Month: December 2020

spiritualgrowthadventure

A New Start. Letting go of an old relationship

Moving on into a new phase of life means you can feel alive and be open to life’s new opportunities. To really open that door fully to a new life it helps to clear out and release the old. When it comes to relationships there is a time to clear out the debris for a fresh start. This meditation helps to deal with the internal issues.

Read this through first, then try it.

Close your eyes, and take several relaxing breathes.

Now imagine standing in a garden looking at a house, which represents your relationships with people. There is one roomfor each relationship. You are going to focus on the room that corresponds to the relationship you want to release and have closure on.

As you stand in the garden, notice the sky and the weather, which can reflect the energy of the relationship you are to deal with.

Imagine walking inside the house, and walking to the door of the room which represents the relationship you wish to release.

Open the door and take a look inside. Does the room feel fresh or musty, or is there another smell. Are there curtains, and are they drawn or closed. Is the room tidy or a wreck. The room holds in it items that represent the good and bad of the relationship; the ruined expectations, the promises kept and the promises broken, the good acts the unkind acts, the loving words and the hateful words, the happiness, the sadness, the times of loyalty, the betrayals, the broken dreams, the hurts, loss and grief, the angers, the lies, the misunderstandings, the things you wonder why they happened, the remnants of love, the good memories, the bad memories. Look at the items in the room and feel what they represent.

They are all going to go. You are going to clear the room entirely, take the items into the garden and create a huge fire to burn and release them.

See your self taking items out, and placing them to make a pile for a fire. Take out the hurts, the pain, the lies, the angers, the betrayals, the lack of love and the hate. Go back to the room and take out more items. Take down the curtains, bring them out to burn. Brush the floor, and take the sweepings and place them on the fire.

Clean out everything, and place it on the fire.

Go to the now empty and clean room. Close the door, and lock it. This is not an ordinary house, but one that represents your thoughts and feelings about relationships. This mean that the room can begin to shrink, and even disappear if need be.

Imagine walking back out to the garden, and notice the sky. In your hand is a lighter or match, which lights up. Place the flame to the pile of items and set them on fire. The flames grow and spread around the items. The flames burn them all, thoroughly, and the old energy goes up in smoke.

The flames leave only ash, which can over time be absorbed by the ground and reused by the garden. The old is gone.

Walk out of the garden, let the image fade.

Take several relaxing breaths, then open your eyes.

Should you feel you need to repeat this meditation, then you can.

There will be a room in the house which represents your relationship with yourself. You could go and place fresh flowers in that room and if you feel like it, redecorate and refurbish the room. You can be as imaginative as you like. Your subconscious mind can respond to that. (You can also improve other rooms representing other relationships as you wish.)

For FAQs about meditation, click here.

If you would like to know about online meditation and courses that are available, click here.

spiritualgrowthadventure

FAQs about meditation and online meditation

What if I’m new to meditation?

Meditation is fairly straightforward and in an online meditation you will be given verbal prompts as to what to do. You will soon pick it up.

What does meditation involve?

This depends on the kind of meditation. All meditations have a beginning and an end sequence, and these can be similar for each meditation.

For the beginning, you make yourself comfortable, and close your eyes. You can then focus on your breathing. Just notice your breathing, and observe it for several breaths. This relaxes you, calms your focus, and reduces mind chatter. You can then become aware of the energy of the meditation, relax, and just observe that.

What happens then depends on the kind of meditation. If it is a meditation held in silence and stillness, you allow yourself to notice the peace and calm. Or if there is an energy flowing while you are being silent and still, you relax, and just notice or feel the energy that is flowing in the meditation.

If the meditation is a guided visualization, you relax, listen and go with the flow of any images, feelings and sensations you might notice. It is like being taken on a journey, where you can relax and enjoy.

Towards the end of a meditation, you once again become aware of your breathing, and stay with that for a few breaths at least. You then become aware of your body, and perhaps notice your fingers and your feet and toes. Then when you are ready, you open your eyes.

What clothes should I wear?

The general idea is that you are comfortable. People will often wear loose clothing. Sometimes people like to wear some clothes that for them means they are going to meditate. It’s rather like having a protocol to follow that tells the mind, “Right, this is a special time, it’s time to step away from distractions, the outside world and busy thoughts and feelings, and meditate.” The clothes set the tone for some people.

How should I sit?

Some people like to sit in a traditional yoga lotus position which goes with Indian based meditation techniques. They would also hold thumb and (say, middle) fingers together to allow the flow of prana through the body. It is worth bearing in mind there are other meditation traditions where this won’t be considered a necessity. Some people like to have their hands, palms up, in their laps.

Some people like to kneel, partly sitting on a cushion, and other people are happy to sit in a chair. I find that sitting in a chair works for me as when the energy comes in during meditation, it accesses various chakras in a way where the lotus position and hand positions aren’t the important factors, whereas just being comfortable and open to the energy are important.

Should I eat or refrain from eating before meditation?

It is personal choice. However, in some kinds of meditation, there can be a lot of energy flowing through, and the body responds by using up resources. Generally it is helpful to make sure blood sugar levels are high enough, and having enough minerals in the diet is also helpful. It is better to feel stable and grounded rather than weak and faint, so a decent diet helps as does food after a meditation if it seems to be necessary. The type of diet depends on what helps your body feel nourished.

