Conversations About Meditation With Konstantina Broome- Ep 7

I'm going to turn it over to Barbara to talk about her experience with meditation.

Thank you.

Greetings I'm Barbara J facing your mindfulness and meditation ambassador here with our series conversations about meditation.

Today I'm talking to one of my pips which stands for partners in practice,

One of the people that meditates with me just about every day if not every day and her name is constant Tina but we'll get more into constantina as we talk to her constantina lives outside the Boston area she is a certified been yasina flow meditate meditation and yoga instructor and she also does specific PS TD type style a PS TD style type of meditation for people with trauma.

What did I say P.

Yeah,

It's no it's it's okay because that's that's what that is something that is actually new into psychiatry.

And now is taking notice of that.

It's the post traumatic stress.

And my training is in trauma sensitive yoga.

Right.

So we're mindful of people's trauma,

And the consequences that leaves us with.

Well that is a beautiful starting point to move into us talking about meditation because I love that things are becoming more specific,

Because we all have different things that we experience and so if you can be focused in a specific area I just think that's helpful and most beneficial.

Tell me how you got started on this meditation journey,

What brought you into meditation.

My serious Barbara.

My going to use this as an opportunity to share one of my practices.

It is called stop and remind yourself to take three breaths so why don't we do that.

We're just going to take three deep breaths hand to heart and out.

Deep breath in and out.

One last time deep breath in and out.

And that is what I call my set your alarm practice.

So I turned off my notifications.

So thank you for having me this morning I applaud you.

Absolutely,

Actually that gives me a segue to say that for years I held my breath.

And the funny thing is when I came to US 27 years ago or so,

I was somewhere in Cambridge,

Massachusetts and one of the,

I used to work in a daycare and one of the moms saw me so like crazy and I,

And you know in my 20s and she says,

Oh let's go to my yoga class and I had no idea what yoga was and the first thing they did is they gave us some blankets and I thought well I,

The only thing I knew about blankets was that you cover yourself when you sleep and I was like oh great,

I'm gonna sleep here now so take a nap.

So I put it all over me,

I was getting a little worried because it didn't really cover me,

I was like what kind of blanket is this,

Why these people are so cheap?

And then on top of that I had to fold the blanket and I had to breathe which was the most annoying thing for me.

It was,

I thought it was the most difficult,

The most uncomfortable,

Annoying,

I was getting angry,

Why did I come,

The blanket doesn't fit,

I have to sit,

I have ADHD and I have to sit,

What is that?

I understand half of the English,

They talk because you know it's not my mother tongue and honestly when I left I said those are some crazy people,

Yoga and this breathing and short blankets,

I will never do that,

That was sometime in 96 I think.

I love it,

These yoga,

These short blankets,

It's breathing,

That breathing stuff.

So then how did you journey into becoming that what you were trying to avoid?

Somehow I have this message,

Go to yoga,

Go to yoga,

I went in 2004,

My sister pushed me to go and I went to a studio,

I burned myself up because it was Bikram hot yoga,

I was like,

Now they want to kill me.

So I never went back until 2008 or so that somebody else gave me,

I think it was my sister again gave me a certificate of like 20 classes in yoga and I had an injury because I was doing some heavy duty exercise that you know the intervals and stuff so my PT said you should do yoga and you should hold your breath here because it expands this and sends the breath to this certain part of your body and all kinds of things that were foreign to me so my sister sent me back to the same studio.

I found the door,

I went there,

It was again a hot class,

I was like I'm not going back to this thing but she insisted so I went back and what happened is I couldn't find the door.

I mean I went to the same place,

I couldn't find the door.

I think I had so much between PTSD and not paying attention to where I am,

My awareness,

I was not in my body with kids around me and work and all kinds of things so it took me somehow I went back in and that's how I started meditating because I went to a vinyasa class where you work the big muscles like it's not hot or at least not that hot and you have floor and you have centering which invites you to do your yoga,

Your breathing and I have been meditating in a yoga class for 15 years now because I got hooked even though I had no idea I was like how fast can we do this breathing thing so we just go to movement.

Get out of here with these short blankets.

We end up doing,

I end up going like my body was asking for it but the actual meditation I started with you Barbara in 2018 I think you started this group with like five people,

Eight people,

Somebody mentioned you from work and I start following you and I love that you had this and you still have this welcoming moments so it doesn't feel like oh you guys sit down,

Put the blanket on,

Under,

Whatever,

Breathe.

It's not a military style.

Yeah and that's when I started doing this.

I became a yoga teacher in 2018 I think that's when I started too and the main thing we had to do is that we were supposed to meditate 10 minutes at least per day because a lot of us didn't meditate and my thing was like I'm going to Barbara's class so I'm all set.

Because that's what we do about 10 minutes.

Yeah yeah and I and then it's kind of accelerated because once you find your breath you know this amazing thing that you have been taking care by this breath your whole life.

You and I when we breathe we just notice our breath but we what we need to remember and become aware is that we are always breath like we are always supported.

