Yeah. I took that photo. It was growing out of a wall of rocks in the Dominica rainforest. Once you are done admiring my photography skills, I want you to look at it again. Look at it and see it without labelling anything about it. Just look. And breathe. And look. And breathe. And breathe. And breathe.
Congratulations! You have just meditated (and if you are still feeling antsy- scooch down to enter the meditation giveaway). That is all there is to it. Sitting there, doing nothing at all. One of my favourite quotes, and I haven’t the foggiest idea where I picked it up is that “We will never collect enough doings to just be”. We always think that if we fulfill everything on our to do list, then we can have fun, then we can play, then we can be happy, then we can be.
You know what happens when we finish that to do list? Nothing because we never finish it. We get to one place and then add more to the list and long for another time in the future and miss the lives we have right now. This is where meditation comes in.
When I was a panicked sick cookie and moved down to LA, within a week I met my meditation teacher, who gave me a mantra and who taught me everything I ever needed to know: how to meditate. He taught me that by doing nothing, we accomplish everything, by ceasing to tear down the brick wall, we find the open door, things don’t have to be difficult to be earned, and that by being still for mere moments out of the day, we make space for new creation in our lives.
At the time I though it was all a load of hog-wash-hippy-dippy-dribble, but figured since my days involved yoga, organic food, acupuncture, sunrises, sunsets, bike rides and walks, what harm could more hog-wash-hippy-dippy-dribble do? None at all, my friends, none at all. When I first moved down to LA, I couldn’t sit (or lay, I should say lay) through an acupuncture treatment without my i-pod. Three months later I couldn’t get enough silence. Oooooh meditation. I want to hug and kiss you for everything you have brought me, or allowed into my life, or whatever the hog-wash-hippy-dippy-dribble way of saying it is.
I do realize, living in real life, that it is challenging to make time to do nothing. I need it though for my mental and physical health and do you know what swooped in to my life just when I realized I needed a force stronger than my own will to get me to sit still? Derek Turesky.
I was introduced to Derek by my very oldest friend Jay. Jay wanted Derek and I to meet, fall in love, and meditate our way to eternal bliss. Derek, however is from Florida and is studying in Iowa. I live in Toronto and we have yet to meet in person. Regardless of missing the love boat, I love what he does. Derek has a masters in clinical psychology, was trained by the master of mindfulness himself John Kabat-Zinn, is currently completing his PhD in psychology and helps his patients heal and be well with the scientifically proven benefits of Mindfulness Meditation.
This is a form of meditation that I don’t personally practice but which I am trained to teach and which I love for it’s proven effects on immune system health, chronic pain, stress and stress related illnesses and conditions. A few months ago, Derek sent me a copy of his DVD called Mindfulness Meditation and Stress Reduction for Beginners: The Garden of NOW to check out and it got me right back into my regular practice. It is fantastic!
See…
Derek, with his cute Floridian accent, guides the meditator every step of the way, providing an abundance of information on meditation, simplifying it wonderfully, providing step by step guidance and best of all, makes meditation easy and accessible.
So go on, get yourself a copy of the DVD. This is seriously and for reals a gift for yourself or anyone you know that gives and gives and gives. Calmness, joy, happiness and success are contagious. This is what meditation has brought to me, and see, now I am spreading it!
Of course I am giving a couple copies away. That’s how we roll over here at Making Love In The Kitchen. Free love!
Ways to enter:
- Post a comment below. Any old comment will do = 1 entry
- RSS/Email subscribe to my blog = 1 entry
- Follow Mindfulness DVD on Twitter = 1 entry
- Join Mindfulness group on Facebook = 1 entry
- Twitter the giveaway = 1 entry
- Blog the contest = 2 entries
- Join the Making Love In The Kitchen Facebook Group = 1 entry
- Follow moi on Twitter = 1 entry
I totally need to meditate!
I love meditating!
I would love to meditate, but unfortunately I am too old to figure out and deal with twitter, barely ever go to facebook, because i forget (age you know). However I think ‘making love’ is registered on my face book…. and i DO subscribe! so I am hoping! I need a bit of serenity these days…
so thismay be my only big chance!
GORGEOUS photo!!
I’m learning to meditate more and to slow down in order to combat stress.
I’m actually going to take the 8 week stress course that Kabat-Zinn talks about in his book, Full Catastrophe Living. Meditating does wonders…when I actually stick with it.
Meditation is an important aspect of overall health and wellbeing
Great post! I usually meditate…errrr… fall asleep during my acupuncture sessions. I can’t help it, the Chinese music is tantalizing!
I do meditate during yoga though, so I am covered!
Maybe this DVD would actually get me to meditate.
this would be perfect for my new yoga classes. yes, please enter me in the give a way.
Great message, thank you. Beautiful imagery in the the DVD…very inspiring.
I am always looking for new ways to meditate. Looks like an awesome DVD.
