Activating a daily meditation practice may be the greatest gift you can give to yourself.
Creating space in your day for stillness, welcoming in a calm breath, and being witness to the present moment can shift your energy from chaos into calm, from overwhelm into clarity, and from fear into grounded joy.
When we begin to meditate daily, even for just 5 minutes, we have an opportunity to reprogram pathways of stress in our minds and bodies, some of which we did not even know existed.
Many of us have programmed ourselves to be addicted to multitasking and our success is often measure by our productivity. When we sit with our breath, at first it can be very challenging, and we may doubt that meditation is worthy of our time. Then, as we begin to connect more fully to the present moment, we begin to unravel the details, the stress, the phone, the external stimuli, etc, and our minds become spacious and wildly expansive.
This meditative space opens the gateway to attune more fully to your inner body, to clear the mind from a cluttered state, to check in with your heart and encourage compassion and unconditional love towards yourself on a daily basis.
Transformation begins with how you care for yourself, how you show up to love yourself everyday, how you cultivate and activate your inner light/space from the demands of your day and the energies of others.
You get crystal clear with your boundaries and begin to understand what is your energy and what is not.
I love beginning and ending my day with silence. I wake early to ensure I have some time for myself (before my children wake) to light a candle and call in my gratitudes, followed by a short meditation. Sometimes I have more time and it’s longer, sometimes it’s only 5 minutes. Here I welcome in my gratitudes, I open to self love, supporting energies, and set an intention for my day. Then I simply attune to my breath and welcome in space.
Here is a step by step guide to activating your meditation practice:
1. Set up an inviting space where you know you can sit quietly. This can be a place inside your home that is comfortable or a place in nature where you feel good to relax. You may have a pillow or a chair, a blanket over your shoulders, and a candle ready to light.
2. Close your eyes and welcome in 3 or more gratitudes.
3. Welcome in self love and self care. I use a mantra: “I love myself, I love myself fully, I love myself unconditionally” and repeat it 3 times.
4. Begin to soften every part of yourself, as if you are releasing any expectations of your day or your meditation, and welcome in true presence in the moment.
5. Let your breath become your guide, witness your inhale, witness the pause, witness the exhale, witness the pause, and repeat.
6. As your thoughts emerge, which they always will, simply release them, and return to witnessing the path of your breath.
7. When you complete your meditation, visualize yourself enveloped in light and welcome that light into your inner body. You are this light, carry it into your day.
Special shopping perks, just for you…
My friends at Half Moon and B MAT have shared a special discount code with me for all of your yoga needs!
I adore these Vancouver based sister companies; their product is high quality, their sourcing is ethical, and they have generously supported the Yoga Community for so many years now. (Mats, boltsters, meditation cushions, blocks, straps, etc.)
Below a link to each brand: Happy shopping!
And here is the discount code for you: RISE_YOGA15
With Love,
Mara