Yes and I think that gives a lot of comfort and when we take one moment to see that the breath is there either I'm holding it,

I'm fighting it,

I'm allowing it,

It's always there present because that's my connection with my creator.

Yes beautifully put beautifully put yes.

So and now I meditate two three times per day.

I meditate when I garden,

When I walk,

When I during conference calls I'm in corporate America and let me talk to Barbara.

Or zone out or zone in either way either way both depending upon what you're doing.

Yeah it's the added dot of stress and you know what you don't need to allow not this the not so friendly things to come in.

I think it's good to find your breath and really shield yourself with your own yeah goddess.

Yes that's beautiful so what would you say has been one of the most surprising aspects of meditation?

What's been surprising for you?

Is that it cracked me open you know how you like you may drop and like my favorite fruit is and I actually had it last night is watermelon so I'm always afraid because when I drop it it just spills everywhere.

Yeah and it's all so sweet right and sticky and that's what happened with meditation is like it opens me up I cannot count the times that I have cried rivers of anger,

Disappointment,

Grief,

Relief,

Love,

Comfort,

Aha moments.

Either through the meditate I mean during the meditation or after so it's that allowance of letting the the light come in finding your own truth and a lot of times it's painful it's not that for me anymore because I think as with everything else in life I have reached a point where I have a good practice I mean you know I come to you every day at 6 30 and then I go to David at eight o'clock and I listen to different apps and I actually teach meditation when I teach yoga and I have taught meditation to and visualization to different companies and groups of people and but is I think it saves you years of therapy of uncomfortable sharing because it brings you to this vulnerable but yet safe place which is within myself now I am in a place where now I share and I name either it's my pain,

My trauma,

My disappointment,

My shortcoming,

What I allowed from the outside world to come in and devalue me but you can really name it without judgment right and that's what meditation does.

Beautifully put and that is exactly what meditation does it allows us to be vulnerable with ourselves so we can be more vulnerable with others right and then we can come back home to the breath and to know that that next feeling emotion sensation is going to flow on it it's going to eventually flow on out you know it's just going to flow and when we really work on going with the flow versus trying to force whatever it makes a big difference.

Yes.

So what would you say to people who are interested in discovering something new or discovering or creating a meditation practice or trying what would you say to someone about that?

Yeah that's a great question because a lot of times people I notice that are very intimidated by the word meditation.

I would seek out this method as a method of stress reduction.

I'll give you an example I was in a medical facility this past pandemic that I was going and teaching meditation and when the leader or the manager said that Konstantina is going to come and do meditation they were people who kicked back because their religion didn't support the word.

Some of them have thought that meditation is this old practice where you stare at the wall you find the point and you do that and somebody's watching you that you do that.

Yeah yeah.

And there are a lot of misconceptions and misrepresentation so I would set an intention that I want to find a way to release my stress and if that means that I would go and I suggest actually that you seek out somebody like Barbara or a guided meditation because there is nothing it's actually getting support when you start something new is a sign of wisdom it's not a sign of weakness of weakness of weakness you get support with your stress relief the same way that if you have a headache you reach out for you know a specific medication and the promise really the first because I'll say this that in my practice teaching yoga to veterans and some other trauma related groups and regular public is that we all have this picture that we want to do something big we want to change ourselves we want to change our diet our house our neighbors our in-laws the world how about you start with you anyone that's like can I start with me first though yeah start with you and the suggestion I have is start with one thing don't change because if you say I'm going to eat three new foods tomorrow and or do you know 25 new exercises or routines it's not going to start start with something one thing like turn on in youtube in an app in facebook and any social media turn on a guided meditation while maybe you go for a walk or you wash your dishes and just listen yeah one time this is self-care and it's also one thing you do and just be open you may want to go back rewind and listen while you're sitting on a chair or lying down or um any anything I mean um you know except driving I would say do anything um but it's just one thing see it as a stress reduction yes and it's free and even if you cannot do some sophisticated breathing just be assured because your breath it's always there indeed you are being breathed every single second and you know the first time I couldn't follow my teacher I could do one breath right one I couldn't do the whole sequence because I was you know um busy judging everything so yep that mind that mind that mind that mind so just start with one thing one promise and then you're gonna find what you need guided meditation I think it's the the only uh is that it's great or you can just go in a sweet little soft place that you feel good safe and because that's actually safety is something safety is something that we all need to feel um to go within and close your eyes and see how it feels beautiful that is a beautiful way to move people into considering it because it is stress reduction right and sometimes you don't necessarily realize that you're reducing stress because we're so used to being stressed you know or consider that just curious so constantina is from greece and I want you to share the name of where you're from and tell what it is because I think you know I love looking at these quote unquote coincidences that we have in life which are really not coincidences and I'm gonna try to say the name but I'm gonna let her say the name because we were practicing before and it is epi which I know oh well I'm not gonna say it more than once so that is where constantina is from and tell us what tell us a little bit about that because I've seen your pictures and I'm just like I've gotta go I'm gonna go the water I've gotta go yeah so I was born in Greece and in an area that is an hour and a half or so south of Athens and very close to the water I mean everything's close to the water but I grew up in an area where we walked and we actually when I was in elementary school we were it was mandatory to go to a field trip in the nature once a month so they will take us to this huge archaeological site that had the most amazing theater ancient theater right all of those things is ancient from like 2,

000 years ago so yes wow ancient theater ancient stadium excavations going all over and natural how do you call it springs and stuff and we will play around because they had you know a cafe and will run and will do all kinds of things as kids do and the whole area it's it's named Epidavros.

