Author: pmcrose

A regular meditation time and place is fundamental to sustaining a practice.

It is like taking the same walk every day over and over, but being open and observant, you notice it is never really exactly the same.  You need to approach the path with your mind as empty as possible of expectations as you take the first steps.  This will have you ready for the new day’s nuances awaiting ahead of you.

We can approach our meditations, and in fact our life every day and every moment as these engaged explorers of life, if we are are open to it.

I often wonder what I can do to help improve this world.  What can I do to help the world?

One way is doing what you enjoy!

As you do what you love, you literally vibrate with and emanate joy.  You create joy and share it with others.

In this way, you bring joy to the world and celebrate life!

There is a space in yoga and meditation referred to as the midline.

For yoga postures this is often referred to as hugging the midline or being in alignment.

In meditation, you feel your sit bones on the chair or the ground (or cushion); you gently rise up with relaxed shoulders and jaw and face muscles breathing normally feeling your center.

Your heart is at the center of your central energy channel, the sushumna (see below).

How do you keep aligned with or coming from your center or your heart with your words and actions?

We practice yoga and meditation to be able to find this space again and again, on or off the yoga mat or meditation cushion.

We practice to find this space and to become increasingly anchored in it so it is where we come from more and more often in our daily lives with our family and friends, at work, and in all our endeavors.  It becomes a source of strength during difficult times.

Too often I do things and am so focused on or absorbed in the task at hand that I do not pay attention to how it is effecting my body.

The more I can pay attention or be mindful of my body when doing any activity, I can adjust how I am doing the task to accommodate for the body.

It takes a diligent focus to bring our minds to this very moment in the body and to be aware of all the signs it is giving us.  We need to monitor to be able to adjust.

I do not know why this is so hard for the mind to really pay attention to the body, but I am working on it and hope that mindfulness from my meditation practice can help me zone in more and not zone out so much.

Within you, there is this flow of consciousness.

In yoga, it is described as a column of light running from the base of your spine to the top of the head.

It supports you–this flow of consciousness.  It has always been with you. You possibly, like me, just did not recognize it.

Its energy spreads throughout your body with each inhale and exhale, the prana.  This same energy is at the heart of any yoga/meditation practice.  Experiences of it, sometimes just mere glimpses, have been more than enough to sustain my practice over the years.

Great respect and love for it arise naturally as does joy.

This is the grace of life!

When I am confused about something, I wonder if there will ever be a moment of clarity?

There are moments…maybe…here…and there….

Give yourself room and time to be confused.  Quit fighting it.

Trust and let go to it.

Embrace the confusion.  Relax into it.  Breathe!

See where it takes you.  See what new things arise.

Feel the flow.

The goal of mediatation is to fall into the goalless state.  

Goals are future or next moment(s) oriented.

Mediation is not about achieving anything.

Meditation is a break from future and past orientations.

Feel your consciousness in your body right now.

Consciousness has this body to be in, experience, and enjoy this world.

I am grateful for this!

When sitting for meditation, align your head with your heart.

For me this meant pulling my head back slightly and relaxing my shoulders and neck so that my head floated above my heart in line with it, not ahead of it.  Somehow this put the heart and mind in congruence or yoked together as one–yoga.

When I did this, I noticed my mind was quieter, more peaceful and secure feeling like it was being held by and in the heart.

When my head in meditation is tilted ahead of the heart or in front of it , the head and heart are not aligned and incongruent.  My head is ahead or leading me, not my heart.

When I experimented with doing this, I noticed my mind feeling antsy, unsettled, and a bit anxious.

Experiment with this in your meditation practice and discover if you feel the balance in unity when head and heart are aligned.

So often in life it seems our head gets ahead of or out of sync with our heart.  Possibly, this slight adjustment in our meditation practice and posture could make all the difference in the world.

My computer is on the blink, and I am waiting for a new one to be delivered.  
Besides, it’s a good thing for the every day yogi to take a break.

Those who know me well know that over the last couple of years I have had some of my first real bouts with any health issues. Prior, I was a pretty dang healthy guy!

Digestive flora shut down for four months, Giardia, and appendectomy with a few complications, and a horrible case of sciatica… Nothing life-threatening but certainly inconvenient, needing lifestyle changes, and the latter being very painful.

As I struggled to recover, I came to realize the following more clearly: celebrate life!

I keep hearing its echo… A dear friend with stage-four cancer of unknown origins now in remission, another friend barely escaping hemorrhaging to death during childbirth, a daughter and friends surviving the recent Ghost Ship fire… Life is fragile, fleeting… Life is a gift!

Enjoy it.  Celebrate it. And know that health and vitality are fleeting and true gifts.

As this season of giftgiving begins, may we come to see and feel what is truly valuable – the presence of life and health.

May your holiday season be filled with life, light, joy, and love and improving health should it be faltering and a grateful heart for our most precious gift, one another to celebrate this with.