How long should I meditate?

As a beginner, 20 minutes or so is a good start for a week or so. Then 40 minutes, then an hour. It depends on the kind of meditation.

Working with energy though, it is possible to notice a start, when the energy starts coming in, a period where the energy of the meditation keeps flowing, and then the energy recedes. In this situation, the amount of time for the meditation then depends on when the energy stops, rather than being a set time.

In everyday life, a maximum of an hour a day is OK, as life is for living and loving and learning, and meditation can be used to support this, rather than be a way of avoiding life (with the caveat that sometimes meditation might be required as an escape and a healing respite for a while).

What benefits are there to meditation?

Once you have a feel of how much meditation to do a day feels right to you, meditation can be beneficial. There has been a fair bit of research done on the beneficial effects of meditation. It has been found to reduce stress and anxiety, and physically to lower blood pressure. People seem to become calmer and more relaxed, and happier. Being more relaxed supports creativity and focus, and so improves effectiveness.

I have found that meditations with a focus on self-esteem improve self-esteem. Also with meditation it is possible to improve body image. People can feel better about themselves with the help of meditation, though this can be achieved in other ways, too, (e.g. doing something you can do well at such as sports, singing, a hobby, learning a new skill, public speaking, finding a job you enjoy, and therapy if required).

As I work with chakras and the aura, I have found that meditations that focus on these help to clean up a person’s energy (so they feel better), and I have found it is possible to improve intuition (we all can do it, just needs a bit of preparation and practice).

Meditation can open up someone to the layers of their spirituality, and there is a lot to explore about spirituality through meditation.

Can children meditate?

Yes, though perhaps for shorter times than for adults.

When is the best time of day to meditate?

Any time that suits you or that you can fit into your life if it isn’t possible to prioritise a time. It helps to do meditation when you are not too tired as you might just fall asleep otherwise. Some people like early morning, some people like to meditate at noon, at lunchtime. It is what suits you and when meditations are available if you are doing them online.

There are meditations and articles about meditation and spirituality available on my blog through this link.

spiritualgrowthadventure

How I Got Into Meditation by Jonathan Barber

The author, Jonathan Barber, chilling out.

I started on the path to meditation in the middle of the 1980’s. The first step came about because I was a science teacher in inner-London interested in ways of learning. I came across a book that took a powerful learning technique from Eastern Europe and added in Western style ideas, including creative visualization.

I tried out some of the creative visualisations, liked them and incorporated guided visualization into my science classes. The students loved them, saying they helped them deal with stress. The guided imagery helped too, with learning. In the 1980’s and early 1990’s you didn’t need a certificate or a diploma from some organisation in order to use guided visualization or meditation, and the organisations didn’t exist then anyway.

For myself, I found the techniques really useful for working with the subconscious mind for creativity, and for accessing good ideas.

For the next step, a healer suggested that I should do some Om-ing. I did this, and found that my ability to meditate was deepened. From then on I meditated by sitting in my attempt at a lotus position with eyes closed. First of all I focused on my breathing, become silent, before going into the flow of the meditation.

The meditation work changed me. It opened up my intuition. Along with doing T’ai Chi it helped me become aware of spiritual energy, and it opened up my healing ability.

I started doing healing work, and using breathing techniques and visualization with drug users who wanted to overcome the addictions.

I also accidentally started giving Tarot card readings but without the training. After a while, as I was giving the reading faster than I was looking at the cards, I stopped using them which was somewhat freeing. I put the development of intuition down to the meditation.

Working with people and the energies they brought along which they would release, meant it was necessary to learn and use guided visualizations to clear my aura, polish up my chakras, learn how to protect my aura and chakras, and see off any negative energies, and stay grounded. I would then teach these techniques to others when required.

I found that working with the heart centre helped all the other centres and I worked with the third eye centre, too. This led onto giving Develop Your Intuition workshops, since if I could do it, so could others. Teaching people to use their intuition was a great way to help people find their purpose if they needed to, make better decisions, assess situations, people and their own timeline ahead.

Moving out of London, I kept on meditating and learning more about spirituality, energy, and the possibilities of meditation. I would teach meditation techniques as and when required. I found that the right guided meditation, along with the requisite energy would flow in as I worked with people at that time on a one-to-one basis.

Now in the present moment, wave after wave of new energy is flowing in, which can be expressed through new guided visualization techniques in the moment, brand new; fresh.

I found that spirituality is not static or stagnant. Like a flowing river it is always changing, and each wave of spiritual energy coming in is different just as each wave coming in to the shore is different, and always original. Spirituality is always changing, always fresh. Truth is many layered (think of an onion as a basic analogy). People as spiritual beings are many-layered and always developing spiritually. Newer and newer energies are coming in, and guided visualization and meditations are a way of working with these energies, as the same energies impact on the world around us, bringing change.

I find that using meditation, it is possible to have healing, the right energy and an intuitive sense of the steps to take in life, and an understanding of the order within apparent chaos. Makes life more like surfing a wave rather than falling in it!

For FAQs about meditation, click here.

If you would like to know about online meditation and courses that are available, click here.