Tag Archives: meditation

Day 94: warning: beware of meditation

3 Apr

Pup knows how to meditate. 
Not the new puppy dog, Brady, but rather our 10-year old dog named Pup.

(I know, the names are confusing.)

I’ve written about this phenomenon before, but I am astounded each and every time I meditate, because just as I reach my zen point my dear Pup places his paw on my arm, or my belly, or crawls up on top of my legs.

It never fails.
Pup is there.

I’m not sure why he waits until I am almost into a zen-licious state, but his timing is impeccable.

Today, it happened again, just as I slipped into a beautiful meditative moment, Pup was there, pawing at me.

And, it reminded me of something someone once said —  a dog’s tail vibrates at the highest frequency.

Now, I don’t know if that is true, so I did some digging and managed to unearth a few tasty bones.

One, from Modern Dog Magazine, points out that “even though two beings may be attracted to each other, in order for them to safely connect and interact, they must first become synchronized.”

And, it’s through the tail that our dogs synchronize to their environment, to each other and to us humans.

Fascinating, isn’t it?
I don’t know if it explains Pup’s particular penchant for pawing at me through meditation, but it makes sense to me.

And, that makes me think that maybe Pup is trying to tell me something.

Part of me thinks he is saying, no, begging…
Can’t we all just wag our tails a little more and get synchronized?

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Day 51: a love letter to meditation

20 Feb

Tonight continues my commitment to more love and less fear this year.  For February, I am writing a love letter each day.  Tonight is dedicated to …meditation.

Dear Meditation: 

I find it funny that I am reflecting on you, Meditation.  Not funny ha, ha, rather more like, funny ironic.

Just a year ago I could barely breathe during a meditation without drifting off to the land of “what’s for dinner,” and “what will I wear tonight,” or “what bill needs to be paid.”

But, now, with a lot of practice, the pressure has lifted.  And, while I still drift away into the all too familiar land of worry, I, actually consider myself an official pro-meditator. (If there is such a word.)

Not because I have the zen of a Buddah (far from it!).  More like, I know I can do it.  I know it’s a place I can choose to go to, whenever I want!  All I need is a quiet space and an open heart.

I have even found a way to incorporate it into my daily life. Every night I meditate before I go to sleep.  It’s a nice routine that finds me with hand on my heart and a welcome break from my all-too-common brainiac attacks.

And, here’s the thing: it gives me a good feeling.  As Flo Rida sings, I get a good feeling.

What amazes me more than anything, dear Meditation, is your pure power.  The more I stick to your routine, the more I feel free, calm, clear and creative.

The more one meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be one’s world and the world at large. ~Confucius

Well said, Confucius.

Gotta love ya, Meditation!
Jamie  

P.S. I also love the 21-Day Meditation Challenge from The Chopra Center that started today. You can still sign up here.

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Day 334: the tao of pup

30 Nov

I swear Pup knows how to meditate. 

Every time I start a meditation he jumps up next to me and tries to crawl on top of my belly.

It happened numerous times this summer.
And, tonight, right after my bath while I was still all warmed and relaxed on the inside, and snuggled in on the outside, laying on the bed getting ready for a quiet meditation, a 60 pound Pup decided to join in.

The next thing I knew Pup bounded into the room and landed himself flat on my stomach.

That’s 60 pounds of pure pooch bliss.

Makes me wonder what kind of stress and anxiety meditation relieves for Pup’s head, heart, body and soul:

  • Too many tennis balls in his personal collection making it hard to choose which one to play with?
  • Too much sunning on the lanai?
  • Being told to get off the couch one too many times?

Who knows…
But I do know this: when I meditate it’s a great release of all the thoughts that creep up on me throughout the day, the stresses that lurk in the depths of my consciousness and the to-do list that always seems to get more line items than crossed-off items.

Tonight, this line stayed with me after my little meditation:
“Everything is perfect as it is.”

