When your meditation isn’t working.

When your Meditation isn’t working.

Some days (and even weeks) no matter what you do, you cannot settle, the mind like a mad monkey will flit from thought to thought, this is the time to learn patience. Learn to sit still and silent as if snow were falling all around you. Allow it to settle on you on the shell of the body. Practice raising your spine placing one vertebrae over the other, sit a little taller, hands resting lightly on thighs or in your lap, palms facing upward fingers curled gently.

It is a time when the mind won’t turn inward. Neither will it  rest. And yet we fight against this, as even in meditation we expect results.  My Yoga Teacher would often host visiting Swami’s to teach us the ways of silence. Always our questions would center around why wasn’t my mind stilling? Why did my body rebel when asked to sit still? When only yesterday it seemed to work, patiently they would tell us  that even a glimpse of silence is valid.They reminded us that practice and attentiveness are the key words.

We will all come against the obstacles of drowsiness, sometimes even falling asleep.The more you enter into day dreams, or worry over past and present the further you travel from the present moment. Try to gently bring your self back to the present moment with out judging your self. The peak experience Shanti Gowan’s says  tells us in her book an Easy guide to Mediation. “Thoughts and feelings emerge from the center of consciousness….and it is to this center that one returns to, consciously during mediation practice.

Ralph Blum  authored  The book of Runes in which he explains

“You may be powerless to do anything except submit, surrender, even sacrifice some long cherished desire. Be patient, for this is the period of gestation that precedes a birth

“What has been full must be empty; what has increased must decrease.

This is the way of Heaven and Earth. To surrender is to display courage and wisdom.”

The Swamis taught “not this , not that – release the expectations and live in the now.” As we capture glimpses of eternity we are so enthralled that each time we sit for meditation we want that experience again, to be immersed in the peace beyond all understanding. But life is change and movement , we live on a planet of opposites, up down, night day, male female etc, so we must experience the opposite of bliss to know bliss.

How is that possible when we are programmed to achieve.

Ralph Blum

“The starting point is the self. Its essence is water. Only clarity willingness to change, is effective now….”

And always remember your goal is self transformation.

Little self is our ego , our conscious self. Large Self is the unconscious or Spirit

Lift up your self by your Self

And don’t let the self droop down,

For the Self is the self’s only friend

And the self is the Self’s foe.

Taken from the Sacred Hindu text The Bhagavad Gita. chapter 6 verse 5

The “Gita” is thousands of years old so take heart, many before you have walked this path and known the struggle and felt the  frustration, take heart and persist, you will move through this time of gestation to birth a calmer life.The spiritual path of surrender to the moment becomes your doorway to divinity.

What you get from Meditation?

“Even before we are doers,

We are deciders. Once your decision is clear the doing becomes effortless, for the Universe supports and empowers the action. “      Ralph Blum – The Book of Runes.

 

First decide if you want to live a life that seems to be easier. Not so much up and down, free of the highest highs and lowest lows. A life filled with struggle is a life lived in quiet desperation. If you feel that life passes in a gale, that you are being blown from one problem to the next. I suggest you decide now to learn to meditate. Begin by being committed to either morning or evening . Maybe start with just ten minutes when you first awake, sitting quietly daily for one week.  I suggest you try Candle Meditation, see  my previous blog.

 

‘’Meditation is the state of thoughtless awareness, where the everyday activity of the mind ceases, yet one remains peaceful and aware.” Shri  Mataji”  

 

Deep within you is a place of eternal peace, a lake of stillness that remains undisturbed by  the winds of change that blow through your life. Picture it now. This lake of never ending peacefulness, imagine little ripples of peace flowing ever outward, over flowing the banks of your mind, washing away your fears and anxiety, the sludge of anger and regret, unmet goals and untouched dreams. Sit still, slow your breathing and feel this peace overflowing and travel

peace must, and does spread to those around you.

 

ing all through you. Once you are free of tension, you can turn your mind to meditate.

 

Meditation builds inner strength. Daily practice is like building a wall, one brick at a time. Similar to putting your money into the bank ,incrementally and with interest your life is enriched.  With small effort practice, patience and consistency, suddenly there is a brick wall where previously there was only empty space.  Having savings  in a bank means you can achieve goals, dare to have bigger dreams and have the finances to achieve them.

 

This inner strength, that you daily add too in your life will be there as your support and guide at any given time in your life. when  everything you have taken for granted is being challenged.

You will find that when something is taken from you, be it a loved one, your career path and job, maybe your home is repossessed. Perhaps you have the news of a life threatening disease. (Have you noticed how many people turn to meditation when they have Cancer?)What you get is a connection to your inner peace. Courage, compassion and inner strength. These inner qualities develop with the practice of meditation, allowing  your daily life to be enriched. Like perfume the subtle tranquil essence of Meditation enobles you and delights those who share your life. That peace must, and does spread to those around you.

