Our Mindful Nature: Meditation Inspired by Nature to Soothe the Overwhelmed Mind and Ease Anxiety

Today’s meditation practice is an opportunity to gaze inwards with presence, non-judgment & compassion, and to allow the teachings and ideas from those a little further ahead on the path infuse our subconscious and shine a light so we can see a little more clearly. Join me!

These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.

Learn more about Sacred Chill {at home} virtual meditation and yoga classes by visiting https://sacredchillwest.com/sacred-chill-at-home/

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

Today’s final episode of the Wayfinding meditation series is an exploration of foresight. You might remember we started this month’s series with a talk on the tools of modern day wayfinding: hindsight, insight & foresight as guidance back to our true selves.

At its heart, wayfinding is a system of elements working together to provide guidance; so too is our meditation practice. It is within this practice that we make our way home to ourselves. It is with these tools of hindsight, insight & foresight that we discover ourselves.

Hindsight has shown us what was inside all along - our unique soul calling.

Insight is the very definition of meditation and the chance for us to tap into the well of peace that exists inside at all times regardless of external circumstances.

And now, Foresight… in my mind, foresight is simply another name for The Dharma or The Teachings of Meditation. These teachings serve as a map. In the same way our ancient wayfinders used stars to navigate their way through the world, we can use the teachings to find our way back to ourselves.

This doesn’t mean we have to trust everything we are told; it is simply an invitation to live with a “beginner’s mind” - an open, curious place rather than a place of certainty or limitations.

Join me for today’s discussion and meditation practice, and as we gaze inwards with presence, non-judgment & compassion, the teachings and ideas from those a little further ahead on the path infuse our subconscious and shine a light so we can see a little more clearly.

Learn more about Sacred Chill {at home} virtual meditation and yoga classes by visiting https://sacredchillwest.com/sacred-chill-at-home/

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

Today’s practice is an offering to all in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. No matter how consumed by fear or anxiety, see if you can sit today. Even for a few minutes to reconnect with yourself.

We will work with the mantra, “May I be safe. May I be held. May I be loved.” as our grounding force in today’s practice. Join me!

These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

Well. It feels like the world was a different place when this series started last week. Here in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken over our day-to-day lives, and I know for many of my international listeners, you have already been in the midst of this for some time.

After some internal debate, I decided to continue with this series as planned, because, of course, the teachings support this very moment we are in - we began this series with a discussion of the tools of the modern wayfinder. The tools of hindsight, insight & foresight are the gifts a meditation practices offers the practitioner as a means of finding one’s self again.

Some of the names for meditation actually translate to mean “insight”.

The original meditation texts talk about the practice leading us to our innermost, truthful state of sorrowless joy & inner luminosity. Essentially, these teachings tell us there is an undisturbed well of peace inside... if only we can access it.

Ah, but we can!!

“When directed outward, the mind unveils of the mysteries pertaining to the external world: we become scientists. When directed inward, it unveils its own mysteries and sees the seer within: we become sages.” ~The Secret of the Yoga Sutra, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait

This practice is an invitation to turn the mind’s eye inward and look. To listen. We keep ourselves busy to avoid seeing within, and this practice tells us to stop running away from ourselves and to look. 

Now, we happen to be in a moment with a lot of fear and anxiety, so I want to take some time to talk about what happens when we feel fear in our meditation practice.

When I meditate, sometimes I feel a lot of fear . . . what should I do? 

When we meditate, eventually we will sit amidst the full range of human emotions. Fear is a big one and when it comes up it can be hard to stay to present with it. You can start by simply acknowledging, “I feel fear right now” or “this is fear”. Try to keep your breath relaxed and natural. Keeping your awareness with your breath, you might notice the physical sensations that accompany fear. You might notice any particular story lines/belief/ imagined outcomes that accompany this fear. You don’t need to try to “stop” the fear or change it to something else. Simply, kindly, see if you can stay present, stay mindful of the breath as fear arises and inevitably falls away. 

With meditation, we learn that our emotions are constantly shifting and changing. As fluid as the weather, sometimes it is stormy and sometimes it is sunny. Patience and kindness is what allows us to weather the storm with as little damage as possible.

Always, with any intense emotion including fear, if the feelings are too much - meaning you can no longer keep the breath relaxed and natural or you can’t keep yourself in the present moment - gently end your meditation, open your eyes and give yourself several minutes to reconnect to the safety of the moment you are in. You can try any of the grounding techniques we’ve learned to bring yourself back to neutral. It might take  practice to stay present during fear. Maybe at first you can only stay for a minute or two, but each time you mediate you might find that you can stay a little longer a little easier.

Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we explore working with fear and the well of peace inside; we will also practice with the mantra “May I be safe. May I be held. May I be loved.” as part of today’s practice. 

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Whew. These times are intense y’all. News of Coronavirus seems to have consumed most of our attention these days and is keeping our nervous systems and our brains on HIGH alert. The stress and anxiety is real and not helpful. So, today I’m sharing the practice I am relying on to keep me steady and C H I L L these days…

Metta {compassion-based meditation} is a traditional meditation practice that was offered as an *antidote to fear*

I used it daily during my postpartum anxiety. I return to it daily in this moment of uncertainty and anxiety swirling around our day-to-day lives. Tune into today’s mini-meditation as a daily practice you can do to acknowledge all that you feel without letting yourself become consumed by it.

As my business partner recently wrote, “let us not look away or over consume media. Let us not dissolve into sheer panic even as there is fear that deserves to be acknowledged.

Let us be consistent, grounded, and intentional in our response and actions. For us, this is the chill way.”

