Meditation

Welcome to the meditation membership series

New meditations will be added each month

Most Recent Meditation👇🏽

Breath and the thinking mind: The state of your breath reflects the state of your mind. The good news is it is easy to change your breathing. Use this practice to slow down and relax your mind, to build your inner focus and attention.

11 minutes

Intention: Trust

Call on a memory of trust. Something positive from your past, with a person, place, or thing. If you have trouble feeling that kind of trust, call upon the trust of the Earth beneath you, the air around and within you. Trust in the flow of water and gravity.

What does it feel like to have trust in your heart?

Quote: As soon as your trust yourself, you will know how to live” ~Goethe

Heart Coherence--aligning heart, brain, and nervous system through breath and meditation.

The three main components of this practice:

  1. Slowing down the breath to increase blood flow to brain

  2. Using a heart centered intention (or positive emotion)

  3. Returning to that focus in your day as you connect to others

Intention: Gratitude

Gratitude brings the greatest benefit to the body and emotions when it is something small and simple. Find gratitude for a very simple experience from your day: the way the light dapples across the floor, the sound of a bird, the taste of your coffee or tea, whatever is joyful yet simple will help you to feel grateful for each day.

Quote:

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." ~The Little Prince

Intention: Strength

True strength is not about pushing and forcing. True strength is found deep inside the heart, in the spirit of compassion and acceptance.

Observe the breath moving freely. Feel your inner reserves of strength that reside in the heart space.

Mantra: My Love Is Strong

Quote: “We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.” —Kavita Ramdas

Pranayama—preparation for meditation.

Four Seven Eight Breath is like a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system. This breath is subtle at first but the more you practice it the deeper you will feel its healing powers. Use whenever you feel stressed, tired, malaise, or need to even out your emotions.

A Tall Seat—15 minute meditation. Includes beginner instruction for meditation, list of benefits, guided body awareness. Each meditation includes a minimum of three minutes of silence, and a guided return.

"Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscle of calm and focus." –Ajahn Brahm

Notice Your Thoughts—12 minute meditation. Meditation isn't about having no thoughts, it's about being aware of your thoughts and putting some space between your thoughts, your body, and your breath. Over time, this helps make you less reactive. Includes Ujjai Breath instruction, three minutes of silence, and guided return.

"Learn to be calm and you will always be happy." –Paramahansa Yogananda

Back Body Awareness–10 minute meditation.

We tend to live in the frontal body. But when you can shift your awareness to the back body, you can reside more fully in the present moment. Includes gentle guided visualization of the back body, and full breath awareness.

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

" Sound and Silence"—using breath and sound to build awareness. Includes three breath techniques:

  1. Ujjai breath (Ocean wave breath)

  2. Ham Sa breath (breathe in hear the sound "Haa" in your mind, breathe out hear the sound "Saa" )

  3. 4-4-8 (breath in for the count of 4, hold the breath for the count of 4, then out for the count of 8)

Consider using one or all in your own meditations, or anytime you need a reset or mental break. They only take a few minutes! Three to four breaths can be enough to reset your thinking.

"The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear." -Rumi

Metta Meditation comes from the Buddhist practice of meditation. It is a meditation and practice of loving-kindness. Through this practice you will focus on sending positive thoughts, kindness, and prayerful-intentions to yourself, others in your life, and to the entire Earth community. Compassionate thinking restructures your mind and invites you into an entirely new relationship with the world.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

—Dalai Lama XIV

Sustain Your Practice—A few minutes of silence each day can be a powerful experience. Consistent practice is more important than duration. To glean all of the many benefits of meditation, commit to just a few minutes every day. Regular practice helps you to stay focused on a task as well as improve your ability to recall details of an event, increases neural processing, and so much more.

“A most useful approach to meditation practice is to consider it the most important activity of each day. Schedule it as you would an extremely important appointment and unfailingly keep your appointment with the infinite.”

–Roy Eugene Davis