Greetings, this is our final broadcast and podcast before the summer hiatus, where we will be meeting in person in the Calgary area in our usual meditation flashmobs! I hope you can join us. Please email me at CalgaryMindfulness@gmail.com to register for our meetings (free of charge, but registration is required).

When? Mostly on weekends I'll be travelling with my sweetheart and family so we will meet some weekends when I'm working in town, and some weeknights otherwise. It's been an excellent year. Thanks to the hundreds of people that continue to send in your questions each week to guide our practices; it is so helpful for me to tap into so many people all at once and to truly understand how most of us are loving, growing, enjoying and also struggling with the same things, in spite of the differences of age, gender, race, faith, spirituality, gender identity, class, education, income and more. We are all one mind and heart. All fences we prop up against that truth are illusions!

To watch this practice on youtube, please visit https://youtu.be/YNAGCKqXFEI

In today's class, we focus on the embodied presence. What the heck is this weird new age term? In a nutshell, it's when we are fully aware of ourselves and our surroundings in the present moment, and not spaced out multi-tasking and figuring out problems in the future or stewing over problems in the past.

Why the embodied presence? Well, for one, it is pretty relaxing not to have to multitask! It also build discipline, focus, and helps us connect with inner wisdom, the Creator, and so on; however you phrase this awareness of the consciousnesses that are outside of our own body, and that unify all life on Earth.

But, another useful purpose is that being embodied helps us notice and understand our feelings, so that we can plan and do highest and best for ourselves and others. In this class, we use our judgements of others as an anchor. I relate a painful story about my own release of judgements as an example of just how insidious and hidden they can be even when you think you're done with them! Our judgements prevent us from aligning with our highest and best, and it is cathartic to be free of them!

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices. We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca

Kind regards,

Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

This is our seventh annual Summer Solstice Meditation! To watch our practice, please visit https://youtu.be/8WcAM7HAs8Y

For folks like me in the northern hemisphere, where it is light by 4:30 and not dark until midnight here at the 51st line of latitude in Calgary, the summer solstice is a magical time of growth and power; every plant is bursting with life and green. It is very beautiful. There's a wonder in nature that is comforting and uplifting, and we connect with this today in our meditation.

The second anchor of our practice today is how to handle the increasing amount of fear and worry we are steeped in. Even if we personally are untangling ourselves as best we can from our simmering collective consciousness that has followed in the wake of American bipartisan divisiveness, we are all sensitive to the collective consciousness and may feel increasingly anxious.

Our mindful, heartful presence in the body during meditation is one way to move away from the unconsciousness anxiety we or our circle may be steeped in. Join in this practice for a few tips and tricks on how to connect to the present moment and pull ourselves out of fear and worry.

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices. We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca

Kind regards, Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

Welcome to our annual Father's Day Meditation, where we share loving kindness, forgiveness and gratitude with our fathers and father figures, and with those with whom we share father and father figure relationships. We also dedicate some of today's practice to awakening and nurturing qualities of the divine masculine in ourselves.

The divine masculine embodies qualities like strength, protection, discipline, and action, but also encompasses emotional maturity, responsibility, and a willingness to serve. It's not about aggression or dominance, but rather a balanced energy that fosters growth, provides guidance, and encourages positive change. Nurturing the divine masculine involves honoring and developing our abilities for protection, discipline, focus, authority, guidance, resilience, maturity, responsibility, leadership, logic, action, perseverance, confidence, commitment, and willpower. These are just a few of the qualities that all humans share regardless of gender that are traditionally associated with the divine masculine.

The divine masculine provides a sense of security and safety, both for oneself and others. This strength is not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual, allowing for the ability to stand firm in the face of adversity. It is a force of action, driving individuals to pursue goals, manifest their visions, and make positive changes in the world. It involves setting clear intentions, following through on commitments, and taking ownership of one's actions and their consequences.

