Once again I invite you to explore a range of ways you might bring meditation into your life from Sounds True. Maybe you have tried meditating before and become restless or bored, or it brought up painful feelings or perhaps you have never tried meditation. In the links below you may find a meditation practice (or more than one) that is just right for you.

Research has scientifically proven that meditation is a safe and simple way to balance your physical, emotional, and mental state and its countless values have been known and practiced for thousands of years. More and more doctors promote the benefits of meditation to cure many stress related illnesses.Meditation has been proven to:

• relieve stress
• lower blood pressure and heart rate
• improves the immune system
• improve mood (such as feeling blue or anxious)
• create new neural pathways in your brain leading to better states of mind and wellbeing
• increase the level of healthy neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin)
• reconnect with yourself
• recognise and release  habitual thinking patterns

The ultimate expression of meditation comes when we can feel all the pains of the world, experience them with mindfulness and equanimity so they dissolve into energy, and then recolor that energy and radiate it out as unconditional love, moment by moment, through every pore of our being.
—Shinzen Young

Are you ready to experience meditation for yourself? Simply select the category on the right that interests you, and you’ll be on your way. “Meditation to Calm the Mind” and “Open to Awareness” offers you eight traditional techniques to settle your thoughts, strengthen your attention, and build a foundation for successful practice.
“Meditation to Soften and Nourish the Heart” includes a series of practices that focus on nurturing qualities like compassion and kindness. “Meditation on the Energy of the Body” shows us how to open up the free flow of life force throughout our being.
“Meditation as ’Just Being’” is less about technique and more about simply welcoming all experience. And perhaps the most practical, “Meditation in Daily Life” helps you bring the fruits of meditation into your everyday activities—while eating, driving, at the office, and so on.

Meditation Exercises Overview:

This interactive guide is designed for people who have heard about meditation but don’t know where to begin. To make it easy for you to learn how to meditate, Sounds True have created five categories, each of which includes exercises you can try right now

Meditation to Calm the Mind and Open to Awareness

• 1: Observing the Breath
• 2: Meditation for Relaxation
• 3: Mantra Meditation
• 4: Centring Prayer
• 5: Meditation on Harmony
• 6: Sufi Meditation
• 7: Walking Meditation
• 8: Meditation for Pain Relief

Meditation to Soften and Nourish the Heart

• 9: Metta— Meditation
• 10: Tonglen— Meditation
• 11: Forgiveness Meditation

Meditation on the Energy of the Body

• 12: Chakra Meditation
• 13: Standing Meditation
• 14: Inner-Body Meditation
• 15: Earth Breathing

Meditation as "Just Being"

• 16: Natural Meditation
• 17: True Meditation

Meditation in Daily Life

• 18: Meditation for Busy People
• 19: Morning Meditation
• 20: Mini Meditations
• 21: Eating Meditation

Have you ever noticed that when you need to breathe most, you actually breathe less? When we are stressed, tired, agitated or angry our breath shrinks into a small space in our upper chest. Just when we are needing to oxygenate our body, to feel alert and yet calm we unconsciously reduce the ability of our body to feel alive.

Letting your whole body breathe acknowledges that our whole body is involved in our well-being and so we need to take care of it too.

You might like to try this exercise in letting your whole body breathe: Start by

noticing your breath – just where you feel it most fully now – where you can feel the in breath and the out breath with ease

allow yourself to feel the fullness of each in breath and the releasing of each out breath until you feel your shoulders relax

now bring your awareness to your nose – feel the cool air entering your nose and the warm air leaving for 2-3 breaths

next, feel your breath at the back of your throat – feel the cool air moving down the back of your throat and the sensation of the air leaving for 2-3 breaths

gently bring your awareness to your chest – feel the upper chest rise and fall with each breath for 2-3 breaths

and then feel your rib cage expand and release in the lower half of your chest for 2-3 breaths

now become aware of your solar plexus – that area just under where your ribs rise and meet at the centre of your body – notice the movement there with each breath for 2-3 breaths

letting your awareness drop down to your belly – sense the rise and fall or expansion and release of each breath and stay there for 4-5 breaths. You may even like to place your hands there.

Now, as you breath in visualise your breath going into the palm of your hands and up your arms to your shoulders on your in breath and back down again and out through your palms on your out breath. Let the air fill your arms and shoulders all the way out to the skin. Breath life into your arms and shoulders.

When you are ready bring your attention back to your hands resting on your belly and feel the rise and fall of your natural breath.

On your next in breath let air fill your hips and buttocks, bring life to your bones and organs all the way out to your skin. Feel the tingling energy of oxygen rejuvenating your cells and filling them with energy for as many breaths as your body needs.