Let’s chill.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

Whew. These times are intense y’all. News of Coronavirus seems to have consumed most of our attention these days and is keeping our nervous systems and our brains on HIGH alert. The stress and anxiety is real and not helpful. So, today I’m sharing the practice I am relying on to keep me steady and C H I L L these days…

Metta {compassion-based meditation} is a traditional meditation practice that was offered as an *antidote to fear*

I used it daily during my postpartum anxiety. I return to it daily in this moment of uncertainty and anxiety swirling around our day-to-day lives. Tune into today’s mini-meditation as a daily practice you can do to acknowledge all that you feel without letting yourself become consumed by it.

As my business partner recently wrote, “let us not look away or over consume media. Let us not dissolve into sheer panic even as there is fear that deserves to be acknowledged.

Let us be consistent, grounded, and intentional in our response and actions. For us, this is the chill way.”

Let’s chill.

These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

Our community intention this month is R E M E M B E R

How long have you spent running away from yourself? How many times has “should” informed your decisions? How many times has someone else’s picture made you change your picture?

This month’s meditation series is devoted to the remembrance of and reconnection to one’s true self. The you that ONLY YOU can express. Discovering the pathway to the true self is an act of wayfinding - mapping the stars, feeling the currents, trusting the internal whispers. Civil Rights Activist Ruby Sales points out that complete sight is comprised of hindsight, insight & foresight. These are the tools of the modern wayfinder. 

At its heart, wayfinding is a system of elements working together to provide guidance; so too is our meditation practice. It is within this practice that we make our way home to ourselves.

In this first episode, we are exploring the tool of HINDSIGHT.

“It was Karl Marx, I think, who once proposed that evolution be studied in reverse, with an eye firmly fixed on the evolved species while glancing backward for hints.” 

~Jerome Bruner, In Search of Mind

In reading James Hillman’s The Soul’s Code - he shares The Acorn Theory. In a nutshell {haha}, this theory is the idea that our calling, our purpose is within us from the moment of conception. We come into the world with this calling, this dharmic path already inside us. Much like an acorn ALREADY has an oak tree inside it. 

Then all along the way, life happens. Expectations, shoulds, praise and blame, gain and loss, fame and disrepute - this all happens in big and small ways. And each experience adds layer to our eyes and impacts the way we view ourselves and the world. 

In this winding way, we lose the clarity of calling, purpose and intention. 

We can use our meditation practice as a way to reflect back, to look for clues to our true self. Meditation in particular can help us do this without getting lost in story.

If we were just to reflect back - maybe in conversation or with pen & paper, you might be able to glean some insight. And also, you likely will get sucked into the stories you always tell yourself. You are looking through the same dirty windscreen.

Meditation clears our eyes.

We look back without judgment and with compassion. We stay rooted in the present so as not to get lost living in the past. These tools keep us on track.

As Rumi said, “You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods at mean-spirited roadhouses. Don’t wait any longer. Dive in the ocean, leave, and let the sea be you…”

Tune into today’s episode of The Mindful Minute for our discussion on hindsight and a special guided meditation designed to help us trace ourselves back to the first hints of truth inside.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

Save this episode to have on hand for the stressful moments! You can get the background of this practice by listening to the full episode on March 5, 2020 {Like A Chicken With Her Head Cut Off}. This practice is a 10-minute meditation designed for use specifically on super stressful days or in stressful moments.

When stressed, it can be so tempting to scream I DON’T HAVE TIME and run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Yet, if you can give yourself 5 - 10 minutes to connect to the moment without judgment and with compassion, you will be able to move forward in a healthy and wise way.  Give it a try today!

These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

This week’s episode of The Mindful Minute is a sneak peek into my new virtual offering: Mindfulness & Managing Stress. This program was created for some of my corporate clients that want to introduce mindfulness into the workplace and don’t have the space or time to do live sessions.

Today, I’m sharing my favorite practice out of the 6-week course. This practice is specifically for those moments when stress overcomes us - when we are tempted to run around like a chicken with our heads cut off and scream, “I DON’T HAVE TIME!!!!”

You’ll learn 3 protective beliefs around stress that come from stress researcher Kelly McGonigal and then we will do a short 10-minute practice together. I hope you’ll use the practice this week and let me know if it helps shift your stressful moments. I’ll be practicing too!

If you are interested in bringing this program to your office, you can learn more by visiting merylarnett.com and click on classes!

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl

This meditation starts with a story…. Once upon a time, there was a kingdom far, far away. There was a king. A queen. And, a fearsome dragon who made living far too uncomfortable. The king went to beg for relief and the dragon offered, “I will leave your village alone if you will give me your daughter as my wife.”

The King & Queen discussed this proposition with their daughter, and playing the role of good daughters everywhere, she acquiesced, but, this daughter was also wise. So the good daughter pays a visit to the Crone, who tells her, “Fear not, my dear. You must buy 7 wedding dresses…” and then whispers some more in her ear.

The day of the wedding comes, and that evening, the dragon says to the Princess, “well my dear, why don’t you take off your wedding dress and let’s retire to the marital chamber…”

The Princess responds, “Yes, dear. But I need to ask for a sign of our equality in this marriage. For every article of clothing I remove, I want you to remove one too.” The Dragon agrees. And so the bride removes her first wedding dress and the dragon removes a layer of spikes. And the second dress, and a layer of scales. And this continues until all that is left is… you guessed it... a handsome prince:-)

This undressing, this vulnerability is at the heart of our meditation practice. It is essentially what we are doing each time we sit. We are removing our scales and our spikes to sit with ourselves in a tender way. 

Join me for this short practice as our chance to unglove ourselves for the day.

These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/ and if you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews help others to find this podcast!

***Did you know I have a FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com? It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

#meditatewithmeryl