Reiki and Meditation: Why they work well together

While meditation is an important part of the original Reiki tradition, the traditional techniques are not always shared by Reiki Master Teachers with their students. In this blog post I want to explain why integrating any meditation practice with Reiki is not only beneficial for the reiki practitioners’ own practice but also the people they give Reiki to. Mindfulness meditation worked well for me with Reiki.

Reiki is Universal Life Force Energy that is present in everything alive, within and around us and openly available to anyone. To learn more about what Reiki is, you can read a quick overview here or under Reiki FAQ. I just would like to focus in this blog on the connection of Reiki and meditation. Meditation, in simple terms,  is being present with what IS. To listen deeply. Both meditation and Reiki help with stress reduction and usually have a relaxing effect on body, mind and spirit which helps the body’s self healing abilities to unfold.

The practice of Reiki is a form of energy healing .  One of the precepts for the Reiki energy to actually work is the recipients’ openness for the healing to take place and his/her desire to change. The Reiki is assisting in the balancing and healing process, it is up to recipient how much he/she allows the Reiki facilitated healing process to be integrated.  So it is most helpful if the recipient is present mentally, emotionally and physically during a Reiki session to help facilitate the healing process.  The fight-or-flight response talks about how our body reacts to stressful situations, it contracts to conserve energy to use the extremities to fight and run.  Think of how you experience stress in your body. If you want to go further, notice where you feel it in your body when you are thinking of a traumatic experience in your life. Notice the sensation without judgment. It usually feels like a contracted feeling, that is an energetic block. What happens if we breathe love into this area and expand to dissolve the contraction?

The Reiki practitioner may use a simple guided meditation to ground the client and bringing his/her awareness into the body. I encourage the client during sessions to arrive in the here and now, and breathe deeply, focusing the mind on the breathing,and notice where the body touches either the table or chair or pillow. Just noticing without judgment. The expansion through deep breathing allows the energy to spread and start the process of releasing energy blocks and tension. In summary, it helps when the recipient is able to tune into the body, being present and listen to the body during a Reiki session.

The Reiki practitioner has gone through his/her own self healing experience with Reiki and is learning to “BE PRESENT” with the flow of the energy, detecting with practice subtle changes of how the Reiki energy feels. To tune into those subtle energy sensations, we have to be aware and use our intuition.  But often the mind’s noise drones out the whispers of our intuition.  As beginning Reiki practitioners, we have to learn to detect new impressions of energetic sensations and impressions, and process them with our mind. We have to train our mind to trust in what we are experiencing.  So centering, through breathing or other meditation techniques, helps to shut down the mind  chatter and allows us to be open to and present with what we experience.

A short centering practice such as mindfulness meditation (or any of the traditional Reiki meditations techniques) helps to be really present with what is happening in the moment and allows our human energy field to expand enough to allow the Reiki energy to do its job. We could compare it to tuning out the static from a radio station to get a better reception.

Change is inevitable, growth is optional - Musings on life changes

"Change is inevitable, growth is optional."  

Quote by John C. Maxwell

If there is one thing that is sure in life, it is change. Nothing lasts. It is a hard concept to accept but if we can, then it can turn into a valuable spiritual life lesson. We just have to remember we are the directors of our life story, can turn drama into an adventure or a comedy. We can detach from the story and witness it rather than becoming caught up in it.

Often we are faced with sudden unexpected changes which come to us as a shock, such as loss of a relationship, job or even loss of health. Grief is not only experienced when someone dies but also when we lose something we felt was a safe container for us to be in. When life situations change drastically from one moment to the next, we are faced with the attachments we have created in our life, and we may have to let go. Sometimes we have become so attached to those situations that we started identifying with them.

Let's look at the examples again of relationship, job or health. If someone is diagnosed with a serious disease or breaks some bones, a lot of those things shift as well. You are no longer at work, your relationship changes around your needs for your health. Not being able to do certain activities you used to love such as walking, dancing, sports may have been lost. You are stripped of what you use to create your reality and social image. Someone once pointed out to me how you are stripped of all of your identity including your clothes (which is often big part of who we are) and social life when we are in the hospital. You have to adjust to a new life based upon what you are still able to do and what you have.

