Guided Meditation • Visualization • Mindfulness

Afternoon Meditation: The key to happiness is learning to want what you already have, rather than wasting your time wanting what you do not have.

This goes beyond just appreciating the moment.

“Wanting” is a visceral energy that is connected to our sense of well being.

Wanting what you don’t have creates a sense of lack, while wanting what you do have creates abundance.

I choose abundance.

For those of us who remember the days before cell phones, email, and Facebook the pace of life has quadrupled; and to keep up we’ve all developed the habit of multi-tasking.

We talk on the cell phone when we drive, eat lunch at our computers, text or watch the news during dinner,  and so on.

The idea of having to keep up with all of this new technology has taken over our minds, thoughts, and lives;  resulting in high and pervasive levels of  stress.

Multitasking breeds inefficiency and stress because your attention can only be in one place at a time, not ten places at a time. It also fragments your attention causing you to be unfocused.

Fragmentation and being unfocused is exhausting…and there is nothing worse than coming home feeling overworked, overtired, and over-stressed and yet nothing meaningful was accomplished.

How Meditation Helps

When you meditate regularly you learn how to focus your attention on the present moment. Thoughts, images, and feelings come and go.  You learn how to  rest your attention in the present moment and the body rests there too.

Try this:

When you notice that you are multitasking, stop, take a deep breath and ask yourself what is important right now.  What is the one thing that needs your attention right now.  Then do that!

Click here and experience a free guided meditation

I started my meditation later than usual morning.  As soon as I began, I heard both of my kids screaming at each other over the Wii remote.

Thoughts rushed in, “Why is this happening now?” “This shouldn’t be happening.”  “I should send them to camp.”

I felt anger radiate down the insides of my legs, my stomach tighten, and throbing at my temples.

I willed myself to stay conscious and not react by employing two techniques:

• Deep conscious breathing to allow myself to feel what was happening inside of me.
• “Positive Self Talk.”

(more…)

During this weeks classes we discussed how we can move beyond our egos.  Some students, however, felt strongly that we need our egos.  The most common concerns were,  ego is necessary for human consciousness to evolve on this planet, without ego we would be too passive to create anything, ego is helpful in creating strong personal (and national) boundaries, and ego is what makes us unique individuals.

An argument can be made that without ego human consciousness would not have evolved as it is now.  However, the question is, is the ego useful to the continued evolvement of consciousness on this planet, and if not, can we let it go?

All of the hurt and dysfunction in our lives and the lives of others are the result of unchecked ego.

Your true nature is whole, perfect, and complete.  Ego is simply a condition that arises when humans are separate from their true, perfectly good, natures.

Ego is sustained by a wanting that can never be satiated. The ego wants love, power, and immortality.  The more divided we are from our true nature the more prevalent ego is in our lives.

We chase after love hoping to feed our emptiness.  We deny love to those whom we feel aren’t worthy of it.  Egoic love is conditional and conditional love is ephemeral and painful.

Poverty and hunger are the manifestations of the ego’s insatiable need for power.

Arguments and violent conflict in the home and between nations arise from our personal and collective need to be right, an extension of the need for power.

In the west we have an unhealthy denial of death, and as a result we are obsessed with youth and vitality and eschew the wisdom that comes with age.

The ego keeps us blind to the truth that we are an interdependent species; we thrive as individuals when we are harmonious in our communities.

Ego only serves me if I wish to continue to create suffering for myself and others.  Inner peace and ego are mutually exclusive. They cannot occupy the same space.

More next week

Shanti, Shalom, Salaam, Peace

—Read, “The New Earth,” by Eckhart Tolle

Sit in a comfortable position.  Lightly, close your eyes, open and close your mouth to relax your jaw, and move your shoulders away from your ears. Breathe.  When you become aware that you are thinking, move your attention back into the body. Breathe. This is meditation.

You are at work and a colleague is speaking to you. Breathe. While she is still speaking, you notice that you are thinking about the next thing you want to say.  Let the conversation in your head go and come back into your body. Breathe.  This is meditation.

You are at home and you are angry with your teenage child.  Breathe. You notice the sensation of anger in your belly.  Your face, neck, and shoulders are tense.  You do not have to let go of the anger.  Just Breathe.  Come back to your body, consciously relax the face, and move the shoulders away from the ears.  Breathe.  This is meditation.

Shanti, Shalom, Salaam, Peace

What you think about yourself is vital to your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.  What you think about yourself is proportional to how race, socio-economic class, gender, and  level of education are interpreted in the society in which you live.  Another very important factor is how well loved you were as a child.

All of this cultural and personal ”stuff” has created an unconscious image that you refer to as your “self. ” How you interpret this “stuff,” either as positive or negative, will determine your personal level of happiness.

Over-coming the belief that you are powerless in the face of external circumstances is the most difficult aspect of any spiritual or self-development path.

Perhaps you were not well loved as a child, you live in a culture where you are considered a second class citizen, or you are hungry for food, shelter, warmth, love.  Your external reality may indeed be a source of pain and suffering.

However, the question you need to ask yourself is this, “Am I going to continue to be vicitmized by being in mental agreement with what my parents, society, or circumstances say about who I am and what I am capable?  Or am I going to live an empowered happy life?”

