Meditation in My Life

Last year I celebrated practicing meditation and yoga for fifty years #meditation. That makes me sound extremely old, but I started when I was sixteen years old.  As I have been facilitating Guided Meditation since 2012, I thought it was about time to tell you about my experience with meditation and reveal a little of myself along the way.  I was very fortunate to find a classical yoga school, The Yoga Education Centre in Brisbane which taught Hatha Raja Yoga. Hatha is the physical asanas and Raja the mind or meditation #yoga. They intrinsically wove together.  I found that I was in the right place at the right time for the right thing for me.  I loved both yoga and meditation.

This rich and solid foundation which I gained in these early years has served me well. I developed a daily practice of yoga and meditation which continued through my life.  Meditation has been my main stay even when I swapped yoga for #Qigong for ten years, through times of depression and illness, through heartache and joy. It’s this that led me to offer Guided Meditation in Berry in 2017. Our warm and caring group of like-minded people who gather each Thursday morning, greet each other and then settle into the beautiful background music, our breath and float into the meditation which always brings in some beauty and joy. My favourite time of the week.

We all have challenges in our lives. When I was young, I was trying to understand who I was and the difficult emotions that I was experiencing. Through practice I found the best way to deal with these was to gain deep understanding and appreciation of myself and the human condition through turning inward.  I found meditating always brought me stability through difficult times. Over time it has brought me so much more.

Meditation is a practice of tuning into oneself each day, to sit quietly without the distractions of daily life. There is no goal to reach. It is not a matter of doing it well. It is a matter of doing it, of choosing to be still, to close the windows to the distractions and demands of life and be with yourself, like closing the windows of your computer screen. You may think of it as saying, ‘hello within’. Instead of being influenced by media and social media all the time we can choose to be influenced by our true nature.  Our true nature is love. Love is universal and a common virtue to all religions, faiths and healthy living modalities.

Many of us have busy minds. Our minds have been highly trained to think, analyse, and problem solve. Our minds often are very tired, which can exhaust us. When we are stressed, our minds may be too busy. Training to rest our minds is not often taught. Encouraging our mind to quieten down, calling our focus to our breath gets easier the more we practice.

Our mind can be a troublesome thing. It can lead us into all sort of wild thoughts. Most of these have no foundation and are just thoughts.  However, if we think them enough, we can start believing them. Once we believe them, we can get stuck in this illusion. If they are negative in nature, they can cause us stress or anxiety or depression. I used to believe that I was not good enough.  I brought this thought into everything I did and wherever I went. I found that this attracted others to treat me like I’m not good enough.  It was quite a revelation to transform this belief. Little by little through meditation we can transform our unhelpful thoughts and beliefs into more helpful ones.

When things weren’t going well in my life, I experienced depression like many people do. Even though meditation was difficult to do at the time, I gained some understanding of my inner workings and my emotions. Tapping into my essence helped me to trust who I am. Through the darkness of depression, light came back into my life. I am forever grateful for having this tool to show me the way back to myself.  Enhancing my emotional well-being enhanced my self-confidence and overall health.

When I became unwell, I was determined to regain my health. Meditation was core to #self-healing. I brought my mind to focus on healing and health only and excluded any doubt. Little by little I returned to good health and Qigong helped me gain more energy than I had before.

My teacher is Shakti Durga https://shaktidurga.com. Her teaching of #The Spiritual Path has eight pillars one of which is multi-faith. This means we both welcome everyone from all faiths and backgrounds. It also means that we appreciate the great spiritual traditions of the world. Therefore, meditating does not contradict any religious or spiritual practice.  It is enhancing our connection with ourselves and with the Divine by whatever name you use.  Awareness gained through meditation is extremely valuable as it opens our mind to appreciate other people’s differences, ways of being, of knowing, of believing and understanding the world. This guided meditation is very inclusive. Greater tolerance, acceptance and appreciation of differences between us lead to a more caring, kind, just and loving world.

Guided meditation makes it easier. There are many forms of meditation that I have learnt and practiced.  I love silent meditation which was the first form I practiced and continue to do so. However, when we come together to practice as a group, I offer guided meditation. This is Shakti Durga’s style of meditation. We begin with #breath work, #relaxation and #mindfulness to prepare us to go deeper. This is not a secular meditation. We use mindfulness as a tool. We go beyond mindfulness into our spiritual selves. We connect with light and energy of the Universe or the Divine. When we work with energy we feel the joy, and our heart’s love.

There are many benefits of meditating. If you are stressed or anxious, meditation can transform this into calmness and peacefulness.  I find that when issues come my way, I can meet them with more clarity and calmness. The best way I find to deal with any challenge is firstly to accept that it is here. Once accepted I can do something about it. Fears make things seem bigger. Through meditation our fears shrink. Thanks to Albert Einstein we know that No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Raising our consciousness is part of every meditation. This helps us to gain insight, and solutions to problems are often perceived. Being able to see my way forward and regain hope is very reassuring and relieves a lot of stress and anxiety.

Meditation enables me to keep returning to groundedness, stability, and ability to be practical and logical. It helps me to remember my internal strength. When we meet challenges, it can initially overwhelm us and destabilize us. To deal with whatever is going on it is best done from a grounded place where we can utilise all our strength for our current issue. As a qualified meditation facilitator, energy healer, and spiritual teacher, the value of my work with private clients and groups is clear. Perhaps less obvious is the huge benefit to my previous work as an early childhood teacher, TAFE teacher and University tutor.  Most importantly meditation helps me open my heart to give and receive more love. As my capacity to love increases, my life flows more gracefully and joyfully.

Meditation calms our nervous system. It helps us move out of flight and fight mode. Blood pressure decreases during meditation and over time reduces strain on the heart and blood vessels. Meditation can ease pain and help with better sleep.  It generally improves our immune system.  Meditation activates our parasympathetic nervous system or the ‘rest and digest’ response. Therefore, it can support our gut health and digestion. There is a great deal of research online espousing the benefits of meditation on our physical, emotional and mental health. I encourage you to read it.

Everyone is welcome to give meditation a try.  We meet each Monday evening at 6.30pm in Nowra and on Zoom and in Berry on Thursday morning during school terms at Wesley Hall in Albert Street at 9.30am to 10.30am. I work with clients individually and teach a few seminars throughout the year. If you wish to contact me: 0410460345; mayabhadni@gmail.com; www.healingmayalight.com; https://www.facebook.com/MayaBhadni/; Instagram: meditationbymaya