If a relationship comes to an end, be it initiated by you or the other person, it includes a shift in your status but also in how much human affection you are receiving. Potentially an ended relationship changes your financial status which also provided you with a sense of comfort. Losing a job is not only changing your financial status but you may feel you are losing a sense of purpose. Both affect some of our basic human need of feeling safe and loved.

Those life changes strip us down to our essence and allow us (often force us) to clean house, facing old wounds and heal them. It is important to acknowledge how we grieve any loss in life (be it the life style we are used to, a person, our abilities), and be with it but not stay there. They can be used as opportunities to create a new container of self love and self compassion. In an earlier blog entry I talked about acceptance and surrender which is where you can start to shift your changes into an opportunity for growth and finding joy again.

The key is even in the most devastating situation to see the good, the beauty in it, to ask for help when needed and never loose your faith in things improving. As an example, I would like to take a small community that got cut off from the rest of civilization for several days in rural Vermont due to the devastating storm Irene. It brought the whole community together to help each other out and strategize with what they had at hand, making the best of the situation. Everyone contributed with their ideas and strengths. There is a documentary called "Flood Bound" talking to the residents of the town. They all came from different backgrounds and the devastating situation brought them together, made them stronger within their community. They even hosted and planned a wedding party for a couple whose family and friends could not join them as the town was cut off from the rest of the world.

At first, life changes can be scary as we face the unknown and we get caught up with having to rebuild our lives. Best advice I can give is, pull your sleeves up and get on it, one small step at a time. If you need help, ask for it.

Explore new ways of finding joy within the parameters of what is possible now, being by yourself in this new situation.

• what can you do today to bring joy back into your life? What would you do for another friend to cheer them up? Do that for yourself.
• start doing something creative: write, make up poems or stories in your head, make art, dance, even with limited movement, you can dance...
• being your own best friend
• reaching out to others, finding joy with them
• volunteer to bring joy to others and finding joy within
• leap of faith - voluntary change into the unknown
• tips on pampering yourself on a budget can be found here

On Conscious Parenting and Raising Conscious Children



Most people reading my blog are doing a lot of inner work on themselves to change their templates and live a more conscious life. Many of us are parents, teachers, family members or mentors of children and know that those little humans very much can test the best of our intentions and thus be our biggest and most challenging teachers. At the same time, we are doing our best to find ways to teach our children to become conscious adults, respecting earth and all beings, and how to consciously deal with difficult emotions.

We look at our children today, the stress they are already experiencing yet there are little to no efforts done to teach them how to release the stress they are faced with. They are in school most of the day asked to sit still and coming home often spend time in front of the tv or the computer, not getting much exercise. I saw an image a while back of a school installing bike pedals under desks to keep kids moving during class. I think that may be an excellent way of dealing with kids who have ADD or ADHD keeping their feet and mind busy at the same time. It is challenging for parents working full time to play with their kids. However, even half an hour a day to set aside spending time can have a tremendous impact.

Mindful Parenting
A lot of parents do not even know how to handle their own stress, so how could they teach their kids how to be happy, healthy, relaxed and mindful.

So we want to be more mindful parents and practice what we have learned with our children. Here are some short tips and resources that have helped me.

