Category Archives: Mindfulness Meditation

The big value of that ‘after lunch’ meditation

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I mentioned to the group in a Mindfulness Meditation class recently how I do many 10-20 minute meditations throughout the week. Then on a class one night last month when I had almost an hour, my body really let go further and I almost fell asleep while sitting in the chair monitoring the group.

What it told me was, that I really needed that longer deeper mindful rest. The cells of my body lapped it up and I blanked out for a short period. Needless to say after that hour I felt fantastic, with lots more energy which continued all week.

So there is a lot to be said for one good long mindful meditation (while staying awake) every now and then.

The feeling of rest that I felt during that class was similar to the feeling – if you have ever meditated after a big lunch in the afternoon – to the quality of that after-lunch meditation. This is often very different to the morning ones.

After lunch when you feel a bit tired, sleepy, it’s probably because your body needs to digest all the food. If you do a meditation, even 10 minutes after lunch, it will do wonders for your afternoon energy levels. Try it and experience what happens.

At some point in the ‘after lunch’ meditation you will blank out deeply for a few minutes, that’s normal. That’s your body taking the time it needs to digest. Make sure you stay awake throughout, even if you have blanked out. You’ll love the feeling afterwards.

The only problem with this exercise, especially if you are at work after lunch – where do you do it? It can be in the toilet, some hide a away spot where no one will find you, in the car if it is parked near by, in a near by park.

Not easy.

Until it becomes a common accepted practice at work, it will be tricky to do.
Once employers realise the value of such a practice, after lunch, I think they will want to implement it and allow it. The enhanced energy levels and alertness is very valuable indeed.

Consolidation Meditations

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In this post I’d like to focus a little on Consolidation Meditations.

What is that?

Once you learn to release within you, it can get addictive to keep releasing continually. Doing this to much can fragment or destabalise you. So it is good to stop occasionally and do a few meditations for consolidation. That is, for pulling together all the gains you have made and bringing them more into alignment with each other.

It’s like the cleanup after a lot of good work has been done. Pulling together all the little pieces you have released and teased out – all back into one piece again.

Most people need help with learning how to release, so I emphasise this aspect much more in sessions, to make it easier to let go. But once you can do that, then consolidations are important. Without the ability to release, consolidation meditations will not do much for you, they will at best help you keep the status quo, and sometimes this is important especially when you have been run ragged at work or very stressed.

Over consolidating brings no change, just the status quo. No movement, no growth. That can become a stuck and rigid place to be in. But coupled with release work it becomes a powerful tool to help feel the full richness of the gains you have made.

Experiencing the Present Moment

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One of the crucial benefits of mindfulness meditation and mindfulness based therapy is that it helps you to experience the present moment.

As Eckhart Tolle says:
“You only ever experience the present moment, or rather what happens in it. If you go by direct evidence only, then there is no time, and the Now is all there ever is.”
(A New Earth, p206)

Why is experiencing the present moment a benefit? Because in this moment is where everything arises. All of reality is experienced in it. And if that is where reality is, then that is where you have the most control available to you, where you can heal and release stresses and issues that you have ‘trapped in time’ in the cells of your body.

You have parts within you that still think it is 2004, or 1998 or 1982! And of course it isn’t – it is now – yet your old trapped parts within your body are still reacting like it is another time.

Taking time out to come into the present moment here and now in your body is one of the greatest antidotes to stress, anxiety, unhappiness, old behavioural issues, and many illnesses.

I haven’t been in this body for a long time

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“I haven’t been in this body for a long time.”

Such was the comment from a client recently in her first session when she came in for some work after a long layoff.

This is such a great realisation, to realise that you haven’t been in your body ‘for a long time’. Just realising this means that she has become aware of her still presence that inhabits her body, separate from the busy trillions of cells working away making the body function as one whole unit. She now has some space and access to the workings of the cells in her body and so access to the dysfunctions there, most which have been neglected for ‘a long time.’

Mindfulness body based therapy work helps to bring focus back onto what really matters in your body. By stopping, slowing down, listening and ‘being with’ your body, you allow powerful healing to occur, many times without having to do anything specifically.

Question:
If it is so beneficial to be in your body, why would you not spend more time in it?
Answer:
People don’t I have found, because of two major reasons:
1. You’ve never grown up making this a habit. You’ve never been taught the importance of doing this, because others around you never knew how either.
2. You’ve had some strong traumatic or painful experience in the past.
And the only and best way you knew how to cope was to escape and not be in your body.

Living in your body is the best way to live, it is also the most effective, the most beneficial, the most healthy and the most fulfilling way to be and function. I can say this from experience and the feedback from thousands of clients over the years. Why would you want to be any other way, all in your poor over worked head?

When you get a sniff of what’s possible with this work, you’re on your way to a whole new more productive way of working and living. But even with such benefits, doing this work still takes some time to break the old habits.
The old habits of:
1/ trying to work it all out with thinking just in your head and,
2/ vacating your body and living outside of it.

