Beant K Dhillon

A mid-year reflection on the intentions for 2023

As I write this, my butt hurts from sitting too long, the multi-cooker is humming, the room is redolent with the smell of cooked chickpeas, and the sun is bright yellow on the wooden floor. The beginning of this year was taken up by being sick on and off, feeling

Why we need Islands of Happiness and how do we create them?

We walk our neighbors' dog sometimes, or well, usually my family does. She looks like the dog in the image above. Every time I see her, something comes undone within me. Her movements are so elegant and poetic, they look like those of trained dancer. A few weeks back

How I am finding and living the purpose of my life

As I write this, a pressure cooker whistle is going off, family members are chatting in the background, and I can't hear myself think :D. So I am trying to come back to my body - feeling my feet on the floor, the butt on the seat, and

How accepting pain may create the path to healing

As I write this, there's a pain in my left back and pelvis area - and it has been there since a few days. I have had pain in my muscles on and off, for many years now. And of course I have tried and am trying all

Where are your crazy, stupid ideas ?

When we are thinking of solutions, we want to arrive at a creative and excellent solution right away. But creativity rarely works linearly and more importantly, creative ideas often come from beyond “the good practices”. Because the good practices are already known and established. To find something new or to

How role models might help us learn how to deal with difficulty

Like many of you, I have been unsettled by the news of war in Ukraine. And I almost didn't want to send out this week's newsletter. Because what could I offer at such a time? I had written this article on learning to be creative. But

Why is listening to the bigger world around us essential for us?

Listening to nature Walking is one of my dearest pleasures in life. Some months ago, we went for a guided walk in nature at night. We were walking in the forest in the dark. We could hear the sound of the raindrops hitting the leaves and the wood and the

How drawing can enable mindfulness and what mindfulness enables for me

We were out for a picnic in the park. It was a hot and sticky kind of spring afternoon. Ducks were swimming past us, mosquitos were buzzing around my head, and I was too tired to do anything other than lie on the mat, but my head was too active

How can we learn to see the world clearly

Last week, we met for mindful drawing in the Thankful Drawing Community . We practiced blind contour drawing, where you draw something while looking at the object but not looking at your drawing. Above is a lovely blind contour drawing of cats by Gunjan Singh. Blind contour drawing enables several things:

Storks, Bleeding Hands, and Articulating and Sharing emotions

Last week we were out for a walk and saw storks - the birds which bring babies in some countries :D. They look like north western fashionistas to me - wearing black and white furry feathers, with just an accent of color here and there. During the walk, one of

An intentional life grows one day at a time

A few evenings ago, we were leaving for an evening walk and as my husband opened the door, he went, “Wah!” - an exclamation in several Indian languages; it means “Wow, or very good or how awesome". I peered over his shoulder to see what was so amazing, and

How to stop censoring your thoughts and let the creativity flow through you

Flamingoes look like such fragile birds to me, like a ball of fluffy peach, pink feathers supported on skinny, tall legs and that sinuous neck seems so vulnerable. And yet these birds can fly up to 500 kilometers in one night and travel across continents - talk about stamina and

What's your attention budget like?

A dragonfly, perched atop a cane wings held still, is she meditating? Am I? This tiny poem is from a set that I am writing for an illustrated book of tiny poems, to be released in October. I am inspired by the Haiku poems of Japanese Buddhist monks. Their poems

Cultivating serenity and surrender

The hot blue sky here looks gorgeous and relentless these days, and my brain is molten because of summer headaches and low blood pressure. And yet there is a serenity to hot days, I remember it from childhood too - afternoons during summer holidays in India where the roads were

Completing stress cycles and healing burnout - why and how?

We planted mint in the backyard a few years ago, and also oregano, thyme, and rosemary. Now the mint seems to have taken over everything and the oregano and thyme are barely visible. If we leave it as is, soon the whole backyard will be a mint backyard. While over-enthusiastic

How do you relate to failure - failing at something vs. feeling like a failure

It has been a while since I wrote to you. It was a long summer here and then suddenly fall arrived, and it played hide n seek with summer till now - it seems like we are officially in rainy fall. I love the coziness and romance of fall, but

Why the blood, sweat, and tears for success is a lie, and why you should find your own path

The lie of blood, sweat, and tears When someone tells me that I need blood, sweat, and tears to succeed somewhere, I usually run the other way. Because it is a lie. I have seen people bleed, sweat, and cry all their lives and still not get the opportunities, support,

Why pruning is essential for our lives

The sky is gray and white with clouds, and crows are swirling around, like someone stirred tiny vanilla seeds in milk. I just snipped some dead flowers from a bouquet and now it looks a bit empty because the dead, moldy flowers were giving it some volume. So though it

How the frenzy of autumn teaches me acceptance

My mind is all a-stir today, it feels like I need to do a lot, and time is running out. A friend tells me that autumn is often a frantic time for animals and plants because everyone is busy collecting food and building reserves for the winter before it starts

How boundaries and the span of our control help us experience abundance in life

After the frenzy of the past weeks, I am finally starting to settle into the end of the year. And this will be the last newsletter for this year. Thank you so much for reading, it has been a joy. Also, a note: I am transitioning the courses to a

Where do you feel at home?

Hello there! It's been a while since I wrote. I have been sick on and off since the beginning of this year, and so I narrowed my activities to work and fun (holidays & meeting loved ones) over the past months. Yesterday, I watched a beautiful movie "

Walking with my fears and feeling an intimacy with life

Hello there! I just sent an 'important' email and my heart is beating fast. What if I made a mistake? What if there's something totally wrong with it? And just a general sense of 'Oh, it was so much better till I sent it'

What could 'being present' in life look like?

The first time I went for a mindfulness class, I had no idea what the eff was I supposed to do. The guide asked me to feel my feet and I wondered what feeling my feet should feel like :D. She then asked me to look at a leaf and