How To Meditate

How to Relax and Meditate

Meditation is simple … really! It’s about letting go, relaxing the body, freeing the mind and releasing all worries (ahhh…) as you allow peace and love to gently flood your being.

Meditation can be practiced by just about anyone and involves muscle relaxation, focus on breathing and visualization techniques. It doesn’t have to be weighty or as serious! It’s really just another way to relax and release all your tensions and worries.

Meditation can help you quiet your mind and is one of the best techniques to improve your mood, sharpen your concentration and help you manage stress and even chronic pain.

I began my own meditation practice in 1991 when I joined a group in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada run by a lovely woman by the name of “Om” who had studied meditation with Sri Chinmoy. Meditating in a group can be a truly powerful experience and I recommend it highly, especially when you’re starting out!

Simple Meditation How-To

1. Find a space with few distractions. Close your eyes and relax your breathing. Focus on the physical sensation of your breath. Notice any tension or changes in your breathing. If your mind feels overwhelmed, return your attention to your breath: In. Out. In. Out.

Often your breathing will be shallow or irregular if you are feeling nervous or tense so spend a few minutes practicing and breathing slowly and steadily to restore a balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide to your body. You can also breathe in to a count of four and out for another count of four until you become relaxed. Make sure that you are comfortable and breathing gently without taking in big gulps of air.

2. Let your mind relax along with your muscles. If an emotion comes forward such as anxiety or anger, try not to attach to it, just let it float on by and disappear. In. Out. In. Out. You can also practice tensing and relaxing various muscle groups starting with your head and working your way down to your feet. Try tensing for five seconds and then relaxing for ten seconds. This is called progressive muscle relaxation and it can lead to deep levels of physical and mental relaxation.

3. Try visualizing scenes that are peaceful, calming, safe and. The more senses you can awaken, the more relaxing your meditation will be. For example, try imagining yourself walking down a tree lined path on a beautiful spring day, you can hear the birds tweet and you can see the light dancing through the trees and alighting in interesting patterns on your arm. Imagine that you can feel the cooling touch of a gentle spring breeze and smell the delicious scent of spring flowers in bloom.

Need more help? Here are two more meditations from my website:

A Quick Meditation Pick-Me-Up

How to Calm and Center (short and sweet!)

A Healing Message Soul Reading

This is an actual real life example of one of my Healing Message Soul Readings. My wish is that it will help others understand my style of reading and perhaps, through osmosis even absorb some of the healing information within. What is A Healing Message Soul Reading?

This reading is designed to offer you healing guidance in your time of need. I will be incorporating healing messages, positive affirmations, visualizations and prayers designed specifically to address your concerns and issues. I believe we all have the power to heal ourselves body, mind and soul and my greatest wish is that this reading will encourage you to take the steps necessary to empower yourself in a healing and positive way.

This reading offers you a more hands-on healing approach then my other readings because you are given specific tools and exercises to enhance your innate healing abilities.

A Healing Message Soul Reading

*This reading is being shared with client permission* The card I pulled for you in response to your upcoming breast biopsy examination is from my Lefty Oracle deck and is called “Alice lives here now.”

Because the Lefty cards were all drawn with my non-dominant left hand, the ‘intuitive’ hand (controlled by my right brain) they do not come with any kind of written interpretation. That part is up to you. Go with your intuition and trust whatever images, thoughts or feelings come up in relation to this card. It’s time to trust yourself and put your intuition to work - Go!

I chose a gemstone called Chrysocolla for your reading to assist us in going to a deeper more spiritual plane of inner knowing so we can access your quiet inner depths. You can also work with this stone on your own as well. I recommend holding one stone in each hand or visualizing a deep lake-blue-turquoise and forest green color surrounding and protecting you.

Chrysocolla also helps in the releasing of grief, sadness and fear from the emotional body as well as helping to promote feelings of joy, certainty, and peace. It teaches one about letting go, surrendering pain and releasing worry to universal love.

I also want to welcome one of your Spirit Guides who has just shown up. She is a Native American Shaman.

A Healing Exercise for you: Please feel free to lie down or sit in a comfortable chair while allowing yourself to feel the cool, calming and refreshing energy of the colors and stones we have chosen to work with wash over you. Also, try and imagine yourself spending time beside, or within a cool, clear waterfall in a deep green forest.

Feel yourself relax and allow the green-blue healing vibrations of your chosen stones/colors penetrate every pore and cell of your body, filling your very being with peace and calm.

You can also cross your hands over your heart and bow your head in prayer while repeating this affirmation:

"I am whole and holy."

Now form your hands into prayer, relax and just let go of everything; all your worries, thoughts and concerns.

Affirmations: "I am _____________ "(state your name.) "I know I will be okay."

Now breathe deeply. Your Guide and I are using a blue feather and an owl feather to brush away all your worry and concerns by using our feathers to just brush the energy surrounding your body out and away from your entire body – we work in a circle all around you using our feathers. Feel a cooling, healing breath of fresh air all over your body.

I pulled another card for you from my Goddess Zodiac Power Deck and she is called “The Aquarian Goddess – Ix Chel.”

Ix Chel Among the Maya of the Yucatan peninsula, this was the name of the snake-goddess of water and the moon, of childbirth and weaving. This night-riding goddess spent her energies in nursing the women of earth through pregnancy and labor and taking special care of those who visited her sacred island of Cozumel.

Some Goddess Guidance for you: Keep your fire and your strength burning. Feel your strength and your femininity working together.

Affirmations:

"I am perfect just as I am." "I know grace." "I have seen Goddess and I know I am loved in every fiber of my being."

Blessed Bee.

And to end your healing session I chose a card from my Fairy Herbal Healing Deck and it is called “Meadowsweet.”

Meadowsweet or “Queen of the Meadow” has long been sacred to various Goddesses, and later was sometimes connected with the Virgin Mary. You can work with an image of this flower by holding it in your mind’s eye and feeling it’s soothing qualities of strength and softness. Feel strong and flexible but not rigid. (This herbal information is from the book “An Astrological Herbal for Women” by Elisabeth Brooke.)

**I spoke with my client shortly after her reading and she told me that the visualizations and affirmations had been very helpful and calming for her during her biopsy, and that all had gone well. Many months later she emailed me to let me know that: "It was so very helpful to me…and I’ll admit that I continue to use the imagery of the waterfall in the deep forest as a source of comfort."

If you are interested in booking a Healing Message Soul Reading you can do so here.