and ease allows us to persist.
In this entry we reflect on community, how essential it is in all areas of our life and how one of the primary aims of Miami Firm Body is to create a supportive space for relationships to develop
Thinking about limitations and how these could bind us and keep us small or how they can become the catalyst for opening, discovery and grace. Here's the link to the short film I reference in the post: https://youtu.be/2m_VTZR5MU0
We are often encouraged to look at the bright side, to stay positive. Although this advice often comes with good intentions, the outcome of living life only in the light of joy leaves us less empowered and thin in the soul. This is a common phenomenon made more challenging by social media where we post the pretty pictures only. Today's episode is about becoming friendly with our losses and grief while also holding our gratitude. The tension of holding both invites growth.
In this episode I share about healing, finding one's teacher in unexpected places, and grace.
A simple reflection on letting go of stories, of the constant chatter that keeps us away from awareness.