Mind & Body Wellness: How to Do Standing Meditation

standing meditation

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Standing Meditation (10 Minutes)

1. Learn standing meditation by connecting with trees.
2. Stand close to a tree and feel your feet grow roots into the ground.
3. Feel your body gently sway in the breeze.
4. Stay in one place.
5. Connect with your breath.
6. Stretch your arms out in different positions with palms facing the sky like branches and leaves: available, open, and patient.
7. Absorb what is in front of you. Listen to the tree, feel its presence, touch it with your mind and body.
8. When your body feels anxious and wants to move, stay a little longer, remembering that trees stand still for many years.
9. Notice what trees have to teach you about stillness and groundedness.
10. This meditation can be done out in nature, in your home, or while you’re waiting in line.

To have me facilitate a workshop or retreat on meditation and mindfulness, visit my Web site by clicking here. 

Adapted from Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

The Duchess: A Necklace Inspired by the Kate Middleton Style

The Duchess, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): apatite, quartz, spectrolite, pearl, and sterling silver

History, as they say, is alive and well and living in London.

- Helene Hanff, Duchess of Bloomsbury Street 

 
I adore royalty. Maybe it was the experience of being a little girl and watching Princess Diana walk down the aisle in her fairy tale wedding dress or perhaps it's just wanting to buy in to the air of mystery around certain individuals who are standing in for some of our most cherished ideals: love, loyalty, and leadership.

The Duchess, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): apatite, quartz, spectrolite, pearl, and sterling silver

Sometimes these human beings fall short of our ideals, and we learn they are fragile, flawed, and vulnerable just like us, but I suppose that's what I like best. Such as reading historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth I and having the chance to wonder just how much decision-making, war, and politics may have ate away at her heart and personal relationships.

Kate Middleton or Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

It's a new age and generation of royalty in the United Kingdom, and along with it comes Kate Middleton or Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. She definitely breathes a sort of fresh and grounded beauty into the royal family, which I think is captured in this amazing teal evening dress designed by Jenny Packham.

The Duchess, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): apatite, quartz, spectrolite, pearl, and sterling silver

It's elegant, timeless, and the lace bodice adds a sort of Victorian era feel to the whole look. Here I've designed a one of kind necklace I call The Duchess that combines elements of Kate Middleton's evening attire and the delicacy of the Victorian style with sparkling crystals and tiny pearls. You can purchase The Duchess by clicking here to visit Hint Jewelry.

The Duchess, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): apatite, quartz, spectrolite, pearl, and sterling silver

The Duchess can be worn alone or you may choose to purchase a charm to be added to the necklace. Unfortunately, the crystals wire-wrapped into the chain don't allow for a charm to be slipped on and off. To see more of The Duchess necklace and shop for charms at Hint Jewelry click here.

Etsy Shop Help: Where to Sell Handmade Crafts Online

Hint Jewelry Etsy Storefront

One of the best places to sell handmade crafts online is Etsy. In the last five years, Etsy has made many improvements, which has attracted more buyers. Here are some features that keep me selling Hint Jewelry on Etsy:

• A variety of payment options: credit card, PayPal, money order or check
• Domestic and international shipping options using Endicia
• Gift cards
• One listing fee for multiple items
• Improvements between Etsy and ranking on search engines
• Linking with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, which offer lots of opportunity for free, grassroots marketing
• Wholesale marketing options

However, there are some drawbacks when you are first opening your handmade shop on Etsy. The marketplace is huge and there isn't any selection process in place that evaluates the quality of a shop and its products. So when your shop is small, and you're just learning how to take pictures, create a collection, and determine your price points it's easy to get discouraged because you may not get a lot of exposure.

Nevertheless, in the beginning if you view your shop on Etsy as a year-long research and development process, then you won't fret about the number of sales and just focus on making business connections, refining your marketing message, and getting feedback on your product.

