Issue 12 - Mind, Body and Soul Issue

“Mindfulness Meditation is an effective way to heal and regulate the nervous system. For a moment we turn off the external stimulation and stressors which can trigger our nervous systems into action mode, fight, flight or freeze. And we sit focused on the breath, letting our breathing, our heart rate and our minds start to slow and come back to a state of homeostasis or Ventral vagal - this is the state of our nervous system in which we feel safe, at home and at ease.

We often worry that we won’t be able to focus on meditating for that long, that our minds are too busy, that we’ll get bored or our backs will ache. These things can all happen :) As we sit in meditation we become very present with our physical and emotional experience. Uncomfortable thoughts and sensations can arise, but they also pass. Sitting with them, and acknowledging them is an opportunity to breakthrough our edges.

In mindfulness meditation we can start to notice unhealthy thoughts and invite ourselves to let them go. We can start to notice tense parts of the body and invite them to open up. We can start to notice our craving for stimulation and invite ourselves to let go of wanting. We can start to notice our urges to control or fix things and invite ourselves to let go of control. We practice sitting through the physiological effects of not reacting to our automatic impulses. Anchoring and expanding a sense of ease in ourselves through our breath.

As a teacher my job is to guide you through this experience with ease, inviting you to greet every thought or sensation with compassion and lightness. Often in acknowledging these things in a warm kind space, a shift can already start to take place.”