Thoughts

Images:
Shiny new meditators in
Houston, Texas!
Flowers from the first day of class.
Meditation Wrap dinner Party at MFAH special
private room at Le Jardinier,
Courtesy of SHAW and Patcraft,
honoring their Healthcare divisions.


“It’s a Wrap”

This past week, I was honored to be sponsored by
Shaw Contract and Patcraft’s Healthcare teams,
to teach their customers in Houston, Texas.
This is the third city I have traveled to for Shaw,
to share the knowledge and technique of a
timeless meditation practice that is so essential
for resetting our daily lives.

What a pleasure it is to teach this simple, natural, technique,
that has been taught for thousands of years
to hundreds of thousands
around the world.

From India a week prior, I dropped my bag, did my laundry,
kept my meditation going each day and meditated as much
as I wanted on all legs of travel. The benefits are no jet lag,
clear head, happy demeanor and optimum adaptation energy.
All from one simple technique.

Meditation is so relevant in these days of overthinking, over
stimulation, clocking too many computer hours, overuse,
shifts in design practices and understaffing.
All of these lead to the dulling of our mind, our clarity and
the simple joy in living, that seems unreachable.
And results in a stressed-being parent and partner.

Any time you feel stressed, you’ll have a myriad of
body sensations.
We actually don’t store stress in the mind.
We store it in the body.
So stress is a reaction.
In the 1930’s, Hans Selye, an endocrinologist,
defined stress as a body abnormality or imbalance,
caused by an overload of experience.
When we get overloaded, we get stressed.
We all have a certain level of adaptation energy,
which acts like a bank balance.
It goes up and down each day and it determines
whether we get stressed or not.
The one thing that can mitigate this stress tendency is rest.
There’s a one-to-one relationship between the two.
The quickest and easiest way to rest and reset
is to sit two times a day
in Vedic meditation.
Then the magic begins. Pure Creative Intelligence.

Thank you Houston, for your time and energy!

02.08.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:

KOSHA 2026
Flatweave
100% New Zealand Wool and Bamboo Silk

Woven Resistance

Last year, I was asked to design a rug that Jamie Stern
was going to take on the road
as a fundraiser, with an online auction to help
the Sierra Club’s fight against climate change
and PFLAG’s efforts in supporting LGBTQ+ communities.

Resistance comes in many ways.
My concern in this day and age is the mental health of
children, family, friends and the
collective of people that surround us.

As a teacher of Vedic Meditation, I am
intrigued by theresistance
that I find in people feeling that they
can’t meditate because
they have too many thoughts.
Or after being taught the technique
that they resist the impulse to sit quietly
for 20 minutes in the morning and evening.
Because they aren’t getting instant
gratification from sitting.

Not surprising, as we are fighting the
tech companies who have wired
our minds with reels, catastrophic news clips
or shopping opportunities, all too
often, to distract us from our own true nature.

What is that? Our own true nature?

Inside the body are many other bodies called
Maya Koshas — Sheaths
That fit like a glove…

Sitting allows the mind to settle down and
identify with that feeling of being
— which is our ultimate identity.
When we meditate, we go beyond thought,
and that becomes the field of being.
We have to get through the layers, which takes
practice and patience.


Each structure in this rug represents a
layer of identity and awareness,
reflecting how we move from the external world
toward our inner deeper truth.
There are 8 Koshas, I am sharing 5 here.

They are
1.Physical
2.Energetic
3.Mental (mind, emotions, thoughts)
4.Intellectual (intuition, discernment) 
5.Bliss

The Five structures in the Rug are represented by the
pattern shift.
The contrast of matte and shiny fibers in the rug
speaks to the tension between what grounds us and what
inspires us — the earthly and the celestial,
the struggle and the hope — which can pop up in the
form of thoughts in our meditation.

It takes time to settle through these layers…
Repetition is the key to
any practice and technique…

If you feel inclined… donate, attend the Woven Resistance events
or bid on the rugs…
https://www.wovenresistancebyjamiestern.com

If you want to learn to meditate, please stop
resisting.

02.01.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
1. Vedic Meditation with Shri 1008 Mahamandaleshwar Maharishi Vyasanand Giri Maharaj
2026 Teachers training in Rishikesh, India
2. The Ganges, known as Ganga, at sunset
3. On a walk with our neighbors
4. Tapovan near Ram Jhula in Rishikesh, foothills of the Himalyas



FOCUS OFF

Once a year, I travel to India, to press the very-much-
needed FOCUS OFF button.
The days are spent with these beautiful shiny
teachers of Vedic Meditation.
6 Hours of lectures, Q + A sessions a day, for
about 8 days.
I retreaded my brain with an advanced course
and then commenced
with Teachers training.

