“Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves”
Thich Nhat Hanh
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Conscious breathing is
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thoughts are
“Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don’t serve them tea”
Shunryu Suzuki
My 5 Morning Rituals
I was recently invited to subscribe to a newsletter by a guy called Tim Ferriss through a marketing ploy of his. As part of the enticement, he was offering a set of 3 free pdf’s, the first of which was “5 Morning Rituals” and it really struck a chord with me. I have been annoyed lately with how my mornings, and subsequently, my days seem to just drift away with little to show for it at the end of the day. So because of this, I decided to subscribe just to get the pdf’s. Continue reading “My 5 Morning Rituals”
Meditation Direction
All of us who meditate regularly develop our own little quirks and idiosyncrasies in our practice. I haven’t tested this personal theory but here is an example of one of mine and I would appreciate any comments you might have about your practice.
As I have stated before, I do open eye meditation from the Zen school of Buddhism. That is, I keep my eyes open throughout the meditation and keep my gaze fixed on a single spot in front of me, usually an image in my iPhone meditation timer which I place in front of me. However, most people in our Western communities learn meditation in the traditional method with eyes closed. Continue reading “Meditation Direction”
Sweet confusion
Routines, routines, we all have them don’t we and I can be attached to the very point of distraction with mine at times. Over the last few years, I have come to realise that I am not always best served by adhering so rigidly to the routines I have constructed. Constructed is the key that I have come to realise, that these routines I have created are just mine, my own creations, and not set in stone. There is a soaring sense of freedom at times when I decide to break away from a routine, either because I have other things I want to do, or that I notice that one or more aspects of the routine aren’t really useful, or simply just because. Just because a realignment can bring a whole new outlook, a freshness, to an aspect of my daily life. Continue reading “Sweet confusion”
Meditation for me
What qigong does for my body, meditation does for my mind.
Meditation calms the racing energy of my mind and gets it flowing in a single focussed stream. With regular practice of meditation I am able to get some control over the “monkey mind” that challenges us all, where the mind flits from thought to thought constantly, incessantly. It has often been said meditation is the simplest and yet the most difficult thing to do.
After all, how hard can it be to simply sit and focus on your own breathing? Continue reading “Meditation for me”
Daisy’s Kiss
I am always joined for meditation at home by our two cavoodle dogs, Daisy and Rosie. They seem to love it and are always keen to sit on the mat and then the zabuton and then the zafu as I put them down and I have to chide them out of the way so that I can get them all setup for my meditation practice. I sit and as soon as the gong goes on my timer to start, both dogs settle down on the smaller zabuton I set for them in front of me and mostly just go to sleep. Or what appears to be sleep. Their presence is not as you might think a distraction but provides me with a number of lessons. Continue reading “Daisy’s Kiss”