And it was.
Is.
Will be.

Even with a 60 pound pooch all snuggled up laying across on my belly — especially with a 60 pound pooch all snuggled up laying across my belly.

And, maybe that’s what Pup has been trying to tell me all along.

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Day 214: going back-to-school oprah style

2 Aug

At the beginning of this year I promised to take care of myself.
Specifically, my head, heart, body and soul, and, write about it everyday … which I am.

I promised to avoid shopping and frivolous purchases. To truly care for my body, and not only what I put ON my body … which I am.

But, I didn’t plan on living a chocolate-free existence.
Which, painfully at times, I am.

I did expect to find good, healthy things to invest my time and energy into.  At the beginning of this year, I could have guessed I would take yoga classes, but, I didn’t expect to take a class from Oprah.

Today, I found out the consummate teacher herself will be back in the classroom.  School may be out for summer, but come October, Oprah will teach her OWN students some of the best lessons she has learned over the years.  The class is called OWN Your Life (the Oprah class) and is being billed as the ultimate life class.

Now, how can I resist that?
Especially during this promise of 365 days where I am taking care of my own life and all the crazy, weird, and wonderful adventures it entails.

So, I signed up.

Back-to-school must be in the air.
Because, I also signed up for The Chopra Center’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge in August.  This is the same challenge I completed in the spring, and the closest I came to soul food so far on this journey.

So, I figure, why not try it again?
Maybe I’ll learn more this time around.
Maybe I’ll learn something different.
Or, maybe, I’ll just learn.

And, in the end, I guess that’s all that counts.

So, here I find myself, entering the month of August and already signed up and ready for fall classes; one from the life guru herself, the other from Deepak Chopra’s “sweet spot of the universe”.

There just seems to be one thing missing…
Back-to-school shopping, new shoes and a fall wardrobe.

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Day 115: are you bored?

25 Apr

As a child, if I complained of being bored, my mother would always turn it around on me.

“You know what that means, don’t you?”
She would say with a smile and a hint at a laugh.

“If you’re bored, you’re boooooring!”

And who wants to be boring?
So, at a ripe old age of around ten I vowed never to be bored. I didn’t want to face the consequences.

I learned to invent distractions.
To busy myself with project after project after project. I made sure I always had something to do.

Still, at this age, I always have something to do.

If I don’t work, I play.
If I don’t play, I create, or write or draw, or call my friends, or invent errands. I make lists. I dream. I listen to music. I follow trends. I throw a tennis ball and Pup brings it back.

I used to shop, and search for great finds, but we know how that story ends.

I know how to busy myself.

So, imagine my surprise when an aha moment hit me in the head like a ton of bricks, or rather, a bar of chocolate.

This week I realized:
I eat.
Not to be bored.

I snack, to invent an event.

The post-cleanse month has us on a three meal a day plan, with no snacking in between. We get to eat whatever we want (except sugar or gluten, but otherwise it’s fair game) ~ but only 3 times a day.

This is a problem.
Not because I’m starving.
Not because I’m famished, shaking or withering away.
Because I have trained my body to eat every 2 hours.

I work for two hours and my body immediately thinks it’s snack time.
It’s like an internal clock, a true north sort of compass that goes off every 120 mintues, ringing the chow bell.

Break time!
Where’s my snack??

I would almost venture to say life without snacks is boring.
But, then,I would be labled a you-know-who. So, I won’t say that.

Instead, I will invent new breaks to take.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
There’s the yoga break.
The sit on the porch break.
The take my hair out of a pony tail break.
The put my hair back in a pony tail break.
The meditation break.
The search for laundry to wash break.
The check Facebook break.

And, my favorite:
Throw Pup a tennis ball and watch him run away with it break.

If you’ve got good ones to add to this list, please share.
Oh! That just made me think of another one:
The making lists break.

Whew! I’m exhausted from all this list making.
I think I’ll take a break.

The question is …which one?

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