In keeping with my intentions of wrapping up 2020 in a nourishing and reflective way, I was reminded of this podcast on DIY MFA (with host) by Gabriela Pereira, that I loved!

In this episode — DIY MFA Episode 307: Mindfulness and Memoir — we discuss:

1. How journaling can lead to memoir-writing.
   

2. A technique to help writers tap into their memories.
   

3. Why clear thinking is crucial to clear writing.
   

4. How mindfulness and meditation can be powerful writing tools.
   

5. Plus, my #1 tip for writers.

Enjoy the show, subscribe, and share this please: DIY MFA Episode 307: Mindfulness and Memoir.

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I’m grateful for you reading and listening to my words.

Warmly,
Mag

P.S.
Photo: Priscilla Du Preez, Unsplash

“Looking back on the year is not about beating yourself up and seeing what you need to do better,” says Lodro Rinzler, meditation expert and teacher at MNDFL in New York City. “It’s about rejoicing.”

This year has been many things.

For many of us, there was a lot of difficulty, loneliness, and fear. 

For many of us, they were beautiful connections, opportunities, and gifts of human connection.

For me, this year was ALL of them and more.

So I'd like to share something I discovered. It's a wonderful way to reflect on the year. 

(It’s here. You can do it in as little as 15 minutes or as long as several hours.)

I love that this reflection is about rejoicing.

And I will, of course, acknowledge the challenges and bow to them and thank them for their gifts. 

But instead of focusing on the difficulties, I'm going to reflect and rejoice on all the good things, and stop watering the weeds of negativity.

“We tend to spend a lot of time and attention watering the weeds,” says Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation. “And then we’re growing the weeds. So this is a moment to water the flowers and pay attention to those.”

Please let me know your thoughts and how you’re watering your flowers!

(Enjoy your reflection here.)

Warmly,
Mag

P.S. 

Photos: Joshua Earle and Ezra Jeffrey Comeau, Unsplash

Being more calm and peaceful is one of the best ways that you can be loving and kind to yourself.

And to other people as well.

What I learned from my teachers — going all the way back to the Buddha — is that happiness starts with loving-kindness. 

I invite you to more calm and peace with this free meditation.

It’s a great way to get more calm and peace in just 10 minutes a day.

If you'll listen to this meditation every day, for the next 21 days, I promise that you'll see significant shifts in your life. 

You'll find greater peace, healing, and an increased spiritual connection.

Science and spirituality both prove that meditation is good for you.

So I invite you to give yourself this gift for just 3 weeks. 

Try it out and make a choice from your own experience.

(Remember, 10 minutes is less than 1% of the 24 hours in your day!)

I made this easy for you (and me) and I believe you can do this.

At the end of the 21 days — or even during! — will you reach out to me and let me know what benefits you are experiencing? 

It is my profound wish that this practice will transform your life the same way that it has mine. 

And please let me know your experience, via email or social media.

Enjoy this extra calm and peace in your life today, right here..

Warmly,
Mag

P.S. 

I like doing this right after I brush my teeth. 

Then it’s easy to remember (since I connect it with something I’m already doing).

Please enjoy and share this.

P.P.S.
Photos by Leone Venter and Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash

You (and the readers in your life) will LOVE THIS BOOK!

In the tradition of the greatest memoirists, BOWING TO ELEPHANTS offers an epic, global, and delicious adventure that has been compared to Elizabeth Gilbert’s EAT, PRAY, LOVE. 

Kirkus Reviews has added to the accolades by naming it one of its Best Indie Biographies & Memoirs!  

(For more than 50 podcast, newspaper, radio, and internet TV interviews! And more reviews and awards below.) 

Whether on the road or in the comfort of home, readers will be delighted by Mag Dimond's new book, BOWING TO ELEPHANTS, TALES OF A TRAVEL JUNKIE. 

Get the book here from your Local Bookstore or Amazon or Barnes and Noble).

Bowing to Elephants is a travel memoir with a twist―the story of an unloved rich girl from San Francisco who becomes a travel junkie, searching for herself in the world to avoid the tragic fate of her narcissistic, alcoholic mother.

Haunted by images of childhood loneliness and the need to learn about her world, Dimond journeys to far-flung places―into the perfumed chaos of India, the nostalgic, damp streets of Paris, the gray, watery world of Venice in the winter, the reverent and silent mountains of Bhutan, and the gold temples of Burma.

Give the gift of this book (get it from your Local Bookstore or Amazon or Barnes and Noble).

During her travels, she sees herself more clearly as she gazes into the feathery eyes of a 14,000-pound African elephant and looks for answers to old questions in Vietnam and the tragically ravaged landscape of Cambodia.

In the end, she accepts the death of the mother she never really had―and finds peace and her authentic self in the refuge of Buddhist practice.

And that’s all she wrote… for now!

