Spirit Healer May, 2012

A Sacred Union

Beltaine is a time of pleasure, joy, and sacred sexuality.  It is the marriage and consummation of the Goddess and the God according to Wiccan and some other Pagan mythologies.  This meditation seeks to unite the God and Goddess within you.

You need a quiet comfortable space, uninterrupted time, and possibly something to write with and on.  You may choose to have someone read this to you, or to record your own voice reading it with appropriate pauses so that you can meditate with your eyes closed.

Imagine you are lying in a hammock strung up between two palm trees on a Caribbean beach.  Sunlight sparkles on the turquoise water as the waves sing you to sleep.  A balmy breeze keeps you cool as you rock back and forth, back and forth, loving life, rocking back and forth, relaxing, relaxing, relaxed.

There is a tidal pool nearby, and you feel drawn to it.  You kneel beside the pool and look over the edge, expecting to see all sorts of colorful sea life.  Instead, you see that the bottom of the pool is black obsidian.  The pool forms a mirror, reflecting the darkest parts of yourself back at you, distorted by the waters of emotion.

Even the darkest parts of you are beautiful.  In the brilliant sunlight, on the beautiful, peaceful, healing beach, you can see yourself through the eyes of unconditional love.  You are looking into the eyes of the Goddess.  You are looking into the eyes of the God.  And Both are smiling back at you with total loving acceptance.

Looking into your own Divine eyes, you realize that what you sometimes see as a flaw is actually just a part of your wholeness.  The thoughts, behaviors, memories, emotions, and habits that upset or embarass you are all still a part of you.  You have denied them, repressed them, and turned them into your sacred Shadow.

Now you have the opportunity to embrace the darkest part of yourself and bring it into the light.  You have the power to transform those fears, doubts, and pains into new passions, adventures, and joys.

If you are ready, look into your eyes and promise to honor and cherish all of your Self.  Promise to love and take care of yourself in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or for worse, as long as this lifetime shall last.  Kiss your reflection if you feel moved to do so.  Perhaps you’d like to bathe in this sacred pool, or in the waves that beckon a few yards away.

If you are not ready to make that much commitment, ask your Self, or the Divine, what steps you can take in your day to day life to help you on your path to loving yourself and making your life the best one so far.  Listen, watch, feel.

When you are done, find your way back to your hammock.  Watch the brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows of the rejuvenating sunset over the violets, blues, and greens of the living water as you rock back and forth, back and forth, loving life as you rock back and forth, back to your body, relaxing, relaxing, opening your eyes.

Welcome back!

Now you might want to have a drink or a snack.  Perhaps consummate your new relationship with yourself?  All acts of love and pleasure…

Blessed Beltaine, Happy Mother’s Day, and make it a fantastic month!

Tags: Beltaine, beltane, meditation

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Red Pixie March, 2012

The Benefits of Meditation

With the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and over-worked. It often feels like there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Our stress and tiredness make us unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect our health. We are often so busy we feel there is no time to stop and meditate! But meditation actually gives you more time by making your mind calmer and more focused. A simple ten or fifteen minute breathing meditation as explained below can help you to overcome your stress and find some inner peace and balance.
Meditation can also help us to understand our own mind. We can learn how to transform our mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts is the purpose of the transforming meditations found in the Buddhist tradition. This is a profound spiritual practice you can enjoy throughout the day, not just while seated in meditation.

The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. For example, if we get what we want, such as a new possession or a new partner, we become excited and cling to them tightly. However, since we cannot have everything we want, and since we will inevitably be separated from the friends and possessions we currently enjoy, this mental stickiness, or attachment, serves only to cause us pain. On the other hand, if we do not get what we want, or if we lose something that we like, we become despondent or irritated. For example, if we are forced to work with a colleague whom we dislike, we will probably become irritated and feel aggrieved, with the result that we will be unable to work with him or her efficiently and our time at work will become stressful and unrewarding.

Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.
If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.

Generally, the purpose of breathing meditation is to calm the mind and develop inner peace. We can use breathing meditations alone or as a preliminary practice to reduce our distractions.

A Simple Breathing Meditation

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practicing a simple breathing meditation. We choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. We can sit in the traditional cross-legged posture or in any other position that is comfortable. If we wish, we can sit in a chair. The most important thing is to keep our back straight to prevent our mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid.