You can make a difference in the wider world.

6 p.m. Rain great streeks of it thundering on the tin roof covering the sounds of the guest speaker, Siding down the drain pies to make a chorus  of chirping and sliding sounds. The earth smell is strong and heads turn to watch the trees bend in the new breeze that slams the side door and refreshes our skin. We turn our heads as one and let out a silent sigh, the rain will settle the dust but more importantly it means any fires  started by lightening strikes out in the mountain country last night will now be drowned , and we will not need to be so vigilant.

  s

          We did our fire brigade practice just before the welcome darkening of the skies. gathered in the fire shed to listen to the control officer speak, relief silently entered the fire shed as thunder rolled and then the first large splotches and serious rain. And so I ask for Rain

I ask for and invoke rain.

Rain in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount

Sandy Stevenson says ‘’Moving in the divine flow is a moment by moment following of Spirit, saying and doing only that which comes from the heart and brings a feeling of rightness, interest or enthusiasm. Let go of the seriousness and have lot’s of fun. It is truly time to step onto the ray of joy and love. “

  As I understand we/I create our/my own reality. a wonderful book that explains this so simply is

The Awakener     (You can fill your part in Earth’s true destiny) by Sandy Stevenson.

In Chapter nine Sandy Stevenson explains how we have the right to decree, a fast, powerful way to gain assistance from forces greater than us. For it to work it must be said three times and be aligned with the light as long as we use the power of three, Said three times using the words” under Grace” just in case what you invoke is not for the highest good, as so often we cannot see the “big picture” and what I ask may not be for the highest good for all concerned.

An example would be ‘‘From  my I am presence, under the law of Grace I ask for  and invoke Rain.

Rain in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount. So be it ,it is done.

100 Benefits of Meditation

Once a secret handed down from master to chela, taught one on one,secret knowledge guarded and hard-earned.  Later taught by Holy men traveling vast distances to sit at the feet of kings.What Yogis have known from the mists of time, the healing benefits of meditation. Today scientists fit electrodes to the scalp of monks and meditator’s to record the brain wave patterns or chart the hormones released during the meditation process.  The medical profession is now advising patient’s especially those diagnosed with cancer to seek a meditation class, to take advantage of these now well documented benefits.

I took this amazing list from the site  http://www.ineedmotivation.com

from an article written by Fredrik P.

Here is the definitive list of benefits that meditation can provide you with:

Physiological benefits:
1- It lowers oxygen consumption.
2- It decreases respiratory rate.
3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4- Increases exercise tolerance.
5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6- Good for people with high blood pressure.
7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8- Decreases muscle tension
9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11- Helps in post-operative healing.
12- Enhances the immune system.
13- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14- Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15- Helps with weight loss
16- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17- Higher skin resistance
18- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20- Decreases the aging process.
21- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22- prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23- Makes you sweat less
24- Cure headaches & migraines
25- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26- Reduced Need for Medical Care
27- Less energy wasted
28- More inclined to sports, activities
29- Significant relief from asthma
30- improved performance in athletic events
31- Normalizes to your ideal weight
32- harmonizes our endocrine system
33- relaxes our nervous system
34- produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:
36- Builds self-confidence.
37- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38- Resolve phobias & fears
39- Helps control own thoughts
40- Helps with focus & concentration
41- Increase creativity
42- Increased brain wave coherence.
43- Improved learning ability and memory.
44- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45- Increased emotional stability.
46- improved relationships
47- Mind ages at slower rate
48- Easier to remove bad habits
49- Develops intuition
50- Increased Productivity
51- Improved relations at home & at work
52- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53- Helps ignore petty issues
54- Increased ability to solve complex problems
55- Purifies your character
56- Develop will power
57- greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58- react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59- increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60- higher intelligence growth rate
61- Increased job satisfaction
62- increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63- decrease in potential mental illness
64- Better, more sociable behaviour
65- Less aggressiveness
66- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70- Increases sense of responsibility
71- Reduces road rage
72- Decrease in restless thinking
73- Decreased tendency to worry
74- Increases listening skills and empathy
75- Helps make more accurate judgements
76- Greater tolerance
77- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79- Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:
80- Helps keep things in perspective
81- Provides peace of mind, happiness
82- Helps you discover your purpose
83- Increased self-actualization.
84- Increased compassion
85- Growing wisdom
86- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
88- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89- Increased acceptance of oneself
90- helps learn forgiveness
91- Changes attitude toward life
92- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93- Attain enlightenment
94- greater inner-directedness
95- Helps living in the present moment
96- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love ( of all life forms)
97- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98- Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99- Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100- Increases the synchronicity in your life (Wonderful and unexplained things begin to happen)

”Meditation is also completely FREE! It requires no special equipment, and is not complicated to learn. It can be practiced anywhere, at any given moment, and it is not time-consuming (15-20 min. per day is good). Best of all, meditation has NO negative side effects. Bottom line, there is nothing but positive to be gained from it! With such a huge list of benefits, the question you should ask yourself is, “why am I not meditating yet?”

