Meditation Monday: Moving Meditations

Hello and Happy Monday! This week I'd like to talk about moving meditations. I've written before about the fact that I have trouble with traditional still meditations as I am a mover. I find it easier to go to that quiet place of contemplation in my mind when I'm doing repetitive movements of some kind: swimming laps, jogging, walking, or even doing dishes. That's why I thought I would concentrate on various kinds of moving meditations today and give you links to videos of those meditations also. Below I've given you a brief overview of three different kinds of moving meditations. I hope that if you're like me and you prefer to move while meditating, you find one that works for you. Remember though that if you try these meditations and they don't feel right to you, simply take the movement of your choice and if you're consciously aware the entire time you're doing it, it becomes a meditation in itself.

Lightwork: Moving Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptsq5Ur5yQ0 Almost 7 minutes long, filmed on a beautiful beach. Easy, standing postures.

Mahasati Meditation: Moving With Awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4ffdfw0BI
Tibetan monk sitting by the side of a lake, walking and sitting postures, concentrating on moving only one body part at a time.

Qigong Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUtRnDdDsPc  Qigong is a practice with roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy which allows access to higher realms of awareness and develops human potential. It aligns body, breath, and mind and is viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi) or life energy. It is now practiced worldwide and throughout China for recreation, exercise and relaxation. Qigong involves slow flowing movements, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind.

What I'm Grateful For This Week

Thought I'd try something new. This is an amalgam of all the things I'm grateful for this week--some has been posted to IG, some to FB, some right here and some nowhere at all until now. As you'll notice, they aren't "prettied up". I want this to be more spontaneous.

This pretty lady turned 98 this week. I'm so grateful she's my mother-in-law.

This is a wire sculpture I started of the Nelson-Atkins Museum here in KC. Grateful to live in

such a cool city with a museum like this.

It was BEAUTIFUL here all week long and I loved it-last Saturday we took our dog to the dog beach at a park and then had a picnic on a blanket. 

I finally got my studio organized and hung all my work on the walls. That made me feel really accomplished!

Finished the wire piece of the Nelson. Grateful I had the time to do it. Wire is my first love.

Packed a BIG order for Uncommon Goods website. Love working with them and am grateful for em!

Finished a piece inspired by a friend's wedding dress that I'm going to give her next time I see her. Grateful for inspiration.

My new hydrangea tree is starting to bloom--and just when I thought I didn't have a green thumb. Grateful for a gardening miracle.

Made some KC blank cards this week and got them to a local shop, Shop Beautiful. Happy to have some of my work here in my hometown.

            Friends came over and we sat on my porch and talked until I got to light my chandelier. Grateful for friendship and for Studio M, who made my chandelier a reality.

Saw this GORGeouS car today. Know what it is? '46 Caddy. So glad cars like this

are still around.

So that's it. The week in gratitude. It's been a great week for more reasons than just this though. Hope you all had a good week too! What would your week look like?

Meditation Monday: Reviewing the new "Ananda-Living In Love" Meditation App from Chopra Enterprises

Hello and Happy Monday once again! This week I received an offer to download a new meditation app from Oprah and Deepak Meditation called Living In Love. The initial app is free and comes with one basic breathing meditation led by Deepak Chopra but if you want to experience any of the other 22 guided meditations in the app you'll need to purchase them for $2.99 each. As with my previous meditation posts, I am reviewing only the free version of this app so that it's an even comparison. In this first meditation, Deepak Chopra leads this meditation and it is called the SoHum meditation because this word becomes a mantra that you repeat with each breath in and out.

  When you download the app and open it, you'll see that you have a choice of different music tracks that can accompany your meditation. These are only accessible if you purchase one or more of the meditations.

Next, you can choose the length of your meditation.

You can also choose the balance of the volume between the guide's voice and the music you hear with one slider bar.

The titles you see below relate to the title of the music selection on the left and the guided meditation title on the right.

For comparison, here is the free app Simply Being that I reviewed in an earlier post. You can see that you have separate slider bars and can choose between music, nature sounds, and voice. You can also choose to have the music continue at the end of your guided meditation for a certain amount of time.

Speaking for myself, I prefer the Simply Being app because it gives the listener more choices without having to purchase anything. I love the option of listening to nature sounds also instead of music. Also, I find the guide's voice to be more soothing and conducive to deep meditation than in the SoHum mantra meditation in the Living In Love app. Don't take it from me however-I encourage you to experience it for yourself. Here's the link to download it:http://bit.ly/1mlDhvA

                 Enjoy your Monday and your entire week. I wish you peace and happiness!

Meditation Monday: Prana Meditation-Meditation for Increased Energy

Happy Monday! Are you starting out your week feeling energized and ready to go? Or are you feeling like you're already lacking some energy before you've even gone out the door (or sat down at your desk if you work at home)? Well this week I'm going to talk about the practice of Prana meditation. There are many interesting and thorough articles on this type of meditation practice but I am going to give you the beginner's viewpoint, as I had never done Prana meditation prior to a few weeks ago but once I tried it, I'm hooked!

