We continue to navigate our way through the pandemic.
This is a time to consider what truly matters to you.
Meditation can be used as a tool to enable you to see clearly what is important to you as you move forward.
Guided Meditation as a Focus
At a woodland yoga retreat pre-pandemic I introduced the participants to the Dru ‘Sky’ Meditation*, to fit in with the retreat theme of ‘Finding Balance’.
I was reminded of this recently, when I was teaching a workshop day in Leicester and decided to use the same meditation sequence to bring a sense of perspective to our pandemic world, as we gradually ease ourselves back into a version of normality.
The act of bringing ourselves back to what really matters in our lives continues to feature as part of my weekly online teaching ethos, and for participants has proved beneficial as an anchor during this time of uncertainty.
*Audio Dru ‘Sky’ Meditation can be found in ‘Listen’ www.druva.co.uk
Dru ‘Sky’ Meditation
The ‘Sky’ meditation practice takes you on a journey - from your own self, sitting in Meditation, to lifting your gaze above the room, the building, the region, until you are high in the sky. Looking down on all the activity below. Noticing the unending constancy of the sky, despite the clouds, the winds and turbulence of the world. Noticing that you and your concerns are a small, though important, part of the whole picture.
Gaining a larger perspective, looking at life from an eagle’s viewpoint.
Meditation gives us a pause in our lives, a chance to allow our minds to settle. And within that pause, there is an opportunity for our pure self to become heard.
What is truly important?
We sometimes get so bogged down in the minutiae of life from day to day. The pandemic has reminded us forcefully about what is really important in our lives.
For many of us the ‘really important’ has turned out to be family and friends, rather than whether we can easily buy the latest fashion online. Within this context we are also able to reconsider the nature of our relationship with each other, and with the natural world.
Drama today, gone tomorrow
It is so easy to get caught up in one particular situation that looms large and allows no mind space for anything else.
How many times have you been caught up in what seems an unsolvable drama? And yet, in many cases, if you look back a year down the line you wonder what all the fuss was about.
This too shall pass
‘This too shall pass’ may sound on first hearing to be a trite phrase, but if you think deeply about the words and the meaning, it is so true.
It may be that the way in which the situation passes is not the way that you would have chosen.
We cannot necessarily change every situation to our advantage, but we can change our perspective, our way of looking at the situation. In Psychology terms this is called ‘cognitive reframing’.
Move forward positively
It’s not always easy to look at the bigger picture, and find a positive way to move forward, but Yoga gives us many tools to enable us to follow the eagle’s soaring flight into the constant blue of the sky.
Taking time for a meditation practice gives you an opportunity for the mind to settle, to move away from the little things that clutter up our headspace and constantly clamour for attention.
Conclusion
Meditation is not ‘empty mind’, that would be impossible.
Meditation is ‘emptying’ of the mind, a time of focus that relegates the ‘small stuff’ to its rightful place.
Try the Dru ‘Sky’ meditation on a regular basis - it will help you to more clearly understand what is really important in your life.
Namaste
Michelle
Michelle Helstrip
Founder of DRUVA Yoga & Wellbeing
Further Information & Resources
‘Sky’ Meditation audio by Michelle Helstrip
Definition of Cognitive Reframing
How to use Positive Reframing technique
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