Day 5: 30 Day Mediation Challenge

Here is a lovely audio instruction from my beloved Sally Kempton. Meditation Instructions - Sally Kempton

I absolutely love love Sally's book Meditation for the Love It - there are so many wonderful instructions and stories to keep you motivated to meditate. Try not to view meditation as a chore, but a sacred time to be with yourself, your True Self, Highest Self, Essential Self, God, your Ishvara. Let today's practice be filled with love. Love yourself the way you would love your beloved, a precious child, your darling cat and/or puppy dog, the trees. Take this time to really enjoy the sensation of Love emanating and expanding throughout your practice and your day.

Happy Meditating!

Day 4: 30 Day Mediation Challenge

Technique to Try: Heart Breathing

• Lie on your back with your eyes closed and your hands on your heart. Begin breathing and fill your chest with your breath - feel your sternum expand with each breath. Do this for a few minutes.
• Then let your breathing to flow in and out naturally, effortlessly with your doing anything - just keep your awareness in the center of your chest where you hands are -feel what you feel.
• As you practice, let each breath remind your to stay centered and present in the now. When your attention strays, notice, and bring it back to the feeling-awareness of the ever-changing sensations in your check. Don't think about the breath, simply experience what's actually there to be experienced. We are shifting from thinking mode to feeling mode.
• Do this for 10 minutes.

Day 3: 30 Day Mediation Challenge

Technique to Try: Coming Back to Center Motionless sitting is probably the easiest way to learning to be centered, but being centering doesn't require  physical motionlessness. The more you practice, the more you can become familiar with the energetic feeling-tone of stillness. Throughout the day today, back to center as many times as you can. Relax into where you are, breathe, and consciously be present in the moment. Do this in the midst of anything/everything - all day long, and let the joy you feel permeate everything you do.

How did it go? Share your experience with the group here.

Day 2: 30 Day Meditation Challenge

Technique to Try: Mindfulness of Breathing

• Sit with you back straight and eyes closed.
• Begin with a gentle inhale. Hold your breath for a moment and then release the breath in a slow exhale. Do this 3 times then focus your awareness so that you feel yourself breathing, being as attentive as you can.
• What does it feel life to inhale? What does it feel like to exhale? Try not to control your breathing, instead practice letting go of control.
• The quality we want to cultivate is that of undivided attention to conscious experience you happen to be in.
• Experience the feeling of the energy in your body, the overall sensation of you.
• Give yourself your own undivided attention.

These technique options are to give you different things to try so that you can find something that words well. Consistency is excellent but meditation is a practice and trying out different techniques on different days can give you a different perspective and create space for an ah-ha!

Day 1: 30 Day Meditation Challenge

Our 30 Day Meditation Challenge is underway (There is still time to sign up). We have a lovely and large group of meditators so there is lots of support on this journey. Here are some considerations as we get started:

Mediation is a way of developing stillness and peace of mind. You can start by sitting absolutely still - "practicing conscious physical immobility can teach you how to be in the conflict-free, higher-energy, "stillness" state for more of your daily life. You can learn what it feels like to have all your energy perfectly aligned and in harmony." Sounds good, right?

A Technique to Try: Counting Backward*

• Begin by counting backward from fifty to zero, synchronizing the counting with your breathing.
• Count the odd numbers as you inhale and the even numbers as you exhale.
• Sit with your back straight and eyes closed.
• When you reach 0, stop counting, but stay aware of the natural flow of breath.
• Sit absolutely still, but don't hold yourself still. Simply be so relaxed that no movement occurs.
• Be very aware of how you feel: how peaceful, energized, calm, alert, serene, fearless, at ease. Familiarize yourself with this feeling, the feeling-tone of being centered and at peace, and rest here for another few minutes.
• You are learning not to be in control. You are learning how to get out of the way.

The more familiar you are with the feeling-tone of your own centered being when you are "home" and alone, the more obvious it will be when you move away from it, and the easier it will be to find your way back to center in the midst of your (busy) life." -Erich Schiffman

After today's session, write for a few minutes with no agenda other that to see what is revealed. If you want, share what you discovered with the group.

*from Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness, by Erich Schiffman (YSPMIS ES)