WiseWomanhood School

Supporting Women - Body, Mind, & Soul

Meditation

Grounding with the Chakras

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Grounding in the seasons of Autumn and Winter helps balance the airy nature of cool winds, especially in dry climates.  Eating more heavier root veggies and fatty foods might work – with subsequent added body weight. Another way to ground is through energy of the chakras.

There are many different chakra systems… yet it is common in cultures that acknowledge  our energetic bodies that chakras are accepted.  Whatever system you  are used to, most seem to be focused on moving upward.  The “up is good” and “down is bad” paradigm is part of the negativity towards such various parts of life such as sex and dirt.  Moving the energy upward definitely doesn’t help ground.

The more animist form of chakra system is about an interchange between Earth and Sky, Mother and Father, with us in the middle of them. See more here. Our energy is naturally related to both the Upper World and Lower World and thereby to the Sky and to the Earth.  This formation lends to more grounding AND more relationship with the Upper World.

In this system  the lowest chakra on our body is the Foot chakra.  By putting awareness into the lower chakras it helps ground – without putting on the calories.  Walking is one way of emphasizing the lower chakras. Another way is to do some breathing with a visualization.

This visualization is in tune with the in breath and out breath.  Sitting or standing, tune into the Crown chakra. With inbreath visualize a flower blooming open, with outbreath see it turn into a flame that purifies that chakra. Many pictures of the chakras show them as discs on the front of the body. Rather than this visual, “see” the flowers horizontally oriented, and centered on the spine.

Move down the chakras, following the base chakra with the Foot chakra. See all the chakras blooming and purifying with each inbreath/outbreath. (see picture here- thanks to www.therapeutic-shamanism.uk) Continue for 5-10 minutes.

Play around with this – try moving up from the feet to crown or focus on particular chakras where you might notice less flexibility.

May you experience this holiday season as a grounded, nourishing time.

Smiles,

Terra Rafael

Loving Kindness Meditation

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At the recent NAMA conference I loved the workshop, Role of Ojas in Building A Healthy Family from Birth to Old Age. It reminded me of the importance of ojas. And one speaker suggested a good way to increase ojas is through Loving Kindness Meditation.

This form of the Loving Kindness Meditation is what I use: I sit for meditation, focusing on the love I feel towards a person or deity. When this feeling is firmly established, I let go of the object and allow the love to be inward, filling my whole body and aura as I inhale and radiating outward from my heart like moonlight, as I exhale. This inborn love never is depleted.

Try it! You may find it renewing and also ojas increasing.

Pratyahara – developing inner awareness

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Pratyahara is one of the Eight Limbs of Yoga from the Yoga Sutras. It is the linchpin between working with the outer physical world and going to the more inner, subtle senses. This is relevant to both Ayurveda and Shamanism.

For Ayurveda, it works at awakening to the Atman, the Highest Self.  This is the source of Truth, Light, and Love.  It supports a sattvic mind, leading to better lifestyle choices.

For Shamanism, developing our inner senses allows us to sense the subtle Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds. This allows us to bring more information back to this world.

The first steps to Pratyahara involve learning how to properly deal with relationships. These are the first limb – the Yamas and Niyamas.

Yamas

Yamas focus on our behavior and thoughts towards others.

  1. Ahimsa is non-harming, non-violence. It is being loving and compassionate.
  2. Satya is truthfulness and honesty.
  3. Astya is non-stealing.  We develop healthy interchange with others. This means not just avoiding thievery, but also avoiding being a taker or user without giving back somehow.
  4. Bramacharya is moderation of the outer senses.  This means controlling your sensual cravings and addictions.
  5. Aparigraha is non-hoarding. We avoid unnecessary materialism and selfishness around sharing our time and energy with the world.

Niyamas

Niyamas help us learn to maintain a positive environment and develop self-discipline and inner strength.

  1. Saucha is purity and cleanliness. This involves physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels.
  2. Santosa is contentment.  Learning to accept and enjoy what is now.
  3. Tapas is heat or fire of practice. Using our best efforts even when we don’t want to develops the discipline needed for deep inner work.
  4. Svadhyaya is self study. We contemplate ourselves– mind and body – to find our own truths.
  5. Ishvara Pranidhana is surrender to Higher Self. We may surrender to Nature, a personal god or the higher self as spiritual practice.

Asana

Asana is another limb of yoga.  As a spiritual practice it is more than poses.  It liberally means “to sit calmly.” Through asana we become aware of our bodies, emotions, and minds. We become healthy, balanced, calm and disciplined enough for further inner work.  Prana – the life energy- can where we put our attention. Asana helps us become aware of our whole body. It also releases stuck areas that inhibit the flow of prana.

Pranayama

Pranayama is meant to allow prana to circulate freely through our body-emotion-mind- spirit system. It is opening up to allow the flow to happen. Being able to sit (or live) calmly and allow our prana to nourish every cell, give us the energy and safety to move on to pratyahara.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara can happen when the prana flows. We need to be in a safe place in the external world. Then we can practice opening up and strengthening our internal sense organs.  Next blog, we’ll delve more into the practice.

I highly recommend the Pratyahara class by Dr Claudia Welch and Dr Robert Svoboda

Part 2 will delve into more about developing Pratyahara

Meditation with Terra

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Want a steady, satisfying meditation practice?

Meditation has many benefits for your body, mind, and soul – including stress reduction, improved attention, better memory, and even increased creativity and feelings of compassion.

Meet with Terra and discover together how to support your meditation practice.  Terra has many different techniques available to suggest and can match them to your temperament and needs.  An on-going support system to get your new habit started and ingrained (usually takes 2 months) is in place.

First meeting – Terra will find out about you, your habits, your needs and actually get you started on a beginning practice.  30 min phone or video call.  You’ll also get a PDF full of information and tips. PDF includes information on: Meditation Basics; Different Meditation Techniques; Scientific Studies on Meditation Benefits; and a Weekly Meditation Check List to track your progress and needs.

Second meeting – After one week of practice, Terra will help you tweak  (or totally change) your technique, according to your experience.  More suggestions to help may be emailed  30  min phone or video call

Six Weekly Reports – Short check ins between us via email or text each week  will give you the support and accountability to establish your meditation habit.  More suggestions to help may be sent to you when needed.

Terra Rafael has meditated for over 45 years, practicing many different forms over that time : TM,  mantra meditation, visualization meditations, guided meditations, somatic meditations, breathing meditation, meditation on an object…She studied meditation as an Ayurveda student as well.

REGISTER HERE

JOURNEY TO THE GREAT MIDWIFE – Inner Journey

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This three part inner journey is for body, mind and spirit –

Part 1 – the mind – what is the Great Midwife and how to create the space for the journey. 4 minutes

Part 2 – the body – relaxes the body (and mind) to open to the journey. 11 minutes

Part 3- the spirit – the guided visualization, Journey to the Great Midwife. For the best experience, be sure you have listened to the Intro and Prep, as well as the Relaxation, at least the first time that you do this journey.

And for more Inner Journeys try Flight of the Spirit- Basic Shamanism

Part 3