Mindfulness With Miss Lisa

08/31/2026

The stars were shining brightly this morning. As I gazed upon them, I felt a sense of calm. They are alway there. Sometimes covered by clouds or not as bright when the moon is in full illumination.
Just like us. We can shine brightly or our light can be dimmed. Sometimes we dim our own light when we are in despair, pain and confusion. It doesn’t mean the light within us isn’t there. We need to find a way to awaken our inner light and let it shine for all to see.
This my friends, is not always easy.
The first step is to become aware of what may be dimming your light.
Are you in a situation that brings pain and darkness?
This is a volatile time in our world and it seems that being cruel is perfectly accepted by many humans. Not all, but many!
Sometimes the cruelty is passed off as humor, “I was just kidding!” “You are so sensitive!”
We make excuses for the behavior of others and accept more and more abuse collectively, as normal.
One way you can bring your light back is by getting support and help.
This past week was a tough one for me. I however, have tools and an amazing support tribe to help me work through the darkness that others in the world can easily cast upon us, through their actions, with or without our consent.
Mindfulness and meditation practice is a way of life. It is not for everyone. If you still find it comfortable and familiar to sit in the s**t of your life, and you still are lucky enough to be a human with a choice, so be it. Some humans out there don’t have choices to get away from the darkness and today my heart is heavy and aching for them all. If you are a human who still has a choice and wants to change your brains way of navigating this life, mindfulness and meditation can help you become more aware and perhaps find clarity. Often you will need more professional help, once you start becoming more aware. The flood gates open when awareness is present and you no longer are living in whichever trance of life you find yourself in.
A therapist, a domestic violence support group, self help addiction group, grief support group or any of the other often free services out there, can help you find your light again.
Often we don’t even know our light has been dimmed by ourselves, our choices, or at the hands of another.
You are worth getting the help you need to find your light again.
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🙏

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 24/7 free, confidential support via phone (1-800-799-7233), text ("START" to 88788), or live chat.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline: https://thehotline.org

National Mental Health Helplines: Localized treatment locator and mental health guidance provided by the federal government. Addiction services.
SAMHSA Mental Health Locator: https://samhsa.gov

Find a Local Grief Group: A massive directory of thousands of weekly, faith-based and community-led grief seminars meeting globally. Search for a local or virtual chapter.
GriefShare Group Finder: https://griefshare.org

08/26/2026

International Dogs Day 2026
The last couple of days have had me reeling emotionally. I wrote three posts and did not share them. One in anger, one in sadness and one for Dolly 🦋.
I watched 9-5 again last night, in her honor.
Writing is a gift I choose to help me heal. When we repress our feelings and emotions it is an unhealthy coping mechanism. These repressed feelings don’t vanish. If not looked at, sat with and hopefully shared with another human, tend to leak out as tension, anxiety irritability, physical maladies, sudden overreactions, and yes, violence. Over time this can strain and deteriorate our relationships and health.
Hopefully posting this will change my social media algorithm and encourage all of you to share your canine companions here and across social media. As these canine companions can help save us more than we will ever know!
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💔💜🐾🦋🎾🙏@

08/19/2026

Being mindful, present and aware is not always the greatest gift!
You now are responsible to yourself for living in this particular reality.
It is so much easier to take the easy road and make excuses for yourself and those around you, when certain actions, emotions, behaviors or old habits come around for a visit and cause outward or internal angst.
I am talking about the things you do or say that really don’t align with who you are or what you believe. Your moral compass. Look we are all human beings, being human. This comes with a long laundry list of personality traits, conditioning and characteristics that are at times, hard to look at or to navigate and bring up lots of emotions and feelings.
We are only responsible for who we are, what we do, or what we say.
Our side of the street is the side we are responsible for cleaning up.
Our relationships in life keep us tethered to community and each other, because as humans, we need connection. We need love. We need to feel like we belong. There are so many obstacles that prevent those things from happening. Ego, jealousy, shame, self-hatred, self righteous justification, grief, past traumas,(I told you earlier the list was long!)
One of the strategies that can help in a world of pain and suffering when these thoughts arise, is the practice of RAIN.
Recognize: ”What is happening right in this moment? What emotion is this bringing up? Is it anger, grief, sadness?”
Allow: For the moment I can just let it be here. Sadness. Shame. Grief. Whatever emotion it is.
Investigate: “Where are these feelings or emotions coming from? Where do I feel it in my body? Is this an old wound, that hasn’t been resolved? Stay curious, not judgmental. Is this a past trauma coming back?
Nuture: Self- compassion for yourself. “It’s OK sweetheart. I love you. This is real and you’re allowed to be with it in this moment. You don’t have to push it away.”
I have a video of RAIN on my YouTube channel, Mindfulness With Miss Lisa.
I am grateful to have tools in my life today that help me navigate mindfully. Even when life throws curveballs at me, I am prepared to either swing and miss or make contact and hit it out of the ballpark, hopefully, because of my practice.
Life is not easy. Keep trying!
Living mindfully is not easy. It is dedication.
It is not for the people who cross the street when adversity arises. It is for those who are awake enough to notice the adversity, how it takes its toll on ourselves and others, and to do something about it.
☮️❤️💜🙏

