I have been reflecting on meditation lately, and how it helps me in my everyday life, in so many ways, and that it is a part of my mental and physical wellness. How did I find meditation? I found meditation when I most needed it and I was at a time of life when I was ready to transform and change. I started practicing and I was a beginner, and I learned to do it (by doing it) and now it is a critical part of my practice of life. There are so many ways to meditate and I definitely don’t think one way is better than another. If you are a beginner at meditation, I say, just get started, download an app and start with 5 minutes a day, or take an intro to meditation class… the options are endless. When I work with people one-on-one and especially in my 4 month Be Rooted in Your Truest Self program, establishing a daily meditation practice is a huge focus.
Thanks DAD…
I was not 100% new to meditation and I had my dad introduce me to meditation as a child. He was a professional musician and professor and was really into helping his students get over stage fright. I know he was into NLP training and other meditation practices for himself. Growing up I had a hard time sleeping and falling asleep, and he would guide me in meditation and visualization to help me fall asleep. He also taught me a lot about the power of visualization when I was a competitive swimmer in high school. So, I do have to thank and credit my dad for introducing me to the power of meditation and visualization young, though I didn’t keep a “daily practice.”
Thanks, JADE…
I have my first acupuncturist, Jade Duggan to thank for helping me and encouraging me to start meditating. I recently realized that I learned to be still in meditation while on the table receiving acupuncture, and that it was an intense experience for me, as when the energy released during my treatment, the room would spin, and I knew I was just moving energy…. Jade kept telling me to check out Jon Kabat-Zinn’s work and his book, Full Catastrophe Living. I was just coming away from being a science teacher and was really into “data” and “proof” and she knew that, and hence, this book resonated with me. He gives all kinds of studies and reasons why meditation is so helpful and important to healing anxiety, depression, and disease. I followed the CDs that came with the book, or that came with another book of his (yes, CDs, this was in 2009, before meditation apps). It is so interesting to think back to this time of reading this book and listening to these CDs, when now meditation is so easy to access, with meditation apps with thousands of meditations ready at the tap of a button on the phone!
It took me a while to get into the practice of meditation, and what I did start to see the positive results of meditation (that is for another blog). During this time I was also introduced to Tich Nhat Hanh in my graduate school studies and more about living in mindfulness. This also helped me to slow down and bring mindfulness to everyday activities (again, over 10 years later it is cool to see how “mainstream” mindfulness is and how easy it is to learn about it). I remember being able to re-frame things like washing cloth diapers and doing dishes to mindfulness practices as a new mom, which helped with my “stress” levels immensely.
Thanks, KAREN…
Soon after I started learning and practicing listening to Zinn’s CDs, (he focuses on mindfulness practice) I was introduced to yoga nidra by Karen Brody. I was taking a class she was co-teaching and she included a few yoga nidra meditations as part of the class. I started listening and practicing daily, and it was life-changing as well. Yoga nidra has been an important part of my life and daily meditation practice consistently for a decade now, and especially for those people who “don’t know how to rest” or “don’t know how to meditate” this is a wonderful practice. I started practicing daily when I was a new mom- I used it for my “late afternoon re-set and re-charge” and I practiced daily (I still do). Please check out Karen’t book and website, Daring to Rest, as it has helped many of my clients as well, who have taken her 40 day rest challenge that is outlined in her book. She has an amazing website explaining yoga nidra, she has many wonderful yoga nidra meditations to listen to, 40 day programs you can join, and a teacher training program (that I did participate in, and decided to not teach yoga nidra and instead tell everyone to get Karen’s book and check out her website!)
Thanks, Bonnie…
Adding Reiki to my meditation practice was life-changing in so many ways, and I have to thank my teacher Bonnie Tarantino for her wisdom, guidance and encouragement. She is a big part of why I am here today sharing Reiki with others as my life’s work. As a teacher now, I have seen directly how powerful adding Reiki to a daily meditation practice is through observing my students in Be Rooted in Your Truest Self, where we start with daily practices for 6 weeks before we learn Reiki and then continue practicing together for another 12 weeks.