External Stroke.

When we explore mindfulness in a variety of ways together we are exploring the internal stroke. The internal stroke is when we observe what’s happening inside of us from moment to moment and notice how our choices and life experiences are affecting those moment to moment changes. We observe the internal stroke like we observe the sky. Sometimes its hard to see if things are cloudy. Sometimes its storming. Other times clouds are turning into different shapes and rainbows appear. We discover that there is a lot going on in our internal worlds, but sometimes struggle to understand or express what we find. This is where creativity helps!

Metta Rising is about developing the whole person! The internal stroke is one part of the process, and a vital part. However, I like to incorporate the external stroke in many of my classes to help people of all ages express, digest and understand what they find when we are exploring mindfulness for ourselves. Students receive journals that are used for writing and drawing throughout class and are theirs to take home. Often times these journals additionally serve to help students remember what we did in class together as well. In other classes we do group art projects or individualized projects that revolve around a topic we are exploring; growth, home, community, self, etc.