Meditation for Moms Series: #4 Protection

In this final part of my meditation series, I'll address something I often forget to do for myself. After I ground myself, run my energy, and focus on each chakra, it's important to intentionally protect my energy. At the end of the chakra focus, I mentioned closing little windows in front of the 2^nd through 6^th chakras to keep your energy from "leaking out." The following protection goes a step further.

Why protect our energy?

The perfect example just this second walked into the coffee shop where I write to help me demonstrate this! No kidding. Have you ever been near a stranger and just sensed that something was "off" about their energy? It can feel very distracting and creepy. For me, it gives me chills and makes me want to leave, and I can't even put a finger on why exactly I feel this way. This same person comes in here almost every time I'm here, and though he's never said a word to me, his energy just bugs.

One time while I was here writing, I felt an icy blast of cold creep all the way across my back, and when I turned around, he was standing about three feet behind me, facing my back but with a newspaper held up in front of his face. I stopped what I was doing, closed my eyes, focused on my protection bubble, (which I'll teach you in a minute) and also imagined a giant shield around me. Immediately afterward, (I mean not even 5 seconds!) creepy guy put down his paper and walked away, out of my field of vision. Mission accomplished!

Everyone is made up of energy and carries around additional energy that they pick up along the way. It feels great to be around some people's energy and it feels icky to be around others'. This ickiness can stick to us and dampen our own energy. And let's face it, as mothers we need all the energy we can get. We certainly don't want random people throwing dark clouds over us for no good reason.

The more we meditate and tune into subtle energy, the more sensitive we'll become to other people's energy.

Therefore … the Protection Bubble.

Here's how you do it:

1. Imagine yourself completely enclosed in an egg-shaped bubble. You can see out perfectly, but icky energy can't get in.
   
   
2. Fill the bubble with white light, like puffy, white clouds. This is loving, protective energy.
   
   
3. Now imagine covering the outside of your bubble with mirrors, facing out. This reflects any negative energy back at the sender, keeping it off of you. They usually don't like what they see reflected back and will retreat, like creepy coffee shop guy did.

It's a good practice to do this first thing in the morning, (like at the end of your morning meditation) and periodically throughout the day. It's great to also use at places like Chuck E. Cheese, county fairs, Costco – anyplace where you'll be around a lot of people. Lucas uses this to protect himself from "nighttime visitors" before he goes to bed.

So that's it. I hope you've found this series helpful. If so, please consider sharing it with the little share button right below this post.

Cheers!

Why Does this Type A Mom Resist Routine?

Thanks for humoring me while I do a bit more public self-exploration in regards to my parenting. After my previous rant about my parenting frustrations and the wonderful feedback I received, I am now leaning more strongly toward implementing a bit more routine into our life. Not more rules. Not more boundaries. Just more routine to help Lucas know more of what to expect when, so his energy can be freed up to enjoy life instead of constantly looking for the next chance to control mine.

I know it's the best thing I can do for him. I know he's craving some consistency, especially since all these weeks of getting sick have thrown off any semblance of schedule we may have previously had.

But I don't seem to want to do it. I'm dragging my feet, and this seems a bit out of character for me.

I am what most would call a very organized person. I can come up with a system to streamline just about anything. I'm the queen of multi-tasking, I have folders that automatically sort my incoming email, and I plan my menus and shop weekly. You'd think this routine thing would come easily to me.

I love Waldorf education and philosophy. At the center is this sense of respect for the rhythms of the day, the week, the seasons. Some examples: Monday is bread-baking day. Tuesday is soup day. Mornings begin with circle time, then art, then outside play. There is a breathing in and a breathing out to the daily activities that mirror the children's inner rhythms. These things are unchanging. The children flow with the rhythms and know what to expect. I love this, and look forward to sending Lucas into this nurturing environment when he's a bit older.

So why is it that I'm resisting this kind of daily and weekly routine for him at home? Why not have a breakfast, lunch, and snack menu that repeats every week? Why not have circle time, then art, then outside play every morning? Why does the idea of committing to doing certain things on certain days or at a certain time make me want to run for the hills?

