New Meditation Classes for 2012 in West Linn, Oregon

Meditation to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

5 weeks     Thursdays  1/12 – 2/9     6:00 – 7:15 pm     $45
Sachi Wellness Center

Learn simple basic techniques that will help you reduce blood pressure, relax the body and calm the mind. These techniques will help you begin to overcome the sensations of being overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, fear and replace them with feelings of tranquility, serenity and harmony.
Call 503 607-0018 to register.

Meditation for Weight Loss and Healthy Weight Management

10 weeks     Thursdays  1/12 – 3/22  no class 2/16     2:00 – 3;30 pm      $80
Sachi Wellness Center

Learn how to use meditation and breathing techniques to shift your internal thought patterns so that the compulsion to eat is neutralized. By transforming our inner world we can more easily and effortlessly shift our eating habits and allow the body to find it’s healthy, balanced weight.
Call 503 607-0018 to register.

Meditation for Moms

5 weeks  Thursdays  1/12 – 2/9   7:30 – 8:45 pm   $45
Sachi Wellness Center

It’s not easy raising children. Whether your child is two or twenty-two, we face unique challenges as moms. This course will teach techniques to help you become less reactive, less worried, and less angry. It will help you find wisdom, sleep better, improve your sense of humor.
Call 503 607-0018 to register.

Winter Solstice Meditation

Set Your Intentions for the New Year

Sachi Wellness Center
Tuesday December 20, 2011
6:00 – 7:15 pm

$8.00 drop-in
$6.00 students and seniors

Our culture has a long tradition of making resolutions for the New Year. Join us as we take advantage of the quiet, reflective darkness of the Winter Solstice to set those intentions!

This specially designed meditation will help you release 2011 and move into 2012 with clarity and focus.

Falling Leaves

While driving a long stretch of highway to the airport in Virginia yesterday, I challenged myself to stay present to each moment and not get lost in the usual zone out driving induces.
As we do in class, I engaged all my senses to become fully present in the moment.
This thought flitted through my mind: Everything I need to know about life, about myself, is present in this moment. If I observe I will learn.
The brilliant colors of the fall had drained away leaving behind fading,crinkled, gray-brown leaves that appeared to cling to the branches of the trees lining the interstate. Each gust of wind enabled the leaves–that were ready to let go–to fly and swirl and dance above the interstate as if exhilarated by their liberation.
I reflected on how the tree, in order to begin the next cycle of regeneration, withdraws it’s energy from the leaves and pulls all it’s resources inwards. When the leaves aren’t fed, they shrivel and shrivel until all it takes is a gust of wind to launch them to freedom and eventual compost.

And then it occurred to me: What thoughts do I need to stop feeding?

Heading for Nirvana not Drama

This year it feels as if the Holidays are sweeping in faster than ever. It may be the fact that online offers for Christmas deals and sales have overrun my inbox or perhaps it’s that Christmas music has been playing for weeks… whatever the cause, I am so grateful for meditation in my life.

As I watch these force fields swirl through my mind and emotions I realize how powerful they are. They are like a super strong magnet trying to hook me into the stress and hype we lump into one word – commercialism.

Here’s how I use my meditation practice to neutralize those force-fields and keep my course set towards Nirvana not Drama.

1. As soon as I notice my mind stressing or my body tensing I try to observe what I’m thinking or feeling.
   • sometimes the thoughts and feelings hide and at others they fight back.
2. I mentally affirm that these are force fields washing through – they are not the real me.
   • neti, neti, neti!
3. I take a slow deep breath and as I do I focus on drawing the breath deep into the cells of my being and even into the spaces between the cells
4. As I hold the breath for a few counts I visualize and feel the breath neutralizing the magnetic force-fields that have infiltrated my mind and emotions.
5. As I exhale I release the force fields and hold an awareness of the spaciousness between my cells being now filled with peace, relaxation and calm.
6. Repeat as many times as needed.

If you are interested in a few more simple breathing techniques that you can use to hold your center through the season, check out my friend Elaina’s blog, Way of Being: Yoga as a Trans-formative Art

 

 

Saturday Afternoon Teaching with the Swamis

Quieting the Mind ~ Becoming Yourself

A teaching from the Yoga Sutras

with Swami Jyotir Vakyananda and Swami Abhipadananda

Saturday, October 9

1 – 5 pm

Sachi Wellness Center

donation

The goal of yoga is to eliminate unnecessary possessions. These possessions can be physical, mental, psychological or even spiritual fetters. The ancient yogis teach that when you have eliminated everything that is not intrinsically you, you find your genuine self.
The afternoon teaching will:

• Explore several yoga sutras of the Sage Patanjali
• Reveal the five great aphorisms of the yogic tradition of Truth seeking
• Uncover key yogic methodologies for becoming more yourself everyday.

