5 Finger Meditation Technique

Just as I promised to share my various meditation methods, here it is! One of them which i always like to start with is the 5 finger meditation method. Which has a very dear story to it.

I was going through a really painful break up, and I needed to get away. I couldn't stop crying, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't function... so I hopped on a bus to Chicago to see my bestie, who I hadn't seen in a while. I kept myself occupied by watching a movie on the bus, and eventually dozed-off in an awkward position. I got there and it was friday night. We washed up, and went to bed. The next day was full of activities and occasionally I would have a break down. That night we visited her pool, which also had a sauna, and I had a major break down, weeping so much that I couldn't breathe or talk. So she held my hands and told me to close my eyes, feel the warmth of the sauna, and breathe with her.

She held out her hand and used her fingers to count to three. That was the deep inhale. The exhale was longer, and she used five fingers to count the exhale. We did this for 5- 6 minutes and it really helped me calm down.

She later told me this was a method she would use to calm down/ and relax her patients! It works wonders, and I use it to calm myself down, and also help me focus on my breathing. After which meditation comes in easily.

I am so grateful for having her as my friend, and am so glad and impressed she uses meditation and other breathing techniques to calm her patients down. Which goes to prove that yoga, pranayama and meditation are practices that heal! I hope you find this technique as helpful and soothing as I have found it to be.


OM!

Picture from The Legend of Korra (A "Avatar: The Last Airbender" adventure). Korra has to learn to meditate to tap into her Avatar energies!

Finding the True Self

As the meditations have progressed, I grow. it has been 2 months since I started this. I have experimented, developed and nurtured, healed, searched, found, met with peace, met with aggression, felt such deep passion...
I haven't blogged here in a while, but it doesn't mean this project failed. For my part I carried on. I didn't ever stop meditating, in fact I actually have been able to focus on things I really want, and achieve them, by letting go.Meditation is just not a thing we do. It is a discipline, an exercise, a pathway to deeper spirituality, a medication, a journey and experience that never ends.

There are so many different kinds of meditation, and I am still exploring it all. I have meditated with prayers, and visualizations. It takes practice to achieve and feel the full affects. One does not merely sit and hope for the magic to happen, it takes effort. Recently a friend sent me a meditation for healing, where I had to imagine my Chakras cleanse. This was true visualization of nature and it was very difficult, but soothing. I tried, but it was difficult, so I let go so that I could try another time.

I also started meditation in different yoga poses (savasana, sirshasana, padmasana) and this has proven beneficial for my body as well as mind. For I focus, hold the pose, feel my body, and I am so in touch with the energy flow in my body. The result being I feel refreshed and have way too much energy for the day.

All the different types of meditation set aside, I feel like in the exploration of my mind, soul, and body, I have slowly come to find and love my true self. Slowly. It is a work in progress, and the maintenance of it will be as tough as any other work. In doing so I have found a peace, and have been able to let go and love more openly. It's like a sigh of relief.


Namaste.

Music and Patience

I just started learning  how to play the Bass. This has me totally amped. Its like I have a bad case of the Music Bug. So it's been hard to sleep at night, like I keep thinking about practicing, and music, and how do i play it better, muscle memory. In itself, playing music has been so meditative in itself. I focus, get int he zone and I feel it deep down in my soul. However when I am not playing I enjoy the silence but it makes me antsy. I feel the need to be a part of the vibration the guitars emit. Feel it in my body, soul and mind. Maybe playing guitar is even spiritual to me, although it might just be some Weezer song!
I wonder if my middle name "Shruti" has anything to do with this craving for the constant need for music, the ebb and flow of music and silence alike. Hmm.

Perhaps we are supposed to feel like this about meditation and silence. Since I have been listening to a lot of Rock music, I have been craving silence, and acoustic guitar music. I think distortion may make a difference? Thoughts on this?

The difference between meditation and guitar playing is, one creative ripples and the other is about being still. However , Buddhists do use gongs, and chanting for meditation too! So I might be in a more modern track to meditation and music, harmony. Music (whatever genre) is such a huge part of my life, but so are my moments of silence. I think integrating both into the most unusual aspect of our lives is something, hmm... creative (?). In example using music for meditation, and silence in music. I was just at a concert and in the middle of the song they sounded like it ended, but came back for another round of chorus. It was amazing. I know its incomparable, but being at a concert is like being at a mass meditation where everyone is chanting OM. At least, to me the energy was comparable. Just food for thought, maybe next time you are at a concert you can change point of view and make it meditative.

I love silence and I love music!

Rock on and Breathe!

 In other news: I am 70+ days sober!