• Be aware of your ancestral parenting programming. We all know we always said that we would never parent our child like our parents treated us. Look back and see what they did, did it work or not and how are you parenting differently today? Does it work? What does no longer serve you? Awareness is the first step to change.
• Be aware of your own body, mind and spirit needs. Are you tired? Are you hungry? Do you take a little time for yourself?
• Model for your kids how to handle difficult situations mindfully. Help them to communicate about what they are feeling and experiencing
• Check in within yourself, if possible, on a daily basis. "How am I feeling inside? What kind of physical sensations are there (tingling, pain, hunger, tightness)? What is the weather pattern inside?" Just observe without judgment and be with it. Bring your attention to your breath as you inhale and exhale, that helps you to re-center. Then expand your awareness around your whole body and just be present while breathing. This is a short exercise that can be done within a few minutes and anywhere.
• When the child triggers you, stop for a minute and breathe. If you are very upset, and feel out of control, take a parent time out to recollect yourself. Leave the situation and go to another room or place for a few minutes. Sometimes our children remind us when we are losing it, they pick up on our anxiety, tension, anger, stress and depression. Breathe while you are in time out and step out of your thought pattern about the situation for a minute to become an outside witness. Re-evaluate the situation seeing the bigger picture from the witness perspective and develop a new action plan.
• As best as you can, listen to what your child is saying and where he/she is coming from with the intention of taking their point of view into account, while setting safe boundaries for both you and your children.

 For further reading: Pilar M. Placone. Mindful Parent Happy Child

Raising Conscious Kids - Some activities

Raising conscious and empathetic kids is a big task. I would like to offer some suggestions of activities you can do with your kids to foster consciousness:

• Make a game around recycling and trash

• Consider volunteering with your kids somewhere. Some animal shelters have kids pet or feed cats.
• Have them pick out a toy for a toy drive for another child less fortunate and explain to them how they are bringing happiness to another child by doing this.
• Have them give a coin or a gift to a homeless person sitting on the street. This also may start a discussion about how some are less fortunate and about gratitude and compassion.
• Explore nature in detail, go on hikes, have picnics. Being mindful of the different patterns and feels of tree barks, the different sounds of nature, the creatures and their habitats.
• Use Yoga pretzel cards with your kids to do different yoga poses together. There are even partner poses.
• Get some crystals for your kids to sit with and hold. You can ask them if they can feel the energy or just have them explore the texture and color (younger kids), you can ask older kids to tune into the crystal.
• Use breathing buddies to help your kids breathe more deeply. Ask them to lie on their backs, having their favorite stuffed animal lying on their bellies. Ask them to move the animal by breathing into their belly, watching it rise and fall.
• Make a family game using yoga poses, for example catch, whoever gets caught freezes in a certain yoga pose. Or play Simon says including yoga poses.
• Use a hoberman's sphere to help kids understand the process of the deep balloon breath, as it expands and collapses. Great tool to have kids breath deeply and slowly. Good for calming them down.

There are some great books for conscious younger kids out there, wonderful to read and some full of magic.
Here are some of my favorites.

• Wayne Dyer, Kristina Tracy. No Excuses. How What you Say Can Get In Your Way. About a boy achieving his dream by setting intentions
• Wayne Dyer, Kristina Tracy. Unstoppable Me. 10 Ways To Soar Through Life. Affirmative words for kids.
• Wayne Dyer, Kristina Tracy. Incredible You. 10 Ways to Let Your Greatness Shine Through.
• Louise Hay, Kristina Tracy.  I Think, I Am. Teaching Kids the Power of Affirmations. 
• Michael Chissick, Sarah Peacock. Frog's Breathtaking Speech. How Children (and Frogs) Can Use the Breath to Deal with Anxiety, Anger and Tension. Great yogic breathing exercises explained through story.
• Lori Lite. Bubble Riding. A Relaxation Story. Little mermaid riding a bubble through all the colors of the rainbow, great guided chakra meditation wrapped into a story.
• Byron Katie and Hans Wilhelm. Tiger, Tiger, Is It True? Four questions to make your smile again. Tiger having a bad day until turtle asks him questions that change his attitude.

Please contact me if you are interested in some other books containing guided meditations and visualizations for kids.

Pitfalls for Healers and Lightworkers

As healers and light workers, we come across many people and situations that test our limits. Over the years, I have made mistakes, lived and learned from them and adjusted on what it means to me to be a healer and/or lightworker, and intuitive coach. I am listing here some pitfalls and mistakes I have experienced myself and observed in others and giving tips on how to avoid them. Best first step to avoid them is being aware of them.

