Category: Meditation Community Updates

Help build Meditation for Parkinson’s

The fall series of the Meditation Community begins Monday, September 21, 2026 at 7 pm and continues each Monday for eight weeks, ending November 9. Each sitting consists of 30 minutes of meditation, plus ten minutes for settling and questions. There is no cost.

The meditations in this series invite you to create a safe, sacred space in your home. We establish a meditation posture, then guide you in developing focus through the breath and other meditation anchors, continuing in a period of silence. We close with a compassion meditation that supports your return to daily life. Participants are encouraged to practice daily between online sittings.

During the first sitting, I will introduce an original, simple, and effective method for noticing and reducing distractions in meditation. It involves counting distractions. It is entirely optional. You can read more about the method in this article: Counting Distractions in Meditation.

I especially welcome people living with Parkinson’s disease or other neurodegenerative conditions. There is a beautiful paradox in practicing meditation, a discipline of stillness, while living with a condition that progressively defies it. Meditation is not about outer stillness but inner stillness. Be certain that you belong here. I have Parkinson’s. Join me and help build Meditation for Parkinson’s.

View updates at my website. For timely updates delivered to your inbox, along with my essays on meditation, subscribe to the Meditation Community newsletter on Substack.

Thank you,

John Miedema

Vote on Substack

A Standardized Method for Counting Distractions

The online Meditation Community, facilitated by John Miedema of Alcove Quebec, will begin a new eight-week series during the week of the Fall Equinox. There is no cost.

Meditation sessions will be held once each week on a weekday evening. A community poll will determine the final day and time.

This series will focus on cultivating sustained attention to the breath. Participants will also have the option of using A Standardized Method for Counting Distractions in Meditation (link). This practical method provides a measurable way to observe improvement in concentration over time while reinforcing the benefits of greater attention, mindfulness, and well-being.

This autumn I would also like to formally welcome people living with Parkinson’s disease. As someone with Parkinson’s myself, I understand that meditation can seem intimidating. Parkinson’s is often associated with tremor, while meditation is commonly associated with physical stillness. In practice, however, physical stillness is not the goal. The deeper practice is the cultivation of inner stillness and stable attention, regardless of what the body is doing.

To receive updates, participate in the scheduling poll, please subscribe to the Meditation Community newsletter: https://meditationcommunity.substack.com/. You can also visit my website: https://johnmiedema.art/.