I think the biggest stumbling block most new Etsy shop owners face is the belief that sales will happen right away, and if they don't, you've somehow failed. Instead think of growing your Etsy shop like planting a fruit tree. Maybe it won't produce fruit the first year, but in that time you will have learned how to care for it better than you knew how to in the beginning.

Here are some other options for selling handmade crafts online. Each have their ups and downs so it's best to network with other shop owners to find out the real scoop.

Your Own Web Site

It's actually not that difficult to get your own Web site up and running using Wordpress and a free shopping cart plugin like WP ecommerce found at GetShopped.org.

Advantages: You pick your own Web site address. People don't have to become a member to shop on your site, but they may have to use PayPal to process their credit card information. You have more control over the design of your shop. You don't have to pay any sales commission fees.

Disadvantages: You have to pay Web site hosting and domain fees. You need to know the name of your business so that the first domain name you pick isn't something you are going to want to change down the road. You need to be comfortable with computers and software or have access to someone who can help you. You need to have a strong marketing plan to drive search engine traffic to your Web site such as a blog or other media.

Advice: Use another online storefront like Etsy or Artfire for the first year or two while you refine your business. Later when your vision and product are solid and you have a following of customers either local or online, then expand and build your own Web site.

ArtFire

ArtFire is said to be "seller friendly." Instead of paying a percentage sales fee like you do on Etsy, the seller pays a monthly subscription fee for unlimited items.

Advantages: If you are just starting out and wanting to sell as a hobby, the monthly fee is probably a more economical approach. Also, Artfire allows you to customize the look and feel of your shop by using widgets for videos and live chat. You can add an Artfire shopping cart to your blog or Web site so users don't have to take any more unnecessary steps to make a purchase. They have a helpful community of artisans. Buyers don't have to join to make a purchase.

Disadvantages: Artfire may not get as many visitors per month as larger sites like Etsy.

Other Places to Sell Crafts Online

Craftly
Big Cartel
Dawanda
Spoonflower
Supermarket
ebay

Learning Forgiveness for Ourselves and Others

Be Forgiveness: a book by Beth Hemmila

I believe we find our own unique way to forgive ourselves and others.

However, sometimes it's helpful to have tools to aid in the discovery process. Like looking up at a mountain and wondering how the heck you are going to be able to make it to the top, adding some tools to your backpack provides a level of trust that strengthens your faith in the climb.

So I love having a toolbox to share: Forgiveness techniques that others can use, adapt for themselves, ditch so as to invent their own, or through working with tools realize that they don't need anything extra for their journey. All of these experiences touch my soul in different ways.

My FREE ebook Be Forgiveness includes a variety of techniques that help you explore and discover the experience of forgiveness for yourself: self-judgment, gratitude, and undiscriminating kindness towards others.

Download a FREE copy of my ebook Be Forgiveness by clicking here or visit Lulu.com and purchase a softcover copy for $5.99.


Watch my Be Forgiveness video series for more insight and be sure to visit my Web site for more free downloads.

To have me facilitate a workshop or retreat on forgiveness, visit my Web site by clicking here.

Happy Mother's Day!

joyful

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

- Mother Teresa

Happy Mother's Day!

May you catch souls in your love net today.

Searching for Sugar Man & Delivering the Message

I went to art school, lived, and worked in Detroit, Michigan during my 20s, and so when a friend recommended the movie Searching for Sugar Man I couldn't wait to dive in.

Detroit is a fascinating city for it nurtures some of the most industrious and creative people I have ever met. It's a place filled with rich ethnic heritages and truly represents the pulse our American melting pot.

I tried to explain once to a friend in small Wisconsin town what it had been like living in Detroit, and I said that when I was living downtown I had this sense that I was living on the front lines of America. It's a kind of living a breathing "razor's edge."