Savior Control Drama: The Healer's Ego

The healer or light worker makes the person feel like he/she is the only one who can help. He/she tells the person cannot succeed in their life without their help, creating a level of dependency.
It feels wonderful to get positive feedback after you helped someone. They are ready to go their own path but you are not ready to let them go as you wish to continue on your path of success with them, but in the end, it is their healing path.

 I have to mention that in some cases it is very important to refer someone to a health professional or maybe another person who is more knowledgeable in a certain condition. We have to accept our limits and know when it is best to send someone to a specialist.

One example is trying to intervene with some form of healing almost to the point of pushing that person to accept it as otherwise it would make you as the healer feel bad.This has happened to me before when a friend who was not doing well at all refused that I sent him Reiki, it made me feel completely helpless. It took me a few hours after to figure out that this was something I had to look at within me. I learned to allow him to go his path and surrender to not being able to help at that time.

The outcome after the healing is not coinciding with what the healer expected which leads to disappointment, anxiety and discomfort within and questioning your own skills as a healer. Here is an example from me. As a reiki practitioner, many times I caught myself thinking of I hope this person's pain was relieved or I hope that their illness may improve dramatically or even be completely healed, which is coming from my ego and not from my heart space. My biggest lesson in this regard was at the hospice working with the dying, where no hope was left. The best I could do was help them relax and feel more comfortable.  The scariest experience I had was working on a hospice resident who was continuously convulsing due to active kidney failure. It was hard to see that the reiki I sent to this person was only little relief. I was aware how I took on some of their suffering as my own at the time and felt bad that I could not help.

There are cases where the person receiving the healing is getting worse before they get better, but this may be a necessary path for the healing to actually happen, some call this a "healing crisis".

I have also come across many light workers and healers who tell other healers or light workers indirectly that their method or wisdom is superior to that of another healer or light worker. This happens in some cases in the reiki community where someone claims their lineage is stronger or better and closer to the true teachings than other reiki lineages. I would like to caution here that this is spiritual ego. I never disrespect anyone or any form of healing, even if I do not always agree or understand it, I respect it and never devalue it.

 Energetic Trespassing: Crossing Energetic Boundaries without Consent

As a reiki practitioner, one of the very first things I learned was to ask the person I am doing a session on, be it hands-on or long-distance, for permission to do so. I always ask and if I cannot do so in person, I connect with their higher self asking for permission. There have been a couple of times where I got a no and respected that.

I had a very bad energetic trespassing experience in 2012 while I was down with a broken leg at home. I was chatting with someone online when he all of a sudden just said, I am sending you energy healing now to your leg. Usually, the energy healing I receive feels good, but this energy felt completely convoluted, and I asked him to stop sending it, he asked why. I could not explain it, but I felt violated by this energy in my own energy field. So I explained this to him and how I felt that he needed to do some healing within himself first before he sent anyone healing. He admitted he had issues but refused wanting to deal with them, that it helped him best when he could heal others, which in my opinion selfish displacement of dealing with his own shadows. Luckily, this has been the only really bad experience I have had. I clear my energy fields and protect myself better now on a regular basis.

It is very important to keep your energy fields cleansed and boundaries clear as a healer as well as the person being healed. Please check my blog on energy protection and clearing for more tips.

The Wounded Healer: Feeling Drained and Lack of Self Care

 The healer is offering his/her help to others completely disregarding his/her own mental/emotional/physical needs, to the point of complete exhaustion and sickness.  Being asked by someone for help despite not feeling well yourself, you give in and say yes. Then there are people you may come across that remind you of someone or some situation that caused you pain, and that as well can become draining.

The healer does not take responsibility for his/her own short falls and shadows, and does not work practice self care and healing which may lead to the healer projecting his/her shadows and energetic blocks on others.

I have done that, said yes to help someone despite myself not feeling well enough, and that is also sort of a savior drama, of maybe not being loveable or good enough if you say no to that person. I had to remind myself that without self care I cannot be a good healer, and that is true for all of us.

Working as a hospice volunteer, I once experienced a severe burnout after having worked with a hospice resident that reminded me very much of my father who had died years before of cancer. The hospice volunteer coordinator asked me after to not come back for a few weeks, and just take care of myself, maybe see a therapist. This was good advice at the time.

