“Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the conditioned, “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness.”  There are many different meditation methods but at the core of meditation is the goal to focus and eventually quiet your mind.

Below are 6 easy steps to follow to begin your own meditation practice.

Step 1: Make the time to meditate. Set aside time in your daily routine that works for you. Many find the morning works best and it doesn’t matter how long you meditate. Some people find that 5 minutes works well for them and others benefit from a longer time.

Step 2: Find a quiet and relaxing place that will have no distractions or noise.

Step 3: Sit on level ground, tilt your pelvis forward by sitting on the edge of a cushion and straighten your back. This will help keep you comfortable and help with your breathing. Relax your arms and legs. You don’t have to be in a special position juch make sure you are in a relaxed one.

Step 4: Relax everything and keep searching for things that aren’t relaxed and relax them. Your posture might need to be adjusted and even muscles in your face might be tense.

Step 5: Let your attention focus on your breath without judgement. The goal is to let go of the chatter in your mind and let it fade away. Find something to settle your mind. Count your breath from 1 to 10 and then count again or recite a mantra over and over again, like ‘om’. To quiet images in your mind, simply think of a place that calms you. I often imagine space…darkness with stars surrounding me. As my mind wonders, the voice in my mind will say ‘space’….’darkness’, for example, to bring me back to a quiet mind.

Step 6: Silence your mind. Once you’ve trained your mind to just focus on one thing at a time, the next step is to focus on nothing at all. Clearing your mind takes a lot of discipline but is the purpose of meditation.Good luck!

Santosha is a Niyama that means contentment. It is a willingness to accept whatever fate may bring with balance, gratitude and joy. By practicing Santosha, we can learn to detach from our daily experience and simply become an objective witness, observing ourselves on a transcendent level. We are acting as our own witness, watching our lives play out and are not attached to particular outcomes. By practicing Santosha, we can make the most of any situation and even though we can become frustrated or upset, we can move back into balance and maintain serenity through life’s ups and downs.

During times in our life when we our experiencing our own confusion, sadness and fear,  the practice of Santosha can be difficult but can bring us much peace. Consider taking some time to close your eyes, focus on your breathing, focus on light and  these affirmations.

I am contented with my self and my life

I am grateful for everything that happens to me

I maintain my balance in the face of hardships

I rejoice in the flow of life

I am a lighthearted being

I’m off to the desert tomorrow and open to whatever the event has to offer and for whatever awareness’s present themselves to me.

Quotes from EMANUEL’S BOOK

Fight Cancer with Relaxation-1

As I thought about all of this, I realized that I should reach out to women and explore with them how this work could help them process and heal before, during and after pregnancy. I began to offer sessions to pregnant women in my community and they were so grateful. Together we explored the appropriate postures for them as their stomach grew and they had an opportunity to explore and process all of the changes and feelings they were experiencing. Fear of childbirth, expectations from family and friends, body image issues, anxiety over how life will change once the baby comes,  are just a few of the topics that came up in sessions. They had an opportunity to be witnessed without judgement and gain wisdom and advice from deep within themselves.

I began to see just how valuable this work could be for these women and am so excited to continue working with them and offering yoga therapy sessions to more women in my community.

Afterwards, I began to think about how that experience relates to our relationship with our bodies, life and the work I do. Without even realizing it, my entire body was engaged in that experience, like it is with all experiences, even though we sometimes don’t realize it. We usually focus on the thinking part. I was reminded that with a little silence and focus I can engage my body to experience amazing things. I can give it the opportunity to show me its possibilities and teach me what it needs to. With the awareness and the opportunity we can truly connect all parts of us….our lives, spirit, breathing, body, emotions, thoughts and find our truths.