08/15/2026

Perhaps instead of doom scrolling today, you can take 10 minutes out of your day to do a meditation! Your mind, body and spirit will thank you!
Gratitude is a gift, I can choose each day!
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🌠🙏

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

08/13/2026

The evolution of technology has been on my mind recently. From the evolution of the wheel to AI.
The one thing that keeps rolling around in my brain is how analytical evolution, emotional evolution have evolved alongside technological evolution.
Technological Evolution was driven by the desire to become more efficient based on survival. We created tools to get s**t done better and faster. (The wheel) We shared these findings through the written word, another advance from pre-history.
Analytical Evolution was driven by logic, problem-solving, and cognitive demands. It helped reshape our mental capacity, moving from survival instincts to reasoning and mathematics.
Emotional Evolution was driven by our need to socialize in community. It offered us togetherness and empathy, through bonding. It helped us develop from the inside, moving from instinctual survival responses like fear (getting away from that Sabre tooth running after us in the tall grass) to a more sophisticated empathetic nature, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence.
That is if you practice the last part!
Not everyone is emotionally intelligent.
Not everyone has the capacity to be empathetic.
These skills and tools probably had been taught to us when we are young, but life gets busy and messy.
We forget!
We can practice mindfulness and meditation to refresh or learn new practices and strategies that can guide us in restoring what we probably already have in our tool box.
If you need a refresher, go to my you tube channel and pick a talk or meditation to listen to, it can’t hurt!
Times are tough and we all need reminders of the emotional intelligence that already exists within each of us!
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🪐💫🐾🙏

08/12/2026

I awoke early hoping to catch the early morning sky today. It features a rare six-planet alignment (Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) all visible before sunrise. The Perseid meteor shower is happening too!
It is overcast in my location now, but I still feel an excitement knowing this exists above the clouds.
The years I sat on my deck and in my living room in the dark watching the early morning night sky made me appreciate darkness. I have seen the auroras when traveling on Mass turnpike in 1989, with my sons dad and on my deck in 2024 with my son. The shooting stars have always made my heart skip a beat with joy.
I remember going on a field trip to the John R Kirk planetarium SUNY New Paltz in the early 70’s. Planetariums and observatories have always been a place I like to visit. My night sky app lets me see where the constellations are in real time. Before that, I used a book called “The Glow in The Dark Night Sky Book” by Clint Hatchett Illustrated by Stephen Marchese, I still read this book today with my grandson. I recommend finding this oldie but goodie, for any of you that have children or grandchildren. You will need a flashlight too!!
There is so much joy that the night sky can bring. Though the moon, the planets, and the stars are always shifting positions, they remain one of the most constant parts of our world. That brings me comfort.
In an hour the sun will rise and the light will overtake the darkness. Remember what MLK said,”Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🌄💫🌠🪐🙏

08/07/2026

Last night I hosted a political meeting and I started it much like I did my Community Circle in my classroom. Giving a question, topic or story that leads to inquiry and discussion.
“What brings you joy?”
Was the question I posed. Each human answered, as we sat poolside, enjoyed food, snacks and drinks. It was great getting to know some of my neighbors who live in my precinct here.
As each person shared, my heart expanded. I love people. I love hearing their stories. We all have a story, but how many of us are lucky enough to share it with other like minded humans, that may not be in your immediate circle or tribe.
I ask two things of you today.
1. Get involved if you do not like what is happening in our country or world at the moment.
2. Please answer the question and be so kind to put your answer in the comments, so others who may not be experiencing joy at the moment can be reminded, it still exists!
I will forever be a fan of
a pink cloud, both visually and metaphorically.
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🌄😊🙏

