Meditation Calms, Teaches Peace

When Cynthia Handlen was going through a difficult transition in her life about 10 years ago, she heard a book interview on public radio about destructive emotions and how meditating might help.

She decided to give it a try.

After studying with a Zen Buddhist meditation practitioner in Poland for a year or so, the Gilead resident discovered how simple, yet effective, quiet meditation and mindfulness can be.

Mindfulness is a term, she explained, that means a person is fully present in the moment and is in touch with what's going on both inside and outside the body.

“To be able to focus on whatever we are doing,” she said. “We practice (meditation) to work on what we have, what is. You do not have to be a Buddhist.”

For almost a year she has been leading several like-minded people on a weekly meditation session through her group, Mountain Heart Sangha. Sangha means group.

“We focus on bringing our practice with us throughout the day to a calm state of being,” Handlen said. “We practice peace, harmony, stability, freedom from attachment to views, to be more tolerant.” (MORE)

Source: The Sun Journal