thrive and awakenTools: Meditation
Meditation* is an Essential Tool for Thriving and Awakening!
Meditation is learning how to embrace this moment. At first it is a practice that helps to focus the mind so you develop the ability to choose what you want to think and how you want to behave. After awhile, meditation becomes a way of living fully present, clear minded, & open hearted. This is the outcome of meditation, not the goal. Let meditation be a present moment awareness of what is.
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Introduction to Meditation: 3.5 minutes
Meditations by Doug
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Beginners
The following meditation is for those just starting to meditate. Find a comfortable chair where your back is also straight. It should be a place where you will not be disturbed for 6 minutes. That includes no phones or pets that might disturb you. If you are not comfortable closing your eyes, then have them slightly open with a soft gaze towards the floor.
Focusing
Focusing meditations are designed to help calm the busy mind and tense body by relaxing the muscles then giving you something to focus on such as your body, breath, or phrase. These are particularly important in moving from Survival Mode into Thriving.
Breath Meditations
Breath meditations are oriented around various breathing methods to help you focus and learn to be in flow. Each of them are 20 mins. long.
Being Awareness Meditations
Being Awareness meditations shift from focusing on an object of your awareness (e.g. the breath) to being the awareness that is aware. Some of these may begin with a Focusing meditation then shift. These help support the transition from Thriving Mode into Awakening. They are all 20 minutes.
The ego gets lost in the stories around its identity. These are driven by thoughts such as, “Am I safe?”, “Am I enough?”. Being embodied, then clearing the mind of such thoughts, allow you to face the emotional stories that keep you in Survival Mode. This meditation is about being with the Nothingness that is experienced without the stories.
Contemplative Meditations
Contemplative Meditation is being with a thought, image, behavior, or emotion from a loving, open, and boundless place. The purpose of contemplative meditation is to receive messages about a topic from your deeper nature.
The word contemplation comes from Latin “con” (with) and root “templum” (shrine, temple, or sacred place). Be with something in a sacred space.
I’ll state a phrase and rather than thinking about it, the traditional way we think of contemplation, is to hold the space for the topic. Be present for it. Let impressions come to you vs your mind trying to understand something. Deeper levels of consciousness will emerge from the emptiness and stillness of awareness. Be open to however that is emerging. Messages may appear as impressions, visions, thoughts, sensations, colors, etc.
I’ll occasionally repeat the phrase to help bring you back if you happen to be wandering or getting lost in thought.
All Contemplative Meditations are 20 minutes.
Presence Meditations
Presence meditations active the centers of your body to help you experience deeply your oneness with True Nature. Each meditation starts with some focusing and awareness suggestions followed by guided energy and/or breath work.
Presence is referring to being fully embodied, open-hearted, and clear-minded to deepen your experience in being and living as Essence.
All Presence Meditations are 20 minutes.
Freedom Meditations
Freedom meditations are various ways to experience different aspects of Freedom such as Flow, Surrender, & Presence. Each of them are 20 mins. long.
* While about 95% of people can benefit from meditation, there are some people who have adverse reactions. Because you’re tuning inward, you may become more aware of distressing or traumatic events from the past. If you’ve had a history of significant depression or psychosis, you want to exercise caution. Should you be concerned about either of these possibilities, consider seeing a therapist familiar with meditation to help you learn it while staying grounded and curious.
