Tag: Meditation

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The Fact Is

fact

The Fact Is

That we are fine, that I am fine, although sometimes it doesn’t feel as though I am

That this too shall pass; the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the happy and the sad

It’s the waiting on reassurance from without which takes away one’s power of self and brings in doubt

I want the blanket of comfy, safe connection, but this is all an illusion

For we, each and every one of us creates our own experience of the universe

So if I’m waiting on you to tell me it’s OK or waiting on something I’ll hope you’ll do, then really truly, I give all my power over to you

To be self-empowered means no one can take the peace which resides inside our beings

Which is why I never want you to depend on me too

To be self-soothing, nourishing and empowering and able to meet another without conditioning or manipulating

To some, this may seem like I’m weak but let me assure you, from this place one never sees defeat

For we are the champions, my friend

Coming together in power, to want rather than to depend

 

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Autumn has come Early for Me this Year

2015

Autumn has come early for me this year, the summer fun has been overdone..  Yesterday I acknowledged a realisation about the disconnect between head, heart and gut. I recognise this isn’t a issue for some but also that there is a set of us whom find the art of living according to how we feel, that bit harder to hear. Perhaps that’s what I recognise sometimes when there’s a group of ‘yogis’ enter the studio, and I feel a real sense of discord, i.e. some of these people arriving are also feeling such a disconnect..?

The first 4 months of this year seemed to be a constant battle between my head and my heart. I could feel my head trying to get me out of destructive threads, threatening what I’d built at work, home, with friends and in my bank account. Yet my heart wouldn’t let go of wanting to love and be loved, although my gut knew this was all external to myself and therefore somehow still lacking.. I ignored my gut, and went mainly with my heart, until it was that I landed up in hospital; my gut was pissed I’d been disregarding it’s intuitive whispers.

I can hear my heart and it’s fear about stepping out of the romance game for anytime. I can hear my head telling me to keep working for both income and, the physical strength I’ve worked so hard to build up. However, the pleas of my gut (the one I thought I’d ‘fixed’ by probiotics bone broth and healthy eating) now resound louder than ever. Again bloated, inflamed gut and spine, imbalances through out, skin pathologies, intolerant to more and more foods..  It’s time to retreat.

Autumn has come early for me this year. It’s time to retreat and heal from all this head and heart madness.  Those educated in the gut know it rules, from the immune system, the emotions, processing the building blocks of health or rubbish we feed into it to build our cells. Yet, even the word, gut, it’s not sexy, not pretty, makes you think of..? It’s association with defecation and the less attractive traits displayed, generally it’s hidden, vacuum sealed up and shamed..  It’s the most primal and natural part of us, yet why can it be so hard to connect with?

However, in this retreat, the one and only rule is, my gut is allowed to lead the show for the next 6 weeks, I feel with the issues it presents and neglect it’s endured; it’s time I listen and keep the head and the heart on the back burner to rest their voices for a few weeks too. I’ve been juicing for 5 days now (and including regular balanced and nutritious food, just juice and raw doesn’t work for my predominantly vata body type) and including a few extra supplements to really give my body the chance to heal. Thus, if I’m not at festivals, parties, social gatherings please don’t find me rude; I’m on an early drawing in, autumn retreat, some time just for me.

 

xx

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Heart Listening Meditation

 

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Photo Credit Miguel Echievera

This Heart Listening Meditation can help you to release fears and anxiety, tune into your true self and express the best of you.  Whatever the struggle, these past few years have had the propensity to make or break many of us.  Many have left this Earth, left relationships, ‘stable’ careers, and homes; many changes still seem to be happening too..

Physically and physiologically I’m in better shape than possibly ever before; psychologically and emotionally possibly also too but, recently I’ve noticed the heavy feeling in my heart.  Perhaps this is from before but I wasn’t quiet enough to listen to it, or perhaps it’s more recent that my heart is feeling pained as I only came to notice it when sitting down for a few minutes self-healing before leaving to teach.

Your physical heart resides in the left hand side of your chest, the emotional or energetic centre in more in the middle of the chest at the bottom of the sternum (breast bone).  The left side is side to relate to the right side of our brains, which is said to be related to our more feminine, quiet, and intuitive qualities; for me, this left side has generally been a bit more disturbed on comparison to the right.

Once I had settled into my seat, it was almost like a firework of realisation went off in my mind!..  When did I last truly listen to my heart?!.  I realised I still was in need for some deeper introspection to move in beyond the pull of thoughts, judgement and the mind.. The mind is very smart, I thought I was feeling, but  this is different to actually feeling, listening, sensing and being aware of the more subtle layers..