Here are three things you can do today to change your thinking and empower yourself:

1. Listen to your thoughts and challenge your negative beliefs.  Ask yourself, “Is this thought serving me?”  “Is it empowering?” “Is it helpful?”  If not, then consciously choose another thought that does serve you, that is empowering, that is helpful.

2. Read a short story about a person who has overcome a similar circumstance.  Then tell yourself, “If she could do it, then so can I.” Keep this story handy so you can look at it when you feel unsure.

3. Take one situation that isn’t working the way you would like it to, and re-write it to reflect how you would like it to be.  In this re-write paint yourself as the hero, say what you  want, do what you need to, and be the person who triumphs!

Shanti, Shalom, Peace

Hold the cup in your hands.  Feel how its warmth radiates in your palms and fingers.  Inhale.  Feel the steam.  Inhale again and follow its scent.  Can you taste the coffee on the back of your palette when you inhale deeply?   Slowly sip your coffee, taste it, and follow the smooth warm liquid.  Can you feel it in your chest?  Can you feel it in your stomach? Inhale deeply and take another moment to give thanks for the earth, sun, and rain.  Give thanks for the growers, harvesters, and truck drivers.  Imagine all the people that were involved in bringing you your one cup of coffee.  Give thanks.  Feel blessed.  The Folger’s Coffee commercial is right, this is a great way to start your day.

Shanti, Shalom, Peace

Your boss is unreasonable, you haven’t been intimate with your spouse in weeks, your kids won’t pick their clothes up off the floor, and traffic is a nightmare. Trying to change the people and the situations in your life is normal. You want to be happy.  Unfortunately, it is a fundamental Law of our universe that you can not change people and rarely can you change a situation.  So what is left? 

You want more affection, you want respect, you want cooperation because all of these things feel good.  But if you can not change what’s going on outside of you what do you have the power to change?  Is it possible to be happy in an uncooperative and irrational world?

Happiness is only possible when you have cultivated a state of mind that is supportive, loving, and nurturing regardless of your circumstances.  You cultivate this state of mind, not by arguing with your thoughts, your spouse, or your kids, but by realizing that your senses are deceiving you.  

Through meditation you learn to redirect your attention away from ”thinking mind” and into the refuge of the body, the breath, and the present moment.  Over time two things will happen:  One, you learn to ignore most of what you are thinking and rely instead on that aspect of yourself that always knows the truth, sees clearly, and loves deeply.  And two, the content of your thoughts will begin to naturally reflect the openness of your beautiful awareness.

So what will happen to the irrational and uncooperative world?  For you it will change.  It will change because you will be different in the world.  It will change because like your thoughts it will begin to reflect back to you the openness of your loving awareness.

Close your eyes and take three deep breaths.  Feel your body in the chair.  Take three more breaths.  Smile.

I have spent much of my life avoiding conflict.  Naively I thought that the more I meditated, studied, journaled, and prayed the less conflict I would encounter.  Yet as I grow older and deepen in my practices it is clear that the opposite is true.  Any spiritual practice that seeks to bring about peace is bound to reveal the non-peace that is within and around you. 

Conflict would usually trigger deep feelings of guilt from within me.  My mind would say, “If I were more spiritual I would not be having this conflict right now.”  Believing this thought put me in conflict with conflict.

There is nothing more uncomfortable then standing still in the midst of conflict.  But stillness is where our center is and where our power lies.

If we are still enough we can learn what conflict has to teach us:  Conflict teaches us about the nature of assumptions which is how most conflicts arise.   It can teach us how to listen so that we can hear the depth of the other person’s needs.  But more importantly it can show us the depth of our caring and how caring is a reservoir of strength. 

Today I spent six hours talking to the roofer, debating with neighbors, soothing my husband’s temper, writing emails, and even consulting an attorney.  I did my practices too though.  I breathed, I listened, I stayed in my center as best I could.  On the outside it looked really messy, like any woman dealing with roofers, neighbors, husbands, and attorneys but on the inside I felt the depth of my caring for the roofer, for the neighbors, for my husband, and especially for myself . 

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you are able to slow down enough this holiday season to enjoy the company of good friends, family, good food, and good cheer. 

In January the new eight week series, “Connecting with the Still Small Voice Within,” begins at the Center for Spiritual Living in Redondo Beach, CA.  Also, I will be having an hour long workshop on Saturday January 16th at the Holy Spirit Fellowship in Long Beach and I have been invited to share meditation and inspired readings during an Inter-Faith Vespers also at the Holy Spirit Fellowship.   

My focus for the coming year is to use meditation and mindfulness practices to deepen our connection with our Authentic Selves. 

The Authentic Self is who we are beyond our individual and collective conditioning.  Indeed, we are not sinners, nor are we born into sin…we are the light of the universe in individuated form–perfect, whole, and complete.   You are perfect, whole, and complete. 

Imagine living in a world where all of us know this perfection and are free to express it.  I do, and it excites me.  I am excited to live in a world of free people who resolve conflict from the heart center, look for new solutions, or just have the confidence to be silent.  

So much can happen for us as individuals and as a community when we just stop, breathe, and connect.  It is that easy. 

Please check the ”Calendar” section of the site to check for locations and times.   I look forward to seeing all of you this coming year.

With a warm heart,

Krista