We sit with our eyes partially closed and turn our attention to our breathing. We breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control our breath, and we try to become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is our object of meditation. We should try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else.

At first, our mind will be very busy, and we might even feel that the meditation is making our mind busier; but in reality we are just becoming more aware of how busy our mind actually is. There will be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise, but we should resist this and remain focused single-pointedly on the sensation of the breath. If we discover that our mind has wandered and is following our thoughts, we should immediately return it to the breath. We should repeat this as many times as necessary until the mind settles on the breath.

Benefits of Meditation

If we practice patiently in this way, gradually our distracting thoughts will subside and we will experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Our mind will feel lucid and spacious and we will feel refreshed. When the sea is rough, sediment is churned up and the water becomes murky, but when the wind dies down the mud gradually settles and the water becomes clear. In a similar way, when the otherwise incessant flow of our distracting thoughts is calmed through concentrating on the breath, our mind becomes unusually lucid and clear. We should stay with this state of mental calm for a while.
Even though breathing meditation is only a preliminary stage of meditation, it can be quite powerful. We can see from this practice that it is possible to experience inner peace and contentment just by controlling the mind, without having to depend at all upon external conditions.

So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind

When the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within. This feeling of contentment and well-being helps us to cope with the busyness and difficulties of daily life. So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind, and many of the problems we experience, including ill health, are caused or aggravated by this stress. Just by doing breathing meditation for ten or fifteen minutes each day, we will be able to reduce this stress. We will experience a calm, spacious feeling in the mind, and many of our usual problems will fall away. Difficult situations will become easier to deal with, we will naturally feel warm and well disposed towards other people, and our relationships with others will gradually improve.

So as you can see even a short ten or fifteen minutes can greatly improve our health and well being, will you try it?

Bright Blessings

Pixie

Tags: meditation

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Spirit Healer March, 2012

Renewing Your Bountiful Garden, an Ostara Meditation by Spirit Healer

Which dreams will sprout for you on this coming Ostara, the Spring Equinox?  Which seeds of hope did you plant in 2011, then water with your emotions, warm with your passion, and protect with the darkness in the soft soil of silence?

At the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, the balance shifts from internal to external, from preparation to action.  Eggs are hatching; butterflies breaking from their cocoons; plants celebrating the return of warmth with vibrant greens and flowers of every color.

This meditation will help you nurture those goals and dreams you wish to revive or to help thrive in 2012.

As always, make sure you are comfortable and that you have twenty minutes of undisturbed time.  Record this meditation or have someone read it aloud if you like.  Consider keeping a notebook and writing tool nearby, or a file open on your computer for jotting down any ideas of messages that come to you during this meditation.

In this quiet still moment, imagine a soothing rain of blue light washing away all tension from your space and your body.  The light purifies and calms every thing it touches, saturating you with peace.

All worry and distraction flows from your mind.  With each slow, deep breath you allow the light of peace into your body, where it cleanses and nourishes you.

Your neck and shoulders relax.

Your arms, wrists, hands, and fingers stretch and relax.

Your back and tummy relax.

Your hips roll into a stretch, then relax.

You stretch your thighs and calves, rotating your ankles, pointing and flexing your toes, and allow your legs and feet and your entire being to relax.

You are the fertile soil, the rich, organic earth, warmed by the radiance of our sun star, cooled and cleansed by the rain and the fog.

Inside you are the seeds of your hopes, your dreams, your goals.

There are bulbs and roots of dreams that spring forth every year, and there are tiny seeds of new ideas carried to you on the winds of inspiration and communication.

Each seed has its own color, texture, shape, and size.  Each contains the potential to grow into the tiniest flower or the most gargantuan tree.

But you only have enough resources within you to nourish a few dreams at a time.

How many new seeds can you nourish this season?

Which seedlings have already sprouted?

What kinds of trees and bushes and vines and flowers already feed from your abundant Source?

Some of your dreams have grown over the years and become self-sustaining.  Their fruits and leaves return to you.  How do they nourish you?

Bless them with your awareness and gratitude.

Some dreams need more time to germinate and can wait another season or so.

Absorb them back into the dark safety of your subconscious, with loving acceptance.

Some dreams are ready to sprout.  Spend a few moments exploring each of these.

How do they look, smell, taste, sound, feel?

Offer these new dreams the nourishment of your love and passion.

When you feel ready, choose a dream to follow up through the fertile ground of your being, growing, reaching for the rejuvenating radiance of the sun.