These habits can be hard to break. Especially when the majority of the population around you are doing just that.

My advice? Ignore the majority. Follow your instinct and heart and watch what a huge difference it makes. Watch how much more calmer you become, how much smarter, more emotionally intelligent, much more real, human and healthier all around.

You don’t have to wait for more studies to prove all this. Even though they are coming through now more and more.

Joseph Campbell – That ‘still’ place

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I was reading a little of Joseph Campbell recently. For those who don’t know, Campbell was a very highly regarded American Professor and writer who specialised in the fields of comparative mythology and religion. A brilliant man and observer of life.

From his book ‘The Hero’s Journey’ Joseph Campbell talking about his early years as a very good fast track and field runner says:

“There has got to be a still place in there and the movement has to take place around it. I lost two races that were very important to me because I lost the still place. The race was so important that I put myself out there to win the race instead of to run the race. And the whole thing got thrown off.”

This is such a great explanation of what often happens when you lose that still centered place within your body and you allow life and thoughts to take over. Whenever you work ahead of yourself, (already at the destination in your head) that you lose sight of the present moment in your body now, things don’t work as well. You lose clear creative thinking and the quality of your decision making drops. Why? Because you are not operating in true present reality and you are not operating from the still quiet place within you and your body.

MIndfulness Mediation and Body Psychotherapy work helps to change this.

For when you run the race mindfully (staying and responding to your body in the present moment along the way,) it increases your chances, that by the finish line, you’ll be up front and in the winning position

Successful Present Moments

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For those who have known me for a while, you will know that I am a big fan of Eckhart Tolle. I’d like to expand on one of the many quotes from his book ‘A New Earth’ that I like:

“What the world doesn’t tell you because it doesn’t know – is that you cannot become successful. You can only be successful. Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.”

One of the purposes of my CDs, classes, workshops and therapy sessions, is to give you more being time, or present moment time. More moments where you can reacquaint yourself again with who you really are. Moments of stillness, peace and freedom. Along the way to this real authentic you, what of course happens (if you access yourself mindfully) is that all the holdings, stresses, pains, traumas and unfinished business from the past begin to surface. Allowing this material to move and release is a big part of the work.

As it moves and shifts and lets go, you begin to be more. You begin to live more in the present moment. This then naturally leads to more successful present moments. And the accumulation of successful present moments show up over time as ‘success’ in your life for whatever goal you are pursuing.

So if you can be successful in this moment now, and repeat this continually, you achieve the goal you want. So what you are thinking and feeling in your body right now this moment as you read this, is the most crucial component and determinant for what your success will look like in future. Ignore what your body is asking of you and requiring of you now, and you effect your success and health in future.

So this moment now as you read this, is very powerful indeed. To your ego/intellect it seems so mundane, boring and insignificant. This moment now? (it might be saying), this doesn’t seem important at all. It’s just a boring simple moment.

Bring your consciousness into it, make what you do in this moment count, make it a quality purposeful moment. Listen to what your body needs right now and do it. Repeat this seemingly boring process continually and you are guaranteed of success in future.

20 trillion life forms

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You, (the spirit you) live in a walking breathing community of 20+ trillion cells, that are all working together to create your body. They are co-operating at a phenomenal rate passing messages to each other. Each cell is a living, breathing, feeding life form, being. It moves, it hurts, it plays, it does the job it was built for, it feels. The entire makeup of your body literally, is made up of 20 trillion alive beings, all working together (for the most part) to give you a body, a vehicle to move around in, on planet earth.

We take all this for granted day to day. So much so, that when something goes wrong with our body, we forget how to access it directly in order  to heal the problem.

This is where mindfulness meditation for self healing and the body process-based therapies comes in. This work is designed to reignite the connection to your subconscious body’s 20 trillion cells and assist and guide them to heal. Now it is very difficult to home in on one cell. What normally happens is that we home in on a group of cells, maybe 200,000 of them that make up a muscle fibre in some part of your body. That you can feel. 200,000 expressing a sensation/pain can be felt.

If you take the time to listen to these groups of cells each day, you will find (as you get good at it) that your cells are communicating to you all the time.  Especially the ones that need urgent attention. Giving them this attention is what I help people do each day in my private practice and then watch as amazing things unfold and old problems, issues and pains begin to drop and melt away.

When to Practice Mindfulness Meditation

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Mindfulness meditation is a very useful and practical skill to develop. It is a fundamental part of my life. I have been doing this practice for so long now that I forget just how ‘normal’ it is for me.

One way this shows up, is in where I do this practice. The traditional place is in a quiet spot at home for about twenty minutes, preferably in the morning.

But, when do I personally do it?

