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Spirit
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!
My personal catalyst for this 30 Day Mediation Challenge was a desire to get to the heart of my own limiting and long-heald beliefs. To cultivate the deep well of me-ness below the negative ideas I have believed about myself. In addition to a daily meditation practice to really cultivate the connection to the deep well, I have been taking a good look as what I am ashamed of. Around what I feel the emotional pain of shame and how it manifests in my behavior. (Resource: Daring Greatly, Brene Brown). So, one night I just began naming/identifying my shame - this exercise continued over the course of the next 36 hours or so … I discovered (pretty personal stuff here, some very surprising, some not so surprising):
- Shame is needing others.
- Shame is desperate fear of needing others and being alone.
- Shame is desperation.
- Shame is working too hard. Not "working smarter not harder".
- Shame is not doing something that I would get upset at another for not doing.
- Shame is thinking my ex thinks I'm crazy.
- Shame is talking about my ex.
- Shame is not being about to do what I want due to a limitation.
- Shame is an unkept house.
- Shame is insecurity.
- Shame is not exercising.
- Shame is not following thru
- Shame is admitting that I'm afraid.
- Shame is 'my company' is not good enough and that reflects on me.
- Shame is admitting I am in pain and can't handle it.
- Shame (this one is heavy) is being addicted to the negative patterns I've experienced since childhood.
- and oh, there is more …
I know that I am in a "shame storm" when:
- I get really angry
- I start to cry and become inconsolable
- I feel desperate.
The point is not that the shame is reasonable or rational but that it is named, that I able to bring it to light and build my own resilience to it.
This is what catalyzed my personal commitment to this 30 day challenge. What about you?
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.
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.