Detroit is a place filled with appalling poverty and tremendous wealth, saddening violence and incredible beauty, frustrating apathy and staggering creativity, as well as remnants of hate and burgeoning compassion. Detroit strengthens your roots so you have a realistic view of the world while also softening you to the struggles of other people. It's a place that continually fosters people who spread the light of fortitude, courage, beauty, and hope because those are the most essential ingredients you need to thrive there.

It's no wonder that a place like Detroit was fertile ground for Rodríguez, the poet and singer in the movie Searching for Sugar Man. It makes total sense to me that Detroit would be the birth place for Rodríguez' music that didn't take root in America in the 1970s but inspired a whole generation of people in South Africa while they were shaking off the bonds of apartheid.

Sixto Díaz Rodríguez

This is one of most important ideas expressed in Searching for Sugar Man, for the message you are here to share may not be packaged in a way that the people you are closest to are ready to hear. The medicine you are here to deliver may not come via a direct route to your neighbor next door, your city's mayor, or your best friend. The message may need to take an indirect route, grow within a container of something more amazing than you could have ever imagined, and then arrive at its original destination after years of fermenting in love.

Remember you are just the delivery system for getting the message out and Divine Providence takes care of the who, where, how, and when people receive it. More importantly, it's essential to understand that you are a crucial step in the process but not the owner of the message. You are responsible for delivering the message but it's not yours. The message doesn't belong to you. It's bigger than you. However, you are the caretaker of this precious message whatever it may be and it requires a certain kind of emotional bravery to deliver it and believe in it.

So if you have a hope or dream or you are an artist, poet, singer, writer, teacher, parent, spiritual leader, or movement maker and you become discouraged that no one is hearing or understanding the message, keep the faith. Like a tree spreading seeds, you just need to show up and deliver the message and trust it will take root and grow in its own space and time.

The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; 

thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.

- Katha-Upanishad

Mind & Body Wellness: How to Do Walking Meditation

walking meditation

I have arrived, I am home
In the here, in the now
I am solid, I am free
In the ultimate, I dwell.

- Deer Park Monastery

Walking Meditation (10 – 30 Minutes)

1. Walking meditation is literally “watching your step.”
2. Periods of sitting meditation are often broken up with walking.
3. Walking can be a connection point between meditation and daily life because you are not passively sitting.
4. During formal walking meditation, you focus on the footfall as a whole; or isolated movements of the motion such as shifting, moving, placing, shifting. The step is your anchor.
5. Steps can be combined with focusing on the breath.
6. You can use labels such as “stepping” or “left, right” which helps anchor you to walking instead of looking at your surroundings. You can also break it down into “lifting, moving, and placing.”
7. You are not walking to go anywhere. Your body is taking you on a walk.
8. Typically you walk back and forth in a lane or around in a loop. This keeps your mind from having to navigate a specific route.
9. Keep your eyes cast downward without looking at anything in particular.
10. The challenge is to be with your one step and your one breath.
11. Your pace can be slow or brisk.
12. Notice each step as it comes and be fully present with it.
13. Feel the sensations of walking in your feet, legs, hips, arms, and shoulders.
14. When your thoughts, feelings, and sensations distract you from the present moment, come back to noticing your step and breath.
15. Appreciate that you have the physical ability to walk.
16. Walk with dignity and confidence connecting with the earth beneath your feet.
17. You may also try informal walking meditation, which is walking mindfully on the street, at work, or out in nature.
18. Always keep coming back to your body and each moment.

To have me facilitate a workshop or retreat on meditation and mindfulness, visit my Web site by clicking here. 

Adapted from Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Party with the Great Gatsby

Party with the Great Gatsby by bethhemmila featuring flapper style dresses

Flapper style dress
$28 - littleblackdress.co.uk

Vintage handbag
1stdibs.com

Flapper hair accessory
twigsandhoney.com

Bridget Jones's Diary: The Breakup Necklace

True Love, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry)

The beauty in Bridget Jones's Diary is that nearly every woman can relate to both the comedy and secret humiliation of her story.

