The experience at the laundromat was actually a very positive one. My husband was excited by the amazing quality of the washers and dryers and after helping me figure out how to use them, he left to do some errands (coffee at Starbucks I suspect..), leaving me in charge of the washers and the dryers. Sitting there, having an hour to kill, I realized that I could have brought my laptop since they had free Wi-Fi, or at least a book to read, but I did not, so I had nothing, completely nothing to do.

How often does it happen that I have absolutely nothing to do? Not often. After thinking about all the things I could have done if I were more prepared, I did the only thing I could: sat there and watched the washing machines.

I started to count the turns the drum made for each cycle. After 10 minutes I got calm. I paid attention to the water in the drum’s window, the colors of the clothes, the bubbles and the constant movement. I became even calmer. It was just me and the drum’s cycle. When the machine was in the “rinse” stage and the turns were faster, I found the view to be even more fascinating.

When my husband came back he said: “You look like you have been meditating”.

In a way – I had been.

This Wednesday in my Meditation Class in Atlanta, we will practice Walking Meditation. Just like I discovered the meditative power of a laundromat experience, you can turn anything you do into a meditative experience, if you just do it mindfully.

What have I done that helped me stay focused and be present for my family?
What made it possible for me to be present and energetic for my clients?

I believe it’s the quiet time I take each and every day to get centered and stable spiritually.
In other words, my daily meditation and giving Reiki to myself.

I view it as an appointment with myself, a time to connect to my true needs and to seek guidance and wisdom. It’s my time to listen.

When I meditate or give Reiki to myself – I listen.
The answers don’t always come at that moment, but I always become peaceful and connected to my emotions.

Meditating helps me to remember to just breathe and to seek support when I need it. When I take the time to get quiet and to listen – I feel supported and guided.

I can’t stop the wave – but I can learn to surf.

I can teach you how to do this.

If you never tried meditation or couldn’t stick with it – here are the 2 most successful ways I’ve found to meditate successfuly:

1. Start with the breath
2. Start with a guided visualization

Try both – and see what fits you.

Today, I will take you step by step through the breathing technique.

Start with the breath

• Sit in a stable position. (The stillness of the physical body helps the stillness of the mind)
• If your legs are crossed, your back should be high enough off the floor and your knees lower than your back.
• If sitting on a chair –support the back with a pillow if needed to have 2 feet on floor
• Set your alarm clock to 5 minutes. Commit to doing it every day for a week. Gradually increase the time when you feel that you’re ready.
• Let your eyes close. Relax your body. Release any tension – your shoulders should be soft, your hands and legs relaxed, let the belly be easy, and relax the eyes. Let the breath flow naturally. Use your breath to bring awareness into the present. Feel, in the midst of other things, how you experience the breath. Feel the physical sensations of the breath without directing or changing it. Feel each breath as it comes in and out whenever it shows itself. Each time you start thinking or planning, let go of that and come back to the breath. It is the coming back to the breath that will train your mind. Don’t try to stop thinking. Just be aware of what’s happening and always come back to your breath.

Have some questions? Need support? Email me or post your questions.

So why is it so hard?
1. We are not used to sitting still – being “on the move” so much, there is a physical challenge for our body to sit still. We might feel pain in our legs, back or knees.

2. We are not used to seeing how busy the mind is – when we sit and watch our mind, we realize how busy it actually is. Our mind makes its mental “To-Do” lists and thoughts arise one after another. That’s our mind’s agenda. It may seem like our mind becomes busier when we meditate, but it’s like that all the time – we just don’t realize it.

3. We can’t find the time – our world sends us messages of DOING more and more. We become busier every day and we can’t seem to make it a priority and find the time to meditate.
4. We tend to avoid feelings and thoughts – Naturally, thoughts and feelings pop up when we meditate. We try to avoid those if they make us uncomfortable. The goal of meditation is not to stop thoughts from happening. I hinted at this above and I will explore this in more depth in my next article.

Is it hard for YOU to meditate? Would like to hear your thoughts.