The heart meditation my heart shared with me is too good and too easy not to share.

Sit, lay down, or however you can be comfortable and about 80% relaxed, so there is still an edge of alertness present.  Lightly place your hand on your heart (just above left boob or nipple is probably the easiest place to sense it, and see if you can follow your heart beat..

If you can’t at first it’s important to breathe and be patient, these things can take time..

Simply stay with that and send the intention of love from your hand(s) to your heart.

See if you can tune into the connected nature of it all through your physical body.  If that evolves to more subtle systems then allow whatever comes. If you wind up thinking then notice your thoughts, if it’s a story about hurt, love, pain, fun or anything else then notice it, and come back to listening to your heart beat. If anything keeps pulling at your attention then explore it at will, or simply write it down to make a note, but be conscious you’ve distracted from the listening.  For how long you want to do this is up to you.  Start with 5 minutes is my suggestion.  Try it and let me know how you get on!

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Meditation in Daily Life – A Space to meditate

A Space to Meditate

Two things I hear quite often from people are “I haven’t got time for meditation” or “I have nowhere to meditate”. Generally the obstacle of not having anywhere to meditate is based on the person’s idea of what are essential meditation prerequisites when in reality they may have a perfectly suitable meditation space in their own home. Furthermore, the problem of not having the time for meditation is then resolved when the person realizes that they don’t need to travel anywhere to meditate as they can do it in their own home 🙂

There is a lot of information around regarding the ideal meditation space. However not many people have this ideal situation with a room that can be dedicated solely for meditation and completely free from any distractions. This post
“Meditation in Daily Life – A Space to Meditate” will hopefully give some useful information and suggestions to create a great meditation area with whatever space you have already.

Association & Location
It’s easy to understand why the location is important for meditation but what’s this about association? Well, unless you have a room that you can reserve exclusively for meditation, then that room will have other function(s). Take for example your bedroom as maybe it’s the only private place you have. For most of us it’s mainly a sleeping place but it may also be where you work, read, watch TV or anything else you wish to do in private. What we need to achieve is a meditation area within this busy room in order to be able to ignore all of the other associations with other uses when we meditate.

Firstly find a space on the floor for a meditation cushion or a chair that gives a clear space in front of you. You can also use a meditation or yoga mat to mark out your meditation area which will help to create an association with meditating in that space. If it’s your bedroom and you haven’t got the floor space then the edge of your bed is fine but ideally you would still use a cushion to sit on. Make sure you remove any clutter or unnecessary distractions from your peripheral vision. Assuming we are meditating on the breath then this is enough to start with but if you are using a physical object for your focus, such as a candle or image then also have a clear non cluttered area around the point of focus.

If you are going to meditate in your living room then again use a mat to mark out your meditation space. Face a blank wall rather than one with pictures and ideally avoid facing towards the television. If possible don’t meditate in thoroughfares, keep away from draughts and try to have as much free space as possible around you. Natural light is the ideal although if you haven’t got a window in your room then switch on the light as it is much more beneficial meditating in a light space rather than a dark space. Once you have found what you think to be the most suitable space then stick with it and before long it will become a relaxing area where your mind starts to calm itself even before you start meditating.

Location: Interruptions and Distractions
Whilst noise such as traffic or the neighbor mowing the lawn can be distracting, after a little practice we start to get used to this type of noise to the point that it doesn’t detract anything from our meditation. However what’s a little more difficult to get use to is someone interrupting your meditation, infact even the thought that your meditation may be disturbed can hamper the meditation. Thus if you have to make the choice between assured privacy or some inevitable background noise, choose the latter. We will talk in more depth about this subject in a later post “Meditation Techniques”.

This is a basic guide to help create a meditation space in your own home. As your meditation practice develops your surroundings become less important to the point that you can meditate virtually anywhere. However, until then having a comfortable space to meditate will really help you develop your meditation practice.

 

Previous post by Mike “Meditation in Daily Life – Calming the mind“

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Meditation in Daily Life – Calming the mind

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There are many types and styles of meditation all of which are practiced for a variety of reasons.  These reasons span from simply finding a calm space in a hectic world to actually changing ones view of how one perceives the world.  Whatever your motivation or reason to meditate then hopefully you will find some useful information and guidance within the following series entitled Meditation in Daily Life.

