Welcome to Walden Wednesday! Today we visit with naturalist and nature writer Enos Mills as he shares from the first chapter of his wonderful book, “Wild Life On the Rockies”. Relax in the mountain winter solitude and enjoy…
Welcome to the Mountain! Every season has its purpose and has something to teach us. The Dead of Winter – Teaches us about Hibernation & Dormancy Dormancy: The state of having normal physical functions suspended or slowed for a period of time. The state of being temporarily inactive or inoperative -Dormancy is when living things such as plants are awaiting the necessary environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, nutrient availability, etc. 4 TYPES OF DORMANCY Hibernation – low m...
What are you grateful for today? What’s the first thing that comes to mind that you are thankful for? This is always a good place to start our meditation practice. On Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we celebrate the gift of Courage , for which I am truly grateful. If it weren’t for the courage of leaders like Dr. King, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and a host of unnamed others, so many of the freedoms and benefits and pleasures we enjoy today would not be available to us. Did you know t...
Great to have you here on a Fireside Friday at Mountain Zen Den. We’re almost half way through January! So how are you doing with your goals? Today we discuss the concept of staying on course with your dreams, goals and New Years’ resolutions. Here are a few tips and lessons learned from our mountain climb on Mt. Elbert – 14,440’ above sea level, Colorado’s highest peak. A few of the points that came up: Plan ahead Pack and Prepare well Enjoy the Journey Keep the Goal in Mind but remember, ultim...
“The awakening of consciousness is the next evolutionary step for mankind.” ~ Eckhart Tolle´ “The key to growth is the introduction into higher dimensions of consciousness.” ~ Lao Tzu It’s good to have you here for another Meditation Monday. I know you probably have a very busy schedule, like most of the planet… Thanks for showing up. So how’ve you been? Are you having a good start to your New Year? Or are you finding it difficult to maintain or keep up with your New Years’ resolutions? If so, I...
Great to have you here on a Fireside Friday at Mountain Zen Den. Winter is definitely here! Today Melissa and I discuss and share some tips, thoughts and ideas on how to connect with Nature on really, really ridiculously cold winter days. A few of the ideas we talk about include: How do you define “Nature”? Grounding/Earthing The benefits of simply looking at trees and other Nature Starting an indoor herb garden Creating a Nature niche Reading Nature books Watching Nature movies Putting together...
Here are on this Walden Wednesday, we are celebrating National Bird Day by taking a few moments out of our day to slow the heart and mind down enough to truly listen, and absorb the thoughts, ideas, philosophies and writings of great thinkers, naturalists and lovers of Nature like Emerson, Whitman, Muir and Thoreau. And then, as always, we give you a little time at the end to just “Be”, in a natural environment, and settle into a deeper state of awareness as you go through your day, fully-awake,...
Hey Gang, so glad you have joined us today, because this is an exciting day for us here at MZD! Not only are we celebrating our 100th episode, but it is also our first Fireside Friday where we sit back here in the Zen Den, as we like to call it, and have a chat with writers, and naturalists, artists, musicians and great thinkers and lovers of Nature, all for the purpose of personal growth through connection with Nature. And I’m especially pumped to be introducing a very special person in my life...
In the most recent series here on Mountain Zen Den we’ve been talking about cultivating what we call your “Garden of Well-being”… Today we will discuss cultivating Wisdom in our lives. What does this mean? What picture comes to mind when you think of wisdom?... (Socrates, Aristotle, King Solomon, Confucius, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Yoda…“wise you are”, or maybe an owl…) What does Wisdom look like? And why do we need to cultivate it anyway? Wisdom has been defined as: “Knowledge of what is true or ri...
Great to have you here on Walden Wednesday at Mountain Zen Den, where we intentionally carve a few moments out of our day in a relaxing nature setting. We do this for the purpose of slowing the heart and mind down enough to truly listen, and absorb the thoughts, ideas, philosophies and writings of great thinkers, naturalists and appreciaters of Nature like Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau. And then at the end we give you a little time to just “Be”, and settle into a deeper state of awareness as you ...