Hi Meghan,
I love your blog and what you are doing. I live in NYC and I’m a perpetually busy full-time worker and graduate student. I was thinking about plunging straight forward into PhD studies, but I think I may need a little time to live life and MEDITATE. I tend to be a total type-A anxiety prone person and no matter how well I eat I’m always lacking energy. Maybe a year of not being over-committed is in order
Thanks for what you do.
My three months of doing nothing changed everything for the better!
I really need some help with slowing down!
Wow, I really needed this post today! The little flower exercise at the beginning actually made me tear up! More than any other contest you’ve had, I hope to win this one!
Thanks for this, Meghan
Namaste!
It’s hard to just do nothing, think nothing. I find that my mind is always racing! I think meditation would be very very challenging for me. But I think that means I need it more!
I do love in yoga class trying to quiet my mind and just focus on my breathing, even if I can’t quite get there. One day!
I will be trying to have a baby via Mini IVF in January and would love to learn how to get my monkey mind to stop worrying. I’m a painter and meditate while painting but when I stop my mind tends to take over.
I have to say that your photo might just help me give birth naturally and hopefully at home, which has always been a dream for me. It would make a great visualization during labor!
Thank you so much for this post!
I took a Zen meditation class long long long ago. I think I would enjoy this.
I am not even going to tell you that I really need this in my life because I think you already know. When I read the title this morning, I thought for sure there was going to be some mention of one of your clients down in california.
I have started meditating for just five minutes when I wake up and right before I go to sleep. Just watching my breath. I am feeling kind of addicted to it. I am trying to slow down everything I do and watch for tensions in my body. I notice I tighten my stomach muscles a lot throughout the day.
thanks again meghan
Joined on facebook
rss feed
I am already following you on twitter
Great photo and an interesting post!
[...] This morning Meghan did a post about Mindfulness and is doing a contest for a Mindfulness DVD. Check it out. [...]
Just blogged it!
Meditating was one of the hardest things to start doing but one of the most rewarding once I was able to commit to it and embrace the importance of it. I am always saying how hard it is to take that quiet time but so necessary. Thanks for the reminder!!!
Sham
Twittered the giveaway. I although I dont think anyone follows my twitter because I am never on there
great picture! thanks for posting this, I need that dvd.
I’ve been practicing my own mismash of meditation semi-regularly for a while now, but would love a little guidance. Thanks!
I also subscribe to your posts.
That’s why it’s a practice. I am pretty sure those monks up in those caves for months on end still get distracted by the sound of mosquitoes buzzing in their ears.
I would love to begin a practice of meditation.
I’ve been following your blog the last couple of weeks. I suffer from RA and am trying to get better by eating a whole foods diet and you’ve really given me some ideas. I’d love to win the DVD…I’m sure meditation would be another helpful step in my recovery.
Amazing photo. I’d love to learn to meditate as my mind is usually racing. I used to use tv to relax but I’m thinking it really doesn’t settle my mind but makes it comatose.
After re-reading today’s post I’m curious how this approach to meditation differs from the mediation you practice. Thanks!
Oh how I could use a little meditation!
Oh my life would so improve by incorporating this mindful practice and learning to just BE. I would be delighted to win this CD
i’m currently looking at diet and lifestyle type things so this could be a real help-fingers crossed
ooh, and i’m already a member of your facebook group
ooh and ooh, i joined the mindfulness facebook group
Great post! And photo! I meditate for 15 minutes each morning…it starts my day off on a good note and gives me a sense of mindfulness and balance for the rest of the day.
I learned to meditate through the Self Realization Fellowship in Califiornia; it was the best thing I ever did. I meditate daily. It’s my connection to my Divine Guidance.
I so need this!
I wish I’d met you a year ago, Meghan. I took a month off and headed for the beach to fight my illness – actually a ran away from the allergens for a month.
I had this kinda thing in mind, but I didn’t know where to start and although I didn’t waste the month, I didn’t take full advantage of it like I’d intended. I found a yoga place in the last week of my stay. I didn’t get the food part sorted until after I left, and didn’t find my acupuncturist until much later.
Never mind – onwards and upwards I say!
btw I love that quote.
I already follow you on twitter, and I’m about to join your facebook page.
I love meditating!
I have fallen off the meditation bandwagon and have been riding the anxiety train. I blame my tummy. I’ll check out the youtube link and hope to win the dvd
McK x
Inspiration! I need to find some bliss, this seems like the path to follow!
I need to meditate-I’m worried stress is going to destroy my health!
Looks like the recurring theme coming my way is “try to do less to achieve more.” It’s coming at me in all directions, so I blogged about it yesterday too. I call it “The Yoga of (Un) Multi-Tasking”. Scientific studies are proving that our brains don’t do so well doing so many things at once. Yoga philosophy has taught the importance of stillness to rejuvenate the system, and now people like Jon Kabat-Zinn are illustrating the health benefits. Love that you’re sharing the word! We all could do more with less.
Sign me up… Btw, have you read “The Autoimmue Epidemic” by Donna Jackson Nakazawa? An excellent read!
I need to meditate…the few times I have I’ve loved it and felt much better for having done it.