MEDITATIONS IN ACTION

These meditations and mindfulness practices are meant to be listened to as a way to integrate the language and thoughts suggested in them. The more you get to listen to them, the more you can function in a mindful and integrated way while doing these activities. You can select the repeat cycle if you listen to them while you do the activities. At some point, the language and thoughts will be so integrated you will no longer need the recordings on a regular basis unless it still helps of course. May you enjoy the journey and the benefits these expanding awareness practices will bring you!

Basic Sitting Meditation

Find a quiet and comfortable space where you won’t be interrupted. Set your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and set yourself up for a sacred meditation. Sit upright from your firm support while staying relaxed. Light a candle if you want a visual aid to stay focused. You can also use some incense or special relaxing aroma. Add anything you find meaningful to your altar, such as flowers, shells, special rocks, tree bark, pinecones, pictures of people you love or teachers you respect. Sip some water or tea before you start and maybe read an inspiring quote or say a prayer. The altar setting and the preparation before you start enhance the sacredness of the moment.

Walking Meditation

Whenever possible, select a quiet place for your walking meditation. Outside in a peaceful area is a good choice though indoors is fine also and maybe less distracting for beginners. Remember that emptying your lungs by breathing out through your mouth first allows you to breath in more fully and effortlessly. It also calms your nervous system. Once you are used to meditating, you can practice anywhere, anytime!

Washing the Dishes Meditation

As you set yourself to wash the dishes, also set your intention for it to be a meditation in action. Adapt the guiding words below if you are only rinsing the dishes to load your dishwasher. Breathing out first for deeper in-breath. Your intention is to be fully present to all aspects of your activity. Present to all sensations and sounds.

Eating Meditation

As you sit to eat a mindful meal, take the time to be grateful for the food you are about to eat. The more aware you are to what your food feels like, tastes like, smells like, and where it comes from, the more you are nourished and connected to the world at large. The more you eat mindful meals, the more mindfulness shows up during other meals as well. Lighting a candle at the beginning of your meal can enhance the sacredness of the moment. As seen in chapter three, start wherever you are on this journey. This meditation helps develop this behavior one mindful meal at a time.

Swimming Meditation

There are many ways to swim, and many motivations to do so. Using swimming as a meditation including integrated functioning may not be a common approach, yet it is a wonderful experience. This breaststroke meditation is best done with goggles so you can dip your head under water as you breathe out to avoid compressing the back of your neck unnecessarily. Since you can’t listen to this while swimming, I recommend you take what you like from it and create your own experience next time you go swimming. May the swimmers out there enjoy this special swimming meditation.

Hiking Meditation

When hiking, it is easy to act from the “more-is-better” paradigm, thinking that pushing and making demands on isolated muscles is a good thing. The truth is that challenging oneself is a good thing if done as the integrated whole that we are. How can we do this?

Using the wisdom expressed in this book, we release tension as we are challenging ourselves. We are still hiking, yet we are hiking with less tension. We move using less muscle effort and more bones to promote the flexibility and strength of our whole body.

As you go up a hill for instance, when you choose not to tense isolated muscles, you tell your body intelligence that you mean to only use the tension necessary to perform the activity.  In doing so, you are empowering your body to work as a whole and strengthening your necessary muscle tension instead of developing unnecessary tension. Necessary muscle tension, skeletal structure, along with your postural mechanism, gravity, and the earth all find a way to work harmoniously together. Your body is being challenged in a wider and deeper way rather than on the surface. As a result, you access more strength even though it may feel you are working less.

It may even feel that the earth or the rocks under your feet are pushing you up instead of you lifting yourself into your next step. Your intention to keep moving forward is all you need. Coming back to breath and body awareness with an intention to not focus only on working specific muscles empowers your whole body wisdom. It will find the best way to carry you and transfer your weight from one foot to the other as you experience less tension and more stamina.

Gardening Meditation

Gardening itself is a mindful activity connecting us to Mother Nature especially when done outdoors and interacting with the five main elements: soil, water, wood, air, and sun.

Embodied gardening is being aware of our body as we garden rather than waiting until we feel tired or sore to pay attention. When we are in tune with the whispers of our body intelligence, we hear them in real time. This prevents us from getting tired and sore or even injured.

As recommended throughout the book, coming back to the rhythm of our breath and to the ground under our body weight is key to being connected to our body intelligence and to the present moment. So is releasing our hip joints, knee, and ankle joints when going up and down in space. This keeps us poised and flexible in our body. It also preserves our energy. It keeps us not only embodied but embodied in a more integrated way. Releasing our armpits and hip joints together promotes our spine length and our open shoulders. And using our skeletal structure for strength, support, and integrated movements prevents us from overusing our body.