08/01/2026

Yesterday I received my weekly veggie box delivered to my apartment complex. I love that you get a surprise of seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables to conjure up snacks and meals using these fresh ingredients.
Our small farms wherever you are need our support, as do the food insecure communities. The lettuce last week was so fresh and crunchy, we enjoyed it for days. This week along with what is pictured below, I received blueberries and red potatoes.
When I eat a meal that I prepare, whether for myself, friends or family, I get a familiar sentimental wave of gratitude throughout my body.
Food has been an important part of my life, since I was a child. My grandparents and my mom and dad, always cooking with fresh ingredients.
My dad use to cook during the day and often I would find chicken cutlets(his specialty) stew or sausage and peppers in the fridge when I got home from work. What a gift! I didn’t grow up with food insecurity like so many children in our country at the moment, for that I am grateful. The food banks, churches and local farms here in WNC really take care of their communities. It is a gift for the folks who live here. They wouldn’t be able to survive without these organizations, especially because so many are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
Think about your abundance today. If you have more than you need at the moment, give or volunteer at a local food community. Many already do this selfless work to feed humans in need, sometimes though, especially when everything costs so much, we forget how much we have and how little so many struggling don’t have. No one in America should go without the three basic needs, food, shelter and clothing, yet they do.
Give locally today.
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🍎🥒🙏

07/29/2026

Yesterday evening @6:22, my phone made a sound I hadn’t heard before.
It was a Critical Imminent Threat Alert for a tornado warning in my area.
I of course, contacted my family and they hadn’t received one. I went into the breezeway to get a better look and I heard a woman talking to whom I assume to be her mother on the phone.
“I haven’t heard that sound since Helene.” I heard her say.
She was talking loudly and I could hear the panic as she continued.
“ After that sound the last time, we were cut off from the world a couple of hours later. She continued.
This beautiful area and the people in it are still and probably always will have a traumatic response to weather events. The trauma lives in us and we are reminded of it when something triggers the memories.
I watched the expansive sky change a variety of hues as the storm clouds moved closer. There was no wind. Yet.
As the sky changed, and the storm inched closer, the wind came.
Fierce, loud and intense.
The rain was sideways smashing against the windows, the wind howling.
I FaceTime my family in NY. In that moment, I needed to share the experience, because I too, remember what it was like to not hear from loved ones after Helene. The storm passed. Many lost power, some damage, 2-4 inches of rain in some places, a fake AI image of a perfect twister circulated fast on social media
How do we survive life’s storms we are presented with? We prepare. We take shelter and we come together.
We are living in a tornado in the present moment in this country.
Each day we are bombarded with news and AI images that are disturbing and quite frankly, fu***ng baffling from the person and administration who took an oath to protect us from storms that the rest of the world can conjure up.
I do not feel protected. I know what it is like to live in a world where you are supposed to be protected and you are not. If you are content living in this storm with all the chaos and uncertainty it brings with it, carry on.
If not, get involved and figure out how to peacefully and honestly work to alleviate the stress and chaos that these storms stir up.
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🌪️🌧️💨🙏

07/25/2026

There is something I find magical about starting a meditation in the darkness of morning and opening my eyes to morning light.
How special it is to be able to witness the beginning of another day, regardless of what that day may bring.
Having that moment of serenity, bliss and “okayness” that all is well in this moment.
I hear the birds singing and I can see them darting around the sky. The rain has stopped for the moment.
I love the morning. I love the rituals I have instilled in my life that ground me and give me an advantage to having a day that starts with goodness provided by Mother nature and all she provides for us. I have no mountain in front of me this morning, as the mist has it covered with a blanket of cool protection. I know it will be there soon as the fog dissipates. How grateful to live in an altitude where the clouds envelop me.
If you are doing your morning ritual, I suggest going over to my YouTube page and selecting one of the meditations I have recorded. It’s a great way to start your day or start your day over if it is not going so well at anytime. Instead of doom scrolling take some time for yourself to sit and be guided through a meditation.
Take good care.
Mindfulness With Miss Lisa
☮️❤️💜🌄🌳🎶🐾☀️🙏