Solutions:

•  Self care is the most important thing healers must take care of and I see most healers lack. How can you empower others to live an empowered life if you are not walking the talk and take care of yourself? Give yourself energy healings, hands on, every day if you can. See other healers if you must. Meditate and go for walks in nature. 
• Look within and be aware of what is going on within you, deal with your own shadows as well.
• Learn to say NO if you feel uncomfortable helping someone. Be honest if you are not feeling well or if you feel you are unable to help them. Refer them to a specialist in the area if you can.
• Be the lighthouse: Don't chase people with your abilities but be a guiding light so they can find their own path.
• You are the spark for their innate self healing ability, and nothing more or less. It is up to the person you are helping to activate their innate self healing power with the spark they received from you.
•  Consider yourself as the cable that conducts the electricity between the plug (the Universe, Divine, Source, Spirit, Universal Life Force) and the person being the lamp receiving it. You are never using your own internal energy resources, that would drain you over the long run. Use the universal life force energy that is all around you.
• Respect the boundaries of others. Communicate clearly with them before you do anything.
• Make sure you remain strong and clear with your own boundaries. Some people use energetic light protection or crystals during healings to help emphasize their boundaries with those they work with. In some cases, you may have to assert the boundaries to clarify.
• Frequently clear your energy field, especially after healing sessions
• Stay humble at all times. 
• Be grateful for any feedback positive or negative and when there is none, just leave it at that. 
• Remember your role as someone who empowers others to take charge of their life and healing process, allow them to take responsibility for their life choices. 

Make your everyday life a Meditation Part Two: Mindfulness, Spirituality and Human Interaction

This is a long blog, read what resonates with you, skip over the rest but please read at least the communication part as it helps with all human interactions.

The Importance of Communication 
In the first part, we talked about how we can turn everyday activities into meditation or mindfulness practices. In this entry, I want to focus on human interaction. As the goal is to overcome anger, greed and separateness in the world, I find it important to explain how we can approach a sense of oneness and maybe even teach others how to do that. It is so simple.


Mindful Speech
Communication can be a spiritual practice. Words have power, transmit energy and connect you with others. Intonation and the choice of words can influence how the other person response to what you say. It starts by just being aware of how what we say impacts others. Think before you speak.

As Don Miguel Ruiz says in one of the four agreements, let your words be impeccable. Let the essence of your words be filled with love, truth and understanding.
Ask yourself before you speak: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
Take a few breaths before you speak or send a message.

Words can hurt, make people defensive or lift them up and make them happy. That is the power of words. So be mindful of what you say! Misunderstandings happen because the people talking with each other come with a different decoding system from their own story.  To get on the same page, takes some people more effort than others. Being aware of that helps, and maybe even knowing the other person's story.

Especially in the age of online chats and messaging, misunderstandings happen easily as there is no face or intonation to back up the true meaning behind the written words. Be mindful of the energy of the words that are sent, be mindful how you receive words from others versus how the sender may have meant them.

Another pattern I have noticed is that we sometimes say things to others that are not necessary for them to hear, so what is the motivation behind us telling them those things? Is it for the benefit of all or just for us?
Be mindful of how you react to some of the things that are said and look inside if it feels intense to find the source what triggered this reaction (meaning you lash out) versus mindful response) comes from.

Deep Listening
I am sure you have had those moments where you catch your mind drifting off thinking of something else while someone is talking to you. You are no longer present with them and their message, you are caught up in your thoughts. It takes a lot of effort at times to listen to someone if you feel that what this person is talking about is irrelevant for you. Your storytelling mind is telling you this is boring or this person is just wrong. The other person may sense your disinterest, and if someone has ever done this to you, you know it can be a painful experience. If you are in a meeting, a class or workshop, this often happens. We drift off. Or we judge as we disagree with something that is said.

Here are some tips to try deep listening and being present

• What if you made a real effort to be fully present with whoever is talking to you or a group of people including you, sensing their words and their meanings, reading their body language? 

