8 Tips to Meditation Practice
There are a few simple things to consider as you take your seat into your meditation practice. This is time for you, your inner self, beyond ego and “personality”. It is fundamentally about reuniting with your heart and soul that comes on the wave of each breath.
After years of meditation practice, I find that the time when I sit in silence is a time to be with the ”what isness” of life, aka the miracle of life and my being in it.
Without even trying you will soon discover a natural well of gratitude and sense of belonging come through you. The most important thing is not to have too many expectations or push for preconceived ideas getting immediately into “no mind” completely.
We are always in a state of flux and meditation is a practice “to become familiar with”, so what you are getting familiar with will change over time.
This is about you and your moment here alive on this planet, regardless of ANYTHING going on around you. It's a silent witnessing and breath dialogue between you and the infinite flow of universal life.
8 tips to get you started:
1) Set an alarm so you can relax properly and not guess the time - 15 minutes, half an hour, 45 minutes -however long you wish to practice
2) Sit comfortably, aware of the alignment stacking your head and shoulders above your hips with a supported spine. Position cushions so you can be fully supported and relaxed but alert.
3) Mentally arrive into the room - acknowledging mindfully where you are sitting, the room layout and sounds you can hear. Let yourself settle here as your mind might take a few moments to get that you’re just going to sit. Disentangle from whatever you were doing previously.
4) Notice how your breath is - not initially changing anything simply drawing your focus softly into your body and into your breath, just as it is.
4) Allow yourself a few deep breaths, as you find a settled space begin to emerge. Notice how your body opens into space.. Anything you notice is ok. Just let it (the noticing) come and then go again - so if you're feeling sad, stressed, tired or content and excited, witness them and continue sitting.
5) Let your breath be an anchor that travels behind your eyes, and follow it in, arriving further inside you: - back of eyes, back of the throat, heart space, belly, the base of the spine. It doesn’t have to be every breath but this helps turn the mind from the outer world to your inner one.
6) Continue to enjoy the gentle focus on your breath coming in and then leaving.
7) Let yourself or your mind's eye simply hover within the awareness of this "life force" flowing in and through you., where it flows in your body. Let yourself be breath.
8) Suspend your gentle focus and as the mind comes in, as it will with any perceived problems, or things to do, don’t respond. You’re simply noticing it and getting familiar with yourself. Find the flow of breath again and let the thoughts of the past or the future, melt once again into the background.
Meditation practice supports us
in changing our perspective on things and brings into balance the inner and outer realities. It calms the nervous systems and helps us realign with our lives minus ego-driven drama and entanglement.
Classes
I'm offering weekly meditations every Monday, some in the morning and some in the evening. Visit my Schedule
If you would like to join me for a four-week meditation course hosted at Central Wellness , I am looking forward to offering a four-weekly themed meditation course. Inviting the elements of Fire, Air, Earth and Water be fertile elements to focus and infuse our meditation practice.
Starting Tuesday 2nd February at 7 am, we will be opening with the warming and nourishing element of Fire.