Bridget is the kind of gal that tries to look on the bright side after a tub of ice cream, wine, and the consolation of friends. She's a character you want to laugh with and hug at the same time.

Like Bridget, we've had similarly embarrassing moments of saying the wrong thing, experiencing a clothing mishap, having a crush on someone completely inappropriate, and choosing practical underwear over the sexy kind.

Bridget Jones's Diary delights audiences with a happy ending, but along the way there is confusion and heartache. That's why I've added Bridget Jones's Diary to my best breakup movie list that you can find over at my blog Breakup Care Package.

If you're going through a relationship rough patch, just broke up with somebody, or healing from a divorce, Bridget Jones's Diary is the kind of romantic, silly story that can have you laughing at all your own blunders.

When you find a little bit of humor in your past, it may be easier to open to what your future may hold. Until the time your ready to love again, I've created a special piece of adornment -- a one-of-a-kind necklace that can be purchased at Hint Jewelry called True Love.

True Love, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry)

This necklace celebrates the sweetest of true love found within. The place inside every woman that is always loved no matter if you are in a intimate relationship or have experienced a breakup.

True Love, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry)

You can wear the True Love necklace alone or purchase one or more charms from Hint Jewelry to slip on and off depending on your mood. I thought True Love looked particularly adorable with either the heart, hummingbird, rabbit, or joy charm.

If you are experiencing a breakup or divorce, check out the resources found on my blog Breakup Care Package.

Raw Food Recipe: The Queen's Strawberry Shortcake and Clotted Cream

raw food recipe: the queen's strawberry shortcake and clotted cream

Warmer weather has arrived and one my favorite summer food memories is delving into a pile of juicy strawberries paired with sweet, buttery biscuits and topped with a dollop rich, whipped cream.

These days I've been trying to remain dairy and gluten free so fulfilling my strawberry shortcake fix needed a new solution. This raw food recipe for strawberry shortcake combines all the flavors and textures I love but without using flour, butter, refined sugar, or real cream.

This raw food strawberry shortcake with clotted cream reminds me of having English tea with the Queen for it's both decadent and delicate all at the same time.

Raw Food Recipe: The Queen's Strawberry Shortcake and Clotted Cream

Serves 2

2 cups fresh sliced strawberries

Shortcakes:
1/2 cup raw macademia nuts
1/3 cup raw Brazil nuts
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon raw honey (add more for a sweeter flavor)
2 pinches sea salt

Clotted Cream:
1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup  coconut oil (softened at room temperature)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon raw honey (add more for a sweeter flavor)
1/2 cup water

1. Place the macademia and Brazil nuts together in a bowl and fill it with water. Let the nuts soak for 2 hours.
2. Place the cashews in a separate bowl, cover with water, and let them soak for at least 2 hours.
3. For the shortcakes, drain and rinse the macademia and Brazil nuts and place them in the food processor with salt. Blend the nuts until finely chopped. 
4. Add the lemon juice and honey to the food processor. Blend until the nuts are a dough-like consistency. 
5. Shape the nut-dough into round cakes by hand. Alternatively, you can grease a muffin tin with some olive oil and press the dough into the forms or use cupcake liners. Place the muffin tin in the freezer for about an hour and then use a knife to gently release the round shaped cakes or peel off the cupcake papers.
6. To make the clotted cream, drain and rinse the cashews. Place the cashews in a high-speed blender. A Vitamix blender works best. 
7. Add the coconut oil, vanilla, honey, and water. Blend until the mixture has the consistency of thick melted ice cream. 
8. To serve, layer the shortcake, clotted cream and top with fresh strawberries.

Surrender to Loss & Expand Your Territory

angel wing

One of the things I like best about connecting through Hint Jewelry is that many people come to me looking for a charm to honor the loss of a beloved. Be it human or animal, I am always touched by people's stories and their search to honor a relationship that may have passed in the physical realm but continues to live on within their soul.

