Stream Yoga + Meditation

09/07/2026

The mind is a problem-solving system. Give it a problem and it goes to work.

[I’ve been thinking about this since encountering Joanne Adams Boyle work on asking better questions — go follow her for great content!]

The trouble is, we ask leading questions:

What’s wrong with me?
Why am I like this?
Why can’t I get my s**t together?
How do I make this feeling go away?

The mind assumes the premise is correct and goes looking for answers. And we spend an astonishing amount of time rehearsing the same questions—which strengthens the same patterns of thought.

In Buddhist practice, wise attention means learning to attend differently. Not finding better answers, but asking questions that help us see experience, its causes and its consequences more clearly.

Here are eight wiser questions I’m working with:

1. What is happening now?
2. What is this doing to the heart?
3. Where does this movement of mind lead?
4. What am I practising right now?
5. What am I feeding?
6. What happens when I don’t follow this?
7. What here is being taken as “me” or “mine”?
8. What is helpful now?

These are questions to live with. To bring into the middle of anxiety, wanting, irritation, fear, pleasure, uncertainty. To see what becomes apparent when the mind pays attention to what is actually happening, what we are cultivating, and where it leads.

Ask wiser questions. Don’t worry about the answers.

09/05/2026

The practice of meditation goes far beyond simple stress relief.

Its true goal is to make the mind steady, unified, pliable, and bright.

When your mind becomes this still and clear, you gain the ultimate superpower: the ability to see things exactly as they are.

And what we observe, at the deepest level, is constant change. Everything is in perpetual motion, flowing and shifting from moment to moment.

By stabilizing the mind, we don’t escape reality; we develop the clarity to navigate its endless currents.

——

Learn more Wednesdays 7pm (Eastern) in person South Niagara or online Zoom. Free.

gentlydownthestream.ca

09/02/2026

Some of you may remember this flag. Back in 2018 and 2019, a group of us gathered at H.H. Knoll to meditate together and mark the International Day of Peace. Megs Bennett brought this peace flag along in 2019. ☮️

This September, we’re rekindling the tradition—changing parks and bringing a little love to the east side with a Peace Day Picnic at Seaway Park, fittingly located right along the Friendship Trail.

On Sunday, September 20, you’re invited from 11 am–4 pm for a simple afternoon together. Pack a lunch, bring a blanket or lawn chair, grab a friend or bring the family, and come spend some time with your neighbours.

Peace can seem like an impossible ideal. But it begins close to home—with knowing our neighbours, building relationships, and creating a shared sense of connection, trust and belonging.

This is a free community gathering, open to everyone. Bring a favourite lawn game if you have one. Come for a little while or stay for the afternoon.

Let’s be the change we wish to see. 🤟🏼

Peace Day Picnic
Sunday, September 20 · 11 am–4 pm
Seaway Park, Port Colborne
East side of the Clarence Street lift bridge

If it rains, we’ll move indoors to the Guild Hall, with a slightly later start (1–4 pm).

Full details: gentlydownthestream.ca/peace-day-picnic-sep-20/

09/02/2026

Loving Kindness Way. 💛

In Buddhist practice, lovingkindness—mettā—is one of the four divine abodes: a place the heart can learn to abide.

There are good reasons to cultivate it:

Lovingkindness softens and overcomes ill will.

It loosens judgment.

It allows us meet ourselves and others with greater patience and goodwill.

It reminds us that underneath our differences is the very ordinary wish to be safe, to be happy, to belong.

Lovingkindness isn’t a feeling or a future destination. It’s a way of being, seeing and relating—a way we choose, again and again.

Just as feet walking the same ground over and over eventually wear a path, the mind is shaped by the thoughts and qualities we return to again and again.

Each time we remember lovingkindness, we deepen a path to an open heart. Eventually, this goodwill becomes a ground, a home, where the mind easily rests and abides.

08/29/2026

Join us this Sunday. 🫶🏼 gentlydownthestream.ca or message us.

08/19/2026

Here are 8 ways to walk away from the fight.

1. Notice how much it hurts.
Before trying to stop judging, notice what it feels like to inhabit a judging mind. Tight. Contracted. Agitated. Judgment is painful for the one doing it.

2. See a problem without making someone the problem.
You can recognize that a behaviour is harmful, unkind or unwise without turning it into a fixed idea about who someone is—including yourself.

3. Remember causes and conditions.
Behaviour comes from history, fear, habit, and circumstance. This doesn’t excuse harm—it helps us understand it more clearly.

4. Watch the mind make “a person.”
“She’s selfish.” “He’s an asshole.” “I’m terrible.” A moment becomes an identity. Notice the shift.

5. Feel what’s underneath.
Before the story, there’s usually something simpler: hurt, fear, embarrassment, irritation. Stay with that.

6. Practice mettā.
Not liking everything—just remembering: this person, like me, wants to be happy and struggles.

7. Notice the need to be right.
Judgment often protects identity: I’m right, they’re wrong, I’m not like that. See the tightening.

8. Zoom out.
Include everything: body, thoughts, sounds, situation. Judgment becomes just one passing event in a much larger field.

Judgment loses some of its power when we can see it as something the mind is doing, rather than the truth.

We can notice when the mind goes to war—and not follow it in.

——

Want to learn how to actually do this? Join us for free meditation every Wednesday at 7 pm ET, in person or online. Everyone is welcome. PM for the Zoom link.

——

08/18/2026

How do you break out of a rut?
Sometimes we get stuck in a thought, a mood, or a habit. This week's reflection is about 'the pivot'—the small act of shifting your perspective to get things moving forward again.

Also inside:
• Unsticking the body and mind with with Arlene Undone Yogi – THIS Saturday, August 22
• Musical gatherings to create JOY with Jaya Journey 2 Balance – Saturday and Sunday on the last weekend of August

Read this week's newsletter:

In Practice | Upcoming