Be Gentle With Your Self

It’s good to meditate every day. It’s not good if we stress and feel like a failure when we don’t. A meditation practice needs time to take root and the best way to cultivate your practice is to:

• Be patient with yourself
• Be gentle with yourself
• Sit only as long as you are enjoying it – no joy, no do.

It’s more effective to meditate for a few moments once or twice a day than it is to try to sit for an hour once a week. Truly.

If we are patient with ourselves and hold the following as our long-term vision:  “Step by step, day by day, year by year, decade by decade, I am building my meditation practice,” we allow for those gung-ho starts and the, “I just don’t have time today,” misses that are an inevitable part of establishing a meditation practice.

Just as we gently bring our mind back to the technique when it wonders off during our meditation, so we gently bring ourselves back to the cushion when our practice wanders off. When we miss a day or three, or one hundred and three, all we need to do is sit for a few moments and we are resuming our practice.

Beating ourselves up for not meditating makes about as much sense as waging war for peace.

So, be gentle my friends. Gentle with yourself. Gentle with the world. And, if you can do this, you will be bringing your practice into your world and reaping the benefits of meditation whether you sit to meditate or not.

Measuring Success

Many of us have the mistaken notion that success in meditation is measured by the depth of our feelings of transcendent bliss. It’s quite frustrating when, instead of  bliss, we encounter a mind unwilling to focus and intent upon to-do lists, solving problems or re-living resentments. Often, we ask ourselves, “What’s the point?” and we give up meditating because we don’t feel successful. But it’s NOT TRUE!!

Gently returning the mind to the technique each time we notice it has wandered is the process of meditation and that is success.

How do I know? Because, my mind has been in overdrive for months. My meditations have consisted of bringing my mind back to the technique again and again and again and again and again.  And yet, I recently experienced a wonderful gift as the result of this simple practice.

I’m not talking about a gift like seeing auras or reading minds. I’m talking about the gift of a moment when I could observe a very emotional situation and respond with compassion rather than react from ego. In the past I would have, my ego would have, reacted with anger, blame, defensiveness and willful attachment to my position.

But this time, even after an intense hour, I was able to calmly observe and bring my mind back to center over and over again. From that center I was able to respond with gentle sincere words that conveyed, “I care about you. How can I help? How can I be a part of the solution?”

I realized as I left the meeting that I had just experienced a moment of transformation. In the heat the moment I didn’t react with anger or defensiveness. I stayed calm and responded with compassion and clarity — without a doubt the direct result of my meditation practice!

And it didn’t come from months of practice filled with meditative bliss. It came from months of observing my mind in overdrive and gently returning my focus to the technique over and over and over again.

The success of my meditation is not measured by how I feel on the cushion but rather by how I respond to those around me.

2010 Summer Solstice Meditation

Nourished by the Light
Monday June 21, 6 – 7:10 pm
Sachi Wellness Center

Celebrate the Summer Solstice with a special meditation designed to help our bodies, minds and spirits attune to the momentous Blessing of Light present on the longest day of the year.  Please join me as we use this auspicious moment to increase our energy, heighten our awareness and nourish our dreams.

This Solstice Meditation is offered free to the community compliments of Sachi Wellness Center.

June Class – How to Start a Home Practice

How to Start a Home Practice

Mondays, June 7, 14 and 21       7:15 – 8:15 pm   $25
at Sachi Wellness Center www.sachiwellness.com

This class will prepare you to begin your own practice and introduce techniques used in the ongoing Tuesday Night Meditation class.

You will learn:

• 4 basic types of meditation: breath, visualization, guided visualization and mantra
• how to set up a meditation space
• the best posture for you
• difference between concentration and meditation
• how to begin and close a meditation

gotta laugh

Imagine my surprise to find I couldn’t get into my own blog. Oh yes, it’s true. Not only could I not remember my log in, password or the website address, I couldn’t find the information in any of my trusty back-up locations.

But, here’s the beauty of meditation. I am learning how to outwit my mind!

I know from observing it, that if I let my mind start stressing and obsessing on all the reasons why the situation is a hopeless catastrophe, an impenetrable force-field of angst will take hold of my mind and seal off all access to my memory banks.

However, if I laugh, yes, laugh at myself, I can easily open those very same memory banks.

So I laugh. And I type whatever comes to my mind. And then angst returns as the warning flashes, “log-in failed, you have only three more attempts”. So I laugh harder and feel the angst dissolving into the chuckles and laughter. Lo and behold, a clear path opens from those memory banks to the surface of my mind and I type. I hit enter. And wait for it, wait for it…  YES!! The screen changes and I’m in!

Gotta laugh! It’s the best meditation!!