Finding your center
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Grounding your awareness
At the grand old age of 25 whenever my yoga teacher would bring up a short 10 min meditation practise at the end of yoga class (TEN WHOLE MINUTES) I would get all fidgety, uncomfortable, close and open my eyes, roll my eyes, bang my knee up and down and wonder - when will this be over! We are talking here 10minutes!
As I healed my body and relaxed my nervous system enough to find support for my spine I was more drawn to engage in meditation practises that refine the mind and transform the connective tissue.
Finding ground
We are constantly reconnecting to our center. To do that we need the ground. And from this supported position we can reach out into space. People have different ways of reconnecting to center. Sitting down to have a cup of coffee is meditation.
It is dynamic continuous re-hearing of your connection to center and seeking nourishment through the effortless movement in space. When we practise yoga and enjoy the Melt Method fascia treatments we are constantly reorienting our attention to notice how we feel. We are coming back into the body, quieting down the obsessive nature of the mind and sensing. Learning to direct and move our attention is an invaluable skill in movement practise and healing modalities. Let me help you undo tensions to quiet the mind and awaken the skills to reconnect with your body, sensory integrate and empower.
Calming the senses
I've worked with adults and children in helping them deal with issues of attention, coordination and core stability through movement with awareness.
Meditation leads to motion in alignment with our needs. As we pass though the qualities of the mind being depressed, over active and in alignment with our needs and that of our community we refine our evolution in connection with world around us.
Working with attention and shifts in awareness is a deeply enriching practise with huge potention for embodiment and transformation of habits of movement and even personality.
Learn to get grounded in the body through yoga, harmonize your desires by caring for your friends and family. But at a certain moment you will need to gain access to that most intimate space - your mind and what lies beyond it. Peacefulness and contentment. Ability to act with the laws of nature.
There are three types of meditation that I have explored from my travels in the East
Those that calm the mind (anapanasati)
Those that delve into the mind to help you gain insight of nature (vipasana)
Various techniques that stimulate certain archetypal karmic images within you and awaken capacities and nature (tantric forms of meditation and visualizations)
Once back in the Western hemisphere
I entered into a community of dance practioners and spaces where we went deep into somatic practise exploring various dance, bodywork and movement techniques centered around embodied awareness of anatomy.
I am expremely greatful to all the somatic artists and dancers I have worked with in the past 7 years.
BMC, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Laban/ Bartenieff Technique, somatic dance techniques working with grounding, momentum and release - Flying Low, Dynamic Release Technique, Skinner Release Technique and Contact Improvidsation as well as rhythm based dacne techniques like Five Rhythms, Limon Technique, Continuum Technique as well as bodywork practises of touch and hands off touch - Melt Method, Rolfing, CreneoSacral Technique, Anatomy Chains and fascia research.
Meditation techniques available to us through the teachings of yoga, tantra and Buddhist masters:
sound meditation like mantra and kirtan chanting, aroma resetting of the nervous system
breath awareness
walking meditation
eye and hand coordination meditaitons like mandala and yantra making
awareness shifting meditation like yoga nidra
Yoga nidra is more properly a relaxation sequence with deep healing properties. It can be used as a pre-meditaiton exercise for a number of months to help you prepare for a more upright meditation practise.
The beautiful forest wat in Thailand where I did my second vipassana. A place of happiness. The abbot there said you cannot meditate if you are not happy. That is true. We have mindfulness practises. But true meditation is a state of mind that arises when we are happy. You have to be evolved to tolerate happiness. Many people descend into guilt trips and anxiety and are unable to receive it. Meditation techniques help us clear the nervous system and body so we can receive and be ready for happiness/meditation when it arises, so we can enter and enjoy it, come out and reenter.
With gratitude for my teachers I will now share what I have learned and facilitate for others the wonderful tools of meditation to the best of my ability.
Meditation is like a spa treatment. It starts with the mind but the benefits are tangible and physical as well as emotional and mental.
photos on page © Camelia Shakti
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