Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My Meditation Spaceship (Tent)

Ashley Wells, Seven, CC Liu

 "Inhale, Exhale, Hike" backpacking yoga trip, Canyonlands Nat'l Park (zozi.com)


Mornings of backyard relaxation or epic hiking and yoga woven around reconnecting to living in the moment? Both are available. An awe inspiring adventure trip offers days of backpacking, yoga, and travel through the red-hued rocks of Canyonlands. The same level of adventure is possible in the backyard, awakening to a morning practice in the cool outdoor air at home. Meditation means getting grounded in the moment. But "all space is here, all time is now" as Wendy Rule sings. So a tent can be a spaceship to travel anywhere in a relaxed and imaginative state. No practice? No problem. Now is the time to learn.



Learn Meditation from Wildmind

  • Our posture workshop is where we suggest you start if you don't already have a meditation practice (and perhaps even if you do). We'll take you step-by-step through the process of setting up a meditation posture that will allow you to be both alert and relaxed.
  • The mindfulness of breathing is a fundamental meditation practice that everyone should know. The benefits? You'll find that this practice helps you to calm your mind so that there's less inner chatter (especially the stuff that makes you unhappy). You'll find also that you're less distractable and better able to pay attention.

  • The development of loving-kindness (metta) works directly on our emotional habits, helping us to become more emotionally positive. You'll learn to be kinder to yourself: more patient, more understanding. You'll find that you're more considerate to others and that it's easier to forgive. You may even find (as others have) that others around you mysteriously become easier to be around. Hmm... wonder why that is?

  • Walking meditation is a great way to bring more meditation into your daily life; it's a practice that can be done even in a busy city street. In this form of practice we develop greater mindfulness of the body, but we also become more aware of our thought patterns, our emotions, and even of the outside world. It's a calming practice. Walking meditation can also be a loving-kindness practice, especially when you're walking in a public place.

  • Our mantra meditation section is the most popular destination for our visitors. Mantras are simply phrases that we repeat (usually internally, but they can also be chanted out loud). As well as occupying the mind and thus calming it by preventing it from getting up to the usual mischief that causes us pain, mantras also have a symbolic value that evokes spiritual qualities.

  • The six element practice is a profound reflection on interconnectedness and impermanence. It's a very beautiful form of meditation. It not only helps us to calm the mind and give us a reassuring sense of our place in the great scheme of things, it can be unsettling and challenging as well. Yes, I know. Reassuring and unsettling, that's Buddhist practice for ya!

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