• The Glass Castle

    February 2017 Book of the Month Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn’t stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an “excitement addict.” Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever. Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life…

  • Our Movie is LIVE

      We’re thrilled to announce that the Tuning the Student Mind movie is now available for free online. Click here to view the 27 minute movie as well as our 13 minute deleted scenes. Enjoy!

  • Meditation Puppy

      Molly brought her new puppy to group meditation with the 7th graders at The Boggs School. Gotta admit, he was a bit of a distraction from meditating but Louie sure knows how to spread the love!

  • On Happiness

    Real happiness is found in increasing the happiness of others. In giving to others, we forget ourselves. Forgetting ourselves – even momentarily – allows us to feel our own internal silence. That silence is actually the truth of our nature – pure happiness just waiting to be found.

  • Moving Beyond the Meme

    Popular culture is littered with tag lines intended to lead us to enlightenment. “Live in the moment.” “Don’t be attached.” “Meditate.” “Just Breathe.” “You are who you choose to be.” Operating outside a broader understanding of an articulated spirituality, these abstracted ideas become diluted and meaningless. Like signposts in a desert, they point in the right direction but they leave us without any road to travel. Our new series “Moving Beyond the Meme” will expand on the following abstracted ideas both by offering short blog posts and directing students to our developed book club offerings.  Up first:  On Thinking Thinking is important. It is also complex. In order for you to read this sentence several million neurons needed to fire together coherently. A working brain is an important asset. However, it is not all you are. Thinking is…

  • From Anger to Clarity

    From Anger to Clarity: Transforming Frustrations into Effective Actions This past week offered many in our country a true opportunity for reflection. The atmosphere felt ripe with heightened emotions. Limiting my interactions in this atmosphere felt like a smart move. The temptation to blame anyone, everyone, someone for my internal sense of rumbling emotions felt overwhelming at times. And, so I slept. I meditated. I listened to music. Fuming internally is no fun. I actually woke in the middle of the night to the smell of burning embers. It took me a minute to realize it was my own emotional stew pot simmering on a low boil. Experience offered me the comfort of knowing that this too shall pass. We have all heard the expression anger begets anger. Which leads…

  • Think on These Things

    August 2016 Book of the Month You know when someone gives you a book and insists on you reading it and then it sits on your book shelf for weeks, months or even years? Well… this is one of those books on my shelf. I looked at it yesterday as I was weeding out the books I would take to my local used book store, and I did what I often like to do, which is to open to a random page and read the first sentence I find. Here’s what it said: “The moment you criticize, you are not in relationship, you already have a barrier between yourself and them; but if you merely observe, then you will have a direct relationship with people and with things. If you can…

  • The Mobile Anagama

      Interacting is imperative to the art business because it is the space where ideas are found, tested and in Henry’s case, enacted.  The collaborative nature of Henry’s work encourages creative community building.  And offers real world evidence of the Tuning the Student Mind curriculum in action. Go Henry Go! @henrycrissman www.henrycrissman.com #themobileanagama   #TTSMgrad

  • Five Smooth Stones

    July 2016 Book of the Month  I read Five Smooth Stones a few years ago at the recommendation of my boyfriend’s mom. She sent us two of these huge books in the mail so that we could all read it at the same time. When I saw it on my shelf today, it brought back so many memories of learning about the civil rights movement in a way that was engaging and beautiful. I couldn’t wait to return to it night after night to see what was happening in David’s life. I can’t help but think that this is the right time to re-visit this alluring novel. “This gripping bestseller, first published in 1966, has continued to captivate readers with its wide-ranging yet intimate portrait of an America sundered by racial conflict. David…

  • Prodigal Summer

    June 2016 Book of the Month Prodigal Summer is one of those books you dive into head first and later find yourself trying to limit how much you read in a day so that it is never over. In fact, that is where I am with this book; half way through, and starting to read only a couple pages before bed so that it may last all summer. If you enjoy being in nature; if you love being enveloped in the twists and turns of personal stories — please join me in this perfect read for summer. “Barbara Kingsolver’s fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the…