The importance of a personal meditation practice cannot be stressed enough if you are to do the work of intuitive listening. Listening requires us to hear not only with our ears but our whole being. It is energy work at its deepest level; only in the stillness can we truly hear what is most important for ourselves, a space or an individual. We must learn to trust what comes, what we hear in our stillness, we must trust what we perceive outside and what we sense inside. Meditation is the tool that allows us to calm ourselves and come into a place of stillness. I am not set on one particular form of meditation, in fact I think it is good for you to experiment and find the form that works best for you. There are many techniques to choose from and I will share the ones that have worked the best for me.
Meditation is not concentration; it is not prayer, hypnosis, contemplation
Or problem solving, it is the fine art of being here now. Meditation is something we have to practice, like playing the piano, or riding a bike, it does not just happen we have to set a side time and space for it. Create a space for yourself to do this wonderful work, allow at least twenty minutes for each sitting when you begin. To begin with you can listen to music, but try to get to a place where you can sit in stillness without any distractions. You have to allow time and repetition to chance upon the art. At first you may experience many distracting thoughts racing through your brain, be still, observe them and let them pass, don’t focus on them just simply notice they are there and let them go. Expect nothing, want nothing just let yourself be.
Breathing is very helpful during meditation, as you sit simply pay attention to your breath, let it pass in and out of your nostrils, notice the rising of the abdomen on the in breath and the lowering of the abdomen on the out breath. Watching the breath is used in many Indian and Buddhist meditations.
The other forms of meditation I like come from the Toaist traditions and are taught by Mantoc Chia, his book “Awaken the light of the Toa is a good book to get. I will share a few of my favorites with you.
Practice # 1
Sit quietly find your center and stillness.
Take a deep breath in, and let it out. (repeat 3 times)
Now take a deep breath in and breath out.
Find the still point at the end of the out breath, this is a place where there is no psychological urge to breath – so you just wait – be in the moment, and hold your space.
When the urge comes to breath, breath in.
Continue with this cycle for up to twenty minuets.
Practice # 2 The inner smile Meditation
By: Mantoc Chia
Most of us have very little relationship with our own bodies. A very important part of the process of working on our own issues in life begins with learning to love ourselves and get in touch with our own thoughts and feelings. One of the best ways to practice this is thought the inner smile meditation. In this way we practice gratitude for our bodies and forgiveness as well. The smile is a powerful tool of communication. It gives us the message of acceptance, love, appreciation, understanding and safety. As a result if we receive a warm and loving smile we relax and let go of our defenses. Smiling inward helps us to feel a sense of self respect and gratitude for our organs and glands that work so hard for us each day and without much respect or gratitude. This meditation is very powerful at any time but especially if we lack self-love, have low self-esteem or illness of any kind. By smiling to our organs we begin to communicate to our inner self that we care about what happens to it and appreciate all that this wonderful body does for us on a daily basis.
Sit comfortably on the edge of your chair, feet flat on the floor, back straight, relax, put your hands in your lap, left palm on bottom, right palm on top.
Close your eyes and become aware of the souls of your feet, feel their connection to the ground and the energy of the earth beneath them.
Become aware of yourself sitting in the chair, hands together, tongue pressed against the roof of the mouth (palette). Create a source of smiling energy. ( remember a happy time, event, moment.)
Let your forehead relax and third eye open.
Allow the smiling energy to flow down from the third eye through your face, relaxing the cheeks, nose, mouth and all the facial muscles, let it flow down through your neck.
Smile to your brain, pituitary and pineal glands in the head.
Smile down to the Thyroid, Thymus and Heart. Feel love and happiness grow from
Your heart center.
Smile to your lungs and feel courage arise.
Smile to the Spleen, Stomach and Pancreas and feel openness and fairness.
Smile to the Liver and Gallbladder and feel gentleness.
Smile to your sexual organs and feel creativity.
Take a deep breath and allow yourself to relax in this wonderful healing state for as long as you like.
When you are ready, open you eyes.
Practice # 3 The six Healing Sounds:
Sounds help us strengthen the vibration of an organ by strengthening there positive energy. Every organ has it’s own special sound or vibration that can transform negative emotions into more loving and positive ones. All of the emotions or events that have taken place in our lives is stored in the muscle and organ tissues in our bodies, so if we are holding on to old emotions and patterns these simple but powerful sounds can help to transform them from our tissue and bring in happiness and wellness.
The Lung Sound – SSSSSSSSSS (metal element, white color, emotion courage, sadness)
Place your tongue behind your closed teeth.
With a long slow inhalation smile to the lungs.
Visualize them surrounded by white light, concentrate on the virtue of courage.
Exhale and create the sound SSSSSSSSSSS.
Repeat once.
Inhale and focus on gathering all the sadness you have ever felt.
Exhale with the sound SSSSSSSSSS sending all that sadness out to the universe to be transformed into loving light and courage.
