Join Meditation Practitioner, KathrynR, every month for a purposeful meditation class with a guided meditation. Beginner's are welcome and seasoned meditating beings are encouraged to participate. Come prepared to learn and relax. Bring a mat, blanket, and comfy items. We also have some mats available for use.
January: Trial: Have you tried meditating on your own and failed? Have trouble keeping up a regular meditation practice? When the meditation guide says to “see a beautiful meadow and the sun shining brightly” and you see nothing? You have not failed meditation; you just need a bit of support. This class will help you start your meditation practice and, if you are already meditating, this will enhance your practice. We will cover the benefits of meditation for the Whole person, the process of meditation, when not to do meditation, as well as different forms of meditation. The class will conclude with a guided meditation.
February: Stress: Stress is anything (physical, mental, or emotional) that upsets the body’s normal homeostatic balance. Constant stress leads to an up-regulation of the sympathetic (fight-flight-freeze) nervous system and a decreased parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system. This causes a cascade of problems: chronic muscle tension, brain fog, sleep disturbances, digestive problems, chronic pain, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, and the list goes on. In other words, the parasympathetic nervous system that shuts off the stress response is itself shut off, like having no brakes on a car. This months meditation practice will introduce you help you to cope better with stress, change, and the constant pressures of life. Participants will learn about the importance of breath and the benefits that a regular meditation practice offers. Guided meditation experiences: releasing stress, stepping out of the ‘blues’ into happiness, silencing the worry-wart and quieting incessant thinking. The class will conclude with a guided meditation for stress.
March: Happiness: the remedy for the Blues: The meditation class is about NOT avoiding the “blues” or sadness. Neither of these are illnesses or wrong. They are part of our humanity and allow us to feel compassion and empathy. Without the the blues or sadness we would have no way to experience happiness because happiness is not a stand-alone emotion. We will explore how, nationwide, the “blues” or dissatisfaction with life has risen directly in pace with our increase in income. We will also examine what happiness is and is not as well as how to cultivate happiness as a remedy for the “blues”. The class will end with a guided meditation to re-claim your happiness.
April: Calming the Worry Wart: Meditation is less about quieting the mind (which doesn't like to be quite) and more about stepping away from the thoughts. Meditation first teaches you to recognize when you are talking to yourself, next it helps you become aware of what you are saying to yourself and finally it helps you get out of the way of this incessant chatter in order to be fully present. This class will greet the Worry Wart, learning the difference between awareness and worry, and how to quiet the Worry Wart. The class will end with a guided meditation to help you better recognize when you are talking to yourself, what you are saying and changing that.
May: Meditation with Music: Meditation is NOT about becoming a recluse or believing in a different religious tradition. It IS all about awakening to who we really are deep down inside, awakening to the person you were meant to be before life had other ideas. When we add music to the practice, we are deepening our meditation experience. In this meditation session you will be cradled in the sound frequencies of the resonating Celtic Moon steel pan drum, energy flow chimes and Freenotes Wings. The music will help to turn off our stress response and turn on the parasympathetic nervous system that brings about a state of deeper meditation as you follow the music to a place of inner harmony, beauty and tranquility. It is your body and mind that are both sitting and listening to the music, unfolding with no agenda other than to be fully present, awakening to the part of you that knows you are now living in a place and in a way of being that is timeless.
June: Butterfly Meditation for Personal Transformation: Remember those times in your life when things got so chaotic and stressful you no loner knew who you were, like you had been dissolved into a pile of mush? This month, we will meet the Butterfly Teacher who will show us that butterflies are deep and powerful representations of life. They are not only beautiful, but also have mystery, symbolism and meaning and are a metaphor representing spiritual rebirth, transformation, change, hope and life. The magnificent, yet short life of the butterfly closely mirrors the process of spiritual transformation. The class will end with a guided meditation to meet the butterfly teacher.
July: Joy: Did you know that joy tends to be on everyone’s list of positive emotions, and yet is the one least studied? Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is external. It's based on situations, events, people, places, things, and thoughts. Joy is not dependent on anything in order to exist. You don’t have to have a happy holiday or a happy day or week. Joy is a spiritual quality that is internal. Joy is something we cultivate. This month, we will learn simple ways to cultivate more joy in our lives. The class will conclude with a guided meditation to re-ignite your Joy.
August: Star Meditation: A star symbolizes aspiration, inspiration, imagination, wonder, dreams, magic, brilliance and divine guidance. In ancient times, the night sky was called the canopy of the heavens. Stars are also said to be the campfires of our ancestors, who look down upon us to guide us and to whom we can look for spiritual guidance. "We are stardust," Joni Mitchell famously sang in "Woodstock." It turns out she was right. Dr. Ashley King explains. 'It is totally 100% true: nearly all the elements in the human body were made in a star and many have come through several supernovas.' We will explore the mythology of the stars and end with a guided meditation to connect with our star.
September: Healing: Music is the first language of the earth - the sound of the wind in the trees, the melody of bird songs, running water over rocks in a stream, a waterfall, thunder, ocean waves. Music touches an ancient and eternal place inside of us, beyond the logic of the mind. When sounds are put together, organized in purposeful ways to create a specific atmosphere or to express ideas or emotions we call that music. We will learn the science behind music's ability to help the body heal. We will end with a guided meditation and music to help facilitate what our body was designed to do: heal itself.
October: It is said that during Samhain (Halloween) the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest. This month's meditation will be about our ancestors. Wanting to maintain a connection to our ancestors is an ancient and a commonly held practice through the world. Today, Epigenetics researchers were investigating a much more obscure type of inheritance: how events in someone’s lifetime can change the way their DNA is expressed, and how that change can be passed on to the next generation. If epigenetics is valid, we also inherit their wisdom, their creativity, their strengths, their ingenuity! The class will conclude with a guided meditation to help you claim all their gifts that reside in your DNA: their wisdom, strengths, creativity and ingenuity.
November: Loving Kindness Meditation:The idea of cultivating emotions might seem odd but research clearly shows that feeling don's "just happen". There is a lot of the language we use to talk about our emotions that suggest we have no control but not only from current research but also from the Buddhist point of view emotions don’t "just happen". Instead, emotions are habits, and are actively created. It only SEEMS as if they have a life of their own because we aren't conscious of how we create them. This meditation will focus on the practice of forgiveness. The world’s religious and spiritual traditions include teachings on the importance and function of forgiveness, and many of these teachings provide an underlying basis for many varying modern day traditions and practices of forgiveness which is something you do for your own sake, in order not to be locked in anger and fear. The class will end in the Buddhist Loving Kindness meditation.
December: Winter Solstice: The Return of Light Meditation: The Winter solstice is a special time. No other time of the year feels like this: the energy of the anticipation of holidays that celebrate Light in many cultures including Christmas, Hanukkah, Hindu Diwali, Buddhist Bodhi Day, Muslim Eid-al-Adha and many others fill the air. People all over the globe commemorate it to varying degrees; most indigenous cultures—most notably the Maya and Incas of Mexico and Peru, respectively—had a solid grasp on astronomy and were able to predict astronomical phenomena with precision. The Winter Solstice was no exception. It is said that it is always darkest before the dawn. So too with the Winter Solstice, and in this guided meditation, we will find and celebrate the return of our Innermost Light.
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