RITUAL TIMES
QUICK OVERVIEW OF OUR PROCESSES
1." Rituals of Practice" each weekday morning: simple yoga, meditation and journal writing.
2. Yoga Nidra, just before bed.
3. Two or three times a week (it just depends on your need and want) you are invited to engage in Creative Workshops/Nature walks. These workshops will move you towards understanding ‘who you are becoming’.
4. You have the opportunity to set up confidential one-on-one Zoom sessions (you and me) as we journey through the months together. These sessions are opportunities to discuss your dreams, process and ’niggles’.
I firmly believe “When I look at you, I see you have every capacity to fulfil your potential” (paraphrased from Deborah Hay’s work). Perhaps your own online studio is a unique place to unpack this potential.
RITUAL TIMES THAT YOU CAN ADJUST TO SUIT YOUR OWN SCHEDULE
MORNING SCHEDULE
1. WALKING MEDITATION: you choose how long you wish to walk (at least 30 minutes, hopefully longer)
• Find a path you wish to walk. It could be a path that you are very familiar with. I like to walk down a deserted road devoid of people.
• Feel the whole of your foot as it touches the earth lightly: heel awareness, ball of foot awareness, toes, and then changing leg awareness.
• Become aware of your breath as you walk: telling yourself that “when I step, I breathe in, when I step, I breathe out”. Adjust to suit your own personal rhythm. As you walk, gently become aware of your surroundings. Keep your eyes in soft focus.
a. What do you smell?
b. What do you see?
c. What do you hear?
d. What do you feel?
BENEFITS OF WALKING MEDITATION
1: Slow mindful walking helps us awaken our parasympathetic nervous system response, so we can move towards ‘resting and digesting’. I also believe that it activates our creative purpose.
2. Mindful walking helps blood circulate throughout our body, and reduces our anxiety levels, helping alleviate depressive thoughts and bringing calmness just a little bit closer.
YOGA ASANAS
Yoga Stretching: you need your yoga mat and any props that you find useful. I have blocks, bolsters, cushions, and two soft balls. There are many videos online that can guide you through morning practice. I like Yoga International. Because I am a relational being, I prefer to do a live zoom session most mornings and I am presently working with two highly experienced yoga practitioners, Nathan Tight and Chanthalah Webster who own Core Yoga West End Brisbane (https://www.coreyogastudios.com.au/Timetable/TimetablePrices-14/). Their teachings are wonderfully rich and their zoom setup is terrific. Highly recommended.
I have also worked extensively with the exceptional Judy Krupp who owns The Yoga Room in St Ives, Sydney. Judy is a highly experienced yoga teacher and she too offers live Zoom classes (https://www.theyogaroom.com.au/timetable.html). Highly recommended.
SITTING MEDITATION
Sitting Meditation: 20-25 minutes
Why do I have to sit? In our modern Western culture, we are all about action: we do, do, do and we measure our success by how much we can fit in a day. A successful day is one where we have done a lot. However, there is another way of being which may be more suitable in our present circumstances. When we meditate, we can refine our mind. Our mind is often filled with thoughts that undermine us. Thoughts of doubt and judgement, for example ‘I’m not good enough’; ‘they will soon find out I am a fraud’; ‘I’m not talented enough’; ‘I can’t do this’.
Think about the thousands of thoughts that run through your mind daily. Meditation can help us control/change these thoughts, helping us see more clearly and feel calmer and more present. One technique I like to engage in is what I refer to as moving into third position. I watch myself critique myself. It is as though I am outside my body watching my body and mind review each other. When I am in third position, I am no longer trapped inside the emotion and feelings of inadequacy and judgement.
PROCESS OF MEDITATION
I like to sit on several meditation cushions so that my knees are lower than my hips. I also like to follow my yoga teacher’s advice and wrap a blanket around and between my ankles keeping my ankles softly touching. This way I can stay still for longer. Some of you may prefer to sit directly on the floor. Others of you may choose to sit in a chair. And you can even lie down if that feels better for you at this moment.
Regarding your sitting posture, sense that something is pulling you up to the heavens through the crown of your head. I like to imagine that I am being pulled gently by a single hair up towards the sky. At the same time feel as though you are grounding through your sit bones, your pelvis tipping gently forward.
Now focus on your breath. On every out-breath, surrender to the floor or your cushion. I like to breathe like that for about a count of 10. Letting go. Releasing the stresses that may have unknowingly built up. I like to say to myself, either silently or out loud: “This is where I belong right now” and “Nowhere to go, nowhere to be, nothing to say, nothing to do.”
In his book “Wherever You Go There You Are”, Kabat-Zinn writes about sitting meditation, suggesting that we
“…watch the moments unfold…and bring your attention back to the breath, in all its vividness, every time it wanders… Think of yourself as a mountain” (Kabat-Zinn, 2005, pg. 105)
We can engage in several techniques that help us stay present. One technique comes from Thich Nat Han. Here is an excerpt you can learn off by heart:
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.
Breathing in, I notice my inbreath has become deeper.
Breathing out I notice my outbreath has become slower.
Breathing in, I calm myself.
Breathing out I feel at ease.
Breathing in I smile.
Breathing out I release
Breathing in I dwell in the present moment.
Breathing out I feel it is a wonderful moment.
(Thich Nhat Hanh, Awakening the Heart, 2012, pg. 11)
Another favourite technique I use (and I am not sure where I learned this) is using the word ‘Still-ness’.
When I breathe in, I breathe in the word ‘still’ and when I breathe out, I breathe out the word ‘ness’.
Stillness.
PROCESS OF JOURNALLING
Journalling: 20-30 minutes
When we journal, we have an opportunity to tease out and understand the thoughts inside our head. The power of journal writing has been researched by psychologists, many of whom believe that until we integrate the stresses and strains that life brings, they will continue to plague us, and journaling can be seen as a form of integration. Thompson and Adams in their book Expressive Writing (2015) offer us a process we can engage in.
Down the page write the letters W. R. I. T. E. I have dreamed on their research to suit our processes:
W: What do you want to write about? Can you name it? If not ask yourself some questions such as What’s happening right now? How do I feel right this minute? Write down “What I really want to say is…” (this technique I learned from writing coach and author Natalie Goldberg).
R: Reconnect deep within yourself. Breathe and use one of our techniques we learned in meditation: I like the simple “When I breathe in I breathe in, when I breathe out I breathe out” (Thich Nat Han)
I: for Investigation. Allow the pen do the work. Keep writing, even if it means repeating statements, repeating words, writing over and over Goldberg’s “What I really want to say is” and then add our other writing technique that I have borrowed and dreamed on from Proprioceptive Writing: “And by that I mean…”
T: is for Time: time yourself. Sometimes that means that you have to keep writing even if you think you are finished. Often that is when the jewel ideas present themselves.
E: E is for Exit smart: re-read what you have written. Then ask yourself this question: AS I read this, what do I notice? What do I feel? What reveals itself to me?
EVENING SCHEDULE
YOGA NIDRA
Some links to some very good recordings of Yoga Nidras:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0FKzeuVVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9chHovre6Q