Join the millions of people around the world who practice this and are reveling in the benefits.

 

Meditation and your relationships

In any given moment we are in relationship, Starting with how we view our selves,(greater and smaller) and how we view “the other person” and the wider world.Ralph Blum tells us ” while on the one hand you are limited and dependent, on the other you exist at the perfect center where the harmonious and beneficent forces of the universe merge and radiate. You are that center.”

The book of Runes  by Ralph Blum explains that “In relationships there cannot be a mutual opening up. You may serve as the trigger, the timekeeper, through your awareness that the light of understanding is once again available to you both.”

But first know who you are, or at least what you are feeling today. Until we stop and consider our own being, how can we possibly relate to another with the truth and dignity we would like to be given.Perhaps it would be helpful if I reminded you that we live in a Universe that is infinite all giving ,creating anew in every minute. We can only truly be aware of its wonder and majesty -that it is ever-expanding, if we find time to open to our relationship with it. That is every thought I have is  expanding. Every word I speak, every deed I do expands outward, and will spiral me upwards into happiness or downwards into unhappiness. The mind is the filter that these thoughts.  Each thought gives birth,creates a relationship,  maintains that relationship and is  then destroyed.

I believe we all want to live in a loving way with all other beings.To be more creative and giving in all that we do. We would choose to walk in love,  and kindness with a beautiful world as our home. Love puts a spring in our step, and new vistas open up with hope,  we resonate with the universal feeling of unlimited abundance, nothing can hold us back.Becoming aware of the upward or downward spiral, we see how much power the mind has. Mum tells the story if she woke up in a bad mood that would affect all of the family at breakfast.  My mother changed her attitude and that changed our day.

Your presence calms those around you. That is the reason each yoga class begins with relaxation. “Lie down on your matt,close your eyes gently.Allow your feet to flop apart…let the hurry and rush drop away”. Giving people the space  to feel more at peace, less threatened, more at ease.They are then free to have the experience of stillness, a relationship with peacefulness. Other people feel empowered by your relationship to calm,peace and stillness, this will then enhance that in their own life, and through them the lives of others.

Your presence allows others to feel the relationship with Self. To be authentic and peaceful, firstly with them selves and therefore with others.People sense so much more than the words we speak. When they know you are interested in all of the wonder and glory of life and the many forms and people who are created around you, people respond and your relationships resonate with joy, love and will open like beautiful flowers around you.

You impact on the whole of Humanity.

Before Meditation I share with students that  as we slow our breathing it changes the atmosphere around us. The air we breathe is at present circulating around this hall. We inhale it calming our selves, our breathing slows and at the end of our meditation the atmosphere around us is calmer more serene.This is our gift to the next group of people who use this hall. Dr. David Hawkins tells us that approximately 87 percent of humanity calibrates at a collective energy that weakens them. When we allow our minds to spiral downwards,we lose the power of relationship. We are then unable to distinguish lies or truth. Others can tell us how to think,making it important as where we live, the size of our home. The job we do or the car we drive becomes more important than our creativity or daily joy. Worse we are then able to be told which group of people to hate and even who to kill. In Power vs. Force Dr. David Hawkins writes: “In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me.” Dr. Hawkins has 29  years of scientific research  which you may want to further investigate.

Meditation improves our relationships with ourselves and that must and will radiate out to the wider world. Just as a bell resonates with its own tone, individual molecules in our body resonate to the  thoughts we create. Hormones and chemicals within our body respond to these and we create our life anew.

“Self – realization means that we have been consciously connected with our source of being.Once we have made this connection, then nothing can go wrong……”        Swami Paramananda

Namaste

Breath to Empower in Three easy steps.

How my parents must have dreaded winter. The nights  when the temperature dropped saw me coughing,Dad softly padding down the corridor to  reassure me, my sister who shared the bed room loosing sleep…. I think you get the picture.                                               The ancient method employed by yogis held the answers.

Coughing continued after the tonsalectomy.I was finally daignosed  at age five with a partially collapsed lung.  It  then became difficult for my mother, as she needed to organise care for her other children and then take me on long train and tram journeys  in all weathers  to the Royal Children’s Hospital.   My Aunt sewed  me a support for my upper back to ensure I sat and stood straight  (even today strangers comment on how I sit with my back erect.) so as not to compress my lungs. The healing technique that proved the most effective was to lean an ironing board against the wall on a diagonal board.I lay face down, head towards the floor , feet elevated whilst  a family member pummeled my back to loosen the phlem,which accumulated each night in my lungs. Daily brothers ,sisters and me did the “sissing” breath and the…..well I did not know that I was using the three thousand year old yoga breath techniques, these same methods I would be teaching today to help people heal there Asthma , Hayfever and any other breathing problems.