Great to have you here for another Walden Wednesday! It’s all about intentionally carving a few moments out of your day in a relaxing nature setting in an effort to affect the quality of our lives. We do this by slowing the heart and mind, down enough to absorb the thoughts, ideas, philosophies and writings of naturalists and appreciators of Nature like Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau. And then at the end we give you a little time to just “Be”, and settle into a deeper state of awareness as you go ...
In Episode 82 we introduced the concept of Cultivating Your “Garden of Well-Being”. Those qualities in your life that you desire to have more of, and that would help make you a better person. Things like Presence and Gratitude, Hope and Faith, Love and Simplicity, Joy and Tranquility, Beauty and Wonder, Health and today’s subject – Abundance. Today we’re talking about cultivating a spirit of abundance and What Nature Teaches Us About Wealth & Abundance. Money is generally the first thing tha...
Here at Mountain Zen Den, our Wednesday podcast features passages from Walden and other great classics that relate to cultivating the wisdom, mindfulness and simplicity found in the natural world as offered by some of the most influential naturalists, writers, philosophers and poets of our past. Walden Wednesday is all about taking a little time in our favorite nature setting on a regular basis to help still the heart and mind, and slow you down enough to absorb the thoughts, ideas, philosophies...
MZD Podcast – Ep 94 Welcome to the Mountain! Well how are you feeling today? Are you the picture of health you always dreamed you would be? Today we’re going to talk about cultivating one of the most important aspects of your being – Your Health. Our bodies are tied into our entire being and affect not only the way we feel, but our mind and the way we see the world and interact with everyone around us… that is, our relationships. Have you ever been “hangry”? Then you know what I mean! You’re not...
Welcome to Walden Wednesday on the Mountain! I want to reward you with something a little different than what we typically experience during our traditional meditation time. In past episodes we have occasionally shared passages from Walden and other great writings and literature, relating to cultivating the rich wisdom, mindfulness and simplicity found in Nature. In 1845, American naturalist, poet, writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau decided to try a grand “experiment”. In his own words, ...
Welcome to Mountain Zen Den! It has been a while, and much has happened since we last met here. The entire world has changed. Dramatically! Yet, while there have been a multitude of anxiety producing events and uncertainty, if you zoom out and look at the big picture, you can see it has actually been a season of opportunity, of renewal, self-reflection, ad growth. The possibility of change and revision… A “Re – Vision” . Today we're going to talk about what happened. We are not going to get into...
“If I had influence with the good fairy… I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.” ~ Rachel Carson (Nature writer and conservationist) Happy New Year and Welcome to the Mountain! Come on in to Mountain Zen Den, where we inspire you to connect with Nature for mindfulness and Personal Transformation, naturally! The holidays are winding down and it’s time to get back to the routine and ruts of life as we know it...
“…If you’re down to your final dime, can’t decide what else to buy to be happy You don't need a credit card to give your heart the beauty of the world..." ~ Peter Mayer Well the hustle and bustle of Christmas has come and gone, and it’s the end of another year. Snowflakes are gently falling outside. The presents have been opened. The children are happily playing in the other room, and you sit with the one you love, sipping hot chocolate reading from a book with Currier and Ives prints, in front ...
“Work when there is work to do. Rest when you are tired. One thing done in peace will most likely be better than ten things done in panic…. I am not a hero if I deny rest; I am only tired.” ~ Susan McHenry So how are you holding up this holiday season? Are you tired of being told there’s only so many shopping days until Christmas? Maybe the stress of finances, (or lack thereof), the burden of work deadlines and family obligations are wearing you down. Finding the “perfect” gift for everyone on y...
"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you. A joy." ~ Rumi How are you doing today? Are things going the way you want them to? Are you living the life of your dreams? Are you happy and content with your present state of being? More importantly, is your life filled with joy in this very moment? If you can answer “Yes”, to this last question, then you are a very blessed individual indeed. If not, no worries. Join the other 99.9% of people on the planet. That’s why we’re her...