There is something deeper at work in this decision-making process for me, and it's this little secret: All that organization? It's not really me.

It's my mom.

I learned early on to go against my inner nature to please her. She's the ultimate Type A, and does she ever love her structure, routines, and systems! I've always loved "being like my mom" because I admire her tremendously. But after all this time, I'm finally discovering I'm not her. Part of my growth right now is to learn to let go of some of those learned behaviors in order to make room for the real me to surface. The real me wants to go with the flow, be in the moment, slow down, not always be in charge. The real me wants to honor what comes more than what was supposed to come.

In the midst of trying very hard to surrender, let go, be present, uni-task, and take more OFF my plate, it kind of rubs the wrong way to put my energy into scheduling and planning and upholding a structured new routine. Wasn't I just trying to move away from this? Wouldn't it be taking a step backward?

Maybe. Maybe not. There's no denying I'm good at being organized. I've been practicing for 42 years. There is no need to throw away these skills or refuse to use them. Maybe it's more about choosing the best times to use them, and letting them sit out the rest of the time.

Giving Lucas some comforting routines? That would be a good time to use them.

Creating a series of posting deadlines and a bullet-proof schedule in order to meet them? Not so much.

It's helpful for me to have identified the source of my resistance. Now I can see it more clearly and make a better decision, based on better information. I now know I wasn't resisting because I thought it was the wrong idea. It's good to have figured this out.

Now … while the boys are at the park, I'm off to go do nothing for a bit, and AFTER THAT … then I'll whip us up a new routine.

Cheers!

I am Three Again, and I Don’t Like it One Bit!

I love other people's three-year-olds.

Mine, I'm ready to sell to the gypsies. Just kidding.

Kind of.

This post is a public attempt at learning from my current and intense frustration with my skills as a mother of a strong-willed, too-smart-for-his-Elmo-undies, newly baby-talking, and utterly contrary three-year-old son. I have lost my perspective, and I'm hoping it's only temporarily misplaced, because I am now engaging with him as a fellow three-year-old, and I know this can't be a good idea.

There are layers of learning here, and in the end, I'm sure it will all boil down to acceptance and surrender, because that's what always seems to be left for me when the rest has evaporated.

But first, may I vent? Just a little? I feel like I'm going to explode if I don't. I'll limit it to my top three annoyances.

Baby-talk

This boy who was speaking at one, and who can tell complete stories that can actually be understood by strangers is now using lispy baby-talk as his primary mode of communication. Here I think I'm sending him to preschool as the youngest in his class to challenge him and expose him to other kids he can learn from, and he comes back emulating someone's baby-talk. Ugh!

I made the mistake of letting him know it bugs me. Now he doesn't buy my fake nonchalance and talks like this all the time. Asking him to use his big-boy voice has no effect.

Contrariness

I know it's his job to be contrary at this age. He's learning to exercise his power and will. I used to say this to other parents as a way of offering a comforting perspective; to depersonalize the behavior a bit. I now know how annoying this is. It doesn't help me one bit to know this.

Everything is a battle these days. Mainly, the battles surround those things he ultimately has control over: eating and voiding. (Since letting go of his naps, the sleeping isn't an issue anymore.) He wants snacks instead of meals; he wants banana bread all day long and throws a screaming fit when I don't give it to him; he looks at what's for dinner and then walks away if he doesn't like it. "Fine! Don't eat then!" my inner three-year-old snaps at him.

One recent way of showing his contrariness has been to deliberately poop and pee in his pants - while we're home with a readily available bathroom. After a few rounds of this, my husband resorted to threatening to take away his guitar and stereo privileges if he made that choice again. The "accidents" stopped. They weren't accidents.

I've resorted to carrying him, kicking and screaming, into his room for time-outs when he starts in with one of his tantrums. I can't even handle time-ins right now.

I offer him reasonable ways of exercising his budding power, but it seems it's not enough for him. I worry that he won't be satisfied until he has reached world domination.

Clinginess

Lucas (in high-pitched, whiny baby-talk): Will you go to da bafwoom wif me?