The sun warms your feet, your legs, your knees, your thighs.

The sun warms your hips, your belly, your hands, wrists, and arms.

The sun warms your shoulders, your neck, your face, and your hair.

Bask in that warmth until you feel energized and ready, then open your eyes.

Welcome back.

Now, write down anything that came to you during this meditation.

Then go eat or drink something with the intention of nourishing and grounding yourself, if you feel the need to.  May the seeds of your dreams grow and thrive in the coming weeks and months, and may your harvest come Fall be rich and bountiful.

Tags: meditation, Ostara

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Spirit Healer February, 2012

Imbolc meditation 2012

Imbolc is a celebration of the coming of Spring, and with Spring comes inspiration, creativity, and growth.  Imbolc is the traditional time of Spring Cleaning, both of our physical world, as well as our inner world.  We need to clean out old patterns of thinking and behaving that no longer serve us, so we don’t get stuck in a loop, chasing our proverbial tails and wondering why we aren’t getting anywhere.

For this meditation, you should have handy something to write on and something to write with.  Make sure you will be undisturbed for at least 20 minutes.  Consider recording your own voice reading this meditation so you can really get into it, or having a friend record it for you if hearing your own voice distracts you.

Make your body comfortable, and tell the nagging voices in your mind to shush.

Breath deeply, and pay exquisite attention to each breath.  How does breathing feel?  What do you smell and taste in the air?

How does the air feel as it enters your throat and passes into your lungs?

How do your lungs feel as they expand and deflate?

Relax with each breath.  Relax every inch of your body.  Relax your mind, and allow yourself to drift into that trance-like state just before sleep.

You are in a safe place, a sacred place, YOUR sacred place.  How does it look to you?

Take your time looking at your sacred space, and making changes to it with your will until it feels perfect for you in this moment.

When you are ready, find a door.  Know that when you open this door, you will find a wooded path, a path that will lead you to a cave.  No harm will come to you on this path.  You are safe, protected, and loved.

When you are ready, open the door.

Follow the path to an inviting, cozy cave, lit  from within by a hearth against the back wall.  The floor of the cave is soft dirt, and the walls are decorated with metal armor and weapons, beautifully detailed metal-work.

There are stacks of books by the entrance, and you know that they are full of poetry and prose, words that express and call to mind all the beauty and wonder of the universe and the experiences of life.

In the center of the cave, there is an anvil between the flames of the hearth and a simple well in the middle of the floor.  By the well stands a girl with long wild hair that shines with all the shades ever seen in  flame, and large swirling eyes that reveal every shade of water, from the healing tropical seas to the preserving arctic glaciers.  You know She is the maiden form of the Celtic Goddess Brighid, and you kneel before Her so that you and She are face to face.

Brighid the Child takes your face into Her hands and gazes into your eyes.  Her gaze fills you with unconditional love, the love a baby feels for her mother, and a mother feels for her child.  This pure love fills you, healing all the scars in your chakras and your aura, and fills every cell of your being, illuminating you from within.

When you feel like you can’t possibly take in anymore love, Brighid the Child opens Her arms for a hug.  You embrace Her, holding Her to your chest, resting your head against Her soft hair.

As you settle into the hug, you notice a warm sensation where your chest meets Hers.  The warmth gets hotter and hotter until you are sure there will be a scorch mark on your breast.  Though it doesn’t hurt, you are afraid that it will.

“You are safe,” Brighid the Child whispers.  “Let me kindle your heart with mine.  Let your passions awaken, and let your creativity flow.  Trust Me, and trust yourself.”

You whisper, “I trust You.  I trust myself,” and a spark ignites in your heart.

Your heart-flames burn away old frustration and anger, leaving only the fierce love of the Goddess and the will to create with Her.

Tears run down your cheeks, washing away stagnant emotions, the sadness, fears, and doubts that once blocked you.

Brighid the Child holds you and strokes your hair until you are balanced and calm, cleansed and filled with joy and gratitude.

As you dry your eyes, She offers you a drink of water from Her well, which you accept with thanks.  As you drink, savor the sweet flavor.  Know that the tears you cried left an empty space inside you, and that this water is filling that space with nourishment, confidence, and sacred knowledge.

You thank Brighid for Her gracious gifts, and ask Her what you can do to call this feeling back to you at will.

Listen for Her answer.  What does She say?

What does She show you?