• Be aware of how you understand the words said may differ from how they were meant by the sender

• Let go of judgment, allow others to have their own opinion. Be aware that you have a different opinion or belief system than the person you are talking to and acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their own. You can still tell them your opinion but make sure it is not said with the intent of judging the other person, say something, like "I see what you mean, my opinion is different but that's ok."  

Connecting on an energetic level
Whenever we interact with others, we connect with them energetically. Be aware of what you are sensing and learn to discern what is yours and what you may have picked up from someone else by asking yourself "is this mine?". If the answer is no, wrap it into light and love and return to sender. If it is yours, be gentle with yourself and explore it with tender awareness like a mother would help her child.

If you are a lightworker
Some people are more likely to open up to you and tell you their life story because they just sense you are a good listener and helper nature. Let them talk, tell their story and try as best you can to stay present with compassion and without judgment. For lightworkers especially, remember, you can be a guide post and point the direction of change if you feel they are on the wrong path but you cannot drag them along the right one. Sometimes the other person has to walk their path alone. If it is hard for you to let go of wanting to help, then there is an issue within you you need to look at, but that is another blog topic, healer pitfalls.

Mindfulness and Parenting, a new approach to spiritual parenting
As a working mother, time I get to spend with my daughter is precious. I remember who one man said at a meditation group once how he practice the mindful communication skills with his kids and made an effort to be with them completely for at least one hour a day, listening to what they have to say and communicating with them on their level. Parents of younger children function as role models for their children. So I am making more of an effort to show my daughter how she can deal with her emotions without screaming and find ways to soothe herself (breathing). When she screams in frustration, I stay calm, acknowledge that she is angry things are not going her way and ask her to breathe and calm down. After a while, I find ways to get her attention on something else and she gets over it.

I encourage other parents to spend as much time as you can out in nature with your kids. And play, playing is such a great way to connect with your kids in a fun way and it is educational as well! I am not talking video games, I am talking real games and playing outside. I taught my daughter how to hug a tree and the other week at the farmer's market in a park she ran off and hugged three trees without me prompting her. Nature is a great teacher and teaching your kids ways to find solace and the beauty of the divine in it early on will help them to stay connected with it as adults.

There are many games out there how you can explain spiritual concepts to kids. One of my favorite is explaining souls, energy etc. You just use water, ice cubes and let the ice cubes melt, showing how they change form. Then you boil the water and it dissipates into air. So the souls from the human body move on in other energy forms that we may not necessarily see.

Sexuality Spirituality and Mindfulness

Now that I have your attention! ;)

When we connect on a physical level with one another, it does not always mean we also connect with each other as deeply as we think. I read this article about mindfulness and sex in a magazine recently. It talked about how we often are not even present in our mind with the other person, let alone energetically, but just physically there. Have you ever run over a grocery list in your head while having sex?

Remember that the mindful speech and deep listening skills are very helpful when you connect sexually with your partner. Let them know what you want, feel, experience. Listen deeply to what they experience and want.

Men and women have different ways of how they view sex and how the relate to each other by "doing it".
Imagine the involved people, male or female, are willing to completely be present with their mind. You each allow the energies merge, opening your heart in total trust to each other. You allow the divine energy flow through you by connecting not only with each other but with the divine energy. Imagine how this can deepen the physical arousal experience, as you raise your vibrations to a new level combining body, mind and spirit with another human soul!

There are many resources out there about sexuality and spirituality, kama sutra just being one example. A couple of interesting perspectives are books written by Nicole Daedone or David Deida.  My favorite website is One Taste talking about orgasmic meditation.

For women, here is to you, celebrating your body and the divine feminine within:
This is a great youtube video by Megan Watterson talking about bringing women into the Divine equation, as women's bodies have always been depicted as sinful in many religions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh9EzS4qws4

To sum it all up, every human interaction you have is an opportunity to integrate your spirituality, your meditation or mindfulness practice into your everyday life and to grow from that. Small acts of kindness make this world a better place and it starts with you. You start the ripple effect. It brings us one step closer to a better world. Now you just have to remember to practice.

