Meditation Tradition

I have spent years meditating, writing about meditation, and teaching meditation. It is not a journey that started out easy, rather it was a bumpy road at best. I would equate it to forcing yourself to eat vegetables, until over time you genuinely enjoy eating vegetables. Or rather that over time you find your own way to cook and prepare those vegetables in a way that suits your preferences.

I have found my journey with meditation to be similar. For years I had tried to “clear my mind” having a minimal understanding of and fixed idea of what meditation is. I bumbled around with this limiting belief that didn’t allow me to find my own practice with meditation that suited my preferences. So I let it slip away. It became this thing I did in yoga classes, but did not incorporate into my own life.

Then years later a colleague chastised me for not having my own daily meditation practice. She told me that my faltering in my professional career was my own fault. I took up a mediation practice again to spite her, to prove her wrong. Not the most righteous of reasons, however it did light a fire under me and moved me in the right direction.

I started with a meditation where I reflected on the members of my house, holding their highest self as a radiant light, each evening. As much as I hated to admit it at the time, I started to notice a shift in how I was relating to the people I lived with. I had more compassion and understanding. I was slower to judge a passing situation and better able to see each individual as a whole being. I learned to love and accept each person’s highest light and shadow side. I was thriving in finding a practice that worked for me, was suited for my particular needs, and something that I could easily connect to. As much as I did not want to admit it at the time, my colleague had given me an amazing gift and tool that will serve me the rest of my life.

My hope to you is offer you an understanding that there is no right or wrong way to meditate, it is a deeply individualistic experience, and that it takes time to cultivate. If what you are doing isn’t working for you then try something difference. There are amazing apps out their (I would recommend My Life as there are lots of free quality options), amazing books out their ( How to Meditate by Pema Chodron), and lots of amazing audio (Perhaps stop by my shop and peruse the audio offerings). Also all of the yoga classes that I teach include some sort of mindfulness and meditation as a way to safely introduce this concept to others.

The goal here is to find a life that is stress free and full of joy, and meditation is a tool for that. It increases self awareness, helps you to focus on the present, reduces negative emotions, and increases patience, tolerance, imagination and creativity. These are the keys to living a sustainable life filled with love. If this is something you would like to take up with support than I am here for you and we can start your meditation tradition today.