When you are ready, give the Goddess a gift from your heart.  Then bid Her farewell, and leave the cave.

Follow the path through the woods, back to your sacred doorway.

Enter your sacred space, and breath deeply into your being.

Feel the air expand your lungs, and feel them deflate as you exhale.

Feel your diaphragm stretch and contract with every breath.

Feel your heart beat in the rhythm of life, your rhythm.

What can you feel with your skin?

What can you taste on your tongue?

What do you smell with your nose?

What can you hear with your ears?

What do you see with your eyes?

How does it feel to be back in your body?

Welcome home.

Now write down any ideas that have come to you before they turn to ash or wash away!

Tags: imbolc, meditation

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Red Pixie February, 2012

Is Mediatation just another Form of Manifestation?

Almost everyone wants to be successful. And whilst the focus of success varies from one person to the next it is a basic philosophy that hard work and focus are the key to success. But very recently people have discovered a thing called manifestation meditation, a meditative process of making our goals materialize through a shifting of thought patterns.

Manifestation meditation is when you direct your thoughts towards what you want to achieve in life so that it becomes intimately aware of what you desire from life. This is very different from when you have so many random thoughts that your brain gets confused. With this form of therapy you are so far from the noise of society that you can easily focus your thoughts on what you want.

But manifestation meditation is not as easy as thinking about what you desire and just leaving it at that. There are steps that should be followed if anything substantial is going to come out of it. The very first thing you should do is go somewhere quiet and think about what sort of success you want. This will help to spell out to your mind exactly what you want. Write your vision of success down and then pin up the piece of paper on a wall of your room.

After deciding on your goal you should then detach yourself again and sit down to silence. Becoming relaxed helps to make your vision of success clearer than ever before. The mind works a whole lot better with silence and certainty; clogging your mind with random thoughts confuses the brain making it unable to manifest dreams in the exact manner you imagine them. Some people actually associate their success with an image or thought that fills them with compassion; the belief is that this burning passion has a powerful energy.

Once you’re relaxed and calm the next thing you should do is imagine your success. Be sure to eradicate any distracting thoughts that might offset your imagination. The vision you hold in your mind should be clear and you must think about that thought for the remaining period of your meditation.

To make the meditation more powerful you should clip out pictures associated with your vision of success. Cut out pictures of the car you want and attach them to your piece of paper. Another thing is that you must focus on your imagined success throughout your day as you take the necessary steps that will help you achieve your success.

Remember practise makes perfect and remember that you’ll never win the lottery through intent if you never buy a ticket to begin with!

Bright Blessings

Pixie

Tags: meditation

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Spirit Healer January, 2012

A Meditation on Meditation for Beginners

There are 1440 minutes in every day.  You can easily schedule 5 of them for yourself, right?

Did you find yourself thinking about how many things you are going to change in 2012 over the holidays?  Have you made resolutions, or set goals, to start on January 1^st?

Are you looking forward to starting a new year, or do you find yourself feeling down or anxious?

Meditation as a daily practice has been scientifically (medically and psychologically) shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.  It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves the function of every cell, organ, and system in your body, and is apparently the best thing since sliced bread.  Sliced gluten-free bread, even.

Can you afford to give yourself five minutes a day?  Would you be willing to give up a single press of the snooze button, a cigarette break if you suffer that particular addiction, or five whole minutes of Facebook time?

Meditation doesn’t have to occur in a void.  You don’t have to be alone, in a quiet dark comfortable place with burning candle and incense.  You can meditate while you brush your teeth, or walk the dog.  You can meditate while working out, dancing, coloring, painting, or even mowing the lawn or cleaning dishes.

Meditation is a state of mind.  It’s not something you do, it’s something you be.

Many people fail at incorporating meditation as a daily practice because we are so used to thinking about our lengthy to do list, and it’s super difficult to make that inner ticker shut the heck up.  How can you relax and just be if every cell in your body  seems to be demanding you do something “productive?”

It is much easier to meditate while satisfying your left brain with action.  Some people have little labyrinths they trace with their fingers while they let their minds quietly lead them to solutions to a problem.  Some people have full size labyrinths they can walk for the same purpose.  Some people meditate while coloring mandalas or beating a drum.

You don’t have to invest in anything special to give meditation a try.  If you decide to make daily meditation a goal for 2012, here’s one effective way to start:

ñ  Set an alarm if you need a time limit, before you start your task.

