A Non-Religious Spiritual Practice and Volunteer Community Supporting Boston’s South Shore

Sunday Reflection — June 29, 2025

This Week’s Music

Singing and Strumming from M+ Member John Farrell!






Adjusting your Default Setting

Our “default setting,” the mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn tells us, is “thinking mind.”  Thinking mind might include the specific thoughts and activities associated with “thinking about something,” like when we’re listening to a lecture, planning a trip,or choosing a restaurant via Yelp reviews.  Thinking mind also includes the random and discursive “thoughts” we have all the time – that steady flow of words, images, non-sequitors – that flows like a constant stream even when we’re not intentionally “thinking about something” in particular.  Thinking Mind is always busy!  If you’ve sat mindfully even just once, and for just a minute, you’ve learned this straightaway, as soon as you’ve collected yourself in a sitting position, as soon as you’ve said “ahhh, this quiet feels good!”  Precisely at this moment the thinking mind seems to get very busy, jumping from thought to thought to thought and not giving us a moment’s peace.  This is why many people think mindful practice is so hard to do and give up.  Don’t give up!  There’s no way around the reality of thinking mind, and trying to stop it (as in, saying to yourself in any angry tone, “stop it, busy mind!”) doesn’t help.  Yet when we sit and practice mindfully – and simply notice “thinking mind” doing its thing, without fighting against or trying to stop it – then something else starts to happen.  We can observe the steady flow of thoughts, the activity of thinking mind, without getting carried away in the flood.  Interesting things happen.

Come this Sunday…sit a spell…and enjoy being curious about this experience of being human.








This Week’s Reading

Each week, we hear a short chapter from Mindfulness for Beginners –  Reclaiming the Present Moment – and Your Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  If you’d like to read along, you can purchase a copy at Buttonwood Books in Cohasset.  Tell our friends at Buttonwood that you’re connected with the “Sunday Reflection Book Club” and you’ll receive a 15% discount!  This week, we’ll hear the short chapter “Adjusting Your Default Setting.”

You don’t need to read along or buy the book to join in!  And you aren’t missing out if you haven’t started “from the beginning.”  Read along if you like, and come whenever and as often as makes sense to you.


We Offer

practice groups, volunteer opportunities, educational workshops & retreats, and social events in support of our South Shore communities.

  • “I have already written some facts of my life, journal-style. But this new Recollections experience allows me to share with my grandchildren, and hopefully their children, some life memories in my own words, my voice for posterity.”

    – Karen from Cohasset

  • "I have been a care giver my whole life. I helped both elderly parents live in their home as long as possible. Been a bedside nurse for over 40 years and raised 2 children . After my mom who was my best friend died Covid hit. I worked in a Boston Hospital ICU T throughout it. When it was over I realized i had lost my compassion. After another year I retired. I started to volunteer to have a sense of purpose. One day I walked into Mindfulness Plus and it changed me I was encouraged to cry and talk and most of all heal. The wisdom of the group was invaluable. Every meeting gave me fresh insight. And soon my words helped others. I will be forever grateful to this group that has transformed me (with alot of hardwork on my part) I encourage everyone to try it. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain."

    - Pat from Hanover

  • “I find the Living with Loss Community Support Group to be very warm and supportive. This experience has allowed me to expose vulnerabitlies without judgment, and the compassionate energy shared is personally healing. I am grateful to the Mindfulness Plus organization and their offerings to the South Shore community.”

    – Claire from Quincy

  • “I have found some comfort attending the Living with Loss group. It is nice being surrounded by others that are also suffering loss and sharing our thoughts and emotions. It is a gentle, non-pressured atmosphere and I have always left feeling just a little bit better after attending. I hope in time to not need the group support but right now I do and it’s a safe, easy, supportive, comfortable place to share some of the tough emotions around significant loss.”

    – Rebecca from Hull

  • “Friday Reflection offers the opportunity to sit with a group of friends, silently review my past week, and if I choose, speak in confidence and without judgemental feedback about what it is like to live in my body, mind and soul. And more than that, I'm offered the enlightening and fascinating opportunity to listen to other members of the group do the same. I find it centering, peaceful and harmonious.”

    - Bill from Weymouth

  • “It is an honor to be a volunteer interviewer in the M+ Recollections program. It is a privilege to enable community members to tell stories of their lives that hold special meaning for them that they can choose to share with others. Through being part of this process, I also learn about, and gain new perspectives about the diversity of our community members, as well as deepening my connections to our community.”

    - Paula from Hull

  • "Loss and grief equals pain. The healing process from this pain is hard work and is exhausting. Whether your loss is deeply personal or on a bigger societal level, the Tuesday Living with Loss group provides a safe space to share your loss with others in a non-judgmental, pressure-free environment. You can share many words or sit quietly the entire time. Knowing that there are others who support you and collectively embrace your soul has helped my own healing process continue after the sudden death of my husband last year."

    Gail from Scituate

Want to find out more about M+?

“Good works need financial support and few of them check as many boxes as M+. I know my monthly check is promoting the spiritual and community values that are important to me. The warmth and kindness of its members are like nothing else I know.”

— Jim from Cohasset