Me: What? You know how to go by yourself.

Lucas: But I want your attention.

Me: You've had my full attention all morning! We just finished doing puzzles, reading books, and coloring. Can you just do this one thing by yourself, please?

Lucas: No! (favorite word) I want you to go with me! (Now commanding) Go with me, Mommy!

For crying out loud! The more attention I give him, it seems, the more he wants. What happened to the independence of the twos?

Since I told you I'd limit it to three things, I guess that's it for the venting. On to the learning.

Oh – except the colds! I have to add one more thing! The colds! He's been mildly sick six times in the last eight weeks, throwing a giant, frustrating wrench into any semblance of routine I might be trying to uphold. How do I maintain consistency in the midst of a constant barrage of cancellations and exceptions due to illness? How do people manage with more than one child, assuming they don't all get sick at the same time? I have no more sympathy left. The coughing and the runny noses are only further irritants in a swirling mass of annoyance.

Back to the learning …

The best way for me to get to the learning is to examine what I'm feeling. First, I feel angry at Lucas for not being who I want him to be. That's the honest truth, even if it's not the most enlightened thing to say. While I'm in this kind of victim mode, I want to tell him, "You were lucky enough to get an awesome mom and I'm doing everything in my power to do right by you, and here you are throwing it in my face with this ridiculous behavior. I don't deserve this. I deserve a brilliant, peaceful, delightful child who is a joy to be with, AND … you should be healthy what with the three organic, home-cooked meals I make for you every day, and your healthy, organic, low-in-sugar, dairy-free snacks, and your stress-free lifestyle. What is up with your immune system anyway?!"

So who's the ridiculous one? Yes, it's me. Writing this out is helping me see this all clearly for what it is: ridiculous and unreasonable expectations.

I also feel angry at myself for not being the mom I want to be. The self-talk goes kind of like this: I should know how to handle this better. I should not be getting angry. I should be more patient, more resourceful, more creative, more understanding. I should be preparing only healing Ayurvedic foods for Lucas so he can have balanced Pitta.* After a four-day retreat away from my family, I should not want to immediately run away again for about a month.

Should, should, should. Again … ridiculous and unreasonable expectations. (And really, who doesn't wish for a month's vacation free of family responsibilities? Okay, so I might not last more than two weeks. Three, tops.)

What else do I feel? I feel alone and a bit confused. I'm not really sure where to turn for advice, since my approach to parenting has already veered well away from any sort of mainstream philosophies. I want someone, maybe the Super Nanny, to give me the answer, and yet I don't trust the methodology that will probably be suggested. I have a feeling I already have the answers I need to handle this better, but I'm just not able to access them right now.


Do I re-examine every boundary and chuck the ones that are borderline unnecessary? Do I say yes more often, right from the get-go? "Sure, you can have nothing but cheerios and apple juice all day."


Or, do I create more boundaries? More routines? Maybe Monday is turkey sandwich day for lunch and it's always turkey sandwich day on Monday and therefore, there will be no further expectations of anything other than turkey sandwiches on Mondays. That kind of thing? It sounds a bit insane to plan things out to that degree, but Waldorf has been very effective with this sort of daily and weekly rhythm.

I suppose a bit more time and perspective will help me tap into the inspiration I need to get to the answers that are just right for us. That, and some meditations that aren't interrupted by a million intruding thoughts like they have been lately. From that perspective, it's no surprise that I'm feeling so out of whack.

Finally, I feel really, really humbled – which I think is a good thing. I know that if I'm to effectively help and support other parents, I have to keep growing, as a parent and as a person. That means that by necessity, it's NOT going to be easy all the time. I have to come up against these challenges in order to deeply wrestle with what I believe and what is actually working on a practical level as I raise my son.

In summary, the learning turned out to be about acceptance and surrender, after all; Accepting what is, instead of pushing for what should be; Accepting that I'm not perfect and Lucas isn't perfect, and that's just the way it is with everyone; Surrendering expectations; Surrendering my ego, so that I can grow and learn. I think this awareness will help me to be less reactive and more thoughtful. Already, I feel a shift for the better.