The Kidney Sound – WOOOOOO (water element, blue color, emotion gentleness, fear )
Smile to the kidneys and visualize them surrounded by a bright blue color, feel the virtue of gentleness flowing through your body.
Breath in this feeling of gentleness.
Form an O with the lips, as if preparing to blow out a candle.
With a long slow exhalation, produce the sound WOOOO.
Repeat once.
Inhale and focus on gathering all of the fears and stress you have ever felt.
Exhale with the WOOOO sound and imagine all this fear and stress being sent out to the universe to be transformed into light and gentleness.
The Liver Sound – SHHHHHHH (wood element, green color, emotion, kindness, anger)
Breath in and smile to your liver.
Visualize it surrounded by a bright green color, feel the virtue of kindness flowing through your body.
Place the tongue near the palette and with a long slow exhalation produce the sound SHHHHHH.
Repeat once.
Inhale and gather all anger you have ever felt.
Exhale and visualize all this anger going out into the universe being transformed into loving light and kindness.
The Heart Sound – HAWWWWWW (fire element, red color, emotion love, joy, happiness, hate and impatience)
Breath in slowly and visualize your heart surrounded by a bright red color, feel love, joy and happiness.
With the mouth wide open, exhale and produce the sound HAWWWWW.
Repeat once.
Inhale and gather all the hate and impatience you have ever felt.
Exhale and visualize all this hate and impatience going out to the universe to be transformed into loving light, love, joy and happiness.
The Spleen Sound – WHOOOOO ( earth element, yellow color, emotion fairness, openness, worry and anxiety)
Inhale and smile to the spleen, pancreas and stomach, visualize them surrounded by yellow color, feel the virtues of fairness and openness.
Repeat this once.
Place the tongue near the palette and with a long slow exhalation produce the sound WHOOOOOO. ( like the sound of an owl)
Inhale and gather all of the worry you have ever felt.
Exhale and visualize all this worry going out into the universe and being transformed into loving light fairness and openness.
Triple Warmer – HEEEEEE
Practice this while lying down
Inhale and visualize a huge rolling pin flattening out your body from forehead to toes.
This will balance all of the energies activated by the sounds and help relax the body.
Exhale with your mouth open and produce the sound HEEEEE.
Repeat once.
The triple warmer is a very important energy meridian in the body, it controls our fight or flight response and is often a key to working with autoimmune illnesses where the fight or flight response can be stuck on. It works with the adrenal energy as well.
Improving Your Own Personal Chi:
Having good energy is a key to working with the energy of others and with personal spaces, we must learn to keep our own energy clear and strong and recognize when we are taking on the needless energy of others. This does not help anyone. Being empathic is a great tool but we must learn to let go of what is not ours or we become a waste dump for other people’s unwanted chi. The following exercises will strengthen your chi, as this happens you will begin to recognize what is yours, feelings, emotions et.
5-MINUTE ENERGY ROUTINE:
By: Donna Edan
The three thumps
1. With firm pressure and full breathing: thump (or rub) in the hollows underneath the clavicles, where it ends under the neck. Do at least 50
2. Tap the center of the chest just over the Thymus (like Tarzan) 50 times
3. Tap the sides of the body at the rib cage just under the breast line.
Tapping this way activates the meridians in the body, stimulates the thymus and the spleen. The spleen is the organ that helps us to metabolize everything from food to thoughts. Doing this daily will energize your body, wake yu up and keep you going.
The cross crawl
Begin by lifting one arm to the opposite side of the body along with the opposite leg. (the marionette walk. Do 8 –12 reps and repeat twice).
The crown pull
Place your thumbs at your temples
Fingers of both hands at middle of forehead
Pull your fingers away from each other.
Move slowly from the front of the skull toward the back
At the shoulders, hold the pull
Shake off your hands
Wayne Cook Posture
Sit in a chair, back straight, feet on floor
Place right foot over left knee
Wrap left hand around the right ankle and right hand around the ball of the right foot
Breath in deeply through your nose, letting the breath lift your body, pulling the leg toward you creating a stretch
Exhale through your mouth and let the body relax.
Repeat 5 times and switch sides
Uncross your legs and place your fingertips together forming a pyramid.
Place your thumbs at your third eye.
Breath in slowly through your nose, then out through your mouth, allow the thumbs to smooth across the forehead.
Bring the thumbs back to the third eye position
Slowly bring the hands down in front of you to heart level while exhaling.
Drying Off
Imagine you have a washcloth
Beginning at the souls of the feet smooth up inside the leg, up the front of the body, up the inside of your arm and off the fingertips.
Repeat on other side
Starting at either hand smooth up the back side of the arm, down the back, down the outside of the leg and off the foot.
Repeat on the other side
Zip up
Place one hand at your pubic bone and smooth it up your body to below your bottom lip.
Place the other hand on the sacrum and smooth it up your back, over the crown of your head to below your nose
Zip up your lips