Insight Meditation is when you pay attention to the process, to the experience of changing phenomena rather than one particular object. Mental Noting is a powerful Insight Meditation technique. You can start by noticing your breath. You can either notice your breath as the rising and falling of your abdomen or the sensations around your nose. If you choose to work with your belly, you can start by placing both hands on the belly to feel the rising and falling of the belly.

You make a mental note while it is happening. So you either say: rising – falling or in and out. From there you can expand and note other things as they occur: Thinking, imagining, intending, planning, judging

When you intend to swallow – intending
When you swallow – swallowing
When you hear a cell phone – hearing
When you feel pain – pain

HERE IS YOUR TIP:
Applying this technique to your daily life, not just during formal meditation, can benefit you a lot.
When you are starting to get stressed, try to name it and don’t be in it. When you’re walking, say “walking”. It will help you to be mindful about your experience. When you’re eating, say: “eating” and don’t read the paper at the same time.
You learn to name the mind state: for example, freaking out: when you become aware, you are no longer freaking out – you create a space between the observer and the phenomena.

QUESTION:
If an image becomes dominant during Insight Meditation, what should I do?

ANSWER:
Whatever appears, note it. If you don’t, you are not doing the practice.

In Concentration meditation, you focus on a single object. It might be your breathing, or it might be a mantra, an image, a candle. You gently return to this object whenever your mind wanders. You do this over and over until it blocks out any thought or worry and your mind becomes peaceful.

If you are a beginner with meditation, it is very important to have the right attitude and expectation. Setting an expectation of having no thoughts is unrealistic. Thoughts are one of the things that make us human, and meditation will do nothing to change this fact. If this is your goal, you set yourself to fail. Your goal should be to be able to come back to the breath (or another object) every time your mind wander. Try to remember that it is natural for the mind to wander. When it does, do not feel that you are failing. It is simply an opportunity to do the practice. Jack Kornfield, a leading meditation teacher in the US, once used the analogy of training a puppy: you don’t get angry or punish the puppy, you simply show it the correct behavior until it sticks.

HERE IS YOUR TIP:

When your mind wanders, come back to your object.
If you are able to catch the mind wandering and bring it back, you are doing the practice.

A question came up during the meditation class by one of the participants:

Why are we trying to quiet our mind and let go of thoughts during a meditation? Isn’t it true that we sometimes get important insight and sometimes even answers to questions during meditation?

Would love to hear your answers for this question.

More tips, and this time on Insight Meditation here in my blog on Thursday.

Throughout the years, I have met so many people who suffer from anxiety on one level or another. I encourage them to find the right way for them to deal with it and I have lots of techniques in my “Tool Box” that can help. Today, I would like to explore how meditation helps to get from anxiety to inner peace.

Usually, we attach “stories” to our experience. For example, let’s say we need to clean our yard. We can simply clean the yard or we can attach to it (without being aware that we’re doing this) a “why me?” or “poor me” attitude and create our own suffering. The additional storyline affects our attitude, our mood, and our behavior. We get lost in our thoughts and this creates the anxiety.

One of the benefits of meditation is that it quiets our mind and helps us see our experience from a higher level, above the content. When we are centered and connected we are more in touch with reality.

I meditate almost every day. Mediation is not always pleasant, but neither is life. Suffering is an essential part of being human – we couldn’t have happiness without it! Meditation will not eliminate negative emotions, but it can change your relationship to them. It can help you deal with suffering directly instead of running away from it. I can say that from my experience, when I skip my meditation I’m more likely to feel anxious that day.

I would love to share more of this with you in person. Here is a link to my Meditation Class on August 18:  meditation class

Let go a little – you’ll have a little freedom
Let go a lot – you’ll have a lot of freedom
Let go completely – you’ll have a complete freedom.

How do you let go completely? How do you let go a lot? For ordinary people like me, it takes a lot of practice to let go. It sounds simple, doesn’t require hard work but I wish somebody would find the perfect recipe for letting go….

One step I am taking daily is meditating. Recently, my son introduced me to Mahasi Sayadaw and the mental noting meditation technique. To use this technique all you have to do is name your experience. Whatever is happening at that moment, you name it mentally: thinking, feeling, breathing, etc. I’ve started practicing in this way. It gives my mind something to do that is directly connected to my actual experience. What a powerful concept! When I am angry I note: “angry.” When I judge someone I note: “judging”. By naming the mind state, you recognize what is going on without identifying with it or being embedded in it.