Epidavros means the energy and the action that around your aura it's it's not easy to understand but Epidavros is a place in Greece that was dedicated that was dedicated to Asclepius and Asclepius was the son of Hippocrates that's the father of medicine and so the whole area and the excavations are still going on at this time half of my family works there and my grandfather helped excavate the theater is the first spa or hospital or a combination in the ancient world where they believe that the people who were sick they had to have medical they had doctors and the museum actually has surgical tools there that they found through the excavations you can have you have to have a combination of medical doctors you have to have worship that's why they have temples of Athena and Apollo you have to have entertainment that's why they had the theater for 14 000 people outside theater it's an amazing place they had also you need to exercise so they have the stadium and I have run in that stadium it's the classic stadium 400 meters around because all the stadiums now in the world are mirrored after Greek stadiums and also they had a practice I mean they had hotels and they had how do you call it in English restaurants of course it's all this and and then they had two other things that I find fascinating they had a lot of dream they had people who analyzed your dreams and yeah and also they believed that there is a special type of snake that goes around it goes around it doesn't bite you but somehow that snake is it was carrying some miracles and some messages and some people were able to read and I don't know what how so they had along with their real doctors like what we call mainstream medicine in our days and then what they are working on right now and my one of my cousins actually helped with the excavations which is you know not only national but international that are like some of the most renowned archaeologists in the world are working still there is it's like you know lots of acres it's a huge area surrounded by olive trees and pines and they have a round area like it's kind of a rotunda that had apparently different floors okay they think that it was for the mentally ill okay what is interesting is that is that there is under the how do you call this thing that was stepping in a house like not the stairs but under the floor the main floor yeah yeah there is some opening that most likely it was situated over caves or something and people still believe that if you go and you stay over there and you breathe you're going to be healed because of different things are coming from the from the earth's yeah so oh interesting there are a lot of things that are historically proven and of course there are like thrills and myths and that is like not even a mile from where i grew up wow so yeah so look so you navigated into this world and you know and so i just think it's interesting when we look back where we came from how it all plays a part in who we are and where we end up so so do you have anything else you want to share before we end i love your story and how you got into breathing and short blankets so tell us where we can connect with you because you can reach out to her at constantina now and i'll put all this in the details for trauma sensitive yoga as well as advice and meditation is that right and what else yeah i mean i do offer um trauma sensitive yoga and i also uh my meditation is mindful of trauma okay and um and trauma is i i'm not gonna define it now but it's everything that has actually separate us from our bodies and that is a very specific type of practice for people who are not aware so i don't do trauma sensitive so if you have something that you feel is uh you know that is trauma that you've been induced with trauma i would suggest that you work with someone like constantina who knows how to manage you around that i'm just uh i feel like i'm more general and just kind of sit down and breathe so you can do that but when you start getting into specific things i definitely recommend that you talk to someone who has been trained in those particular styles and types so absolutely yeah and um yeah i i mean i i do offer a trauma sensitive yoga and kind of counseling um and guidance what to do next because a lot of people have been uh exposed to trauma absolutely yeah it's almost impossible that um you know that we don't have but you know we the veterans the sexually abused uh people um neglect refugees um racism all those things are trauma that a lot of times it's epigenetically moved meaning from one generation to the other right right yeah and um yeah we can talk if that's interest you and see uh how what kind of guidance i can give you for local resources and um the other thing i do is of course i do um give career counseling because i'm a recruiter for 22 years in corporate america i help people with resume writing and things like this but um i do offer meditation to small corporations individuals um and um i cannot avoid but inserting or being mindful of trauma sensitive or trauma informed um and my wish and my encouragement to each one of you is to really find your breath and find five minutes to do one thing that matters to you which is close your eyes because i think if i had to say one thing that um is a that i am for sure uh in life is that we are all parts of god of the divine and the expression of of the divine and the expression of this divine in each one of us is found through our breath and once we realize that we will be the best stewardess or stewards or for this body for this brain for this mind and consequently will guard and will protect and honor the other people as well when we recognize what we say in namaste namaste means i recognize i see and i recognize the divine in you yes in the same way i recognize and i find that in myself exactly namaste thank you so much and if you like this video please feel free to share subscribe you know all the deals and if you're interested in being a part of this as conversations about meditation please do not hesitate to reach out to me i am an ambassador for meditation and i enjoy inviting people to sit down and chat about it because i have found it to be a life-altering practice for me that starts with your breath so thank you for tuning in be well be well and see you next time