Warmly (and wishing you happy holidays),
Mag

P.S.

Editorial Reviews and Awards

• 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Winner in Cover Design, small format, nonfiction

• 2019 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Book Awards—Best Indie Biographies & Memoirs

“The prose is gorgeous and novelistic. . . . A luminous, engrossing meditation.”

―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“. . . the vein of Eat, Pray, Love . . . Dimond is a craftsman, filling her book with potent images.”

―Indie Reader Reviews

“A beautifully crafted memoir, weaving vivid descriptions and inner truths, suffering and celebration, into a tapestry of family revelations, love of the details of life, and worldwide adventure.”

―Jack Kornfield, author of No Time Like the Present and The Wise Heart

Give the gift of this book (get it from you Local Bookstore or Amazon or Barnes and Noble).

“A beautiful, sensitive, intense exploration of the restless human heart, searching for peace, love, and home. Wandering far and wide―some of us only do this in the imagination―Dimond physically travels to those foreign places to find her true self, and we get to come along with her. A moving memoir full of food, paintings, landscapes, human hope and yearning.”

―Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones and Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home

“More than your average travel memoir, Bowing to Elephants elegantly weaves together the author’s love of exotic locales with her internal quest for meaning and reconciliation with the past. A beautifully written, evocative, and moving literary journey.”

―Sean Murphy, Hemingway Award–winning author of One Bird, One Stone and The Time of New Weather

“This beautifully written memoir is a chronicle of inner and outer adventures, grounded in deliciously detailed descriptions of fine food and fine art, of city streets and wild landscapes, of architecture and literature, and exalted by the author’s quest to respond to the cries of the world with compassionate action.”

―Mirabai Starrr, author of Caravan of No Despair and God of Love

Give the gift of this book (get it from you Local Bookstore or Amazon or Barnes and Noble).

“This is a book worth savoring, with deftly told stories of childhood loneliness and neglect woven along vivid tales of people encountered at the ends of the Earth.”

―BlueInk Review, starred review

“Each place is depicted in great visual detail, and all five senses are played upon, make the related experiences tangible. The text also illustrates a deeper sense of a place, recalling the emotions of particular moments and evoking how the visited locations are special. Such details make Dimond’s travel writing deeper than most.”

―Foreword Reviews

Give the gift of this book (get it from you Local Bookstore or Amazon or Barnes and Noble).

This was a fun podcast with Daniel Wilcox and we covered lots of ground around writing: the experience, writing habits, tips, tricks, and more!

We spoke about award-winning memoirs, documenting your life to leave a legacy, and mindfulness for writers.

In this episode, we dived deep into 10 compelling areas that can support you as a writer, aspiring author, or lover of craft.

1. how I started documenting my life and forming my memoirs

2. Why I write and keeping perspective on what life truly is

3. When life gets in the way of writing a book and the journaling habit
   
   

4. Overcoming lack of self-worth to put pen to paper while navigating reviews and critical acclaim

5. Submitting to the muse and using the power of writing groups

6. How to select the right passages from life to form into a solid memoir
   
   

7. Discovering meditation and the benefits of mindfulness for writers

8. the impermanence of life and the elasticity of memory

9. Knowing when a book is ready to publish

10. my experience publishing my book through a small press (with a publisher that takes a stand)

And, of course, my grandmother’s baby grand piano.

(I love these kinds of conversations!)

Enjoy the show, subscribe, and share this please: Great Writers Share Episode #035

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I appreciate you reading and listening to my words.

Warmly,

Mag

P.S.

I’m launching my new podcast in 2020. I’m curious… what would you like me to include?

I'm writing today to say Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for being part of this journey with me!

2020 has been many things, and has certainly contributed to a few new possibilities with Bowing to Elephants, especially with the podcast that I will be releasing early next year.

So I thank you for supporting me.

And I also want to share some wisdom that came from some wild turkeys in Woodacre, California, home to Spirit Rock Meditation Center, where I’ve done many residential retreats.

As we sat in meditation, our teacher, Jack Kornfield, habitually invited us stay present so we could recognize all those life moments that make us happy… and thus discover gratitude.

I recently created a little list of some “happy things”.

it kept growing as I wrote!

• Cooking

• Walking by the ocean

• Watching Peaches the faithful dog

• Being with Jackson the old Maine Coon cat

• Listening to JS Bach

• Viewing the wild parrots

• Drinking cappuccino in North Beach with a friend

• Eating homemade cherry chocolate ice cream

• Making Caesar salad

• Knitting

• Watching MASH reruns on TV

• Burning sandalwood incense

• A long meditation in early morning

• Telling old stories

I seem to choose these moments with regularity because I, like you and all humans, desire happiness!

What is your list of happy things?

I'd love to know!

Wishing you a caring, peaceful time this holiday, whether you're with family and friends or on your own..

With gratitude,

Mag