Thoughts

Images:
Untitled new Kinetic Weaving 
Hand Details of weaving a prototype 
Shadow Effect 

Courage

New Weaving trials, using Recycled Dry cleaning hangers,
conjures for me what Anand Giridharadas describes as
‘The Forgotten Vanished Power’.
Listening to Ezra K’s interview with Anand regarding
Epstein and his Networks of Power, I can’t help but feel
so much Anger about how women (and so many others)
have been treated and hushed over the years.

Reticent to make the true parallels in my work, using
Dry cleaning Hangers to share the See/Saw effect of my
Sadness and Anger… Learning about so many years of abuse, and
watching women’s rights being stripped away and their
angry voices being ignored, infuriates me.

I realize my narrative of these weavings has been hidden behind
transformation of materials and a story of sustainability.
Where the truth underlying the work was not just creating
beauty with the discarded materials, but to build reminders
of what women have had to endure for years.

The use of the hanger… “No wire hangers, ever,” Faye Dunaway
screeched, portraying Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest… about
those who have lived with abusive unconscious parents…
The hanger as a device dangerously used to aid in abortions.
I can’t bear to read stories of this type in our day and age after,
yet again, women’s rights to abortion have been stripped away.

I realize, even after ten years of meditation, there is still
a residue of noise in my head when it comes to these subjects.
I can’t ignore it. I need to recalibrate. Breathe and Meditate.

A hallmark of a meditator is… we must not ignore what needs
to be changed.
I will continue to do my daily practice and will no longer hide
behind the making of beautiful things, to forsake the shadow
of what is actually being woven and the true story behind WHY
I weave with this material.

(photo credit: Martin Crook, 2026)

02.15.2026 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

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