Make your everyday life a meditation Part One - everyday things you do

One of the main complaints I hear from people about meditation is that they either do not have the time or the patience to just sit to meditate. In this day and age, we are all busy, but sometimes even five minutes in the morning, sitting up in bed and just observing the breath can be the start of a daily meditation practice. It is not a question about not having the time, but making it.

But even if you are not someone who can sit still for some time, there are ways you can make your everyday life a meditative and spiritual experience. I am structuring this topic into two sections, one with every day activities and how to make them a meditative experience, and the second one about mindfulness and human interactions.

Everyday actions can be a meditative experience - just be mindful of what you are doing

As the image above states, being with what we do at any given moment is a mindfulness meditation practice. If you are like me, your mind is constantly somewhere else, thinking of the past or planning for the future, hardly ever present where we are and what we do. While we sit in meditation practice, we are observing the breath as we are breathing in and out without controlling it, just watching it. And if a thought comes up, we notice it, and gently release it and bring our attention back to the physical experience of breathing. If you cannot sit still to just observe your breath, here are some suggestions on how to practice mindfulness meditation in different ways with every day things we do.

Mindful Walking and Standing

As you walk from one place to your destination, if you can, slow down a bit, and become aware of the subtle movements involved in walking.
Standing still, it starts with shifting your weight onto one leg while lifting the other, a shift in the hips, a bend in the knees, the foot touching the ground and another shift of weight, as the other heel starts lifting.
 Become aware of the ground under your feet, your breathing pattern while you walk or your arm movements, you can shift your attention between those.
Be aware of where you are, looking around you, seeing the details of buildings, plants and humans.
Smile and look at the reaction of others. If your mind wanders, as best as you can bring it back to that present moment experience.

When you are standing in a line at the grocery store or somewhere else. Just be aware of the sensation of standing and shifting your weight from one leg to the other, observing your breath, being aware of who is in front of you and who is behind you, and what is going on in your mind. Are you being impatient? Let it go.


Mindful Eating

In a busy day, we usually do many things while we are eating and hardly ever are present with what we eat. We do not chew enough which causes digestive problems. First step is to not read, watch tv or be on the computer while you are eating so you can bring your full attention to your experience of eating. I will illustrate how to be mindful of eating an apple.
Feel the apple with your hand, look at its colors, its skin, its dents and form and how it fits into your hands
Smell it and see what happens in your mind and mouth.
Touch the apple with your lips and again observe what happens in you mind and mouth.
Take a bite but do not chew yet, and just explore the taste and the texture of the apple with the tongue in your mouth.
Start chewing and be aware of how the texture and the taste changes with every chew.
Chew a lot.
Once you are ready to swallow, be mindful how the bite reaches the stomach.
Try this with chocolate and you will see how this can change your eating experience into bliss!
This practice also increases the nutrients that actually enters the body.

Other daily mindful practice ideas

• mindful showering: feel the sensation of water on your body, temperature and all, rather than thinking about the day ahead
• mindful driving: turn off the radio, be aware of where you are on the road, your surroundings, the car in front and behind you. Let go of wanting to not sit in traffic but see the red lights as reminders to pause and breathe, to be in the moment.
• mindful house cleaning: When I vacuum clean, I focus on the movement of the vacuum and how I cover every inch of the floor, being aware if my mind wanders, gently bringing it back to the present activity. Cleaning the dishes is another good one, being aware of the temperature of the water, the texture of the dish and how the stains disappear.
• mindful cooking/making a cup of tea mindfully: This starts with the process of preparing the ingredients, boiling/baking, and then eating/drinking. 
• mindful gardening: great opportunity to connect with nature more deeply. You can also do that by repotting a houseplant.

Practicing those little things can help you to be more in tune with yourself and your environment, as well as with other people. Part two will talk about Mindfulness and Human Interactions, including mindful speech and listening, sensing other people's emotions, parenting, and yes, sex.
 