Meditation & Calming the mind

Whether you are a complete beginner to meditation or an experienced Buddhist practitioner the first goal in meditation is to calm the mind.  There are several techniques to help with this although by far the most common way is to have something to concentrate the mind on, like a point of reference or a focus point.  Whilst this may sound a little contradictory when you say calming the mind by focusing on something, it may help to understand that as well as calming the mind, when meditating we also need to be fully aware and consciously working with our mind otherwise we may as well just be asleep.

Meditating on the breath is one of the most popular methods and especially easy for beginners to practice.  This involves focusing on the breath, not forcing the breath but just being aware and conscious of our breath; ideally using the stomach to control your breathing and inhaling and exhaling through the nose.  Perhaps just try this for a minute before you move to the next paragraph and see how it feels.

Before talking in more depth about meditation practice, maybe it would be helpful to explain how having this focus helps to calm the mind.  We all have distracting thoughts to contend with whilst meditating, no matter how much meditation experience one has.  The difference is that the more you meditate the less the thoughts distract you.

To analyse thoughts is sometimes referred to as contemplation and whilst this can be positive in some situations, it is not particularly beneficial for calming the mind.  Neither, on the other hand, should one try and block these thoughts as this will just dull the mind and in the end make you feel quite tired.  What we do when a thought pops into our mind when we are meditating is simply acknowledge the thought but then let it go without judging or focusing on it; give it the least amount of energy possible.  Then we return to our focus, in this case our breath.  Without something to return our focus to it would be difficult to steady and calm our mind as it would soon start to follow its own picture show and before long we would be off on a daydream.

There are many scientifically proved benefits from meditating and calming the mind that we start to experience as part of our daily lives:  It is known to increase our ability to focus and concentrate, increase our self awareness, develops a real sense of well being and calmness and if this is not enough, extensive research claims meditation leads to an increase in happiness!!

The next article in this series talks about practical aspects of meditation such as where and when to meditate along with useful tips to help motivate you to get your bum on the cushion 🙂

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Mindfulness & Meditation

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What is Meditation?  How do you ‘do’ meditation?  What is mindfulness?

I want to clear my mind, so why do I want to be mind-full more than now?!..

I don’t have time to sleep, let alone meditate!..  It all sounds a bit stressful?!..  ..Anything sound familiar?

I guess the best place to begin, is to highlight, for me, what the benefits of meditation are.  Of course, this will vary from person to person, but I’ll substantiate with some science from studies further down the page; as there seems to be much correlation with what the scientists are finding and what, I, as an individual, am living..

  • Better focus and concentration on task in hand.  I.e. able to cut some veggies up, without cutting myself..
  • Feel calmer, able to manage ‘stress’ more easily
  • Not so worried about what others think of me
  • Getting to sleep easier and better
  • Improved relationship with myself and my body
  • Better relationships with other people
  • Enhanced creativity and allowing my own ‘spark’ to shine

..Thus, to name but a few reasons why life feels better since including mindfulness meditation into my personal practices..

Mindfulness seems to be the meditation technique to best suit my personality, so far; from what I’ve explored meditation wise.  There are many other techniques one can use to get to know ones self, different techniques to suit different people at different times; as if a specific technique doesn’t feel right, listen to that inner voice and change course if necessary.  As Ekhart Tolle describes in his book, “The Power of Now”, everything is about this moment; whatever it is we’re feeling, living, exploring, it all happens right now, and mindfulness is a great way to get you into that space of the Now.

Through being mindful, we can pay attention to what is going on internally, in each moment, and therefore respond to external events in a way which is more congruent to our core beliefs; rather than perhaps to fall into habitual patterns and not knowing what is right for us.

Paying attention to the present moment not only helps our response abilities, but it also gets you out of worries, regrets, fears, anxieties and judgments.  None of these exist in the present moment, right now, how are you?  Where are you now?  Why worry about what’s not happened  yet, or, what you can’t change from past happenings.  When living in this moment, worry cannot exist.  Judgement comes from comparison and unseen dark corners of ourselves, by highlighting these corners, and taking time to presently explore how you feel about certain things, let emotions run their course, and, bring a whole new wealth of understanding of yourself, to yourself.

Mindfulness in the moment = You + Extra Space + Extra Time = Relief from the confines of the thoughts in your mind

Have a holiday from self-limiting beliefs and raise the roof on what you think is possible for you…  Breathe..

