Mindful Shenandoah Valley

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Mindful Shenandoah Valley

Mindfulness meditation retreats led by Insight Teacher Shell Fischer area to help you discover the amazing and healing benefits of mindfulness practice.

Mindful Shenandoah Valley offers various classes and workshops, as well as daylong and residential retreats in VA, MD, WV, and the greater Washington, D.C. ABOUT THE TEACHER: Shell Fischer, founder and guiding teacher of Mindful Shenandoah (www.mindfulvalley.com) offers 30+ years of extensive mindfulness training, practice, and teaching. She is a Buddhist teacher, trained in the Tibetan Vajrayana

tradition at Naropa University – the nation’s leading contemplative university – and in the Theravadan Vipassana (Insight) tradition by Dr. Tara Brach – one of the world’s foremost Insight teachers. She is a graduate of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher-training program led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR and the Stress Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Prior to teaching, Shell wrote about mindfulness and yoga for national magazines. While offering the teachings of Insight Meditation, Shell places great emphasis on the metta (loving-kindness) practices. Her hope is to guide you in nurturing even more kindness and compassion for yourself, others, and for all the situations you find yourself in throughout your life, through the heart-teachings and practices of mindfulness meditation. Shell warmly welcomes the inclusion and participation of people of diverse identities, including those of all races, ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities, classes, religions, abilities, and ages … with the aspiration that all feel welcome, safe, and respected as we practice together in community. The photos shown here are mostly taken on Cloverdale Farm in Winchester, VA, where Shell rents a small farm cottage with her husband, Brent, and their two cats. Please visit www.mindfulvalley.com for more information about classes, workshops, and retreats, or email Shell directly at retreats@mindfulvalley.com.

29/08/2025

I cannot tell you
how the light comes.
What I know
is that it is more ancient
than imagining.
That it travels
across an astounding expanse
to reach us.
That it loves
searching out
what is hidden
what is lost
what is forgotten
or in peril
or in pain.
That it has a fondness
for the body
for finding its way
toward flesh
for tracing the edges
of form
for shining forth
through the eye,
the hand,
the heart.
I cannot tell you
how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way
into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem
long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape
you did not foresee.
And so
may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces
to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still
to the blessed light
that comes.

~ Jan Richardson

www.mindfulvalley.com

28/08/2025

"It is important to keep the picture of wholeness alive in our understanding of ourselves: the center we live within, the life we live within, the love we live within, the connections we live within. All Beings of dark and light are the center we live within. To feel ourselves in touch with the wholeness of life is ... to be on center, to be in love." ~ M.C. Richards

www.mindfuvalley.com

27/08/2025

“The power of metta (loving-kindness) is so great that it brings up everything that stands in its way.” ~Sharon Salzberg

Metta, a Pali word that means “unconditional friendliness,” is said to be the very ground of our spiritual life, and also the most powerful practice, in that it can overcome all the states that accompany the biggest delusion and source of our suffering – that of separateness.

During this daylong meditation retreat in The Plains, VA, we’ll explore a variety of different mindfulness methods that can help us nurture and cultivate more metta for ourselves, others, and all the situations we find ourselves in; practices through which we might live more fully and authentically from this state of friendliness and kindness.

As our heart continues to open through this practice, we’ll be better able to rest in a natural presence, and foster greater compassion, wisdom, and love in our lives and out in our world. All are welcome (newcomers especially!) :)

Learn more and register here: https://www.mindfulvalley.com/retreats/nov-15-2025-meditation-retreat-living-with-loving-kindness/

24/08/2025

"We are here to witness the creation and abet it ... We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us." ~ Annie Dillard

www.mindfulvalley.com

20/08/2025

You say you belong to me.
I become frightened.
Then I remember the stars
belonging to each other.
I think how the wind
belongs to the sky.
This is the way I belong to you.

~ Sue Silvermarie

www.mindfulvalley.com

19/08/2025

I was walking by. He was sitting there.

It was full morning, so the heat was heavy on his sand-colored head and his webbed feet. I squatted beside him, as the edge of the path. He didn’t move.

I began to talk. I talked about summer, and about time. The pleasures of eating, the terrors of the night. About this cup we call a life. About happiness. And how good it feels, the heat of the sun between the shoulder blades.

He looked neither up nor down, which didn’t necessarily mean he was either afraid or asleep. I felt his energy, stored under his tongue perhaps, and behind his bulging eyes.

I talked about how the world seems to me, five feet tall, the blue sky all around my head. I said, I wondered how it seemed to him, down there, intimate with the dust.
He might have been Buddha – did not move, blink, or frown, not a tear fell from those gold-rimmed eyes as the refined anguish of language passed over him.

~ Mary Oliver

www.mindfulvalley.com

16/08/2025

"We never lose an attachment by saying it has to go. Only as we gain awareness of its true nature does it quietly and imperceptibly wither away; like a sandcastle with waves rolling over, it just smoothes out and finally - where is it? What was it?" ~ Charlotte Joko Beck

15/08/2025

“When you can sit in the space between no longer and not yet, you begin to grow differently.” ~ Nancy Levin

www.mindfulvalley.com

14/08/2025

"The first step toward planetary healing is to walk toward the beauty in thee - to see the beauty in your own heart, to forgive those ideas and correct those thought forms that obscure the true wisdom fire in your mind." ~ Dyani Ywahoo

www.mindfulvalley.com

13/08/2025

🙏🏽 🧘🏻‍♀️Friends, there is still time to join us ONLINE for this daylong meditation retreat on Finding Peace in the Chaos this Saturday, August 16 - (the link will be available to watch after the day of the retreat, too!) https://www.mindfulvalley.com/retreats/aug-16-2025-meditation-retreat-finding-peace-in-the-chaos/

12/08/2025

"I know I am made from this earth, as my mother's hands were made from this earth, as her dreams came from this earth and all that I know, I know in this earth ... and I long to tell you, you who are earth, too, and listen as we speak to each other of what we know: the light is in us." ~ Susan Griffin

www.mindfulvalley.com

11/08/2025

“To stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening…. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path.” ~ Pema Chodron

www.mindfulvalley.com

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Our Story

Mindful Shenandoah Valley offers meditation classes and retreats in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, WV, and the greater Washington, D.C. area to help you discover the amazing and healing benefits of mindfulness practice.

ABOUT THE TEACHER Shell Fischer, founder and guiding teacher of Mindful Shenandoah (www.mindfulvalley.com) offers almost 30 years of extensive mindfulness practice and study. She is a Buddhist teacher, trained in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition at Naropa University – the nation’s leading contemplative university – and in the Theravadan Vipassana (Insight)tradition by Dr. Tara Brach – one of the world’s foremost Insight teachers. She is a graduate of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher-training program led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR and the Stress Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. She’s also an educational partner with both Valley Health and the Foundation of the State Arboretum of Virginia. Prior to teaching, Shell wrote about mindfulness and yoga for national magazines.

Shell’s main focus as a teacher is on metta (loving-kindness) practice. Her hope is to guide her students in nurturing even more kindness and compassion for themselves, and for all the situations they find themselves in throughout their lives, through the practice of meditation and mindfulness – which she believes everyone can learn.

The photos shown on the site are mostly taken on Cloverdale Farm in Wi******er, VA, where Shell lives with her husband, Brent, and their two cats. Every Tuesday in Stephens City, VA, Shell leads an open, dana (donation) based Vipassana meditation group from 7-8:45 p.m. You can find more info here: http://www.mindfulvalley.com/weekly-group/ Please visit www.mindfulvalley.com for more information about classes, workshops, and retreats,, or email us at retreats@mindfulvalley.com.