Dance as Spiritual Practice - Moving & Connecting Energy

There are many ways to practice sensing energy or to meditate in motion. One of my favorite movement practice is dance, and the form of dance I prefer is actually called soul motion.

Dance as a form of spiritual devotion, meditation or to evoke ecstasy has been practice in many ancient cultures and still is in many indigenous tribes. Even in Europe, the farmers used to dance to connect with the energy of mother earth in the spring, by stomping the ground, to wake it up and make it fertile.

The dance I do with a local community is not choreographed, in dance terms, you could say it is improvised. It is not a performance, more of a ritual, for the self, and sometimes with others. You listen to how your body wants to move, just let it move however it wants to, to release potential energy blocks, thoughts or emotions. Listen to the soul how it wants to move you. Dance like no one is watching. It is not a performance, it is for ourselves.

Quieting my mind, I often just start by laying on the floor and following my breath. Then I start sensing the floor under my body, feeling the gravity of the earth embracing me. I start playing with that energy by rolling around on the floor, stretching or curling up, just connecting with the ground and my body, my muscles everything I can sense at that moment.

The music playing in the background at this point does not matter much to me, it is there to give me some guidance but the dance is my own, I am dancing intimate, centering, connecting with myself, grounding, before I take off.

The music for those kind of dances is usually inspirational in nature, soft at the beginning, getting wild at times, and then again time to recenter. A variety from New Age to, pop, to classic and.  so on. The lyrics are often inspiring and thought and intuition provoking. Sometimes the person leading the workshop (sometimes there is just  a DJ playing the music) will also give some guiding ideas as to what to do next, inspirational suggestions. Such as, connecting with what is behind us and in front of us, the past and the future, and with above and below through our dance movements.I love to do that by spiraling my arms around my body, moving my energy in the present from the past into the future.

Once I start moving, it is fun to experiment with movement to the music, not following the melody beat by beat, but skip a beat or two or more, move slower, change the rhythm within the music, variety, and see what the body, your energy does with that, how it shifts. I sometimes watch with a soft gaze the movement of my hands and depending on the light, I can see the energy moving around my arms and hands, it is the most amazing experience. And when I widen my consciousness to see others, I can see their energies move as well.

Aside from dancing intimate, eventually, I usually dance with another person. The dance of two flows into each other, that is the sign for an agreement to dance"in union". This is an interesting energy experience, as two heart fields merge and start to move with each other in synchronicity. It is hard to describe other than it flows and moves in waves. You may get inspired by the dance of the other, yet you remain true to your own dance, not drowning your own truth by copying another.

Eventually, there comes a time to detach and move on to another, or, to the self. This I learned to be such a valuable lesson for life, to let go and move on, not worrying about the other person but see it as the natural flow of life.

The most insightful part of this dance for me is always the pause, where I stop moving as I feel I got lost in my thoughts, and I recenter and reconnect with myself and the Divine.

We also dance as a group in community. The interesting part here is the sense of the energy of many as you expand yours but at the same time you can move away and contract your energy field to dance intimate again whenever you feel that is the right thing to do for you. Yes, it is like a wave.

Once the dance workshop or class is over, I bring the inspiration I gathered from my movement into my every day life. I found this joyful video of someone dance walking through the City. Try it! I sometimes do now! Follow the link. Dancing in nature is a wonderful experience, for example using a tree for balance as you dance around it or exploring the texture of a huge rock with your whole body.


I want to end the entry with a quote of how one of my soul motion teachers, Suza Enlger, describes the practice I do:

"Soul Motion, designed by Vinn Martí, is a practice of paying attention and waking up, together, to the physical reality of a body in motion, and the spiritual reality of the Presence that moves us. It’s a dance at the crossroads of the vertical drop into self and the horizontal extension toward another. There are no steps to follow, just the whimsical path of endless self discovery – down from the mind’s conversations of past and future into the raw, messy & miraculous event of this body sweating, tensing, opening, living and dying: now. Soul Motion offers a key to spontaneous expression, a ticket to the Mystery, and release into freedom."
~Zuza Engler, Certified Soul Motion Teacher