“Hope is a thing with feathers” — Emily Dickinson

October 30, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

–Photo by Jim Champion I came across a lovely poem today when my friend, Jeanne, asked me to read her some poetry via Skype.  She is recovering from surgery and needed me to do most the talking. I feel terrible for her! After reading the poem I thought of how fitting it is for today and why I have an insatiable love for poetry. Poetry is the language of the soul, and oftentimes, discovering the right one at the right time can […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: believe in oneself, better oneself, emily dickinson, feathers, female poets, hope, inspiring poetry, poetry

Getting Lost

May 13, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

 “Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, the key. You still know where you are. Everything is familiar except that there is one item less, one missing element. Or you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it. Either […]

Categories: Photography, Weekend Instagrams • Tags: A Field Guide to Getting Lost, better oneself, challenges, finding meaning, getting lost, healthy living, human spirit, meditation, New York City, Photography, Rebecca Solnit, reflection, self reflection, yoga

A Lesson from Kevin Durant: Give out those SNAPS, who cares if you cry.

May 8, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

He saw that all the struggles of life were incessant, laborious, painful, that nothing was done quickly, without labor, that it had to undergo a thousand fondlings, revisings, moldings, addings, removings, graftings, tearings, correctings, smoothings, rebuildings, reconsiderings, nailings, tackings, chippings, hammerings, hoistings, connectings — all the poor fumbling uncertain incompletions of human endeavor. They went on forever and were forever incomplete, far from perfect, refined, or smooth…yet, in the way of things, somehow noble, complete, and shining in the end.” […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography • Tags: better oneself, challenges, family, Jack Kerouac, Kevin Durant, meditation, Pap, reflection, self reflection, struggle, The Town and the City, yoga

Thoughtful Tuesdays: Connecting through our “soul volumes”

March 11, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

I found myself inspired to write today but without a journal. Typically, choosing a journal is a huge deliberation. I consider size, thickness of paper, lined versus unlined, hard versus soft cover, does it have character, how does it feel in my hands, how does it fit in my bag… a senseless batch of preferences. But today, I found a notebook in our supply room and it struck me as the perfect new journal to start – simply because it […]

Categories: Photography, Writers & Writing, Yoga • Tags: all too human, amy tan, better oneself, By Heart, connecting, Dorthe Nor, Friedrich Nietzsche, human, human spirit, Ingmar Bergman, inspiring quotes, language as power, mary oliver, meditation, meditation challenge, Nepal, Pablo Neruda, poetry, quotes to live by, self reflection, solitude, Stupa, The Atlantic

Thomas Merton…. Happy Birthday.

January 31, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

​“Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.” ― Thomas Merton​ Happy Birthday to Thomas Merton (1915-1968), a lifelong student of comparative religion, poetry and understanding the human experience. Merton is best known for popularizing interspirituality, an all-inclusive practice […]

Categories: Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: aaron huey, Asian religions, better oneself, Brahmachari, Buddhism, Chakra meditation, challenges, Christianity, comparative religion, Eastern religion, healthy living, human experience, human spirit, Interfaith, Interspirituality, meditation, reflection, religion, self reflection, spirituality, Sufi, Sufi photograph, Sufism, Thomas Merton, Trappist

At 19, almost didn’t return. At 21, denied further study. “Now how ’bout that,” my Pap would have said..

January 15, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

Meaningful discourse is a powerful thing; we have all experienced essays, poems, lectures, documentaries, or speeches that riveted us in a way we couldn’t fully explain.  Something about it made us feel something, a moment worth so much. I write mainly because my whole life has been a steady search for compelling words from authors, poets, artists, and the people I love most in my life. I am addicted to that feeling.  And I like to share it on this blog. […]

Categories: Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, depression, Douglas Brooks, finding meaning, good company, gratitude, healthy living, Hinduism, human spirit, mental health, Photography, reflection, self reflection, take five program, university of rochester religion, yoga