To gain maximum benefit from this breath to empower you will need to be relaxed.Find a quiet place, a place you will not be disturbed.

I have broken it into three easy steps- Begin by lying down or sit in a comfortable position with your spine erect.Always inhale calmly and regularly. Aiming to have the inhalation and exhalation of the same timing. I suggest breathe in for the count of three, slowly breathe out for the count of three, slowly. After a while your breath will find it’s own rhythm.

•  Lower lung breathing: Place your hands  on  base of your lungs, not sure place them over your navel, palms down finger tips touching. Breath in and out through  your nose, slowly and peacefully. The base of the lungs( feel the navel rise.) moves forward.

• Middle lung breathing: Place your hands on ribs, palms down, fingertips just touching.  Breathe in expanding ribs at the front,,I suggest you breath in for the count of three and out for the count of three.

•  Upper lung breathing:   The focus is to  only to fill your nose and throat.   Place   your  hands on your collar bones,  Breathe in slowly, for the count of three, exhale slowly  for the count of three.

 

Now allow it all to flow in as a wave . Place right hand on navel,left hand on chest,inhale lower lungs then fill the area below your ribs and finally into upper lungs,hold your  breath.

Then exhale,below your navel,ribs and upper lungs.

This was the technique that healed my lungs and I have used it to heal  students suffering from   Asthma, anxiety,depression and many other problems.

Benefits: neutralizes lactic acid which causes fatigue and pain. Increases   blood flow effeciency  which carries away the toxins and tiredness and the waste matter from cells. Mucus and acids reenter the blood stream to be eliminated. Giving your body greater dis-ease resistance. This empowering breath gives you more energy and vitality. Use  breath of  three easy steps to over come depressive thoughts and anxiety. The breath to empower used at night will guarantee you are deep and healing sleep.

Namaste

Meditating from Heart – Heart centering

“When the thinking self is allowed
to be integrated with the feeling self
in the HeartMind, everything changes.
                                                            – Dr. Roger Jahnke

 Heart centering is  a technique that brings us to a different awareness level. Sit with spine erect, body relaxed, breath slowing and feel the atmosphere within you and now around you. As if your body is pinned into position and you reach out with your heart to touch, opening yourself out to be touched by others, from your heart to theirs.
Heart centering brings us back to this moment. not the past, the future no, the here and now. Focus on your heart. it may help you  by placing your hands gently over your heart and listening. Not that you are listening for anything. Just cultivate the practice of being.  Being with your heart. listen to the non-stop rhythm that is you. As you listen your heart will quiet, not that you are listening for anything. Sometimes feelings will float up, needing to be felt, let them be,do not attach mind to them and they will pass.

 

 

 

I took this quote  from Clear-Mind.

“In our western cultures, we’ve been led to believe
that the Heart and the mind are separate.  This
theme of separation has then been passed down
into literally everything we do.

In other words, the Mind/Heart separation has
become a meme.  What is a meme? In short,
a meme is a culturally conditioned belief that
large groups of people accept and perpetuate
by their participation in that belief.  in other words the ego has entered the picture The mind is now separated from our heart , we are accused of being too emotional or we are too rational

Many examples of memes:

The Separation Meme
The Scarcity Meme
The Money Matrix
The Mind Meme

One that causes incredible pain and suffering
is the belief that the Mind and Heart are separate.“
Truly this is a powerful concept  but when we try to live
from the HeartMind – it seems more difficult than
we ever imagined.”

Why?

Because the mind “took over” after it believed itself to be separate. It even created its own identity that it was superior and therefore the result was the silenced Heart. And that’s where all the suffering began.

…but there is a simpler way…

The first step is to make a choice to embrace your Mind and Heart as one.  Not just as a principle

- but as a way of being.

The only thing that can keep the separation of the mind and heart going is thinking that the mind/ego is in charge.

 And that’s where all the suffering began.                                               

When you embrace your Heart and mind as one, ego must diminish and we can embrace a new way of life. Stress and anxiety free -we take this new awareness into all of our relationships.”

” The yoga of Tantra is a meditation technique  that sees the world as if you were looking from within your heart. The Tantikas suggested we cut off our head for 1 day and “felt” the world.  not so easy to see the world through your heart as it means you need to slow down be still, ask what am I feeling here, now?

When you embrace your Heart and mind as one, you activate the power of your heart, a power as yet truly untouched.