Try it out and let me know how it goes, or share your favorite meditation techniques with me.

When I started to meditate, the only thing I could focus on was my list. I did what I usually do when this happens: I did a Journaling Meditation. In my journal, I put it all on paper, without worrying about what it is or what it looks like. Then, I took a big piece of paper and wrote down the list I had in my head. Everything. Looking at the list I knew that it is not reasonable to think that I, or any human being, would be able to do all these in one day.

The next step was to prioritize and divide it into days. I took 3 papers. Wrote Wednesday on the first one (which was that day), Thursday on the second page and Friday on the third. I took every item I had on my original list and wrote it in the right day and in the right category (Business phone calls, Business emails, Business writings, House matters, others). Then I checked if each list is reasonable and achievable.

I changed things around until I felt it is. Then I numbered the items according to importance. Then I could breathe…. It is not something I will do every day but definitely when I feel that I am overwhelmed. It made my week simple and fun. It is Sunday already. I am done with tasks and I am planning to rest most of the day!

Prioritize. Divide into days. Number by importance. Make sure it is doable and reasonable. Rest.
This might not work for everyone, but it did for me.

Preparing for next week’s FREE  Stress-Reduction Phone Seminar, I “played” with different types of meditation. I approached it with the sense of play and curiosity I talked about yesterday and it was really fun.

Who said meditation should be serious? Who said it should be scary?

Do I have to always sit crossed legs in a quiet room with candles and music?

The answer is NO. Mediation can be simple as gazing at the wall and counting your breaths or saying an affirmation or mantra over and over again. One of my favorite ways is to listen to one of my guided meditations on my iPod when I come back from work and need a break before dinner and whatever else I have that night.

I call it my “Meditation Nap.” My daughter says it is funny that I listen to my own voice on my iPod. Funny?  Maybe. But it always calms me down and gives me a refreshing boost of energy.

By the way, I always set the alarm clock to 20 minutes when I take my “Meditation Naps” because I sometimes fall asleep in the middle…..don’t tell anyone! In my morning meditation I make sure to sit up straight and to stay awake and concentrated but during my nap, I don’t’ mind if I fall asleep.

Be creative, have fun with meditation. It doesn’t have to be serious!

The list was quite long. Since then, every time I listen to this meditation, (Yes, I do… it’s on my iPod and one of my favorite ones to use during my “Meditation Naps” when I come back from work) I have new additions to my list of “letting go”.
Why is it so hard to let go?

All my life I was a control freak. I still catch myself thinking that the more control I have, the easier my life would be. It is actually the opposite: The more I am able to let go, the more I am able to trust the universe and the divine, the easier my life would be.
I would definitely say/write/read this affirmation over and over again this week while traveling back home. There are so many things I have no control over right now and so many areas in which I need to let go.

I Let Go and Accept the Flow

Family vacations are always fun. For me, they are even better when they involve the beach, ocean and sunsets. My daughter took this photo yesterday while I was sitting next to her on the beach and gazing into this beautiful sunset. It is a wonderful way to meditate: Just to sit on the beach, look at the sunset and allow yourself to sink in. But what if you are sitting at your home or office and there is no way you can get to the beach now? I find that even a photo can be a worthy substitute and serve as a mini-vacation without all the travel.

Look at this picture and follow the steps:

1.     Sit in a comfortable position and gaze in the direction of the picture.

2.     While breathing, imagine the sound of the waves.

3.     Synchronize the feeling/sound of the waves with your breath.

4.     Feel your heart opens while you are breathing and looking at the picture

5.     Release all thoughts and worries into the direction of the sun.

6.     Fill your heart with gratitude for the sun, the sky, the ocean and EVERYTHING ELSE you have.

7.     Say to yourself: No matter what is going on in my life, the sun continues to rise in the morning and set at night.

How do you feel?

180 Allen Rd. North Building, suite 101

When: Wednesday 8/18/2010 from 7:00-8:00 PM

More information will be available on www.balancedmoments.com