“your place… in the family of things” Mary Oliver

January 13, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

To complement your Monday afternoon: another piece by Mary Oliver, a note on saying talk to the hand! to loneliness and photos taken in my neighborhood of a lovely man I see nearly every day (haven’t had the guts to capture his face yet). I recently had a conversation with my dear friend, Tara, about how enormous loneliness can feel when evoked by certain life experiences (ie, losing a loved one, going through a break-up, living far away, etc.).  If Tara […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, challenges, family of things, finding depth, finding meaning, friends, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, mary oliver, meditation, mental health, New York City, Photography, Portrait Photography, reflection, self reflection

A Family Project: Inspiration Boards from Cincinnati, Ohio

January 8, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

So what’s the point of having magazine subscriptions if you aren’t tearing out pictures you love, cutting out inspirational messages, and even mailing something to a loved one that made you think of them? I got started on this at a young age because my Pap (seen here) used to cut out newspaper clips and send them to me in the mail. Following his example, I keep a folder of tear outs and would never throw out a magazine without […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography • Tags: better oneself, family, goals, good company, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, inspiration boards, looking forward, magazine subscriptions, meditation, mental health, mood boards, new year, reflection, self reflection, setting goals, travel photography, vision boards, yoga

Cab Fare: Lessons from a Sikh

January 2, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

I hope you enjoy my new series on taxi drivers in New York City. My goal is to ask the questions I love to ask, take a photo, and share them both with you. Here is my first one from New Years Eve.  Thanks for reading. It was 7pm on New Years Eve and I had no plans for the evening. I stopped at Adorama to sell a few things and perused the used cameras while I was there. What […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: better oneself, cab drivers, Chakra meditation, challenges, finding meaning, human spirit, New York City, Photography, reflection, sikh, sikhism, yoga

“Okay as it is, Okay as you are” Creating a Mood Board for 2014.

January 1, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

Happy New Years to you and yours.  Hope you are having a wonderful start to 2014 by relaxing, hanging with loved ones, or just bumming around in your pj’s. I was so excited to spend the day working on my 2014 board. It can be used for inspiration, goals, and even a mood board ( a mood board is typically used by designers to communicate their concepts).  Well, I love my “concepts” for 2014. I will tell you more about […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: better oneself, crafting with magazines, creat, goal board, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, inspiration, inspiration board, mood board, new year, self reflection, setting goals

Saturday in Dumbo: Lamas, Little Lamas, and the Buddhist Center

December 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I was walking through Dumbo, Brooklyn this past weekend and stumbled upon a Buddhist Center affiliated with a monastery in Nepal. Since then, it has become increasingly surreal that on that particular day, at that particular time, I found this place. Mostly because life has been confusing lately. It has simultaneously presented itself as both overwhelming and under-whelming, for a series of obscure reasons. It should be crowned “complex uncertainty” and its royal symbol should be a foot and a […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography • Tags: better oneself, Brooklyn Buddhist Center, Buddhism, Buddhist Center, challenges, Dumbo, human spirit, kathmandu, Little Lamas, Little Monks, meditation, mental health, Nepal, New York City, Portrait Photography, reflection, self reflection

Note to self: “If something is not fitting with you, don’t be in a hurry to settle the matter”

November 18, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“Something looks absolutely right until it doesn’t fit with you – as if you are the touchstone of truth, as if you are the criterion of truth. The moment it is not fitting with you, you think it is wrong. This is a wrong approach, and if you have this approach you will never arrive to that which is real. If something is not fitting with you, then don’t be in a hurry to settle the matter – don’t decide […]

Categories: Writers & Writing, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, meditation, osho, reality, reflection, right understanding, right view, self reflection, what the buddha said, yoga, yoga postures, yoga sequence, yoga stick figures

Watch “Time of Death” on Showtime

November 11, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

A new series on Showtime called Time of Death yields varied reviews, some of which say it’s superficial and cleans up the “messiness” of death. I disagree completely and describe it as a refreshing and riveting addition to what many consider meaningless television. Seemingly, posting commentary on a television series is a bit misaligned with the theme of this blog, but if you watch an episode you will see the connection between the two is in fact connecting, honesty, and […]

