What I Do, The Elevator Version

It's like a spa for your mind. Sometimes it's like a gym.

I help people introspect. Bathe in the light of their own awareness. Build new mental muscles that improve their quality of life. I support people in applying their insights to living meaningful lives organized around their purpose and goals.

I work with individuals and groups on the phone, by Skype, or in person, either on site, or in my Portland, Oregon office.

In our meetings, I work with you in the modality of your choice, or a combination:
   1. Coaching
   2. Writing
   3. Meditation

My training for each modality is:
   1. Coach skills training course from Positive Acorn
   2. MA in Creative Writing from New York University
   3. 500-Hour Yoga Teacher Training from the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy and 5000 Hour Certificate from Abhyasa Ashram School of Self Awareness

My Personal Mission Statement

My mission in life is to connect with people around what is the most meaningful to them, supporting them to explore and deepen their relationship to their values, meanings, insights, and life purpose.

--I will be honest and transparent about my training, internal as well as external life-experiences, strengths, as well as shortcomings to bring authenticity to my relationships.
--I will use my strength of perspective to reveal the inherent beauty and dignity of existence for myself and others.
--I will use my intuition to reveal and overcome obstacles that impede my and others' experience of connection and meaning in life.

The Description of My Book That I Could Write on a Business Card

This introspective workbook helps you observe and articulate your identifications with ideas, roles, things, emotions,  and other thoughts. It encourages you to ask, "Are these identifications who I REALLY am?" And it guides an inner exploration to substantiate the feeling that the answer to that question is NO.

Some Benefits of Working with Jennifer Rose

In each working relationship, I hold this vision for you:

--You will feel connected to your deepest meanings, and have time for them.
--You will gain insight into your essential nature.
--You will find the determination to take action on behalf of your best self.
--You will feel hopeful about your future, and well prepared for it.

Self Inquiry Enthusiast

Today I created a signature for my gmail as follows:

Jennifer Rose

Self Inquiry Enthusiast

Lover of Wisdom, Beauty, and Happiness

It is a work in progress. 

As a Self Inquiry Enthusiast I seek opportunities to share my excitement about introspection with others. I inspire others to know themselves better. 

In my first incarnation as a Self Inquiry Enthusiast I taught introspective journal writing workshops. I still enjoy guiding others in this method. I have innovated hundreds of writing assignments. When I work with someone in this modality, I usually custom design journaling experiences that are inspired by the hopes of the client. 

In my second incarnation as a Self Inquiry Enthusiast I taught yoga meditation. I am a passionate meditation mentor. I have outstanding teachers. They have given me a lot of insight to share with others. I teach simple skills that guide awareness from body to breath to mind and beyond. 

Now I am adding coaching to my methods for assisting others in Self Inquiry. I am being trained at Positive Acorn. I will use coaching as a tool for supporting people who wish to explore the spiritual dimensions of their lives. 

Most of us have had experiences in life that do not fit with our expectations. We have seen a door open to a different way of viewing the world. These experiences may be frightening, but at the same time exhilarating. In a dream, a vision, a "hallucination," in contemplation or close observation of life we have seen something inspiring. Every individual has a unique experience. Then we go on with life, rarely thinking of our own insight.

I would like to help you find that door again. 

; )

Relocation

Now in Portland, Oregon!

A Meditation in Action Practice: Promote Thoughts Which Are Positive and Helpful for Your Growth

In Yoga, a model of Human Being--and all or any being great and small, for that matter--shows an eternal center. This center goes by many names, True Self, soul, Atman, Christ-Consciousness, light, God, Brahman, but ultimately defies all efforts to be captured in language. This center is surrounded by semi-mortal aspects of human being: bliss and discernment. These, in turn are surrounded by mortal aspects of human being: thinking, feeling, and physical being. This layered model illustrates the purpose behind Yoga: ease and soothe the body, emotions, and mind so that the semi-mortal and eternal aspects of Human Being can be directly experienced. 


There are many techniques to apply to this goal, central among them meditation. Swami Rama, in his book Meditation and Its Practice, lists six skills that are necessary to cultivate for meditation:
1. relaxing the body
2. sitting in a comfortable, steady posture
3. making the breathing process serene
4. calmly witnessing the objects traveling in the train of the mind
5. inspecting the quality of thoughts and learning to promote those which are positive and helpful to your growth
6. remaining centered and undisturbed in any situation whether you judge it to be bad or good
The practice of any of these skills outside of the seated meditation practice can be called Meditation in Action. Consciously sit up straight at work? Meditation in Action. Systematically relax on the bus? Meditation in Action. Take a time-out to observe and calm your breath? Meditation in Action. Make a point to be a witness to your thoughts rather than identifying with them? (This is as simple as saying internally, "Isn't that interesting that this mind would come up with such a thought?") That too is Meditation in Action.

When we learn and practice the skill of inspecting the quality of thoughts and promoting those that are both positive and helpful to growth, we are preparing ourselves to remain centered and undisturbed in any situation. This will not happen overnight, but we can definitely make certain and steady progress toward attaining the skill of equanimity, and we can reap the benefits all along the way.

Psychology Professor Emeritus Jerald Forster has developed a practice called Articulating Strengths that is a wonderful tool for developing the skill of promoting positive thoughts. Articulating Strengths can help you in all of your relationships, whether with yourself, with others, or even with circumstances over which you seemingly have no control. Here is the practice.

Notice how you are feeling before you begin--paying attention to your physical feelings as well as your emotions and thoughts--and give it a number between 1 and 10. Now, call to mind a good experience from your life. Let it be an experience from which you derived a feeling of pride, an experience to which you brought something of value; you yourself were part of the reason it was a good experience. Let this experience float up to the surface of your mind from any time in your life, as recent as this morning, or as long ago as your early childhood. Do not be alarmed if it takes a while to think of a good experience of which you are proud. Many of us have worn deep grooves in our minds for worrisome, regretful, guilty, or otherwise uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Others of us resist thinking proud thoughts because we associate it with arrogance and other negative qualities. You will probably notice that once you think of one good experience it is kind of like changing the channel on your mind, and other good experiences will flow more freely to mind. Once you have selected one good experience to focus on, Enjoy the memory of this good experience, sustaining the positive feelings, even relishing them.

Next, think about what it was that you yourself brought to this experience that made it a good experience. Challenge yourself to think of just the right words or phrases that describe what you brought to the experience that made it good. Were you courageous? enthusiastic? spontaneous? Think of how what you brought to this experience was both positive and personal to who you are. Only you could have brought what you brought to this experience. Enjoy the feeling of thinking about these strengths in your personality, sustaining the positive feelings, and even relishing them. Finally, in your mind, complete this sentence frame: I am _[your positive quality]_. I know it because _[the good experience during which you demonstrated this strength]__.  You might think of more than one way to complete the frame. That would be great! Allow that to happen, and enjoy it. Notice again how you are feeling and rate it from 1 to 10.

The more you practice this Meditation in Action the easier it will become. You may notice that you are able to sustain positive feelings for longer and longer periods of time. You may notice that you become more alert to smaller and smaller good experiences that occur throughout the day and that you stop to enjoy them more, and experience them more deeply. You may notice a shift in how you feel about yourself and others. You may begin to see yourself and others more in terms of strengths and less in terms of conflict. Best of all, you will begin to reap the benefits of consciously choosing what kinds of thoughts you prefer to have; you will be on a journey to peace of mind.

Jennifer Rose will be leading an Articulating Strengths workshop on Sunday September 23 on Long Island. For more information call 646-831-2675.

Jerald Forster's website can be found here.