'My Story' by Carrie Burns

......the meditation part scared me!

My first experiences of ‘meditation’ were stressful to say the least. I found myself getting anxious about even going to classes because the meditation part scared me. I enjoyed the postures but found myself making excuses to leave the Astanga yoga class early so I didn’t have to lay in the darkened room trying to meditate.

When I closed my eyes and tried to relax I found my mind was my worst enemy. Frightening thoughts, feelings and images came into my mind.

I had experienced the loss of three close friends and family members in a short space of time and the trauma of these events were replaying in this quiet time. Ashtanga poses were awesome, but the ‘meditation’ part sucked. I quit ashtanga and spent the next few years trying to find a yoga class that didn’t have an ending I found scary. I kept up with daily asana (postures), but meditation still eluded me.

Then one day my son came home from the skatepark with an invitation. “Mum I met this really cool kid and his parents do yoga too, and meditation! He said they’re having a meditation class at their house tonight and we should go. Can we?” I was reluctant. Still scared. What type of meditation? What will we do? How long will it last? “Mum don’t worry!” said my 12 year old. “He said it’s really cool, with music, I’m gonna bring my guitar.” I was intrigued.

That evening was my first introduction to mantra meditation. It changed my life completely. There was nothing scary about it. Instead of frightening memories and thoughts, my mind was instead filled with transcendental sounds of mantras.

Kirtan meditation is a simple call and response. One person would take a turn to lead and everyone would respond. There were no hard or fast rules. My son and his new friend were among those jamming along on guitars and drums. Sometimes the tunes were upbeat or reggae styles and people danced around. Other times the tunes were lullabies that nearly sent us into a blissful sleep. All the while my mind was completely at ease, daily stresses disappeared and my heart was filled with joy. I was hooked.

That was over a decade ago. Today mantra meditation is a central part of my daily routine. It has transformed my life. The anxiety and fearfulness that plagued me is a distant memory. Mantra meditation has opened the door to genuine contentment and lasting happiness. I am eternally grateful to my dear friends who bought me this gift.

Insights on Mindfulness

Question: What are the main benefits of practicing mindfulness meditation?

Answer: The practice of mindfulness has a primary benefit and a secondary benefit. The primary benefit from the yoga perspective is that it helps you realize that you are not your mind. Most people falsely identify themselves with either the gross physical body or the subtle body, the mind. But from the yoga perspective, believing that you are either your physical body or your mind is a misconception, a misunderstanding. The aim of yoga is to become free of misconceptions.

So the mind awareness technique of meditation helps you realize that you are not your mind, but rather that you are the observer of the mind. Once you realize this, then you naturally must ask: well, who am I? I know that I am the perceiver of the content of my mind, I’m watching the mind. So I know that I exist. So the question I must ask myself is who am I? I am not the body and I’m not the mind. Who am I? From here one begins to contemplate upon themselves, on their own true essence.

From the Vedic or yoga perspective, you are the eternal atma or spirit soul temporarily covered by a material body and material mind. You are in fact a part and parcel, a spark of the Supreme Soul, the Supreme Atma. In other words, each person is a spirit soul or atma, a child of God. And we are simply temporarily using these material bodies that cover us—the gross physical body and the subtle body, the mind. The mindfulness technique helps you understand this truth. Question: What is the secondary benefit?

Answer: The secondary benefit is that it helps you experience relief from stress and anxiety. Once you realize that you can watch your mind, that you can watch the stream of thoughts go by as a passive observer, it creates a kind of distance between you, the observer, and your thoughts. So if your thoughts are disturbing or causing you stress, instead of getting caught up in them and reacting to them, you are able to stand a little apart from them and just watch them come and go. It’s the same thing with emotions. You learn to notice when you are feeling sad, angry, stressed, depressed, happy, or excited, and so on. You begin to see yourself as the observer of the emotions you are experiencing. You know that these feelings don’t really have anything to do with your real self, and that they will pass. This helps prevent you from getting swept away by them. So this mindfulness practice, which cultivates a real experience of who we are and that we are separate from our minds, helps bring about a sense of inner calm. It’s not just theoretical, superficial, or temporary, but comes from a place of real understanding of who we are. Of course, we may forget sometimes, but the more we practice, the more we will remember that we are the atma or spirit soul who is observing the mind and emotions.

Excerpt from article by Jagad Guru .................................

Yoga Day 2019 Recap!

Thank you to everyone who came and made Yoga Day 2019 such an amazing day! Special thanks to our Yoginis Nikki Ralston, Carrie Anne Burns and Natalie Lorraine Smith for such cool classes, Varausadha das for sharing his insights, and Bhav Dillon from the Consul of India for opening our event. Thanks to Dhruva Reid One Love for delicious food, and True North Teas for the warming tea. Many thanks to Vibha and The Mantra Band and Doug Dillon for the music and all the kind and cheerful volunteers! Much thanks also to the donors of such great prizes ( Samantha Doyle, we'ar.it lululemon New Zealand Les Mills New Zealand True North Teas, No Ugly, Ho'oponopono Hawaiin Healing, Global Health Clinic, and Tim Judd Osteopath). See you next year! Aum Hari Aum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TazRwZXmC8

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