Yes, normally in the morning (after breakfast,) but also…

1. When I arrive somewhere in my car (and I am alone in the car,) I will park, switch off the engine and stay seated, close my eyes and centre for two/three minutes before exiting the car. (I don’t mind anymore who may be watching. The benefits far outweigh the exposure.) This is mandatory if I have been driving through peak traffic for an hour!

2. When I walk along the beach, I will always stop at a bench or rock and sit. Again, for a few minutes, close my eyes or often leave them open. You don’t need to close your eyes when you have a beautiful ocean expanse to let in!

3. When I first wake up in the morning, if I am not feeling 100% ready to jump out, I will stay in bed, sit up in bed (pillow up behind me for support) and meditate there immediately. I don’t wait for later in the morning.

4. Almost always in between each client – five to fifteen minutes.

5. Regularly if I am in a public toilet at a restaurant or cafe. It’s a great private place to just center a bit more for a few minutes.

6. Almost always in waiting rooms. (Again I don’t mind who might be looking, to me this is very normal now.) In fact it is not normal to not do it.

7. If I have been reading or on the computer for a long time and my brain feels heavy. It’s very easy to close my eyes for a few minutes, seated where I am.

Everyone should do this at work. It should be common acceptable practice. And I believe one day soon it will be. Why? Simply because the benefits are just huge.

There are more times and places, (on buses, on trains, in taxis) but that’s just a few off the top of my head. Basically anytime I have some time alone, I will close my eyes and center. Even a few minutes can do wonders to focusing you into the present moment and clear your excess thinking, as well as other benefits. The smart phone has eaten away at this centering space because we carry it everywhere. So it is even more important today to cultivate this habit.

Relaxation CD

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In the last month I received two great reviews unsolicited from clients on the benefits of my Relaxation CD. One from a long time client and one from a new client of a few months. Both describe how effective the CD has been each and every time they play it. It is different every time and still effective. They put it on when they can’t settle, relax or centre. Or when they can’t get to sleep. One of those clients has been using it now for about three years, and it’s still effective.

So this made me think a little about my humble Relaxation CD. This CD is now eleven years old, and it is still going strong. It was way ahead of its time back then, and still now, to a lesser extent.

I use it myself when I find it hard to centre alone. That’s not too often but it can still happen sometimes. I have it on my iphone and so it’s available anytime I need it.

Does it matter that it’s my voice I’m hearing?
Not in the slightest.
Because it has nothing to do with who is talking but how it’s talking.

I mentioned eleven years ago in the promotional material of this CD on my website (which is still there today)

Quote:
“Remember: For true relaxation – you do not need music, you do not need nice words. If you think it is the music and nice words that does the relaxation then I can almost guarantee you that whatever CDs you have, I bet you will quickly get bored with them and need to change them often. With this CD you do not need to change the words, or change any music. You can play it many, many times. Eventually you will probably not even listen to the words. As I’ve mentioned, the words are not as important.”

So it is nice to know that many people who have purchased the CD over the years, have proven the point, they still use it and it is still effective, not boring. (In fact I’m thinking of doing a survey soon to find out the exact figure from all the people who have purchased the CD.)

Eleven years ago, the term mindfulness was not as commonly used as it is today. Back then the word was ‘relaxation’, and the word ‘meditation’ was just beginning to be used.

Today the word is ‘mindfulness.’ I like this word. It is a far more accurate description as to what is going on or could go on, when you close your eyes.

Even though my relaxation CD is eleven years old now, I am planning to make a follow up to this program. One that goes deeper still, to another level. I will let you know (if you are on my email list) when this becomes available.

SPACE

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I highly recommend doing some mindfulness meditation everyday.

Because I have been doing this process for so long I sometimes forget just how beneficial it is. Earlier this year I went for a short period, without any daily mindfulness meditation. It that period I was very busy and was getting lots done but I began to notice something every interesting – my mind wasn’t thinking as clearly as before, I was more stressed, less intelligent in my decision making. When something went wrong, it took a lot more thoughts, effort and time to sort it out. I was also slightly more reactive to outside circumstances and my mind was beginning to race a little. It wasn’t pleasant.

I was very functional, and from the outside I looked fine to everyone and everything, but from the inside I wasn’t at my best, I wasn’t working from my highest quality of being.

I quickly realised that what I had lost in my mind was SPACE.

Still Space.

Quiet Space.

For in that still quiet space is where your real and best intelligent thinking, healing and decision making gets done.

I quickly returned to daily mindfulness meditation, let go some old thinking (that said I didn’t need it,) and I was back centred again. Back to having that SPACE within me and between my thoughts.

This SPACE should be with you throughout your day. It is a buffer between you, your thoughts and the external environment. Without it, it is very hard to function at your intelligent and satisfying best. It is also harder to heal yourself.

It is a very smart company that would teach this to their employees and allow everyone to practice this everyday at work. The benefits of creating this space to intelligent decision making in business are enormous. Huge.

And it still baffles me why every child isn’t taught this in school.