Recently, I was drawn to remind the participants of the current Being With All That Is ongoing group, that if they are moved to make the worldly story better-and there is nothing wrong with that!-how helpful a regular meditation and self-healing practice is, however simple. The beginning of the day is a good time and if not, the end of the day is also potent. In the appearance, at these times the world is a little less fast paced and a little more still and silent.
Catch those moments as ‘you’ move from sleep into awakeness. Begin to notice how ‘you’ might begin to re-construct an identity and remember what ‘you’ ‘have’ to do today. Seeing through all this is a good start to dissolving your sense of limited choice.
This first waking time is a time of day when you might be more open to seeing through your everyday roles, and your assumptions about ‘what kind of person’ you are. These remembered identities and assumptions are not true! nor can they confine you or diminish the essence of what is.
Perhaps experiment with not putting the radio or tv on when you make breakfast. Perhaps ask your family to share being in silent time for a few minutes while you go about practical jobs.
Scientific research shows that a regular meditation session is a powerful way to release stress and anxiety and to improve your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being. There are so many simple methods -commit to at least one every day for say two weeks and see how things change for the better (your mind will resist so your committment matters)
This is how a 15 minute session might look
1. Shake for 2 minutes as vigorously as you can – become the shaking
2. Sit with a straight back and relaxed,closed eyes and relaxed jaw, for 10 minutes where you wont be disturbed. Simply listen to the life inside or if there is simply space to life’s vastness. If strong feelings or memories arise, simply allow and love what is here -breathe in love and ease, breathe out disturbance. Just sitting in silence allows the mind to quiet, which helps your body release stress and helps you connect to love that simply is.
If you know ho’oponopono you can use that at least once a week during this time. Or choose hiolani, the profound Huna meditation on the light.
Both of these I share in the Huna retreat, Lomi retreat and in introductory Huna weekends. They are simple but profound in their effects. You could instead choose to work with Essence, another very profound series of awakening invitations I share in the varied Essence retreats, such as The Ordinary Mystic, Living Aliveness and Essence Awakening Groups )
3. To close your quiet meditation time, breathe into the heart. Focus on what in your life you are grateful for. Then what you are grateful for that awaits you in this new as yet untouched day
Remember that you will meet resistance to this, regard it as part of the process, a welcome friend, rather than allowing it to sabotage your committment. (see this Blog post on resistance and blog post Your Gateway to Being) These approaches are simple but they are all you need to start peeling away layers of illusion about who you are and freeing you from mind’s grip on your true nature, which is no less that everything and no more than no-thing!
Cleaning up the past -day by day as well as the old stories that have seemed to define your life -is an important spiritual hygiene. Make it a habit like brushing your teeth! and then you might re-member, realise, a sense of oneness, of connectedness to all other things and beings, a love for all creation.
If you wish to pursue this you might consider using the Aliveness Moving, Stillness Listening download which you can buy at the Store. The Aliveness Moving, Stillness Listening is a powerful healing you can use regularly in your ordinary life.
If you are serious about expanding consciousness, about being free, then this is the first requirement. Only you can do it.
Increased presence will make all aspects of your day alive, sweet, a gift. Dont miss this life!
This is a good, simple introduction to meditation.
I like the short 15 minute period you recommend for a morning session to start the day. It’s do-able for those who don’t have much time in the morning and has variety to hold your interest and attention.
Thanks!
Its a pleasure -hope you are inspired to practice. let me know how you get on Steve xx
Dear Joy
I have noticed lately that my mind seems to be whirring away, mulling over 101 things I think I need to do at work…even before I am fully awake! It seems as though my unconscious is already thinking about work before I have quite come to. I stay in silence until I leave the house, but my mind is in overdrive lately, possibly because there are so may different tasks I am juggling.
I have attempted morning meditation over several weeks, but somehow my mind seems so restless in the morning. What seems to help is picking up my journal first thing and doing a brain dump. I wonder if shaking might work just as well? It certainly helped yesterday after work when I was feeling ‘stressed’. I feel a strong resistance to getting out of bed and shaking when I want to lie there looking out at the tree, having a cuppa and writing (albeit with a spinny mind!)
I think you’re going to tell me to just do it!?
Karen xxx
Thanks for the homework! I have been mostly doing yoga in the mornings, including some heart meditation. Shaking is a good idea to begin with. I’ve also done a perception thing recomended by Serge Kahili King – noticing all the different colours in my environment one by one, then straight lines and then curves, then sounds, then touching things – then flicking from one to another – took me ages to do but was extraordinary in my bedroom, and environment I ‘thought’ i knew so well… and lovely to do in Italy. xx aloha
Hiya Karen the brain dump sounds great. Shaking is highly recommended as it stirs everything up and shakes it all out. then the shaking shakes you. …..yes, just do it! (you can still have your time in bed looking at the tree!) Let me know how it goes xxxx
Its a pleasure rachel. the perception exercise is fun yes. there is another beautiful perception meditation – simply receive a physical object into sight (passively rather than actively, with soft peripheral vision ideally (hakalau)
Contemplate it tho Receive is a better word as you are letting go of thinking about it. Receive the colours, texture, shape…
and then simply consider the possibility that
eg This desk is not and never was a desk
would love to hear how this is for you
all love Joy xx
Thank you Joy
Funny thing is, since writing about my resistance, I have arisen as soon as I awoke these last few mornings, shaken for a couple of minutes and then sat under my tree with a cuppa, just closing my eyes and tuning into nature. It’s so different hearing birdsong outside than it is through my window, while feeling the breeze, or the soft rain, or early morning sun on my skin and hearing insects buzzing around me and sensing the energy of the tree (I learned something from the tree, which I may share on another forum later…..)
I have already noticed a quietening of my work-mind busyness in the morning and have settled myself before bed sitting under the tree too- ahhhh it feels so nourishing and relaxing 🙂
Peekaboo Rachel- lots of love to you
Aloha, Karen xxx
So thank you Life, for
It’s increadible how simple it is but how rarely it is used.
with my clients, they have been stressed by trying to meditate because they
had unreasonable expectations. such as they would see buddah, or they would float or fly or they had no idea what to expect and how to know if they had meditated or not. What I find to be most relaxing is the breath in, expect nothing, hold for half a second, expect nothing, breath out deeply, expect nothing, then hold for half a second and expect nothing. It really works because all of the presure is off. People relax because they stop trying to reach the vauge world on popular market enlightenment.