ñ  Choose a task you would be doing anyway, that you could do backwards in your sleep with one arm tied behind your back.  For this example, I arbitrarily choose the task of a morning shower.

- While you do your task, the first day focus one sense on what you are doing.  Being hyper-aware of how the water feels on your skin, for example.

- The next day, hyper-focus on a different sense, and every day after until you’ve covered the five senses.  What do you smell, taste, see, hear?

-  On the sixth day, let go and see what your sixth sense might be trying to tell you.  Allow yourself to receive messages from the Divine, from your guides, or your Higher Self.

ñ  On the seventh day, just breath.  Count your breaths while you do your task of choice, or just allow your body to move while your mind enjoys are few moments of blessed peace.

Tune in next month for a guided meditation on Imbolc. <3

Tags: beginners, meditation

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Spirit Healer December, 2011

Yule Meditation – Finding Your Light

The sun is reborn on the night of the solstice.  Each day until the Spring Equinox the days will grow longer, and the nights shorter.  Though it’s the middle of winter, each extra moment of sunshine brings us closer to the joyful blooms of Spring.

Guided meditation can be a powerful tool for healing, problem-solving, developing your intuition, and exploring your world.  Today’s meditation will help you unite your intuition, mind, and heart as you uncover your own personal seed of light – your hope for the coming year that will bloom for you come Spring.

Make yourself comfortable.  Consider asking someone to read the meditation aloud to you, or recording it in your own voice so you can listen to it while laying down with your eyes closed and your focus inward.

You are safe within a sphere of white light,

comfortable, peaceful, secure, relaxed.

A soothing rain of pure white light cleanses you.

You feel the glowing water, cool against your face,

washing away tension and negativity.

Your eyes relax and close.

Breathe deeply and let the light cleanse you.

Feel the soothing water pour over your neck

your shoulders, washing away the tension.

Breathe deeply and relax your chest,

relax your back,

relax your hips.

The cool light bathes your thighs,

relaxing your knees,

your calves,

your ankles,

your feet.

Your feet stand on cool stone at the entrance of a large cave.  Huge trees around you block most of the light from the moon and stars.  You can hear thunder, rustling branches and the whistle of the wind whipping around the mountain.  The cavern in front of you is silent, yet inviting.  It offers shelter, protection from the stormy night.

You step into the cave, safe and relaxed, allowing your fingers to guide you as they glide along the cool stone wall.  With every step, you rely more and more on your ears, nose, and skin to keep you from stumbling or walking into a wall, though your eyes strain for a hint of light, any light.

In the darkness, even though you know you are safe, that nothing can harm you hear, you can’t help but remember your fears and worries about the unknown, the things that are beyond your knowledge or control.  You acknowledge your fear, knowing that it is normal and natural, and you release it with love.  “I am no longer afraid,” you say.  “Because I know that beings of Divine love guide and protect me.  I ask my guides to illuminate my path, and show me the way to my spark of hope, and my infinite well of Divine trust.”

In the darkness you feel a blanket of warm energy embrace you, wrapping around you in a hug of encouragement and pure, unconditional love.  Your straining eyes pick up a hint of light, allowing you to see contrast of the bumps, boulders, and walls.

You walk faster, and each step brings more light, until you turn around a bend and see the flame of a single candle ahead.  You enter a room about the size of your bedroom, warmed by this tiny flame of hope and trust, dancing by itself in the middle of the cavern, suspended in mid air just before you.

You know the flame cannot hurt you, because it is a part of your spirit that you have traveled all this way to reclaim.  You cradle it between your hands, and as it dances in your palms, you remember how it feels to KNOW that everything is just as it should be, that you are fully capable of handling any problem or clearing any hurdle, and that you have the power to manifest for yourself any thing your heart desires.

The flame dances from your palms to your heart, seeping into your skin and filling you with love and joy.  You can see yourself a few months from now, overwhelmed with joy and gratitude as a long-cherished dream becomes your reality.  You KNOW that by recovering your hope and faith, you have planted a seed of manifestation, and that as long as you nourish the seed with positive energy and intention, come spring it will bloom, and come summer or fall you will be able to harvest its fruit.

Your hope and faith lights you from within.  Your entire body radiates peace and love as you leave the cavern and make your way back to the entrance of the forest.

