Author Archives: Carri Manchester

The practice of meditation is simple. Find your seat; Place your mind on your object of focus; and When your mind strays, gently re-place it back on that object of focus. It’s simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Over the next three posts, I’ll focus on each of the steps in more detail. IContinue reading “Three Steps to Mindfulness Meditation – Step 1: Finding Your Seat”

I got my book list this week, ordered everything, and I started my homework – a yoga class video with Swami Satchidananda (who brought Integral Yoga to the West and founded Yogaville, aka the Satchidananda Ashram in Virginia, which is the international headquarters for Integral Yoga). I committed to YTT back in April – rightContinue reading “Yoga Teacher Training Starts in Less Than a Month!!!”

It’s amazing how a vacation intended as a relaxing getaway can lead to so much exhaustion… but let’s start at the beginning. Jeff and I spent a week in Yellowstone National Park, and it was amazing! We dropped Rio off at her boarder’s house on Friday evening. She doesn’t seem to mind. It’s sort ofContinue reading “Yellowstone, Airplane Germs, and Falling off the Yoga Wagon”

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. – Bill Watterson A few years ago I made a mistake.Continue reading “The Epic Mistake that Changed Me”

Many years ago I had a series of panic attacks. I didn’t know what they were at first. For some time, I was afraid I was having some kind of cardiac event, because my heart would repeatedly skip beats during the attacks. Eventually they became severe enough, and I became frightened enough, that I wentContinue reading “Sitting With Whatever Is (includes a guided meditation)”

July has flown by, and I feel like I haven’t had a chance to enjoy my summer yet. We were away visiting family for two weekends in July, and of course hiking last weekend. I wouldn’t change any of that, but I feel like we haven’t had much time to rest and re-center. So I’mContinue reading “Lost and Found: Embracing the Unexpected”

We climbed Allen Mountain yesterday. It was my 40th of the Adirondack 46 High Peaks, and if everything goes as planned, both Jeff & I will be 46ers by the end of September. It was Jeff’s idea to pursue the 46, but I agreed without hesitation. “This’ll be great,” I thought. A challenge that willContinue reading “Allen for 40 – A Hiking Meditation on Sore Feet”

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” Thich Nhat Hanh Coffee makes me pee. Frequently. (TMI? Maybe. But hey, this is about being real, right?) I was worried about this when I committed to a 5-day Meditation Teacher Training at Kripalu in April. HowContinue reading “Coffee or Tea? Are my thoughts real?”

When I turned forty, a slightly older co-worker and friend told me that forty was the best year of her life because she finally started to give fewer f*cks what people thought of her. (I’m exaggerating a bit here. She’d never use the f-word, but I would.) She said it in passing. In fact, sheContinue reading “Mid-Life Crisis/Mid-Life Awakening”