Showing all posts in Meditation

Maybe you are tired of all these challenges that circles around the internet. There are challenges before Christmas, after New Years, around Easter, before the summer, in the beginning of fall etc etc. But I think it can be a good way to get started, whether it’s yoga, weight lifting, no added sugar, no alcohol, no smoking, work or hobby related or eating a healthier diet.

I want us to have a meditation challenge together starting December 1 until December 21 (yes from tomorrow, I know, short notice). Why 21 days? Well, that’s how long they say it takes to form a new habit.

First, let me tell you; I only use the word “meditation” because that is a popular word in our world these days. I have been meditating since I was a little girl, long before I had ever heard the word “meditation”. If you are unfamiliar with what meditation actually is then maybe you have heard the expression “I’m going for a walk to clear my head”. That’s what it is. Declutter your brain. We have roughly 60.000 thoughts per day, and do you know how many of these are useful to us? Yes, you guessed it right, not many. A lot of us (maybe all of us) have thoughts that destroys us more than helps us. We have creative thoughts, we think about love, we have fun memories, but we also have judgmental thoughts against ourselves, thoughts that brings us fear and doubt and sometimes we live more in the past or future memories rather than in the moment. “Meditation” or “clear your mind” will help you find the important thoughts and stay away from the useless ones.

If you are new to “meditation” then I suggest you to start small. Turn off your phone, your computer and everything else around you and sit with closed eyes in silence for one minute. 1 min might not seem like a long time, but it can be if you are not used to it. While you sit there, focus on your breathing. Inhales and exhales. Thoughts will appear. I don’t want you to ignore them, just tell your thoughts to pass right by and continue to focus on your breathing. There will most likely be noises around you; from outside, from the fridge, maybe a dog barking in another apartment or whatever daily sounds. Same thing, don’t ignore it, replace it with listening to your own breath.

Every day for 21 days, I want us to take a moment to tune in to ourselves. It doesn’t matter if it’s for one minute or for three hours, but make it a priority every single day.

Are you with me?

Please share your experiences along the way with me and the other readers in the comment.

So, a weird thing happened to me on Tuesday. As you know, we are a few neighbors who gathers every other week to talk about meditation. On Tuesday it was at first only the woman who arrange this and me there, and after a half hour or so a neighbor and her friend, both from Brazil, showed up. Together we did a meditation focused on the 7 chakras.

We started with the root chakra and worked on each all the way up to the crown and on each one we used a breathing technique. It was pretty long time on each chakra. By the time we came to focus on the throat and the third eye, my body started spinning until it felt like I sat completely sideways. It felt like my body, that was upright and crosslegged, and the armchair I sat in suddenly were glued to the wall next to us. I didn’t want to open my eyes, cause I wanted to see where this experience could take me. But I tried to have myself back to normal sitting, but it was just not possible, I could not move. Of course I wasn’t actually floating sideways, I was probably in the same position as I started the whole time, but it really felt like I was sitting on the wall with my right side of the body facing the floor. Whatever I was thinking to get myself back didn’t work, and then of course I was working hard to not think. So much was going on at the same time. When we finally opened our eyes, it felt like I had been on a roller coaster for an hour and I had to hold on to the chair. I don’t know for how long we were meditating, but it was for a pretty long time, and it definitely did stuff. 

It wasn’t a scary experience, just weird. I’ve experienced stuff during meditations plenty of times before, but never have I been hanging on a wall sideways before. I’ve been pretty light-headed lately so I’m sure that has something to do with it. And I read that when eyes are closed and your body is still for a longer time, the mind might forget what direction the body is because it is used to that the body is moving around. I meditate almost every day, but usually for shorter times, so it could be a combination of that I was tired at night and that I wasn’t used to sit for that long. 

On Tuesday, we were a few neighbors who gathered for a meditation night again. An hour of talking and then a short meditation with focus on the heart. We will try to do this every other week. I think this is a nice thing to do in a building. You meet neighbors in a different way. It can be scary to share things about yourself, but maybe that’s what we need to practice. Maybe opening up in front of others can help to open up to ourselves. It’s important to check in with ourselves sometimes. Even if there’s nothing that we are working on, if everything is awesome, it’s still good to take a moment and declutter our minds. We all have a lot of thoughts and feelings, and sharing experiences and stories with others might help them see something in themselves and vise versa. Don’t you think? 

Right before we left, I got to pick a tarot card. Goddesses on the cards this time. I thought about a question and picked a card that first scared the crap out of me. Ostara > fertility. Aaaahh!! What?! But, then I read the card and calmed down:) “It is the perfect time for you to start new projects, access new ideas, and give birth to new conditions.” Well, new ideas and projects sounds awesome! Cause there will be no babies (except for plant babies, which I have started to get in my pots)!

Yesterday was the Swedish National Day. I celebrated by wearing my Sweden t-shirt

Last night, Jim and I went to an event that our building had down in the common area. An “intro to meditation”. To our surprise it was the woman who is going to watch Thor on Saturday. We were 7 people who came. She talked about different things you can do or include to your meditation. Then she had us all one by one think of a question or something we are working on and then take a tarot card and she would read out loud a summery of what it meant. Mine was an intuition card. 

After the tarot cards we sat in meditation for about 15 minutes. She continued to talk about different things after that and then gave us a crystal of our own choice to bring home. J chose a blue rock and I picked a pink rose quartz. I read about them both this morning. This is so interesting to me and I want to learn more. And, I love that J seems curious about some of it too:)

It’s so nice that we have these things in our building. Some things are organized by neighbors, like last night, and sometimes they bring in someone or events from outside. Tonight is Wine Down Wednesday. I don’t know if we’re going to that, but the weather is nice so maybe.