January 18, 2021
Oh dear meditators – what a rough ride these past few weeks have been as we move into the new year. The pandemic is raging, breaking devasting records daily. We witnessed a political insurrection in the United States and saw a mob storm the U.S. Capitol building. And the feeling that there is deep unrest in the country is palpable and worrying.
If there has ever been a time to heave to your spiritual practices, it is now. Peace begins with you cultivating it within.
Meditation is one of my primary spiritual practices and it can be for you, too. When the world seems to have gone mad and you don’t know what to believe, let that be your signal that it’s time to connect to the truth within you.
This truth has nothing to do with what your ego mind believes – or wants to believe – is true. The mind can be corrupted. It alone does not have the wisdom to discern truth from fabrication. And yet it has the power to make you THINK it knows best.
To access inner peace, you need to get out of your ego mind. The ego mind will keep you running around and around trying to connect the dots and find the truth. The ego seeks NOT to find. It keeps you in a constant state of seeking, waiting for that next bit of information that will complete the puzzle. But it never comes. What does come is confusion, frustration, and stress – a heavy toll on you body.
This is not the way to be. The ego mind was never intended to run the show. It is a tool but not the master. You are not your thoughts.
Meditation allows you to stop the mind’s constant searching – to slow down and simply BE. It helps you to take measure of your own well-being - to tune into the subtle energies moving through your mind, body, and emotions. Letting the ego mind take a break allows other, rich and mysterious parts of your mind to be nourished.
Meditation also gives your nervous system a much needed break from the constant pressure and stress that bombards it these days. You can think of stress as sticking to your nervous system, coating it with gunk the way an oil spill smothers an ecosystem. One of the powerful things about meditation is that it helps to slowly de-gunk your nervous system – the more you practice it, the more it releases pent up gunk and makes your nervous system shiny and new.
And if you want to take your meditation into a more spiritual direction, meditation is a great time to consciously open to divine love. Feeling this divine energy flow through your being lets you connect to a truth much greater than anything your ego mind can give you.
Connecting more deeply to your body, emotions, and spirit goes a long way towards finding balance. Take a few moments and join me today for a few minutes of meditation and see for yourself.
Transcript of the Video
hi friends it's Michele Mattix of sedona meditation experiences with another episode of sedona meditation adventures. Today i'm in west sedona near the stupa - the amitabha stupa and peace park - a place where i spend a lot of my time. It's such a beautiful day - exceptionally warm today in january - and just wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about how crazy the world is i don't even need to explain it we've got the pandemic raging setting new records every day we had the storming of the Capitol last week that we're still reeling from and just a lot of things happening that can really shake our sense of security and stability and it's times like these when it's more important than ever to really practice your spiritual beliefs put them to work practice meditation practice prayer practice spending time in nature whatever it is that nourishes you and gives you a sense of coming home to yourself because when you put your faith and who you are and how you're going to feel about the world in your mind the mind can really mislead you the mind can go off on a tangent and believe all kinds of crazy things and when you let your whole self go off in that direction it can be very disorientating when you realize that your mind doesn't really uh necessarily attune you to what's real instead these are times when you need to really sink into your body right really be embodied you can trust your body you can trust this beautiful earth right put your trust in things that are going to be here for you put your trust in god put your trust in your own connection to your spiritual self and for me that's a big part of what meditation is about it's a daily practice to visit that part of myself to spend time with the spiritual part of my nature just in peace not letting my mind call the shots right getting away from the mind sinking into the body connecting deeply to the earth and practicing meditation so i hope you can enjoy me today enjoy with me and join me i guess that works join me today for a little meditation practice so we'll meditate for a couple of minutes and wherever you are as long as you're not operating heavy machinery and you can give this practice your full attention if now's not the right time then pause this recording come back to it when it is a right time when there's nowhere else to be nothing else to do and you can fully commit to a couple of minutes of meditation if you like to be outside come on outside join me out here if you need to be indoors that's okay too so make yourself comfortable and when you're ready you can close your eyes and just take a few conscious breaths
letting go of any worries letting each breath carry you a little deeper into your body
connecting you to the earth
and you can consciously allow your energy to drop down into your body it's probably up in your head which is where it is for a lot of us these days so just consciously let that energy drop down into your heart
feeling the sensations around your chest
imagining the energy lighting up your heart
and now dropping down into your belly imagining your awareness shining light in your belly
dropping down further into your hips seeing that light turn on in your hips
down to your feet
where you can imagine balls of light in each foot connecting you to the earth
and you can imagine the sense of groundedness sinking down into the earth letting your energy connect and i'm going to ring the tingshas to welcome us into our meditation
and just let your awareness move through your body i'll guide you and as you visit different places in your body just imagine your awareness is shining a light igniting a spark kind of turning on the light in that part of your body
so start with your forehead and the top of your head just let your awareness ignite the light that's in that part of your body
and now your eyes your cheeks your tongue and jaw
your whole mouth your neck and throat
just see the light coming on your shoulders you can use the breath to help ignite the light move down your left arm from the shoulder all the way down to the ends of your fingers
and the right arm from your shoulder the elbow the wrist down the hand out to the ends of the fingers
and now your chest and your upper back see the light come on
down into your stomach your belly
your lower back
and your pelvic area
down your left leg from the hip all the way down to the ends of the toes
and the right leg
from the hip the knee
ankle down the foot to the ends of the toes
i just take a few breaths and as you do just visualize the light coming on in your body
shining brighter
radiating out
and let this light be your protection a buffer filter so that only kindness
only energies that feed your highest good can come through this light is your force field of love
health vibrancy and we'll meditate here
in the heart of the light that's now shining all around you for a few moments in silence
just taking a few moments to turn your light on and bask in it can go a long way my friends to help keeping you grounded keeping you centered and keeping you in a happy good place so when the world feels overwhelming and maybe people around you seem like they're losing their way don't get caught up in that that's the signal for you to know that you need to spend some time in meditation in your own light nourish yourself keep yourself healthy healthy keep yourself happy keep yourself in a good space and if you want to come to sedona and find a good space with me out here and among these beautiful red rocks i'd love to take you out on a sedona meditation experience reach out to me we can plan your journey so thank you for joining me i hope to see you again next week for another episode of sedona meditation adventures this is Michele saying goodbye for now.