The cool stone beneath your feet glitters with your light until it gives way to the earth and mulch of a primal forest.  The ground is soft and damp, refreshed from the storm that has already passed.  With each step, you come back to your body.  You wiggle your toes and stretch your ankles, your calves.

You stretch your thighs and move your hips.  You stretch your back, and become aware of the rise and fall of your chest with each breath.  You roll your head, stretching your neck and shoulders, blink your eyes, and allow the peace and love, the hope and faith, to fill your mind, heart, spirit, and body.

Welcome home.

Tags: finding your light, meditation, yule

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Literata November, 2011

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

As the Wheel of the Year turns to winter, it is natural for us to turn inward as well, using the increasing darkness to help us concentrate on internal matters and to work with trance states and meditative journeys. Progressive muscle relaxation is a simple but useful technique for quieting the body so that the spirit can engage in these experiences without being distracted by external influences. It can also be used as part of a larger meditative practice to help us recognize where we tend to experience stress physically and learn to release that tension.

Describing stress as a feeling of pressure or tension isn’t just a figure of speech; most of us have particular muscles that we tend to tense up unconsciously when we’re worried about something. Some people “store” stress like this in their neck or back; others in the legs or abdomen. After too long, a muscle kept tense will feel achy and stiff. That feeling is annoying in and of itself, and can be tremendously distracting while you’re trying to engage in inner work.

It would be easy to say that if we just removed stress from our lives, we wouldn’t get tense, stiff, and sore muscles as a result! Since totally eliminating the cares and concerns of a normal life isn’t likely to happen anytime soon for most of us, progressive muscle relaxation is a way to work backwards from the effects to the cause. By relaxing, calming, and stilling the body, we make it possible to do the same in the mind and spirit.

Being able to relax the body to a comfortable, neutral state is also essential for doing trance work or guided meditations that involve a lot of detailed visualization or action. In these experiences, you want to be able to “leave your body behind,” and it’s much more difficult to do that when achy muscles are clamoring for your attention and intruding on your awareness.

To do progressive muscle relaxation, you first tense and then relax each group of muscles in your body. You’re using pairs or groups of muscles because you want to keep your body mostly still while you’re doing this. Where there’s a pair of muscles that have opposite functions, like your biceps and triceps in your upper arm, or your quads and hamstrings in your thigh, you tense both of them at the same time so that your limb doesn’t actually move at all. For areas like your feet and hands, you’ll be using whole groups of muscles.

Starting at your feet, first try to point your toes or to curl them inward, and while you take a slow breath in tense all the muscles there at once, then relax as you exhale. Now imagine that you’re pressing hard on a pedal with the ball of your foot, and tense and relax in sync with your breath. As you relax, that part of your body may feel heavy or warm; go with that feeling and let yourself sink into it, bit by bit.

It can actually be hard for us to identify tension or to know what really loosening up particular muscles feels like. By tensing the muscles first, we kick-start the relaxation process: if it can’t get any tenser, there’s nowhere else to go. Once that starts, we can go with the flow and let it keep going to relax out the initial tension we were storing there. As you become more familiar with what it feels like to be truly relaxed in certain parts of your body, you’ll be better able to identify tension and start the process of relaxing.

Do not hold your breath while tensing your muscles! That will raise your blood pressure and actually create more stress in your body; let the timing of your breathing determine how long you are tight, and then feel the strain and tension flowing out as you exhale.

As you progress from your feet up your legs and through your core, you will know when you get to the muscles where you tend to store stress because there will be less difference between the starting feeling of the muscle and the really tensed state – it will feel already tight when you get to it. As you let it relax, the looser state will feel even better than where you started out.

Keep going up through your core, to your arms and hands. Tense your hands in two different ways, like you did your feet – once in a fist, and once with your fingers spread out as wide as you can move them, pressing your palm down. Then work through your shoulders, neck, and face. Yes, even your facial muscles can feel tense and benefit from some relaxation!

When you finish, go back to your feet and slowly check on each group of muscles. If any of them have tensed up again, squeeze and relax them, slowly, until your whole body feels open and calm. If you want to do a trance exercise, do this while laying or sitting down, and as your muscles feel warm and heavy, imagine that they are sinking down into closer contact with the floor or chair. When you’re ready, you can let your attention drift up and away, gently moving out of your body to begiin your trance.

Calm the body and the mind will follow; still the body so the mind can roam.