And so, in this openness, I invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions. And if you can recommend a good boarding preschool … kidding, kidding.

Cheers!

Alexis

*I just started checking into Ayurvedic cooking in the last couple of weeks. It looks way too complicated, but if I took the time to learn it, I'm sure we'd all be pictures of glowing health. Or not. Who knows?

Meditation for Moms Series: #3 Chakra Focus

This is part three of my series on meditation for moms. Read here for part one, in which I outline a grounding exercise to get you started, and here for part two, in which I describe the process of running your energy to clear out the energetic clutter in your system. These are the first two stages in my morning meditation practice. Once I've grounded myself and run my energy, I'm ready to focus on each chakra.

A chakra is basically an energetic center in the physical body, and each one corresponds to a different aspect of ourselves. I like to think of chakras as spherical battery packs. When we open ourselves up to universal energy, spirit, God, whatever you want to call your source, it's like plugging our batteries into a master charger. It powers us up and helps us run better. When we go for a while without charging our batteries, things start to malfunction and, just like our children's toys, we start to slow down, say things we didn't intend to say, make weird noises. In the process, we make life annoying for everyone else around us.

Depending on which spiritual tradition you consult, there are seven or eight of these chakras, and some say there are many more. The number of chakras most people are familiar with is seven, and that's what I generally work with. I picture them as layers of energy spinning in all directions within a sphere – sort of like a cross between those old science models of electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom and round gears like in a clock. When I power them up, they spin quickly, gain momentum, and their light glows brightly. When I haven't recharged in a while, it's like the gears get stuck and can't move freely like they're supposed to, and then they don't light up.

There are many ways of working with the chakras. For brevity's sake, I'm going to keep it simple to get you started. Ready?

Chakra Focus

1^st Chakra – Root or Base Chakra

Where is it? To figure out where your root chakra is located, sit upright on a hard chair. That part of you that touches the chair is where your base or root chakra is located.

What's this chakra about? This chakra connects you to earth energy, and relates to issues of safety and survival. The color of this chakra is red.

What do I do with it? Take your attention to this area. Imagine the red sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (red) and growing bigger. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere.

2^nd Chakra – Sacral Chakra

Where is it? It's basically where your uterus sits (if you're not currently pregnant).

What's this chakra about? Guess! It's about creation, (as in creating babies) and personal power. It's orange. For a ton of great information on the 2^nd chakra and its powerful significance for women, visit Mommy Mystic's blog. This post might be a good place to start. (Also, her mp3 guided chakra meditation series is fantastic! I use her mp3s often when I find myself a bit scattered and unable to focus on my own. )

What do I do with it? Just like with the 1^st chakra, take your attention to this area. Imagine the orange sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (orange) and growing bigger. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere. An additional thing I like to do, especially for this chakra, is to imagine the spinning action to act like a vortex drawing back in all of the energy I've leaked out from this chakra; drawing back my power. As women, we give a lot away from this energy center.

3^rd Chakra – Solar Plexus Chakra

Where is it? Point to where you feel it when you get a "gut feeling." That's where this one is. (If you don't get gut feelings, it's in your belly.)

What's this chakra about? This chakra is about emotion, personality, and action toward goals. I imagine it like a big yellow sun that beams its energy out to the world and receives beams of energy back. This chakra acts as a receiver for nonverbal information. Some of us feel our intuition strongest through this chakra.

What do I do with it? Just like with the others, take your attention to this area. Imagine the yellow sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (yellow) and growing bigger. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere.

4^th Chakra – Heart Chakra

Where is it? This chakra is generally in the same place as your heart, but right in the center of your chest and a bit higher than where the physical heart sits. Try this: Without thinking about it, say "me" and point to yourself. That's your heart chakra you're pointing to.

What's this chakra about? This one is about love and compassion, particularly self-love. It's green.