Bring your awareness back to your palms for a few breaths.

Next, let your legs fill with oxygen on each in breath and on the out breath let the breath out through your skin. On each breath let your awareness move down your legs at your own pace until you are breathing in and out of your feet.

Now let your whole body breathe together.

I found this sentence inside a blog written by Susan Piver. She was talking to Stephen Mitchell about the difference between positive thinking and wishful thinking.

Susan wrote,

I asked him if, in his lifelong study of the core teachings of all religions, he’d ever come across this idea. I wrote down what he said, because it was so excellent. Here it is:

The teaching of every one of the great sacred texts is that control is an illusion. When you understand that ultimately you are not the doer, you can step back from yourself. That is the only path to serenity.  In other words, letting go of the illusion of control, and realizing that you never had it in the first place, allows you to live in the most dazzlingly intelligent, beautiful, and kind reality that you could ever have imagined—and beyond what you could have imagined.

"All I have to do is relax, to allow the world to dazzle me instead of the other way around."

STOP. STOP READING NOW.

GO BACK AND READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN AND SAY IT OUT LOUD. TAKE SOME TIME TO PAUSE AND ALLOW YOU BODY-HEART-MIND TO PROCESS THAT SENTENCE.

WHEW!!! What a relief.

An underlying, background striving tension just  slips away and long, deep breaths get sucked into my body where the tension used to be. I’m going to make this my modus operandi for a while.

I am Cheshire-cat-curious about what will come! 

Often we find it hard to centre ourselves if we are feeling scared, upset,angry, frustrated etc.

My personal experience has been that following the flow of my breath does bring some settling but I don’t necessarily end up feeling centred – I think because following my breath in and out of my body is an experience that involves movement. For me, centredness has a quality of stillness, a quality of rest.

The following exercise helps to regulate emotions as we go and find a kind of calm state that anyone can achieve.

Start by becoming aware of your breath and then follow your breath down into your body … and try to let your focus settle into your physical center, at the bottom of your inhalation. That sense of the bottom of our breath is our centered calm point. You might rest your hand there…at the place where you find the bottom of your breath. And just keep your attention on where your breath bottoms out. If your breath moves, move your hand with it. Keep this place company. You will know when you are centred.

I live in Oz but have married a Brit and have to confess the cup of  tea has taken on a whole new meaning in my life. It is perfect for any occasion.

Not sure what to write next – have a cup of tea.

A seemingly innocent conversation now teetering on the brink of an argument – have a cup of tea.

Just in from work – cup of tea. Just arrived at work – cup of tea. Just up in the morning – cup of tea. Just before bed – a cup of tea (chamomile of course).

Eyeing up those yummy cookies in the cupboard – have them with a cup of tea.

Bad phone call – cup of tea.

Phone call which is bound to be long from recently “made single” girlfriend  – mug of tea.

I reckon we could come up with a wonderful list from tea drinkers about the time tea saved their marriage, saved their sanity or just plain gave them time to "go slow."

How has tea therapy worked for you?

So…just wondering if you have checked in with your rules since our last exercise on clearing a space in your life around rules?

Have noticed any relaxation in your life? More space or flexibility? I did get some space and then, lo and behold, a whole bunch of less obvious rules surfaced.

I have noticed how many I have! Rules for the road, rules about how a cup of tea should be made, rules about washing clothes, rules about relationships and how they should work. Yep. Try keeping a rules diary for a day and notice how often your view the world through your rules.

When I have a rule about something I notice a couple of reactions come up for me:

• I judge something as right or wrong, good or bad, useful or useless etc.
• I think about how it should be done differently and how my way is best.
• I get worried, get anxious or even feel panicky when I notice my rule is not being followed. I get fearful. And even angry. I feel shame, guilt and embarrassment when I break my rules. YUK!

So, having been overwhelmed by my tsunami of rules I am going to take some time to get a feel for whether they serve my life by asking some basic questions.

Is this rule aligned with my core values? If not, what value are they aligned with? Is it a rule I want to keep?

Does this rule make my life easier or keep me safe? For example, my rules about how to wash clothes does make my life easier. My whites stay white, my delicates last longer and I hang it out to reduce my ironing. My rule about following road rules keeps me safe. My need for safety is prioritised over my need for autonomy and freedom of choice.

Does this rule bring lightness into my heart? If it is aligned with a need or value and it still brings a heaviness into my heart then maybe I need to explore how I give expression or live this rule. I may be fixated on a strategy that is no longer life serving and there may be many other ways to honour my values.

Are there any questions you would add? I’d love to hear how this process goes for you and what changes it brings into your life.