Not only do I not love doing them, but I’ve also come to learn that video doesn’t make sense for many of you who are forced to work (or teach) from home. That being the case, the remaining weekday meditations will be in text form via the blog, with the morning one posted at 7am.
For the evening meditation, I’ll post notifications on facebook and twitter when it is added each day, and I’ll always ensure they post before 4pm MST so that they will be available as many people in Europe and Africa are heading to bed.
If you found the sound of someone’s voice comforting, or if you’d prefer to do some actual sessions via video, please email me and we can make arrangements for some training during this difficult time.
I realize many people are currently not earning any money, so for the duration of the crisis please contact me for any special arrangements.
Below is today’s first meditation. If you didn’t wake up and give yourself time to feel centered, take a moment now. Just be in this moment. Feel the weight of your body, note your center of gravity. And be with your own breathing, feeling the air come in, and feeling it go out. Thought out, being in. Exhale. Relax.
Once we have felt our diaphragm and our shoulders and jaw slacken, we know we are ready to begin.
MORNING MEDITATION ONE
We are healthy when our minds are fully focused on a task. If we’re engaged in one with a quiet mind, we already are meditating and no intervention is needed. But if we can’t stop our minds from unconsciously wandering into internal or external conversations, then we benefit by regaining our conscious while our ego is running amok. Doing this is not hard.
Today, whether it is an external conversation with others, an internal conversation with ourselves, through someone on TV or in print, we will be learning useful things about the world if we simply watch all of these sources for two categories of words.
Until we go to sleep tonight, For the rest of they day, we should do our best to listen to ourselves and to others very closely. Specifically, note the number of times the words I, me, you, they and them are spoken. And then also note how often the words we and us are used. Count them if you can. That is all.
If that seems too easy, then that’s good. But many will still find it tricky to remember to stay on that duty while they’re internally self-talking or conversing out loud.
Also, it’s difficult for me to turn into words what this does to our minds. But essentially this exercise can make us more aware of when we feel connected, and when we feel disconnected. If we do it enough, we will note patterns around when we feel one way versus the other.
Some of our patterns will involve people, some will involve activities, and some will involve places, memories or dreams. But dont’ work at it. Just let your awareness of those patterns emerge naturally. Trust yourself.
If I got to wish, I’d love it if people did each of these for a full week before moving to the next one, so if that sounds worthwhile to you, it would have value. But for those who prefer a fresh daily experience, I will post new ones each day, and they will be structured in a way where the lessons learned in one can be built-upon in the next.
I, me, you, they and them versus we and us. Watch for them. We are not only learning this lesson, but by doing it we are exercising our control over our attention, and that alone has benefits.
And as you do this –don’t forget to enjoy your day. Shine your mind’s flashlight on things that improve your life.
Have a great day everyone.
EVENING MEDITATION ONE
The day loads us with ideas. Thoughts and ideas fill the daytime world. Emptiness and peace form the world of sleep. Consider that 20% of our daily energy is invested in thought. Rather than trying to stop, deflect or repel compelling individual ideas, we are better to simply relax the energy that we give that thinking.
To do this we must become aware of the energy contained within our own consciousness. Our attention, focus and awareness is the force that illuminates the pathways of our minds. Those structures create the mythical structures that in turn create the stages on which we perform our lives. All of it requires us to hold those ideas together. Without that force, the universe quickly melts into oneness.
Our daily experience is like a thrashing surface on a profoundly deep ocean of consciousness. Difficult times mean the water is crashing against itself in a chaotic and violent way. But it is still only water. And that all is required to calm it is less pressure –it’s nature is to float in a balanced, unified way.
Swirling thoughts consume energy. Don’t stop thought. Transfer that energy into body awareness. Put less into monitoring, chasing or thinking our thoughts, and put more into just letting them be.
To do so, we must truly be in our bodies. We must be present in the moments we are in. We must feel the rise and fall of our chest as we breathe. We must be aware of its rhythm. And by being so, we will find that our breathing slows and our muscles relax as we draw further and further from busy thought, and closer and closer to the warm embrace of peace.
Take energy away. Energy away. Lower, lower, lower, until…
peace. s
(Note, these posts can be followed as a group by listing the ‘Meditations’ category)
A serious childhood brain injury lead Scott to spend his entire life meditating on the concepts of thought, consciousness, reality and identity. It made others as strange to him as he was to them. When he realized people were confused by their own over-thinking, Scott began teaching others to understand reality. He is currently CBC Radio Active’s Wellness Columnist, as well as a writer, speaker and mindfulness instructor based in Edmonton, AB where he still finds it strange to write about himself in the third person.