Categories: Art, Photography • Tags: better oneself, cancer, challenges, documentary, family, good company, gratitude, grief, human spirit, loss, love, meditation, reflection, self reflection, showtime, terminally ill, time of death

Cup o’ Courage: “True commitment always comes with loss”

November 6, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“In Dante’s Divine Comedy the Roman poet Virgil accompanies Dante to the underworld. No one wants to be Virgil anymore — to ‘go into hell with Dante.’ But the willingness to explore with patience and empathy the actual experience of what people undergo, no matter how horrific, is indispensable in healing the emotional afflictions that haunt human beings. And we shouldn’t be surprised that recipients of such understanding will be capable of both remarkable resilience and extraordinary healing.” -Jeffrey Rubin, […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: beauty in art, better oneself, challenges, connecting, connection, courage, creative writing, cup o' courage, dante, deeper meaning, empowering others, empty your cup, fill your cup, finding meaning, finding purpose, good company, gratitude, Haruki Murakami, having purpose, healing, healthy living, human spirit, jeffrey rubin, love, meaning in our lives, meditation, mental health, Nepal, Photography, reflection, self reflection, sharing is courage, soulful conversations, soulful moments, spill your soul, Tara Carrozza, ted talk, uncertainty, virgil, vulnerability, writing our lives, written word

Cup o’ Courage: “See the opportunity, not the obstacle”

October 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Thank you Toni P. Filia, of Maineville, Ohio for her submission to this new weekly series on courage and connecting. As Brené Brown said in her brilliant Ted Talk, courage comes from the “Latin word cor, meaning heart — and the original definition was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.” Cup o’ Courage is a weekly series that allows us to tell a bit of our story in a small but meaningful way.   […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: authenticity, beauty in art, beauty in sadness, beauty is everywhere, being real, better oneself, brene brown, connecting, connecting with others, connection, courage, courageous, creative writing, cup o' courage, deeper meaning, empowering others with story, empty your cup, everyone's stories matter, fill your cup, fill your heart, find the beauty, finding meaning, finding purpose, good company, gratitude, having purpose, healthy living, human spirit, influence others, innermost thoughts, Maineville, meaning in our lives, meaningful conversations, Ohio, Photography, reflection, San Francisco, self reflection, sharing is courage, soulful conversations, soulful moments, soulful questions, spill your soul, spirit, stories that matter, ted talk, Toni Filia, vulnerability, writing our lives, written word, yoga

Cup o’ Courage: “I know nothing for sure”

October 23, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Thank you to Joe Canty of New York for being the first submission to Cup o’ Courage: Spill Your Soul to Fill Your Heart. Follow the link to get details on how to be a part of this new weekly series about sharing our innermost thoughts in a courageous and revealing way. I hope for it to connect us, empower us, and remind us that we are part of an all-inclusive, collective spirit. Scroll down past the lovely Nepalese lady […]

Categories: Traveling • Tags: appreciation, better oneself, challenges, connecting through written word, connection, courage, cup o' courage, good company, gratitude, human spirit, innermost thoughts, Joe Canty, love, mental health, personal manifesto, reflection, self reflection, submission, writing, writing about life

Mapping out Mindfulness

October 17, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

How creative is this infographic I found on Health Central this morning while having my coffee? Aside from the beautiful graphics and design (I just love the color palette!), it is also informative and easy to follow. Lately, I have been having trouble getting out of bed for work in the morning because in all honesty, 6:00am is just not my style! Plus, I find myself tired and groggy even after 7 or 8 hours of sleep. I realized this […]

Categories: Meditation, Yoga • Tags: arthritis, attention, benefits of mindfulness, better oneself, Buddhism, Chakra meditation, challenges, depression, emotion regulation, empathy, focus, gratitude, health, Health Central, healthy living, human spirit, improve sleep, intention, live in the moment, meditation, meditation challenge, mental health, mindfulness meditation, non-attachment, reflection, relaxation, self reflection, weight loss, yoga