What the FOCUS!!
It’s all about NOT FOCUSING.

It was such a pleasure to turn off the phone.
To allow my mind to expand, in the knowledge of
creating a pathway to a calmer and healthier way of
Being.

We are raised to believe that FOCUSING is the most
important way to get ahead.
To produce and keep producing.

What we are finding is, allowing ourselves
to step into Nature for sunrise and watching sunsets
and/or to step into finding the true paths of our
nature by sitting down to meditation twice a day…
these will pave the way to happiness and
connectedness.

Focus Off…
the news, the chronic work habits,
the social media, the negative thoughts, negative friends,
negativity altogether.

Our minds are all craving
knowledge for nourishment.
Peace for enlightenment.
Rest from doing.
Get into Nature.
Expand your repertoire.

Tap into what you find enjoyable.
Let your mind daydream and
feel your body relax.
Learn to meditate.

01.25.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Vertical Weaving using Recycled Luum Textiles
and Up-cycled Mylar balloons

Faceside/Backside

Our outward and inward expression is who we really are.
Our consciousness is imprinted on our very state of being.
Our actions, whether responding thoughtfully or reacting expressively,
are all reflections of our inner state of being.
Our true nature. What’s important is that we learn from it.

This happy, colorful weaving, made up of many layers of recycled
Luum fabric that we had cut for weaving
on the vertical loom a couple of years ago,
is now taking shape in the studio, with the help of
an assistant. It’s happily growing each week,
like all of the weavings in the studio.
What I find most wonderful about it, is that the back
is as beautiful as the front.
That each side shows a different side of its being.
One very expressive and one very orderly.
Like ourselves from time to time.

The expressive gives way to telling stories;
the thoughtful gives way to
intrapersonal/interpersonal growth.

Whether we feel organized or disorganized,
lethargic or energetic,
the energy we put or don’t put into our lives is our reflection.
And it’s all good…

The Vedic Meditation practice that I teach allows for all sides 
of us to be reflective. To tap into and indulge
that creative intelligence
that lies within the faceside and backside
and merges with the
collective consciousness of the world,
through who we really are.

We simply need to get out of our own way and take action.
Make, weave, explore, write, perform, cook,
share, paint, teach, print,
simply be human.
Taking action is the key. Inside / Outside / Faceside / Backside

It all is part of the story. Your story.

01.11.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Number 3 Yellow, 2026
Woven with upcycled mylar balloons found on the beach at Fire Island

2026
YELLOW FOR OPTIMISM, JOY AND DISPELLING MENTAL GLOOM 

There is nothing like grabbing a bunch of yellow
happy face balloons
amongst an abundance of other gold and yellow balloons,
to begin a new weaving.

Wondering whose fingers held this string
before losing their grip and having the balloon
fly away out of reach.

Or maybe it was a golden celebration of 50 years,
which was delivered
anonymously at my doorsteps.

For me, the need of the time was to take these wonderful
holiday days off and create
another woven square, to add to the blue and coral squares
I had already woven.
My mission this winter is to weave
at least three more, to make a series of 6 squares.
Creating, weaving, listening to
podcasts, taking breaks for cooking, meals
with family and friends.
And of course, twice-a-day Vedic Meditation
practice is my daily routine. 

When I looked up the meaning of Yellow from
the spiritual perspective,
I found, in Hindu, it signifies Purity, knowledge, prosperity,
and is the color representative of Lord Vishnu!!
Woooo I thought.
Hadn’t seen that coming.

From my training in India, we know that Lord Vishnu
represents the Maintenance Operator,
one of the three qualities of the Evolutionary Process.
Evolutionary means progressive change… Change
that occurs in a way that causes progression.
Creation, Maintenance and Destruction.

So, in the Maintenance Operator role,
for evolution to be evolutionary,
forms and phenomena have to pass
a test of relevance.

Since Vishnu is represented by yellow,
and is the personification of the Maintenance Operator,
he maintains and protects and sustains
the existence of anything
that is relative.

My process of deduction is this…
It feels so relevant to be sharing this
bright yellow optimistic weaving
at this time,
as we ponder what’s coming next
in the months and year to come… 
That I’m getting that nudge from Nature saying…
Yellow was the right next color for the time. 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year
of Optimism and Joy.
And maintaining only what is relevant
in your lives right now.

01.04.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com