I was first introduced to meditation in my yoga classes. I experienced meditation more while in the SEVA program at Kripalu, primarily with the use of mantra and through kirtan and kundalini yoga. Then, two years later, I did a 10 day silent meditation Vipassana and that is where I I had my first dip below the level of my mind. I arrived, expecting that I would uncover some really awful dark truths (which I did!), but after spending at least 6 hours developing a plan to leave undetected on the second day, I began to fall more into my heart, into deeper clarity and peace. When I got home, I went straight into opening and running a studio for four and half years, and I met and married my husband, and we had our first son Brendan, and then I got incredibly ill with lung and heart failure (cardiomyopathy). When I began to loose my ability to breathe, meditation became more and more important. I become more and more attracted to meditation when I read through Sally Kempton's book, Meditation for the Love of It.
There has been a quiet, slow turning towards meditation as a daily practice for me. The feeling is remenicent of when the practice of yoga began to take hold and draw me back to the mat in those early years of my practice. For the last two years I have been listening to and learning from Sally Kempton, David Wagner, Elena Brower and Thom Knoles. But still, I don't have a strong dedicated commitment, ... yet. I have experienced the benefits of meditation, for sure. It ignites my creativity and fills my bucket for sure, but until recently I've (sub/unconsciously) approached it from a place of, what will I get out of it, what will I gain. And now, most immediately, my perspectively has changed - as it does after years of practice. Now, my approach is more reverent and more about being aware. It is still essential to my self-care practice, but it is absolutely essential for the person that I am becoming - someone who is aware, present, alive, vibrant, and calm, with an abundance of love and generosity. Meditation teaches me, it teaches us, how to do this.
Meditation is the practice of becoming.
Click here for a really excellent, and free call on the Science, Heart, and Wisdom of Meditation with my teacher Elena Brower (scroll about half way down the page). I will be signing up for her 4 week audio meditation course. Also, please join me on Wednesday, October 14 :: 7:30-8:15pm as I lead the Oshkosh Meditation Group at Inner Sun Yoga.