Hello and welcome my name is Tanya and I am a meditation facilitator.
Meditation can often conjure up lots of images and ideas about sitting still for hours or not thinking,
Finding inner peace and smelly candles which is a shame because there are different ways to meditate and actually there are some ways that can be very short and very comfortable and very beneficial and not all candles are bad.
In effortless meditation which is the type that I guide I basically take inspiration from a sloth.
Yes I said a sloth.
It's a pretty lazy session and if you're anything like me hearing the word sloth really rubs against the values of hard work and success so I get it but the thing is in order for it to be easy and comfortable and stress-free you've actually got to respond like a sloth.
You know be slow and dawdle and drift and meander be aloof and unconcerned and detached and as my teenager would say whatever.
The whole point is to give your mind and your body time out a bit like a cool breeze on a hot day you know it's a relief and it's not magic it's just a different way to do meditation and it's still backed by science.
There are two symbols I like to use during meditation and the first is an anchor.
As I guide you through the meditation I'll give you an anchor to rest your awareness on and this might be a word or a sound or your breath and just like a boat drifts from the anchor so will your mind and you just go with the currents and the wind wherever it takes you and then there'll be a gentle tug from the anchor and whenever you happen to realize you can slowly rest the awareness on your anchor again without any judgment and it's simply accepting that this is the cycle this is the natural and expected cycle and having a sloth response.
The second symbol is a pair of binoculars and so when the thoughts and the feelings happen just look at them through the binoculars observing them viewing them with no inner judgment about your experience and again whenever you get the gentle tug from the anchor you can slowly rest the awareness on the anchor again.
The key here is no judgment and no comparisons and no unkind self-talk thoughts are normal.
Now look I know I said it's not magic but for the visual journey part of the meditation I'll take you on one of my bush walks here in the Blue Mountains on Darug and Gondunga country and I would say that it's pretty magical and it's definitely enchanting.
If you can't get here in person it's the next best thing.
So I encourage you to listen to one of the online meditations with me and really enjoy meditation and what it can bring to your daily life.