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu Are you finding it a challenge to keep up with everything that is on your to do list? Do you ever feel tired and exhausted, overwhelmed, under-satisfied and overworked just so you can pay the bills and find a little happiness in life? Like Henry David Thoreau, I love a broad margin to my life. Simplicity can mean so many different things to people. We go searching for it in exterior things. - “If I could just de-clutter and get r...
“I believe three of the most important words anyone can say are not ‘I love you”, but I hear you’.” ~ Oprah ~ ~ ~ If you want to be your absolute best and function at top performance levels, you need time to pause, reflect, meditate and restore. If you want to be present and give your absolute best to the ones you love and are depending on you, you can’t afford NOT to take a few minutes of mindful meditation to sharpen your saw and create a strong and healthy internal state that is able to handl...
“The capacity to trust and so live with inner peace, contentment, and joy, is a Divinely endowed capacity written into the genetic code of your DNA.” ~ Dr. Steve McSwain Have you ever wished you could live every moment of every day like in joy and simplicity? What would that feel like? Well the truth is, you can. Now some people will say, now wait a minute that’s just not realistic. And I have to ask, “Why not?” I love the picture of the clock that shows, in place of the numbers 1 through 12, th...
“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.” ~Emily Dickinson Today we’re going to talk about hope. What is hope and why is it important? Hope can be a bit complicated in today’s complex world. Too often when asked if something good or positive is going to happen, we hear people say “I hope so…”, as if it probably won’t, but they’re going to wish for it anyway. In context of what we are talking about today, wishing and ho...
“Acknowledging the good you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” ~ Eckhart Tolle It’s a great day to be alive, and it’s a great time to slow down a bit and practice presence and awareness. With Thanksgiving only a couple weeks away, I think it’s appropriate that we revisit the concept of Gratefulness and Appreciation; that we practice cultivating Gratitude. When we slow down enough to get out of autopilot, and actually stop and look around – while there are probably lo...
“The whole essence of Zen consists of walking along the razor’s edge of Now.” ~ Eckhart Tolle So how are you doing today? Are you in a good place? In spite of circumstances or any situation you may find yourself in. Even when things are going well, do you sometimes find yourself experiencing an underlying unease or restlessness? Sometimes we find ourselves feeling a certain level of unexplainable anxiety, boredom or nervousness, a background static that is always there. This is our minds in a ha...
"A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity, and in the act of living, produces a hundred more seeds. Life, by living, multiplies itself. It is forever becoming more; it must do so to continue to exist.” ~ Wallace Wattles As you’ve probably begun to notice, this inner tranquility doesn’t just happen automatically. You’ve got to show up and put yourself in a place where you can receive the benefits of meditation which lead to restoration and relaxation we all so desperately need and d...
"Energy and persistence conquer all things." ~ Ben Franklin Would you like to have more energy for even being able to keep up with your daily tasks? Do you find yourself too tired to enjoy life or even be able to think clearly or keep up with your simple, ordinary everyday tasks? Then it’s time to meditate. Every day you and I are faced with so many energy drains that just tend to suck the ever-lovin’ life out of us, leaving us feel weak and drained – unhealthy relationships, deadlines, traffic,...
Let’s get back to the basics. Today we’re gonna learn how to meditate. You may be thinking, “This is the 79th episode of MZD and you’re just now telling us how to meditate?! Too often people make a r eally big deal about meditation, complaining that it’s just way too hard, or discouraging, or that they don’t have enough time to meditate. So we’re going to take a few minutes to squash those objections and then…we’re gonna meditate. J So what is Meditation…really? Well, broken down to its simplest...
You again?! How do you like being greeted like that? Don’t take it wrong, I’m glad you showed up! In fact it says a lot about your heart and character, your desire to be present, and hunger for personal transformation – that is, making positive changes in your world. The time you take to consistently, show up and start your day with intentional, focused mindfulness, presence and awareness is the most important ten minutes of your day. This sets the tone and direction for your next 24 hours, and ...