Walks, wonder, warmth…A weekend with my Mum

September 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

adore, afterlife, always  | bakeries, bookstores, beliefs | concern, chocolate, care | dreams, daughter, doubt | encourage, Emerson, envision | family, forever, fear | grief, growing, giving | home, Hungarian, happiness | infinite, infractible, insightful | journey, jest, Jenna | keepsake, kind, kinship | leaves, laughter, lean-on | mother, margaritas, Marsha | necklace, navigate, nearness | opening, offering, oversoul | pianist, poems, park | questions, quiet, quest  | read, remember, relate | silver, stories, strength | together, tears, tusk | […]

Categories: Good Company, Weekend Instagrams • Tags: better oneself, bookstores, emerson, family, farmer's market, good company, gratitude, happiness, human spirit, Hungarian, mother, pastries, Photography, self reflection

Brooklyn Book Festival – Writers on Loss

September 23, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“One of the things that brings me back to writing every day is that I have no idea what I’m feeling, or, what I’m feeling could fill a whole book. I imagine this is true for everyone. Degas, in one of his notebooks, wrote: there are, naturally, feelings that one cannot render.” Nick Flynn, Atlanta Review Just a quick five stops on the 2 train and I was right in the middle of the Brooklyn Book Festival yesterday. Ripe with independent book publishers and […]

Categories: Art, Good Company, Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: art, atlanta review, authors, better oneself, book signinga, brooklyn book festival, creative, crossroads cafe, da, downtown brooklyn, emily roboteau, good company, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, leanne shapton, mary williams, meditation, New Directions Publications, nick flynn, reflection, sarah manguso, self reflection, vulnerability, writers on lostw, writers panel

Inter-being: a reflection on emptiness

September 5, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I recently finished The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is a wonderful little book offering a clear framework on traditional Buddhist thought: a perfect little refresher that was easy to read on the subway. What made this book special, however, was Thich Nhat Hanh’s own personal teaching on how to transform suffering with Buddhist thought. It is a great book if you are interested in learning more about Buddhist philosophy and how to apply it […]

Categories: Good Company, Traveling, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, deeper meaning, emptiness, good company, happiness, healthy living, human spirit, kathmandu, live to the fullest, meditation, mental health, Nepal, non-self, Photography, reflection, rich life, self reflection, soul, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tree of Life, yoga, yoga philosophy

“Keep going, keep going, come what may” – Vincent van Gogh

August 29, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it — keep going, keep going, come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling • Tags: better oneself, challenges, healthy living, human spirit, kathmandu, meditation, meditation challenge, Nepal, Nepal countryside, Nepalese farms, nepalese woman, Portrait Photography, self reflection, travel photography, Vincent van Gogh, vincent van gogh quotes, yoga

No mud, No lotus – Thich Nhat Hanh

August 28, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

No mud, No lotus. – Thich Nhat Hanh Do not go to the garden of flowers! Oh friend! Go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the infinte beauty. – Kabir

Categories: Photography, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, challenges, difficult times, healthy living, human spirit, inspiration, kabir, lotus, lotus flower, Thich Nhat Hanh, yoga

Morning time in a Nepalese Garden

August 20, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” ― Anaïs Nin As the end of summer draws near, we relish even more the lush, overgrown clusters of nature that make up our parks, neighborhoods, streets, and gardens. If we take Burnett’s advice, we begin to see the world for what it actually […]

Categories: Meditation, Traveling • Tags: anais nin, better oneself, frances hodgson burnett, garden, healthy living, human spirit, life as a process, Nepal, Photography, sitting in a garden, the secret garden, writing in a garden

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard” – Dorothy Gale, Wizard of Oz