What do I do with it? Take your attention to this area. Imagine the green sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (green) and growing bigger. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere. An additional thing I like to do for this chakra is to imagine my favorite flower (a gerber daisy) as a tight little bud. As I breathe into the heart chakra, I imagine the flower opening wide, and I feel the physical sensation of opening this chakra. Once I feel that tingly open feeling, I send that open, loving energy to someone I love, or someone in need of love, and I imagine it flowing back and forth between us in waves, the energy intensifying as in goes from one to the other. You can use your favorite flower. If you want to learn more about why this works so well, (and it does!) read up on Heartmath.

5^th Chakra – Throat Chakra

Where is it? There aren't many options here. It's in your throat.

What's this chakra about? This chakra is about expression and communication. It's a bright sky-blue.

What do I do with it? Take your attention to this area. Imagine the bright blue sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (blue) and growing bigger. Just because it's in your throat, doesn't mean it's smaller than the others. It can extend far past your physical body. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere. If you're feeling blocked in this area, like you can't express who you really are or what you really feel, you can do some different breathing while you're focused on this chakra. As you exhale, try making some loud sighing noises or saying, "haaah!" to physically support the clearing of this energy.

6^th Chakra – Third Eye Chakra

Where is it? This one is between and slightly above your eyes.

What's this chakra about? This chakra is about intuition, intelligence and perception. It helps us develop our psychic abilities. While the 3^rd chakra governs the "gut feeling" kind of intuition, the 6^th chakra relates to more clearly seeing the truth, and being able to perceive things about people and events without a logical way of knowing. People with well-developed psychic abilities "see" and receive intuitive information through their third eye. It's a deep purply-blue, or indigo.

What do I do with it? Take your attention to this area. Imagine the indigo blue sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (indigo) and growing bigger. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere.

7^th Chakra – Crown Chakra

Where is it? This one sits at the crown of your head.

What's this chakra about? This chakra represents our connection to the divine, and is most often depicted as a thousand-petalled lotus, wide open to receive universal energy and support. It is either lavender or white. I like to see it as an iridescent, sparkly white with lavender undertones. J

What do I do with it? Take your attention to this area. Imagine a giant sparkling lotus with its open petals supporting a large white sphere turning in a counterclockwise direction. As it turns, imagine it glowing brighter (white) and growing bigger. Once it feels like it's spinning freely, enjoy that movement for a moment, and then reverse the direction of the sphere.

When you've completed powering up all seven chakras, imagine closing a little window in front of all but the 1^st and 7^th chakras. In other words, the chakras keep spinning, but you've protected them from the energy of other people and events. To use the battery metaphor again, you're putting a little plug protector on them so others can't plug into your vibrant energy and drain it. However, always keep your root chakra open to keep you grounded to earth energy, and your crown chakra open to keep you connected to universal energy.

Whew! That was a lot of information for one blog post. Once you do this a few times, you'll remember the chakras and colors and it won't take you long at all to power them all up. It's not really that crucial to remember the meanings of each of the chakras at this point. You'll feel the results either way.

Let me know how this feels for you. I'd also love to know if this was clear or confusing for you. This is subtle work, and translating it into words is more challenging than I'd thought. I'd like to include a version of this in my book, and your feedback on how I communicated these concepts would be really helpful. Thanks!

Happy meditating!

Orbs in Sedona – well, Phoenix, actually

I just returned from a fabulous long weekend in Sedona with three of my soul sisters. It was a weekend of rejuvenation, healing, laughter, and connection. We were jokingly anticipating coming home with super-powers after this weekend, and though no one is levitating or bending spoons with their thoughts, we did, indeed, gain some powerful insights.

But more on those later.

Today I want to share with you one of those "NO WAY! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? HOW COOL!!!" kind of moments. It came in the form of a picture, and more specifically, something that showed up on a picture a day after it was taken.

I don't know what possessed us on that first traveling day before we left Phoenix to ask the guy in the Enterprise rental car parking lot to take a picture of all of us in front of our rental car. I mean, we were on our way to Sedona, with all of her beautiful scenery, and we wanted a picture in a dark garage. Whatever. So the guy took the picture for us, and being who we are, we eagerly took the camera and zoomed in to be sure we all looked good before letting him off the photographer hook. It was a great picture of everyone, and so we thanked him and began our road trip to Sedona.

