My Meditation Journey
Today, 22nd May , is World Meditation Day. I wanted to share with you my meditation journey, how meditation is simple and effective and maybe inspire you to try it!
I joined my first yoga class 20 years ago. I went with friends and the class style was Iyengar. Focused on aligning the body in the poses we were taught, I really enjoyed how I felt after the class. Relaxed, more easeful through my body and less stressed.
And that was it for a while, I enjoyed the movement through my body which in some way replaced the dance classes I'd done right through to my early twenties. I enjoyed feeling more relaxed. I enjoyed the class and the teacher and I made it a weekly part of my routine.
A few years later I moved to California with my husband and began taking yoga classes in a local studio. A shift happened. I started to see the wealth and breadth of yoga through new classes, different styles of yoga.
One day on the mat I experienced a deep resonance as I moved in a sun salutation, like I had become one with the movement and the space around me. It felt amazing and I realised that yoga was not just a physical movement experience.
Teachers I am sure had been teaching me that for quite some time, but as one of my yoga teachers said, you hear things many times, and really hear and understand them when the time is right. This was the right time, I'd let go of thinking and dropped out of my head, and even out of my body.
From then on yoga became more of a spiritual journey, even if I still didn't fully realise that back then. I returned to the UK, practised yoga through two pregnancies and baby yoga with our sons. Then I took the decision to train to teach yoga. The new learning of yoga's traditions, history, philosophy and spirituality have unfolded ever since. As I continue to train and learn and teach and deepen my yoga practice and journey, these shifts of experience continue to happen.
I love when I drop into the yogic space where I feel a deep fulfilment and know that everything is as it should be, I don't need to be in my mind, I can find my way to my deeper knowledge.
Part of my yoga journey has been learning how to meditate. I had learned that yoga actually is less to do with putting your body into different positions and more about finding a meditative state where the mind is calm and you can be in the present moment and, if you are lucky, feel that merging between you and what is around you. Yoga traditionally was sitting in meditation, until yoga poses were invented (most of them only in the last hundred years or so) to help ease the body and prepare to sit for long periods of meditation. I had found that meditative state back in the California yoga studio through movement. I didn't know that until I began my meditation journey.
I also didn't realise that we all have these moments of meditative, present moment awareness in daily life - where we let go of all the thinking - moments when time stands still as we enjoy an activity, when we feel completely at peace in the flow of something we love to do, when we have those deep connections with others - to name a few.
Meditation was something I was intrigued by, had sat and done guided by teachers and using recordings. But I didn't really understand what meditation was supposed to feel like, where it was supposed to take me or if I was doing it right. Recordings were lovely and relaxing, but there must be more to it than just following them and feeling rested. I wanted to really know how to meditate.
Four years ago I joined a meditation teacher training with Mick Timpson at Beanddo, Manchester. I didn't plan to teach meditation, just deepen my understanding of it. Mick teaches simple modern meditation techniques that absolutely anyone can do. They have no religious affiliation and they are really accessible. I learned that meditation is an individual experience with common threads. That there are many techniques and you find the one that suits you at any given time. That it doesn't need to be mystical or in Mick's words 'woo woo'. I learned some of the science behind meditation, what happens in the brain when we meditate, and also how this correlates with the teachings of yoga that are thousands of years old, (but you don't need to know that unless you are interested).
I learned that we can't stop thinking and make the mind blank, but that we can learn to manage thoughts and how to quieten them, let go of them and find the space between them. I learned simple techniques which help you to:
relax- draw your awareness gently inwards toward your deeper self and away from the external world
hold your awareness gently within the body or the breath which are both in the present moment
manage and deal with external distractions such as sounds and thinking and return to the present moment
let go of effort, judgement and trying to achieve
explore how it feels to be in your own meditation space - which is as individual as you are
be open to what unfolds from creating this space which is less in your head and body and more in your intuition
to enjoy being able to experience the state that spontaneously and naturally occurred for me in the California Yoga Studio (and that you might feel on your favourite beach at sunset, or whilst immersed in a hobby) at any time by meditating
and that's it - from there those tools underpin any and every meditation practice I've done. I understand what's happening, the process of moving into meditation, what to do when I'm there in the present moment and how to be open to whatever unfolds in that meditation space with confidence.
And sometimes when I am lucky my meditation will take me to that deep merging into the world around me where everything is well, everything is as it should be, everything is perfect.
Those tools were so effective and the course taught me so much that I couldn't not teach meditation, I had to pass on these tools which once you have them you realise you are using all the time in your day to day life. They help you to step back from situations, make space when your mind is running wild, shift your perceptions and navigate challenges. This reduces anxiety and stress, improves relationships with others and ultimately makes you happier.
Over the last few years over 60 students have attended my meditation courses in-person and more recently of course online. I have developed an online, on-demand meditation course which I will be launching this year. Every student who attends my yoga classes has the chance to experience meditation using simple techniques and I host a monthly Meditation Circle online which anyone can join.
My meditation journey has continued with other teachers and teachings, my experiences all make their way into my own practice and teachings. Yoga Nidra meditation has become a huge part of my yoga practice. It is an effortless, deeply restful and hugely nourishing meditation relaxation practice that anyone can do. The tools I learned at Beanddo still underpin this meditation style, and for me and many of my students Yoga NIdra has become a go to to let go, make space for being in the state of meditation and replenish body and mind especially over the past year.