Day 22: 30 Day Meditation

My sit passed quickly today. I listened to Deva Premal singing mantras and really enjoyed the repetition of the music. It seemed easy to stop my whirling thoughts with the mantras going in my head. I found myself wanting to do some spontaneous movement for a few minutes and then settled back into stillness. I sat longer than 15 minutes because I wanted to keep listening to the mantra songs.

Day 21: 30 Day Meditation

I had a hard time keeping my eyes closed today. My eyelids kept fluttering. I decided to let my eyes open and just sit. I kept awareness on my breath and let my eyes rest on the trees outside my window. This was actually very restful. I felt less mind-busy than I usually do with my eyes closed.

Also, Noah had asked the other day about how to sit to relieve back pain. Here's one idea:

Sitting with belt support. Use a yoga belt (or any belt which is big enough to go around you from lumbar to easy-seated-knees). Snug the belt up til you feel like your knees and back are mutually supported and see how it feels for your meditation. You may also notice that I am sitting on a wedge. This tilts the pelvis forward and relieves back strain.

Day 20: 30 Day Meditation

It is too exciting to meditate but I did anyway. All I could think about was the rain. It is biblical here. Here's a bit of news from the Duluth News Tribune:

Mayor Don Ness has declared a state of emergency in the city of Duluth, citing "significant damage, debris and popped manholes."  "We have a coordinated response with city, county, State Patrol, Coast Guard, Red Cross, and the feds ready to help,” Ness wrote.

Evacuations are under way in the Fond du Lac neighborhood of Duluth and Thomson Township in Carlton County, and officials at the Lake Superior Zoo are assessing damage and counting their losses after animals drowned and some escaped in the flooding. Duluth fire and police crews helped zoo staff track down escaped animals, including the polar bear and a seal. Johnson said many of the zoo’s animals have drowned, including all but one of the zoo’s barnyard animals.

Dean Melde, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said an inch of rain usually equates to between 10 and 12 inches of snow. So the current system could have dropped 60 and 70 inches of snow on Duluth.

Personally, I am devastated by the loss of life at the zoo. Because we humans need to keep animals penned up for our "viewing pleasure" those animals have died. I am greatly saddened by this. 

Day 19: 30 Day Meditation

Isn't funny how sometimes you feel fine while sitting and other times there is a nagging body part that won't let go? Today it was my upper back. I had a student tell me once that she often got a "kitchen" back ache. I was like, "What's that?" and she said, "It's when your upper back hurts after you've been working in the kitchen for a long time." Well that made sense to me. I guess I get those too. And today was once of those days. Of course I hadn't even been in the kitchen yet but I think it's from my recent long and intense days at the computer. I was able to keep breathing and listening to the rain and my timer went off in what felt like a short time.

Here's a link to a short, guided, deep relaxation with gong: Deep Relaxation with Gong. This is a live recording from my Yin Yoga class last Friday. The recording quality of my iPhone is only so-so. The audio is fairly quiet and there are background noises too but maybe that will make you feel like you are in class, meditating with the group. My students were all in Savasana so you can choose to sit up or lay down to start.

I think you can just click on the link to download, but if that doesn't work try right-clicking and then choose "save link as" in order to download this file and listen on your iPod or mp3 player. This file is 12 minutes, 10 seconds and about 6 Megs.

Enjoy!

Day 18: 30 Day Meditation

Today, as I sat, words came to me (I guess I am thinking of them as a poem). I'll try to remember them here.

I am love,
I am light,
I am sorrow,
I am hope.
I am all of these things and more.
I am one with god.

I am body,
I am space,
I am nothing,
I am everything.
I am all of these things and more.
I am one with god.

I am thought,
I am breath,
I am sensation,
I am sound.
I am all of these things and more.
I am one with god.

Wow - being raised to not believe in god, being raised to believe that christians and christianity are bad is making me feel sick to my stomach to even type these words on the screen. I can't believe I wrote the words, "I am one with god." I feel hot and nervous - obviously some work for me here.

Day 17: 30 Day Meditation

Today was a nice sit. I listened to the audio file I posted on Talking us into Meditation and then sat in silence. My dog joined me and laid down right up against me. I imagined healing energy filling me, filling my dog, and filling my partner. When my timer went off I did a short gratitude meditation, naming all the things for which I am grateful.

Gratitude meditation can be a practice in and of itself. I detail this practice on this post: Finding Contentment.

Happy Father's Day!

Day 16: 30 Day Meditation

Today is Grandma's Marathon in Duluth. I love watching the runners. I am inspired every year to imagine that I, too, could train and run. Of course I never do. It hurts to run across the street - knees and ankles cracking, organs joggling around in my belly. Running doesn't feel safe to me.

Of course meditation doesn't always feel safe either, does it? Sitting with our thoughts, feeling and emotions, day in and day out. I guess we can liken ourselves to the runners: here we sit, training our minds, schooling our thoughts, developing our will.

Today I sat with a recording I made last night at Yin class of a short deep relaxation practice. First a breath and body awareness practice followed by the gong. It was a bit odd to listen to myself but the practice was enjoyable. I'll try to get the audio posted by Monday.

Have a good weekend. I am off to the races!