Stillness | Free Your Soul

A wonderful way to prepare for ceremony is to start a small mediation practise. This not only stills the mind but it can also calm and reassure us in the lead up to the weekend, a time when new energies, anxiety and sometimes fear can arise. All sensations that come up in the week before ceremony are normal and should be allowed and where possible observed. Your Higher

Being is fully aware off what you are about to embark on and so changes within and around you begin to take place. You may find your sleep pattern changes, dreams may become more intense, old memories surface and even people around you may seem to be acting different. All of this reflects the shift through which you are going and is totally part of the healing process. Billions of cogs are turning to make this happen. It is often seen that what shows up the week before may be a focus during ceremony. In addition as soon as you commit to a ceremony changes begin to happen, this can be as much as three months in advance.

With everything starting to shift it is an ideal time to find some daily stillness and possibly start a meditation practise and for those who already have one to commit more fully to listening internally.

This new practise need not be anything too difficult or challenging as we only need to find five minutes a day for it to be a benefit both before and for during the ceremony.

Some people find that occasionally they are unable to “get in” during ceremony. Although the plant medicine is always working this apparent block that seemingly occurs is usually due to an overactive mind and much too much thinking. It is therefore a great idea to learn to connect to the breath through meditation prior to ceremony as the practice can then be used also during.

Quiet reflection is often the mother of deep understanding. Maintain that peaceful nursery, enabling stillness to speak

Tom Althouse

An easy way to stillness

Find an optimum time to practise. I highly recommend you do it just after waking up as this is the easiest for keeping up a consistency as well as for dropping quickly in. If you are pushed for time in the morning set your alarm just five minutes early to wake up.

I suggest drinking a glass of water before hand as we are usually dehydrated after many hours of sleep. Avoid doing anything else including cleaning the teeth, we do not want the mind to wake up too much.

Find a quiet space where you will not be disturbed, this can either be on the floor or in an upright chair. Avoid the bed or sofa as these may well lure back into a sleeping state. It is also important to have your spine as straight as possible to allow optimum flow of breathe and energy.

Set a timer if you are worried about getting to work or an appointment. Ideally set it a little longer than the five minutes or time you intend to meditate.

If you are new to meditation the easiest way to still the mind from the randomness of thought is to count and we use the constituency of the breath to do this. Sitting relaxed we look to breath solely through the nose. Breathing slowly in and then exhaling, in our mind we count the number one. On the next full breath (inhale and exhale) we then count two. And this we continue up to the count of ten from where we go back to one and begin again. If you are new to stilling the mind you might find you forget where you are in the counting, do not worry just start from one again each time. This is not a competition it’s just a simple way of showing us how disruptive the mind can be. Avoid getting frustrated if you find it very difficult to get to ten without the interruption of thoughts; its best to chuckle at the monkey mind.

If you can do this breath counting daily you will slowly find that it gets easier and that the effect is to bring about some stillness and a feeling of calmness. You will eventually find you can count to ten over and over again with any interruption and then can consider a new meditation practise.

If you just allow your body and mind to rest, the healing with come by itself

Thich Nhat Hanh

Extra Tips

If you are serious about a meditation practise you might want to buy some incense sticks or candles. Lighting either of these before a meditation practise alerts our different senses that a space of stillness is coming and so the mind automatically begins to slow down.

Aim to meditate in the same space each day as this creates a pattern or habit and prepares the body.

For further practise I recommend the Calm App, it can be found in the App Store and offers a huge variety of different meditations from your phone. I used this originally when travelling to and from work, in the park and often randomly when I found I had a spare few minutes.

For free meditation practises look no further than You Tube which has thousands to choose from. I suggest always using headphones for a deeper immersion.

Meditation should not be looked as like it is homework as this usually leads to the practise being dropped. Look at it as a way to finding more about your True Self and eventually listening to your inner voice. It is a doorway to healing.

Dedicate yourself to meditation or a stillness practise and you will begin to radically change yourself and everything around you. Consistency is key to success. Book in some daily time slots that do not move for no one and soon that dedicated space will produce magic. It is a very kind thing you can do for yourself.