The next day after an amazing hike and meditation up on Bell Rock, we went into town to eat our sack lunches and visit the Crystal Palace metaphysical store. (If you go to Sedona, this is the one to shop. There are tons of these metaphysical stores, but we were told by a shaman that this one – it has 2 locations – is the best.) We kind of made ourselves at home there on and off at both locations over the weekend. Anyhow, in the Crystal Palace, I leafed through a little booklet on Orbs. I hadn't heard of them before. They are said to be a way that spirits/angels/whatever can make themselves seen by humans. You can't see them directly, but they show up as little circles of light on photos taken by digital cameras. There are different types of orbs, depending on their interior patterning and color, which some say represent different entities. I was kind of giggling at this. They look a bit like water spots on pictures.

So then we left the Crystal Palace to go to the Secret Garden coffee shop across the street, where our server was the most strikingly beautiful red-headed fairy princess of a young woman I've ever seen. You'd agree with me if you saw her. (Psst … Lisa, I thought of your daughter at 18 or so!) We asked her to take our picture, and again, being who we are, we took back the camera and zoomed in to make sure we all looked good. It was a lovely picture, and as we waited for our coffee, I began to click back through all of the pictures we'd taken so far. When I got to the first picture - the one taken in the car lot in Phoenix - I froze.

"Hey, what's this?" I said to the others. "This wasn't here before. We would have noticed this when we zoomed in to see if we looked good enough to keep the photo." There, on my left ear, was an orb - just like the ones in the book!  There was much squealing and OMGs and general enthusiastic wonderment.

Here is what we saw:

And here is what it looks like zoomed-in close:

Do you see the shape of a wolf's face inside? Or maybe a Husky? See that beautiful red-head in the picture with me? Her animal totem has always been a wolf. How's that for interesting?

Later in our trip, we noticed this green blob in one of our photos. It's not an orb, but just like the orb, it showed up after the fact.  We didn't see it when we first zoomed in on the picture.

And here it is close up:

 

Curiouser and curiouser … upon my return, I was skimming through blog posts and noticed that Janice, of the blog, Raising a Sensitive Child had just posted a photo of orbs surrounding her son! No way!! Go check it out.

Have any of you captured orbs in your photos before? What do you know about them?

(I'll get back to writing the rest of my meditation series, but I just couldn't wait on sharing this little bit of enchantment with you. Stay tuned…)

Easy Meditation for Moms Series: #2 Running Energy

This is part two of my series on meditation for moms. Read here for part one, in which I outlined a grounding exercise to get you started.

My meditation practice has become critically intertwined with my parenting. Every day shows me evidence of how my energy affects my son. Every week I hear other moms share with me how their energies affect their crystal kids. When we remember that our sensitive children are like little sponges absorbing all of the energy in their environment, and when we also remember that, as their mothers, we're the dominant energetic system in their world most of the time, then it goes to follow that when our energy is smooth and clear, we have a soothing effect on our children. When we're stressed, angry or worried, for example, even when we're doing our best to not show it, (or when we aren't even consciously aware of it!) our children feel it in themselves and all hell breaks loose. That's just the way it goes with crystal kids.

The second part of my meditation practice involves "running energy." Once I'm grounded, I do this to help clear out any cobwebs of old energy and to move positive energy through my system.

Running Energy

1. Imagine a big ball of energy underneath your feet. Gold is a nice color to start with, but you can make it any color that comes to you on a given day. This is earth energy connecting you with Mother Earth.
   
   
2. Imagine light energy from that ball streaming up through your feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs and up through your root chakra, (right where you sit), and then down through that grounding cord you already created when you grounded yourself. (Did you remember to ground yourself first?)
   
   
3. Continue to run this current of energy. You can even use your hands to bring the energy up, through, and down your grounding cord. Once you have the hang of it, put it on autopilot to continue running while you take your attention to step 4.
   
