Pure Meditation

Yes! Way safer than microdosing several other “mind expanding” substances I can think of, too. Of course, longer meditation sessions are not unbeneficial . Not in the least. And, they can greatly enhance your ability to remain present and mindful long after your session. Do, though, grab those small moments to take a mindful breath and enter the Wholeness of Being!

Too busy to meditate? Microdosing mindfulness has big health benefits Small bursts of mindfulness practices lasting a minute or less can have unexpected benefits for those with busy lives - here’s how

Yes, we’re still here!

Pure Meditation is not a religiously oriented form of meditation. It can, however, be used by individuals who are religious and are seeking tools to enhance their religious devotions. That’s one of the beauties of this form of meditation, it can be universal in its application. Most of my students do not take my course for any other reason than to help them in de-stressing. And, this it can do….without any spiritual or religious beliefs or rituals one may bring to it or add to it.

With that said, it has been my experience that meditation helps to prepare the ground for the cultivation of qualities of mind that are not necessarily spiritual, yet are often associated with spiritual growth and character. These qualities may be patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, humility, peacefulness, and the like.

I believe that we all have these qualities within and inherent in our mind, always. The task or wish would be to express them more and more while displaying their opposite less and less as we go through life. Meditation doesn’t develop them, it allows them to surface and be unhindered in their expression. How? Possibly by helping to remove our unconscious defenses against them. It may be a willingness type of thing. A surrender type of thing. While in meditation, we do nothing, just sit and disengage from the mind’s default patterns and direction. As we experience what this is like, we discover that the well is deep and plentiful; full of goodness and peace. This attracts us to return and not fear engagement with the source of all the goodness. Gradually, we realize that we’re being nourished in a way that is perfectly safe and natural. Surrender to “what is” just feels right and normal.

If the default of the human mind is fear, defensiveness, anxiety, impatience, etc., and some have genuinely discovered relief from them, then this is what is unnatural and somehow an expression of human behavior that need not be. This is why so many people look to religion, psychology, self-help books and seminars and such; to interrupt the default and find relief from the suffering they are experiencing. I think all these can be tools for that end, though some find better success than others, for some unknown reason. It doesn’t matter what others do and find helpful, or not. What does matter is your own search for relief, for peace and happiness. How’s your search going? Maybe you’re ready to give meditation a try. Call me.

Just this.

Here's an article by physician and philosopher Deepak Chopra. Many of you know him, I feel safe to assume. I am posting a recent article by him to open the discussion and thought processes among us toward the "goal" of happiness and contentment.

Most of us began meditating or want to become meditators with some form of this goal in mind. For some the desire is merely to de-stress while for others it is to reach a higher plain of consciousness in which suffering does not exist. It's likely that there are endless degrees of similar desire on a spectrum between these two for the world's individuals.

This article discusses the less tangible end of the spectrum in that it brings up the idea of our true nature, being wholeness, and how we might get "there" by the power of our choosing. It is relevant for us here because I have been following the topic of meditation and the "plight" of the meditator for many years and it seems to be a common experience among meditators that we pass through many phases of experiencing ourselves; anywhere from the lowest low of failure to change our consciousness to the highest high of having the most beautiful and blissful of higher consciousness states. Interestingly, there seems to be no linear and stable progression from one phase to another like we might expect while mastering any other activity that we spend years practicing. Any given day and meditation session can be quite different than the previous day's experience!

My meditation teacher taught me from the very start, "the primary understanding of the meditation student is that you are already whole and perfect!" and "If you are not experiencing yourself as whole and perfect, something must have happened that disconnected you from that experience". What could that thing be???

Perhaps the thing is simply that we don't believe it because of the filters that we have inculcated into our belief system. We have simply been fooling ourselves that we are good judges of our and each others' reality. This belief, that we know something, when we don't, can be let go of. It's the process of awakening from our delusions about ourselves and surrendering the role we have assumed for ourselves. This is our path. The goal and the realization is inevitable. However, you'll only know this for sure when you are totally ready to know and have abandoned the arrogance of the ego self and let go of your self as your own guide and teacher. Until then our ego self will lead us on a wild goose chase. The good news? Even the wild goose chase will be used by our Whole Self to help us awaken to Itself.

Can You Ever Choose to Be Whole? Wholeness is considered to be very desirable in many settings from holistic health to whole foods. Where the meaning of wholeness becomes an issue is in terms of inner or spiritual growth. There, wholeness is set as the goal for anyone who wants to get out of separation, duality, the divided self, t...

Deepak Chopra has a good point... "Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of entering into the quiet that's already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day."

You might even say that meditation is a way to enter into your true mind and vacation from your ego mind, the surface/superficial idea of yourself that you have accepted as true but is really just a fabrication. I hope this doesn't sound scary or hokey to you.

Known only through experience, meditation offers us an opportunity to connect with something different WITHIN ourselves; not become something or someone different or create a new mindset that began outside of ourselves. Meditation helps us to "switch channels" within, to a peace-filled, loving, calmness that is already us but buried, as Deepak points out, under that part which is actually the imagined part.

Unlock this experience for yourself through learning how to meditate. Call me today @ 612.368.9919 to set up your lessons.

The positive changes you feel in yourself as a meditator are not really you changing. They are the negativity you have collected along the way being let go.

Do you ever have trouble getting back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night? It's not uncommon at all. Here are a couple of tips for getting back to sleep that work for me...

1. If you have a thought that just keeps asking for attention, like a task that you do not want to forget to attend to later, write it down! Keep a small pad of paper and a pencil next to your bed for this.

2. Memorize a favorite poem, or comforting passage from the Bible or wherever. When your mind is racing or bothered and you can't seem to shake the thoughts, go to your memorized lines and recite them silently to yourself. You'll likely be asleep before you get to the end! My favorite poem for this is the following...