Meditation- It's Not Just Sitting

Meditation is a useful tool for so many reasons!  The stillness sitting and centering yourself brings is something, with practice, you can learn to harness during your day to day life.  You learn to cultivate this peaceful state, and can access it during moments of stress by simply breathing in deeply, and exhaling those anxious feelings.  Breathing techniques, alone, go a long way.

But more than this, meditation offers us the opportunity to go within ourselves.  From this vantage point, we can check in with the health of our spirit; our soul; our higher selves.  From here, we can check ourselves, and make real progress moving forward on our personal paths.

For those who are just getting started, I highly recommend spending a week or two with simply stilling your mind and breathing deep.  There are smartphone apps that help with the stillness type of meditation, the "clear your mind" type.  To me, this is simply a beginning point, but it is a necessary first step.  Master this before you move on.

Headspace is an app or a website, it's free to use, and it allows you to set a short time to sit and focus.  3, 5, or 10 minute sessions are available.  There is a guide that helps remind you to focus, but beginners need this.  There are paid options if you like this guide, but you do not have to use them.  As always, follow your heart/gut/guides.

Once you are comfortable and can ease yourself into the proper mindset, and can sit for a few minutes at a time, then move on to the journeying style.

Journeying meditation is a Shamanic practice, where you go to an inner plane and do work there.  Think of it like a dream state, almost.  You will be able to go places and do things, see trees, fly through the air on newly discovered wings...  all sorts of things.  Its a place, but it's inside you.

This type of  meditation is very powerful, and I usually suggest people be choosy with their teachers.  If you dislike the guide I post here, by all means, find one that resonates with you. 

I chose Dakota  Earth Cloud Walker to share because she has pure intent, is a good guide who uses a soothing voice that adds to your experience rather than distracting from it, and she gives you time to do what she tells you to do.

I highly suggest by starting with Meeting Your Spirit Guides.  We each have 3 that are with us always, and others that may come and go.  Dakota's session here introduces you to the 3 main guides that are always with you. 

They each will serve a different purpose, and this session gives you the chance to talk with them.  They will show you what they're here to teach you, how they help you.  They will also show you how they appear in your day to day lives.  In all other sessions I've done with Dakota, she always has you call out to your guides to join you and help in the work you're doing today, so again, it's a great place to start.

After this, I really love the Sacred Soul Garden session.  You take a private path off the main forest path, and find your way to your special personal garden.

It's a place you can use to check in with yourself and see how you're doing, and Dakota shows you the path continues off the back edge of your garden.

I saw two destinations from there, to visit another time, before heading back.  This session can be done as often as you like, and you will marvel at how your garden changes when things are going on in your life!  When you're ready to branch out and take one of those paths leading off the back of your garden, go for it!

These two sessions are a great starting point, for beginners, and you can always branch out from there.  If you find a guide you really love, feel free to share in the comments below!

And a final recommendation!  Journal your experiences.  Map out how you went in, how you got out.  Did you talk to anyone?  What did they say?  Write it down.  It may be important later, and you may want to reference back!   You'll also be surprised how much you've forgotten, when you go back to review.  Anyway!  That's my two cents on that!

Happy exploring!