   
4. Imagine another big ball of energy above your head. This is universal energy connecting you with source. Again, you can make it golden or any other color that seems right for you. (Remember, the earth energy is still running its cycle down below.)
   
   
5. Now bring this universal energy down through the crown and back of your head (7^th and 6^th chakras), down the back of your neck (5^th chakra), down through the back of your chest (4^th chakra), down behind your belly (3^rd chakra), down behind your womb area (2^nd chakra) and then through your tailbone area (1^st chakra). As it moves through the 1^st chakra, bring the energy forward and up through all the chakras on the front side of your body. So it then flows through the pelvis, womb, belly, heart, throat, forehead, and front crown of your head, and then continues to flow up into the universe. (Remember, the earth energy is still cycling, too!)
   
   
6. Imagine, as this energy is pouring down and then up through your energetic body, that it's melting any old, stuck energy and carrying it away. Imagine it filling all the nooks and crannies like molten gold, and carrying away all impurities, health issues, emotional blocks, negativity. As it carries all this old gunk out of your body and into the universe, it becomes like sparkling dust, and all the old is transmuted into pure energy. Your body is filled with warm, golden light (or whatever color you chose).
   
   
7. Run this for as long as it feels good. Again, you can use your hands to facilitate the movement of energy.
   

 

I always feel really good when I've run my energy like this. Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you. And if you have any questions or clarifications, feel free to add them in the comments below.

Coming up next week: I'll go into more detail with each chakra as we get into the "Chakra Focus" portion of the meditation.

P.S.
I'm off to Sedona, Arizona tomorrow morning with some girlfriends for an extended weekend of yoga, meditation, and a general development of my super-powers.  :)  So if I don't respond to your beloved comments right away, please don't take it personally.  I'll be back with you on Tuesday.  Cheers!

Easy Meditation for Moms Series: #1 getting grounded

 Meditating has become one of the easiest ways for me to be the best mom I can be. The benefits are immediate and obvious.

On days when I meditate, I am more grounded, present, and inspired with my son. I come up with more fun ideas of things to do together. I problem-solve more easily. We laugh more and play more. He is more loving and cuddly with me.

If I skip my meditation for a day or two, all of that goodness seems to escape me. I get snappy, bored, impatient. Problems seem to confound me. Lucas acts up and refuses hugs.

You get the picture.

In this brief series, I'm going to share some examples of what of my meditation practice looks like. I use a variety of imagery for my meditations, mainly focused on the chakras, or energy centers in the body. Just sitting in silence and trying not to think doesn't work at all for me.

I've broken down the posts into four small steps: Grounding, Running Energy, Chakra Focus, and Protection. Practice each step until it becomes quick and easy for you to call up the imagery, before adding on the next step. Today we'll start with grounding.

Grounding

1. Light a white candle and sit comfortably. Imagine the back crown of your head being pulled up toward the sky, while the rest of your body sinks into the earth, stretching out your spine. This gets you into a good position to sit for a bit.
   
   
2. Take some deep breaths in through the nose, imagining filling your belly with air. Then exhale through the mouth, contracting your stomach and emptying your lungs of all air before taking in another breath. Do this a few times, feeling your body relax with each exhalation.
   
   
3. Imagine a big ball of molten gold energy in your pelvic area. (For me, it's about the size of a large grapefruit.) Feel the warmth of that golden energy.
   
   
4. Imagine sending a ray of golden light from that ball down through your tailbone, into the floor, and down into the earth. This is your grounding cord. With each breath, send that cord of light deeper and deeper until it's reached the core of the earth. Imagine that grounding cord tethering you to the center of the earth. With each exhalation, imagine gathering in any slack and cinching the cord tightly. Feel yourself securely attached to the earth. Feel your energy flowing down into the earth.

Your energy is now focused and grounded. You'll feel heavier, more secure, less scattered.

This is always the first step in my meditation, and if I only have a little bit of time, this is what I do. You can practice using this imagery any time your energy feels dispersed or you feel like you need a bit more patience.

Let me know if this is helpful for you!

Next up, I'll describe what I mean by "running energy."