Five Steps Closer to Calm

Taken from Yoga Journal

If it's hard for you to still your mind to meditate, the senior teachers at Kripalu Center have developed a five-step approach that could help. Follow these steps and allow yourself to fall into a deep meditative state that will reveal a closer connection to the present and help calm you when you're upset.

1. Breathe — Focusing on your breathing is an essential practice that draws your awareness inward and helps you experience the presence and flow of energy.

2. Relax — The more you relax, the more you deepen awareness of sensation.

3. Feel — Let your sense of feeling move beyond physical sensation. Acknowledge who you are as a being of energy.

4. Watch — Sense who you are as a witness; be a scientist observing phenomena arising in and around you.

5. Allow — Sense who you are with no preferences. Be present to the process of your life unfolding moment by moment.

Intuition Meditation

Note: There are many times in our lives when we need to still the voices in our heads and discern the true answers to our questions (or, sometimes, the true questions to ask for our situation). Here is a meditation exercise that I've used many times in the past. It can be unnerving at first, but once you have become comfortable with listening to your own voice and trusting your intuitive senses, you can use this to make choices that are more in synch with your true self, and which will keep you in line along your true path.

Intuition Meditation

Taken from Yoga Journal

Through the practice of yoga, you can learn to hear—and follow—your inner guidance.

By Sally Kempton

When you want to understand something or make a decision, ask for guidance, and then experiment with following the guidance you receive. Here is a process to use that can really make a difference in your ability to hear what your deeper Self wants to tell you.

Step by Step

1. Spend some time formulating your question, getting as clear as possible about it. Write it down. (This is important-the act of writing concretizes your question or issue.) You could start by asking for help in resolving a creative problem, problematic relationship, or living situation. You could ask for insight about your practice or about an inner tendency that disturbs you.
   
2. Sit comfortably with your back erect but not rigid and your eyes closed. Hold the question in your mind. Say it to yourself a few times and notice the feelings that arise when you do. Notice any thoughts that come up, including resistance to the process. Jot them down if they seem important or relevant.
   
3. Use the rhythm of the breath as an anchor. Keep your attention on the breath until the mind relaxes and becomes quieter.
   
4. Sink your attention deeper. You can do this by focusing on the heart center (in the middle of the chest) or on the belly center (three inches below the navel, deep inside the body). Or you can use a visualization: Imagine yourself descending a staircase into a quiet cave, moving step-by-step until you find yourself enclosed in quiet.
   
5. In this quiet space, ask the sage within you, the person of wisdom who resides in your deepest core, to be present. Or, if there is a particular deity form or teacher or sage you respect, you might ask that being to be present. Alternatively, you might simply have the feeling that you are asking guidance from the universe, the Tao, the source of all. Understand that it is enough to ask that inner wisdom be present.
   
6. Ask your question. Then wait silently, without expectation or discouragement, to see what emerges. Remember that insight does not always come in words. It might come as a feeling, an image, or something said by another person. Also, it might not come the moment you ask for it. Intuition emerges in its own time. Once you have seeded the question, be attentive during the next 24 to 48 hours, because answers to your question will arise.
   
7. As insights come, write them down. Hold each one in your mind and let it percolate. See what comes up and note the feelings. You may be drawn to interpreting the insight, but it is also enough just to hold it in your consciousness. As you do, it will create shifts in consciousness all by itself. Note that if your insight feels judgmental, punishing, or blaming, it is probably not coming from your deepest source.
   
8. Finally, think of a step you can take to put your insight into action. Here is where the real experiment begins. The only way to learn to follow your intuitive guidance is to try it and be very aware of the results.
   

Ease with Enya

There's nothing like the music of Enya to keep me calm and centered.

When I was in freshman year in college, I would play the album The Memory of Trees over and over again during the daily commute to and from school (from Parañaque to Quezon City, and vice versa). That was about four months of listening to the songs almost everyday, and so I pretty much memorized the lyrics (the English ones, at least) and had their tunes ingrained in my subconscious.

I've graduated to other Enya albums since then, but my love affair with this kind of music continues.

In case you have a few minutes to spare, or toward the end of a frenetic day, take the time to view these videos and let the music and the images sink in.

Storms in Africa

My favorite Enya song of all time! If I could have it my way, I'd have this song playing during the recessional of my wedding ceremony.

Orinico Flow

Who doesn't know this, right? "Sail away, sail away, sail away..."

Caribbean Blue

I love the watercolor-ish, Waking Life-ish, super trippy (*wink*) approach to this video.

On My Way Home

Found at the end of the Memory of Trees album, this, indeed, was what I used to play on my way home from school over 10 years ago.

Watermark

A wonderful, wonderful song... Wasn't this associated with a De Beers commercial once? Whatever it was, it always makes me think of sparkling diamonds, or rain--depending on my mood, really. (I love the Claude Monet art on this one.)

Wild Child

I had a copy of A Day Without Rain shortly after graduating from college, and my work friends and I used to play this from our shared cubicle after the end of a really stressful day. For some reason, my friend Richard used to think this song really fit me.

More on Meditation

A lot has been written on meditation, and the Web is practically bursting with resources, from how-tos and videos to more lengthy discussions and discourses.

Here’s just a sampling of stuff that you might want to check out. If you know of other interesting links or resources on meditation (even classes, events, workshops, and what-not), please feel free to let me know so I can post it here.Ü

ARTICLES

Learning Meditation

“Too much stress, stress reduction, chill out, let it go, detach – familiar phrases to all of us. Our world is fast, fun and exciting. It is also challenging, trying, demanding and frightening. These two sides of our lives produce stress, emotional reactions, anxiety, worry and anticipation. Our bodies and minds can tolerate only so much of any of these. After a while, each of us reaches a saturation point and the results become uncomfortable at best; for some it may be unbearable, even unendurable…”

Read more here

Meditation Mount

“Meditation is a journey deeper into your true self, your true home. Meditation is for everyone, whatever your spiritual path, Eastern or Western. Meditation is bringing your attention inward, and allowing your mind to settle into stillness. It is withdrawing your attention from the periphery of your consciousness into the center. Meditation is the mind's power to hold itself steady in the Light and in that Light to become aware of your higher purpose, your life's mission. Meditation is called the Science of Light because it works with the substance of Light. Visualization is the secret of all true meditation work in the early stages…”

Read more here

Mending Mindfully (in Yoga Journal)

“Meditation is widely known to reduce stress and anxiety, but now science has proven that it may even help prevent illness. In a study at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, researchers found that mindfulness meditation produced lasting positive changes in both the brain and the immune system…”

Read more here

GUIDED MEDITATION VIDEOS (in YouTube)

Natural Healing Bonus Meditation

A really soothing meditation video that features nature images and a very light feminine voice.

The Ocean Breath – Guided Meditation Exercise

Features soothing music and visuals, and takes only less than 3 minutes to complete! Perfect for those high-stress office days. (The Aussie accent might be a bit difficult to adjust to, but you can choose to focus on the music and visuals if the voice gets to be a bit of a distraction.)

Chakra Meditation

This is a guided meditation video that aims to balance the chakras (energy centers). Again, it has an accent—British, this time—so you might need to turn the volume up to understand the words.

© 2007 Niña Terol