Author Archives: Wendy Heckert, Ed.D.

Currently, I am reading Pema Chodron’s book The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times.  Her words remind me that we all experience difficult times in our lives. This is a part of being human. She also illustrates through her beautiful discussion of loving kindness and compassion meditation practice that to liveContinue reading “The Courage to Be With Suffering”

As I walked home today from dropping my son off at school, I passed my neighbor and her daughter. This little girl in her flowery dress was skipping happily alongside her mother. I felt a moment of joy when I caught her smile and her little bouncy skip after skip. I thought, Now that isContinue reading “Skipping Happily: A Mindfulness Lesson”

The school year has begun for those of us with children, for those of us who are students, and for those of us who are teachers.  The relationships between children, teachers and parents are a central focus of my education research and the catalyst for transforming my career in education. This is partly the reasonContinue reading “Bringing Compassion into Education: Recovery & Reading the World”

I have heard from a few mindfulness teachers the story about the Buddha and Mara. (Click here for Tara Brach’s beautifully written post). Mara, for us laypeople, is the metaphor for our inner critic or that negative voice that tries to persuade us from friendly and kind awareness. He came to tempt the Buddha, butContinue reading “Sitting with Ms. Perfect”

In her newly released book Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection, Sharon Salzberg poignantly writes, “[M]editation does not eradicate mental and emotional turmoil. Rather, it cultivates the space and gentleness that allow us intimacy with our experiences so that we can relate quite differently to our cascade of emotions and thoughts. That different relationship is whereContinue reading “Meditation: Revealing Our Relationship to Experience”

This is a short essay I wrote as part of an application to the Cultivation of Compassion Teacher Training program through the Compassion Institute. I am still awaiting notification of acceptance. (Update: I have completed the program on May 6, 2018!) Tara Brach writes in her book Radical Acceptance, “Our suffering becomes a gateway toContinue reading “The Beauty of Self-Compassion”