The archetype and ideal divine masculine provides a sense of direction and purpose, not through domination, but through clarity, wisdom, and a commitment to serving others. It's probably the first time in history where men have the opportunity to nurture and express this healthier, sustainable vision of masculinity and hence the culture war divisions so common today and some men wrestle with the idea that letting go of domination actually gives more power, true power. That power comes from serving one's community instead of bending it to one's will. The ideal of the divine masculine involves acknowledging and managing emotions in a healthy way, rather than suppressing them. The divine masculine embraces emotional depth and vulnerability while maintaining inner strength. The divine masculine also embodies empathy and compassion, allowing for understanding and connection with others on a deeper level. It's about being true to oneself and acting with honesty and integrity in all interactions.

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices. We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca

Kind regards,

Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

Good morning meditators! Today's meditation is inspired by an interview I heard on CBC's "The Current" this week with Israeli peace activist, Yonaten Zeigen, whose mother was killed in the Oct 6 terrorist attack in Israel. Vivian Silver was a peace activist, and he has taken up her mantle. I was so moved and filled with peace hearing him speak of the need for a new non-binary discourse that helps us move forward from conflict-based consciousness into something more sustainable and compassionate.

As meditators, we know our work as peace activists begins inside, discovering where we are at war with the world, and then releasing this for the much greater payoff of feeling great connection and respect for our fellow humans.

We practice this breath meditation today and I hope you enjoy! To watch in video format, please visit https://youtu.be/-QejnTuT-gg

For the interview with Yonaten Zeigen, please follow this link: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current/clip/16150671-hamas-killed-mother.-now-hes-continuing-fight-peace Also, I recommend the transcript as well, since his discussion of new discourse to move past binary thinking is well worth reading several times to internalize. I do refer to it in the pre-meditation discussion, and here it is for reference if you'd like to sit with it further. It's about half way down the page; you can search for the interviewee's name, Yonaten Zeigen: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/thursday-june-5-2025-episode-transcript-1.7553590

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices.

We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca

Kind regards, Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

In today's practice, we wrap up with our Development of Self Control / Conflict Management series and return to a traditional anchor, the mindfulness of emotions. Emotions are an important guidance system that we are well advised to be mindful of.

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices.

We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca

Kind regards, Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

In our final episode on the self-control series, we explore how mindfulness of thoughts can help develop self-control and more skillful conflict management.

To watch this podcast, please visit https://youtu.be/bPqIiz0p8-0.

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices.

We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca

Kind regards, Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

Welcome back! Today's podcast is filmed in my partner's backyard under this fabulous May Tree; the fragrance is so powerful and uplifting! We are focusing on our development of self-control as a conflict management tool by training our minds to amplify positive, beautiful aspects of our lives--nature, relationships, honouring our contribution to self and community and so on.

To watch this meditation, please visit https://youtu.be/4jREAvVmj4Y.

This is contrast to the dominant mode of media which is to amplify the negative in order to drive views and make more money. This fixation on the negative makes use of our physiological response that focuses on what is negative to keep us safe. However, we are not often UNSAFE when we are "stressed out." Learning to be mindful of the difference and reorienting our cognition to have a more appreciative basic response to life's events and circumstances can really change our lives. Changing our attitudes about our lives can be more powerful than changing our lives, and also result in bringing about the changes we want.

In our meditation we are stepping out of this way of thinking and being into one that offers greater inner peace, joy and security. For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices. We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca Kind regards, Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness

Happy Mother's Day! Today's practice, filmed in the Rocky Mountains on my last camping trip, focuses on the anchor of loving kindness as part of the series in developing self control and managing conflict. Happy to share this beautiful part of my world and my partner's life with you also; we so enjoy being out in the mountains!

To watch this video, please visit https://youtu.be/OeQ2x_3GFCU.

For more information about Calgary Mindfulness, or to join our weekly practice, please write CalgaryMindfulness@Gmail.com, where we welcome your questions, comments and intentions for future meditation practices. We offer workshops and instruction and much more! For information, please visit www.CalgaryMindfulness.ca Kind regards, Rosanna D'Agnillo, Founder and Lead Facilitator, Calgary Mindfulness