Tags: meditation, muscle, relaxation

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Willow Winterborne October, 2011

*The Hedgewitch lives in the space between the Village and the Forest. Between the mundane and the magical. S/He lives with a foot in both worlds.

Tags: halloween, holiday, meditation, mindfulness, samhain, thining veil

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Literata October, 2011

As October rolls around, many Pagans begin preparing for Samhain, the Celtic festival of summer’s end, when the veil between the worlds of living and dead is especially thin. For Pagans today, this is often a time for acknowledging those who have died in the previous year and telling myths about death and rebirth. For all who may be grieving or remembering grief at Samhain, I would like to offer some suggestions about how meditative techniques can help you experience and move through those feelings.

Concentrating on these emotions, especially the ones we usually seek to avoid, may seem like the very opposite of the calm peace and even detachment cultivated through meditation. I have often written that when other thoughts or concerns arise during meditation, you should acknowledge them and then return your attention to whatever you’ve chosen to focus on. It’s true that this is the best course to take when your distractions are relatively simple, everyday sorts of matters. But deep emotions, like grief, cannot be dismissed as easily, and forcing ourselves to do so can become an unhealthy form of repressing our feelings.

If deep emotional issues are a concern for you as this Samhain draws near, instead of treating the emotional experience as a failure in your mediative practice, you might try embracing the emotion and allowing yourself to feel it fully as a necessary part of letting it go. This is tricky; you don’t want to be overwhelmed by the feelings or reinforce their presence in your life. As a result, the rest of the suggestions I give in this article will be fairly general ones that you have to adapt to your own situation. I strongly suggest trying these kinds of techniques as part of a steady meditative practice, and taking other actions to work through your grief at the same time, especially talking with people you can trust. Above all, be compassionate with yourself.

Grieving is a long and complex experience, and every situation is different. In the process of coming to terms with a death, many different emotions can play a part, including fear, anger, remorse, and resentment. Allow yourself to acknowledge any and all of these in turn, even if they seem paradoxical or difficult to explain to others. What you are feeling does not make you a bad person – it’s how you handle the feeling that matters. You may want to read about the stages of grieving; these are not a simple linear sequence, but they may help you understand that you are not alone in going through a lot of different, difficult feelings while grieving.

Facing these feelings, acknowledging them, is the first step to beginning to move through them towards acceptance of what has happened. Accepting the current sitation does not mean that you have to like it, but it enables you to turn your attention to the future again.

As you go into your feelings and begin to acknowledge them, the same meditative techniques of self-monitoring that you use to direct your attention can help you stay in the feeling, rather than turning away to some more desirable topic. You might use these while doing an activity you’ve chosen to help you express the emotion, such as a creating a piece of art. Mediatively centering yourself on the emotion can keep you engaged with the purpose so that you fully explore the emotion and can release it into the activity as much as possible.

On the other hand, if you feel like you’re drowning in the emotional current, you can use that same approach of self-awareness to help you identify when you’re getting in over your head, so you can take steps to turn your attention elsewhere. Again, these two approaches complement each other: you don’t want to repress your feelings during the grieving process, but you don’t want to stay stuck in them forever, either. Use your best judgment and ask those around you or a trained counselor for help in striking the right balance as you move through the process of grieving.

I have found that the best time to engage with, experience, and begin to release an emotion is when I can move my attention back and forth between the emotion and the calm, compassionate self-awareness that I usually occupy during meditation. This usually happens only after some time has passed since the event that caused the emotion. As needed, I switch my focus in a way similar to the technique I suggested for meditating using opposites.

If this is too difficult for you, another approach is to visualize an interaction between different aspects of your self. Let one part of yourself give voice to the emotions and struggle you’re experiencing while another part of you listens as attentively and compassionately as you would for your closest friend. If you are familiar with the way Starhawk talks about different parts of the self, you might consider these to be your Younger Self and Talking Self, respectively. Or they might be the person you were before and the person you are coming to be in the present. Regardless, the goal is not to increase the separation between parts of yourself but to make healing and wholeness more possible by allowing yourself to go through the emotions to be able to return to your center.

Ultimately, as the immediacy of a feeling diminishes, you will be better able to apply these techniques and to come to terms with your emotions. Remember, above all, that these emotions are not a failure of your meditative practice or an impenetrable barrier. They are not separate from you; they are part of you. Using meditation to help yourself cope with and reconcile them can be a valuable part of returning, again, as always, to your center.

Tags: meditation

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