How Meditation Supports Your New Form of Life While Moving Through The Pandemic

As a Meditation Teacher and PhD Candidate, this Pandemic has had the most profound learnings for me. For the first time, I allowed myself to be still and pause. To me, i like to compare it with the Madya — a space between. A technical term for the still point between two phases of movement. The Madya is a moment of pause and every movement arises from such still point. Like a pendulum that swings from side to side and then stops for a brief second before it moves over. That still point is an open door into the heart of the universe, a place where you can step into consciousness. When we find ourselves in the Madya, we may find us in shaky unknown places. At these times, when things are uncertain and unknown, we tent to shut down, resent and tighten. The beauty of a meditation practice is, that it allows us to soften in these shaky places, so that our hearts and minds can open up beyond limit. Now as slowly our lives return back to a new way of “normal”, the only constant in this movement and new way of living is a steady practice of pause and stillness. A practice that allows to sit and be still, to listen deeply in and feel the beauty of the madya. Today I am sharing with you techniques for your meditation practice and insights on why it is so beneficial.

Why Do We Meditate?

The most important fact to know about meditation is, that we meditate to get to know ourselves better. It is a relationship with yourself and also the process of coming into a relationship full of love and compassion to your inner ocean and consciousness. Mediation is the grounding foundation for your inner work, it is the direct, pure and raw encounter with your inner Self. It helps you to understand yourself and gives you the strength and power to come into the center of your inner being and ocean. No one else around you can help you with that — only you have the full power to tune inside and explore the beauty and depth of your being.

The meditative experience comes naturally in its own time to you, unexpected and subtle. It’s a beautiful gift that arises when you least expect it. Sometimes we tent to create expectations, ideas and visions about our way of meditation, how it should be, how it should feel and how it should happen. We believe that meditation brings a transformative experience towards our inner Self overnight. However, this is where we may be careful and have to allow ourselves to not judge and expect anything that should happen. This is where we confuse ourselves. Where we may think that if we don’t feel anything, we must be doing something wrong. But that is not true. Mediation is surprising and cannot be forced. It is the beauty of allowing yourself to unfold in perfect timing. Everybody is on a different journey and so are you. You get out of every mediation session what you need and not what you want.

Meditation is like other relationships you may have. And this is where the beauty comes in. It requires compassion, patience, tolerance and commitment. It requires consistent practice and a continuous will to sit and listen inside. And just like other relationships, mediation can also be exhausting, fearful, frightening or stirring up too many thoughts, emotions or feelings. It will change with the time and so does your connection with your inner self. With mediation, you will strengthen the relationship to yourself and get to know yourself better and deeper. You will experience more strengths and your inner full power. You will be able to access your intuition and inner wisdom. That always was and always is within you.

To create such deep relationship with yourself through meditation, you have to commit to a regular practice. That doesn’t mean hours of meditation, but rather a regular and continuing practice. Start with 10 minutes a day. With the time, you notice how much longer you are able to sit and like to sit. By committing every day to sit and listen to your inner ocean, to your intention and intuition, will start the process of exploring your inner ocean of being. With time, you will learn to start paying attention to the signals of your body. You know when you are ready to sit longer or try different meditation techniques. And the beauty starts in the transitioning. When you transition from closing your eyes to opening your eyes. With time you will notice that you are able to keep the state of meditation and inner peace with you even through moments of transitioning. It is your intention that makes each brief mediation so powerful.

How Can Meditation Benefit Your Transitioning?

Among several benefits, meditation lengthens your attention span, enhances self awareness, promotes emotional health, reduces anxiety and stress, improves sleep and allows you to feel more love and kindness. Moreover, it reduces suffering from pain. Meditation allows you to become more present and not hold on to stories and thoughts of the past, or future. Studies have shown benefits against an array of conditions both physical and mental, including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2012, Gaëlle Desbordes demonstrated that changes in brain activity in subjects who have learned to meditate hold steady even when they’re not meditating. Thus, the beauty of meditation in times of transition is a steady, regular practice.

A Few Meditation Techniques:

1. Thoughts as Clouds: In a first step, find your meditative seat (As explained in Part 3) As you breathe deep, bring your awareness to your mind and imagine your mind as the sky, an open space. Then start observing your thoughts and imagine each thought is a cloud. Be the watcher and notice them as you allow them to float by. Try not to judge anything. Let them be. Allow your thought to be so light, simply being blown by the wind.
2. Heartspace Meditation: Breath into your heartspace, focus on the movement of the breath. Can you feel your chest lifting? How does your heart look like? How does it feel like? What colors does it show?
3. The Lunges Meditation: In a first step, find your meditative seat (As explained in Part 3). Visualize your lunges as wings as you breathe so deep inside. Imagine with every breath your lunges are growing and spreading wider.
4. Gratitude Meditation: In a first step, find your meditative seat (As explained in Part 3). Breath into your heart, place one hand on the heart, feel the raw and pureness of your heart. Then ask yourself: What am I grateful for at this moment? What are all the beautiful things? How does gratitude feel like? How does it look like?
5. Emotions and feelings: In a first step, find your meditative seat (As explained in Part 3). Observe your inner ocean of beingness. How do you feel at this moment? Start observing without judging. Use each feeling and emotion as an open invitation to look closer and deeper. Allow each to be a gift, an invitation to give that emotion/feeling your full awareness. You may find yourself between polarities — fear to love, freedom to tightness, etc. Give each of these its own space. Allow everything to be. Be the observer and watcher of your inner ocean. Can you see the beauty within and all the beautiful gifts that offer itself to you?
6. So Ham | I am That: In a first step, find your meditative seat (As explained in Part 3). Follow your breath deep inside towards your lower belly and start listening to the sound of your breath. Can you hear so as you breathe in and ham as you breathe out? Visualize “So Ham” with every breath in and out. Use the Mantra “I am That. I am not my stories, I am not the stories others have of me.”
7. The Madya — a Space Between: Madya is a technical term for the still point between two phases of movement. A moment of pause. In fact, every movement arises from such still point. Like a pendulum that swings from side to side and then stops for a brief second before it moves over. That still point is an open door into the heart of the universe, a place where you can step into consciousness. Access that madya, still point with your breath: The tiny and subtle space between breaths. How to access that still point: In a first step, find your meditative seat (As explained in Part 3)
   Sit upright, find your comfortable seat, take a few deep breathe to arrive on your seat and in the present moment. As you breathe in so deep, let the breath make a tiny sound as it passes through your nostrils. Can you hear the sound of your breath? Listen to the sound of the breath and notice, that when it comes to an end as you inhale to your heart region, there is a tiny moment of stillness and pause, a space between. Focus on that pause and notice it. Then as you exhale, listen to the sound of the breath until it comes to an end and notice the pause and stillness of your emptiness. Keep following your breath in this way and notice that space between.

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