   The word Prana is a Sanskrit word meaning "breath, considered as a life-giving force" and the practice of Pranayama comes from Hindu yoga, meaning "the regulation of the breath through certain techniques and exercises." Certified yoga teacher Dawn Angerame of Nava NYC gives a brief explanation of Pranayama here:http://bit.ly/TJm42X

  Speaking for myself, I found Prana meditation really helpful for feeling grounded and energized and I've begun to practice it in the afternoon when my energy or attention is waning but it's also really beneficial first thing in the morning too. I found this 18 minute Prana meditation by Brian Anderson that adds a visualization to the meditation that I enjoyed and found helpful also. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t_MeMFdABQ

  Remember: You don't have to be a yoga practitioner to do a Prana meditation. You just have to have a few moments to spare and a desire to increase your energy. I hope you'll find it as helpful as I did!

Accidental Meditation: You Mean I'm Already Meditating?

   I have a confession: I'm a terrible meditator. I want to be good at it, I TRY to be good at it, but I find it very hard to sit still for even a few minutes without all these thoughts going through my head like "You should be working, think of all you could get done right now, you should go for a run, you need to do the laundry today..." on and on--the list is endless. Here's the thing: I thought I was the only one or one of a minority of people, who find it hard to sit still. I'm a mover-I love moving around throughout the day so even sitting in front of a computer is really a struggle for me. I know it's good to take frequent breaks anyway, but my breaks become longer and longer while I find more things to do away from my Mac and my work. When I go on a walk or run or when I swim laps at the gym, I find it so much easier to just be mentally quiet and really observe my surroundings and just BE in the moment. Are you like this also? If so, you need to read the article below by J.C. Peters entitled "Accidental Meditation: You're Already Doing It."
If you prefer to listen to this in podcast form on your phone or laptop, medium Laura Evans reads it on this free download here: http://mediumlauraevans.podomatic.com/entry/2013-11-09T06_23_15-08_00

   This article explains in an easy-to-understand format the way our brains are built to wander and how we are already meditating sometimes whether we realize it or not. She talks about repetitive activity being the perfect conduit for meditation because it frees up our right brain to have a physical, present moment experience. As she says "We all need moments where the mind can wander, and if we don't sit still in mindful meditation the brain will figure out a way to zone out."
So if you're like me and find it hard to sit still but you feel like you should be meditating, take heart--you probably already are.  Or, as J.C. Peters says "You're not bad at meditating, you're just human with a brain."

      

Wed, October 30 2013

Accidental Meditation: You're Already Doing it

By: 

JC Peters

Most people think they are bad at meditating. Can’t sit still and turn your thoughts off for at least 20 minutes? You’re not bad at meditating, you’re just a human with a brain.

Actually, most of us already meditate—we just do it accidentally. You know that feeling when you are taking a shower, and the warm water pours over your body, and you forget what you were rushing to get ready for? Time disappears for a moment, and when you step out of the shower you snap out of it. Maybe you’ve driven down a long empty road with no traffic, and suddenly you’ve hit the next town. This feeling of time lapsing and your thoughts tumbling freely like dryer sheets happens all the time: on walks or runs, in the moments before you fall asleep, when you are staring out a bus window, or daydreaming in a waiting room.

We all need moments where the mind can wander, and if you don’t sit still in mindful meditation, the brain will figure out a way to zone out. Meditation doesn’t have a standard definition because it’s something different depending on which tradition you are working within. Most meditations are essentially techniques for releasing the hold of the moment-to-moment crush of daily life so we can slip into a quieter place where we can connect to our bodies, our intuitions, or perhaps some form of spirituality. 

One way of thinking about this (greatly simplified) is that most of the time, we are very active in the left brain hemisphere, which governs language, analysis, rational thought, and planning for the future. The right brain doesn’t have language, and governs our experiences of sensation, image, intuition, and energy. We live in a world that privileges our left brain, and we feed our information addictions constantly through our smartphones. We need to balance that with moments where we can slip off to a space where time stops its incessant tick, and we can access our subconscious, emotional, and creative selves.

When accidental meditations happen, the left brain is occupied with a repetitive task that’s familiar enough that it doesn’t require a full engagement. Showering, walking, or figuring out where to put your foot in a yoga class can give your analytical left brain something to do, which frees up the right brain to have a physical, present-moment experience. Even forms of classical meditation, like repeating a mantra over and over in your mind, are essentially techniques for occupying your left brain so that you can slip into a different state.

This different state often means your brain is in an alpha brainwave rhythm, a relaxed, open-minded experience where creativity is at its most potent. When we are stressed and over focused, we can’t see any new ways of thinking. Alpha state blurs our sense of boundaries and rationality, so new ideas and connections can appear. That’s why we often get our best ideas in the shower.

You know, then, that you are already a great meditator, whether you mean to be or not. Creating more opportunities to enter into this creative state is as easy as incorporating more light, repetitive, physical activity, like walking, into your day. Next time you are sitting on a bus, resist the urge to check your phone: just stare out the window. Knitting, cooking, and cleaning can also be very effective accidental meditations. The more mindful these meditations become, the less accidental they are. Soon enough, you may notice yourself getting stuck worrying about the future or trying to think out a problem, so you stop and try one of these activities instead. You may even decide to sit still for 20 minutes, and find out that meditation on purpose isn’t so bad, after all.

- See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/blog/jc-peters/accidental-meditation-youre-already-doing-it#sthash.pxGU7JFL.dpuf