Resources:

 

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Easy Breathing Meditation, Relaxation

breathin med

This breathing meditation is simple to do yet effective at its head-space creation capabilities.. You can vary the length/counts for your breathing to suit you in that moment..  It’s also a great pre-cursor to the Yogic Breath technique.

Meditation or Mindfulness can help you to:

  • Feel calmer, happier and more content
  • Sleep better
  • Be more able to deal with difficult situations
  • Increase attention span
  • Have improved immunity, better health and less signs of aging (as are bi-products with stress reduction techniques naturally)

Safety points, if you suffer from heart conditions, are pregnant then it is NOT advised that you hold your breath between your inhale and exhale, otherwise, see how it feels and only include it if it works for you in any given moment…  Also, always inhale through your nose, to allow for better filtration of the air you intake, especially when in built up urban areas. Optimally, also exhale through your nose but this need not be so strict.

How to :

  1. Sit comfortably, preferably on a thick cushion or pillow on the floor.  If your knees don’t allow this then sit in a chair but with your spine self supporting, away from the back of the chair, or lay down on a mat or rug – or, of course, standing or walking can work too – main point is that your spine wants to be softly straight.
  2. As you breathe in, count how long your inhale takes.  As you breathe out, count your exhale duration too.  Do this for a few rounds of breath to get an idea of your normal.  You want to aim to fill up and empty your lungs with each breath a bit more each time until you reach your comfortable capacity.
  3. Next we want to lengthen and moderate the inhalations and exhalations.  Aiming to make them both the same count can help to regulate not just the breath but your awareness about how much and how quickly you take things in and how you let them go again.  A good starting point might be:
    • Breathe in (inhale) through the nose and down into your belly for a count of 3,
    • Breathe out (exhale), completely empty your lungs, through the nose for a count of 3.
      (I.e. Count to 3 in your head, slowly whilst you’re breathing..)
  4. After a few breaths if it feels OK then extend your breathing to a count of 4 inhaling and 4 exhaling.
    • If filling your belly and emptying your lungs doesn’t happen for you at first then play with it.  It may feel strange to begin with, but, if it feels too hard, not beneficial, or you get a headache; try making less effort with it, keep the practice simple and easy!..
  5. Repeat this pattern for at least a further 10 cycles (don’t worry if you loose count of something, it all takes practice, be kind to your learning process)
  6. To advance (if none of the conditions mentioned above):
    • Pause your breathing after you’ve filled your lungs.  Hold your breath for half the count of your inhale.  E.g. Inhale for 1, 2, 3, 4.  Hold for 1, 2.  Exhale for 1, 2, 3, 4..
    • And/Or extend the count for each part of the breath to a point you can manage easily. In more advanced yogic practices the ratios of inhale, exhale and holds do vary, so if you feel comfortable then be playful with this practice.  If you’re unsure it’s always best to seek some face to face guidance from a teacher you trust to check your technique, as we’re not all made the same, therefore it’s not one glove fits all for something as vital as our breathing..

Personally, I do this while on the train, walking, i.e. Pairing the count with my steps or, waiting in line or before any situation which might feel frustrating or bring me anxiety.  Or simply to remind me about the here and now.. This is my intention at least lol, as being human and fabulously imperfect, life doesn’t always happen as planned 😉

And that’s it, your mindful and meditating..!  Be kind to yourself and if you get frustrated trying to do this then keep it simple and take it back to counting your natural breath pattern with no intent to change it, simply count it.

Get out of your head! 😉

Love

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Candle Meditation

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One of the most enLightening (excuse the pun) meditations, for me, is the Candle meditation.  Couldn’t be simpler and yet neither more beautiful and effective to calm the mind and bring you into the present.

Set yourself a timer, if you’re new to meditation make it 5 minutes only, if you  have more experience and feel able to give more time then set longer, up to 30 minutes, but be modest so you put the time aside without worry.

Light a candle, one with an open, naked flame (probably better a pillar or stick candle, but tea light also works).

Sit about 1 or 2 foot away from your candle  and start your timer.

Setting a timer means you can let go of the mind thinking it needs to be busy or controlling the situation, thus easing into the time you’ve set aside.  Make sure you’re alert and not hungry or thirsty when you start to help you to stay still.

If you get distracted by thinking or trying to do something else, remind yourself it’s only for a few minutes and go back to watching the flame; see it dance and change and flow with every moment..  If you keep getting distracted, then notice where your distractions take you, if needs be pause the timer and write down what came up but get right back to the candle!

The hardest thing is starting the timer, if you can get to that point you’re winning.  Let me know how you get on!

Love