Over the last four years, I've lost every one of my primary relationships. Both of my cats of 18 and 16 years died, and my husband and I decided to get a divorce. Before I jokingly referred to the four of us as living on the Island of Misfit Toys; however, now I have no intimate relationships creating a safe refuge and am on my own for the first time.

In a recent moment of sadness, where I realized just how much I miss my cozy island where everything felt understandable to me, I found myself asking, "How can I honor these relationships? What can I do to show them how much they live on within me and are forever etched on my soul?"

Grow.

That's the response I heard. Continue to grow and in doing so their love woven into the fabric of my heart will expand also.

It's easy for me to live a small and safe life. To create an island away from the world. To hide out in my fear, anger, sadness, grief, and sickness. But what I've come to understand during these four years of learning to let go and surrender to loss is that this experience has the ability to expand you outward. In the center of a family, my safe haven, I lived in a type of wonderful mirage, and when it dissolved from around me, I was given the opportunity to see that the whole world is my sanctuary.

Shedding relationships through loss is like shedding emotional skin and being that raw infant all over again -- open and available to be used by the Divine for something entirely new and unexpected. It's scary, thrilling, and real.

If you have recently experienced a breakup or divorce, please visit my blog Breakup Care Package where I will be posting new information, and you can download my free ebook Divorce Care Package -- a source of healing and help when your relationship ends. This book is not just for individuals who have been legally married and divorced but for all people who feel they have lost a love relationship through some kind of separation.

To have me facilitate a workshop or retreat on healing after the loss of love, visit my Web site by clicking here. 

Mind & Body Wellness: How to Do Sitting Meditation

sitting meditation

Meditation is an instrument for the purification of the mind and its preparation for

 communion with the Ultimate. That is, meditation is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

- Chariji

Meditation is a practice that helps cultivate positive human qualities. Training your mind is important for refining your attention as well as developing patience, balance, peace, and inner wisdom. Meditation is not about being disconnected from your mind and body, but rather a way to become more awake to your true nature, and therefore, more free.

The health benefits of doing meditation include:

• Reduced stress, muscle tension, headaches, and anxiety.
• Increased production of serotonin, which influences mood and behavior.
• Improved immune function.
• Increased motivation and confidence.

Sitting Meditation (20 – 40 Minutes)

It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd; and it is possible for those who are solitaries to live in the crowd of their own thoughts.
- Amma Syncletica (Desert Mother)

Sitting meditation is “mind sitting.” It’s choosing a particular posture toward the mind and learning to pay attention to the present moment. You learn to pay attention on purpose without judgment.

• In the beginning start with the breath, feeling it move in and out. Use it as an anchor to tie your attention to the present moment when your thoughts want to carry you away.
• No other agenda exists except to remain fully present.
• Later expand your awareness to notice thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions. See these things and then let them go.

Take Your Seat

1. Consciously honor your place and placement of body and mind when you sit down.
2. Have no attachment to your location or posture so you can sit anywhere and be in any posture and still be at home in your body.
3. You can sit raised, cross-legged on a cushion (or rolled up towel), which will give you the stability of a tripod. Or you can sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. In either position, keep your back straight so your diaphragm can move freely while you breathe in and out.

Sit with Dignity

1. Sit in a way that embodies dignity. Do not sit slouched or rigid.
2. Relax your face, shoulders, head, neck, and back so they all come into natural alignment.
3. Sitting with dignity brings you back to your original sense of worthiness.

Maintain Your Posture

1. Sit so your body radiates an attitude of real presence, and you are ready to accept whatever arrives.
2. Be like the full moon on a clear night: reflective, empty, receptive, and open.
3. Convey an attitude of non-attachment and unwavering stability. This attitude is contained within your posture and determined by the way you sit.
4. Imagine sitting like a mountain: massive, majestic, unmoving, and rooted. Invite these qualities into your posture.

