Episode 3: Meditation Mondays with Barbara Chutroo
Barbara’s Lesson 3: why do we meditate?
People often meditate to calm themselves, and there's a reason why meditation is calming. It brings you into the moment. By being in the moment you're disinclined to worry about the future or the past because you can be in the moment. And when we sense into the quality of the moment, it has a coming influence. You feel that sense of life surrounding you, and inside of you, and outside of you. So we meditate to be aware of ourselves, and we meditate to concentrate, and we meditate to develop, , compassion.
And in sitting, we meditate with our own experience and our life experience.
We cultivate an awareness of who we are, and how large our life experience can be. We encourage our life experience to reach out into a more expansive context so make yourselves comfortable.
Meet the Guests of the Episode
Barbara Chutroo
Barbara Chutroo has made use of SHARE’s services since her first diagnosis in 2015 and is eternally grateful for all the support she has received. She is a clinical social worker and movement therapist who worked with severe and persistent mental illness in the South Bronx for thirteen years. She also taught psychology and child development at NYC College of Technology. She is especially interested in the integration of body and mind, an investigation she makes use of in her meditation practice. She began to study zen as an undergraduate in 1976 and has continued since then to explore various different meditation practices. The meditation community has provided her with valuable guiding principles for her life and personal growth.
She was born and raised in New York City where she lives with her husband and two rescue cats.