August 16, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I am inspired by a book I started yesterday called One: Essential Writings on Nonduality. As the foundation of most ancient Eastern teachings, non-dualism is an interconnectedness, a belief that appearances and differences are not reality.  James Swartz Ramji says it isn’t another philosophy, religion, or belief system, but rather an “idea that embraces and redeems all ideas.”  See below for a teaching on non-duality that I found particularly interesting. I always read passages I love multiple times; it is […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Yoga • Tags: awakening, awareness, better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, desire, dorothy lane, embracing ideas, essentail writings on nonduality, healthy living, Hinduism, inner peace, james swartz ramji, jerry katz, meditation, mental health, nondualism, not separate, not two, philosophy in wizard of oz, spiritual growth, spiritual need, spirituality, wizard of oz, yoga

Weekend Photos: August 2-4th

August 5, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I recently got a new Canon Powershot so I can carry it around in my bag everywhere I go.  Oftentimes, the DSLR’s are too heavy to be lugging around, so I typically decide to leave mine at home.  This forces me to rely on my iPhone for pictures, which I guess isn’t always so bad.  This little camera is specifically great for taking out at night. It fits perfectly in my little evening bag and isn’t too obtrusive. Here are […]

Categories: Weekend Instagrams • Tags: Acme, better oneself, buddha, cme, Gustave Courbet, healthy living, human spirit, juice bar, juicing, melvin's juice box, Metropolitan Museum of Art, miss lily's, Namaste Bookshop, New York City, Nolita, Peasant, Photography, piano, punk rock, Sea landscape, street artist, Washington Square Park

The Highest Form of Listening: Seek First to Understand (Stephen Covey)

July 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

 Listen when someone is speaking, not to the words, but to what is talking. -Diane Osbon I have been thinking about an exercise we did in Nepal with the Nepalese women: a study in active listening versus inactive listening. Being reminded of this today, I sat down to research more information on how be an effective listener. Mainly because putting my phone down and day aside just doesn’t feel like enough. Within a few clicks, I came across Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography • Tags: 7 habits, active listening, better oneself, connecting, diane osbon, empathic listening, good company, healthy living, human spirit, listening, Nepal, Photography, reflection, stephen covey

Having enough. Being enough. That’s enough!

July 18, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content, And if each and all be aware I sit content.” – Walt Whitman Matt Lombardo, one of my favorite teachers at Jivamukti, discussed the idea of contentment yesterday in class. More specifically, he delved into the word enough and what it ultimately means to subscribe to the idea of having and being enough. Accepting our world as such is a very […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Traveling, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, challenges, contentment, grateful, gratitude, having enough, healthy living, human spirit, jivamukti, kathmandu, live to the fullest, matthew lombardo, Nepal, Photography, Portrait Photography, self reflection, self-empowerment, yoga, yoga teacher

A lesson in Yoga: BE FIERCE

July 17, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I met with my mentor this week and shared an incident where I took something personally, and then adjusted myself to have more compassion for the person.  As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “it’s likely that the other person who hurts us also has a lot of pain and doesn’t know how to handle his/her strong emotions.” In response, my mentor shared a story about Sharon Salzberg getting her bag stolen in India. She saw her teacher after and said, similar […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Traveling, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, ferocity, fierce, goddess, healthy living, Hinduism, Kali, Mañjuśrī, meditation, mental health, Nepal, Photography, yoga

Thich Nhat Hanh: We already have what we want to become

July 11, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

It is hard, but we have to remind ourselves that it is OK to feel completely disoriented at times. To feel a deep ping of uncertainty and the tormenting anxiety it is normally met with. To be overwhelmed by questions that seem to have a variety of answers, or oftentimes no answer at all. To be frightened in a position that demands astute decision making. To be slammed with self doubt at the exact moment you needed your confidence to […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Traveling • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, healthy living, human spirit, meditation, mental health, monastery, monk, Nepal, nepal photography, Photography, Portrait Photography, searching for answers, seeker, Thich Nhat Hanh, yoga

Merlin’s Favorite Remedy: Learning

June 28, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling • Tags: better oneself, boudhnath, Buddhism, challenges, creative writing, healthy living, India, journaling, learning, meditation, merlin, monk, monk reading, museum, museum classes, Nepal, New York City, reading, remedy for sadness, Stupa, T.H. White, The Once and Future King