Relax Your Hands

1. All hand mudras create different energy flow through the body. Experiment to see what works best.
2. Hands palms down on your knees is one of self-containment. You are not looking for anything more but digesting what is.
3. Turning both hands up and lightly touching your thumb and index finger together in the gyan mudra, you are opening and receiving wisdom from above, uniting with divine energy. This position helps to clear the mind and enhance clarity.
4. You can hold your hands in your lap with your dominant hand cradling your non-dominant hand, the thumb tips gently touching as if circling an invisible egg to form what is called the cosmic mudra. If you are sitting cross-legged, your hands rest on the soles of your feet. This position helps bring your attention inward and is useful for increasing self-awareness. The cosmic mudra is a symbol for coming home to the universe.

Relax Your Eyes & Breathe In and Out

1. Your eyes are kept lowered with your gaze resting on the ground 2-3 feet in front of you.
2. Your eyelids cover most of your eyes.
3. Center your inward attention on your hara, a place within your body located two inches below your navel. This is the physical and spiritual center of your body. Place your attention and mind there.
4. Your mouth is gently closed with your tongue lightly pressed against your upper palate.
5. Breathe through your nose and taste the breath. Each in and out breath should last 4-5 seconds. Breathing is the anchor of your meditation.
6. Imagine the breath coming down your throat and organs into your hara and returning from there. Visualize or feel the cycle of your breathing. See the in and out breath as two separate things.
7. You can count your breath, counting each inhalation and exhalation beginning with one and counting a cycle of ten. Or you can mentally label each breath “in” and “out.”
8. The only agreement you make with yourself is that if your mind wanders and you start to chase your thoughts, look at the thought, acknowledge it, and then deliberately and consciously let it go and start counting again.
9. You can silently repeat a word to acknowledge your thought like “thinking,” “hearing,” “seeing,” “talking,” “remembering,” “planning,” “resisting,” “anger,” “pain,” or “itching” until the object disappears from your mind and then go back to the breath.
10. Do not use meditation to suppress thoughts that need to arise. Simply watch thoughts appear and release them. Come back to the breath.
11. The counting is the feedback mechanism for knowing when you have wandered.
12. Each time you return to the breath you empower yourself to put your mind where you want it for as long as you desire. This is called the power of concentration and is very important. It will sharpen your awareness and create true one-pointedness of the mind.
13. Eventually you will want to abandon the counting and just be with your breath. This is the beginning of the falling away of your body and mind.

Coming Out of Meditation

1. Bring awareness to how you end meditation.
2. In front of your heart, press your hands together in prayer and bow in gratitude.

To have me facilitate a workshop or retreat on meditation and mindfulness, visit my Web site by clicking here. 

Adapted from Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Pearls & The Great Gatsby

Great Gatsby, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): grey pearls, silk thread, and sterling silver chain

The remake of The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann is in movie theaters May 10th. F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel is timeless. Even though The Great Gatsby was required for one of my classes, it was a story I was happy to read and have reflected on throughout my life.

Great Gatsby, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): grey pearls, silk thread, and sterling silver chain

Here's a one-of-a-kind pearl necklace I designed and have put up for sale in my shop in honor of The Great Gatsby and the delicious costumes that are sure to delight audiences. Click here to purchase this grey pearl necklace. You can wear these pearls alone or choose to purchase one of Hint Jewelry's charms such as this sterling silver daisy to slip on and off as you desire.

Great Gatsby, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): grey pearls, silk thread, and sterling silver chain

Also, check out the fascinating collaboration between Tiffany and the costume designers for The Great Gatsby in the video below. Click here to visit Tiffany's Web site to see their stunning collection.

The Happy Movie & Movement

Happy, a documentary by Roko Belic, is an interesting exploration into the art of happiness. It's worth checking out just for the science part because it solidly places happiness into the category of choices and habitual behavior rather than fate or luck. You can find it on Netflix or rent it by clicking here.

To have me facilitate a workshop or retreat on happiness, visit my Web site by clicking here.