Equinox Guided Meditation

As a lover of light and warmth, I had always felt a bit of sadness with the coming of the Autumn Equinox. It seemed to signal the descent into winter -- short days, long nights, colder weather. More recently, thanks to meditation and perhaps also aging, which has brought me through so many seasonal cycles and ups and downs of life, my perspective has broadened. I have at long last given up the illusion that I can find a "sweet spot" in life and stay there forever. Perhaps more important is the recognition that you can't have sweet without sour, and whatever my current situation may be, "good" or "bad", it will change.

I am grateful to meditation for helping me to experience that which doesn't change and find a place of balance to carry me through the good times and the bad. As I sat with my guided meditation group, these recognitions and musings lead to this new podcast episode -- Equinox Guided Meditation.

These days when I create a meditation for the podcast, I know there are people on the other side of the world who will listen. Whether you are in the northern hemisphere transitioning from summer to autumn as we are, or in the southern hemisphere going from winter to spring, this equinox meditation will speak to you. We are all experiencing a turning point in the seasons. Actually, we are experiencing a turning point in every moment. I invite you to explore the nature of this change with us in this meditation, and would love to hear what you discover.

Welcome to our new website - reflections on change...

Welcome to our new website! Many of you have been using our website for years. Most of you listen to our podcast and may have been surprised by the change when you came to listen. We hope you were happily surprised. I imagine reactions will range from happy excitement to disgruntlement. I know I get irritated when things are not in their usual place in the grocery store. It's so easy to go in and head straight for what I want when everything is in its usual place. Please let us know if you can't find what you are looking for. Almost everything from our old website is here, but simplified. Hopefully the new website will be easier to navigate.

Creating something new fills me with a happy, fresh energy. There's a joy in the process of something new emerging. But bringing in the new also means letting go of the old. It reminds me of when get got our latest car. We really needed a newer car and it was so much nicer than our old one. But there were some sentimental pangs - the old car had taken us on so many memorable journeys and served us well. The old website was, well, old. It didn't represent us well anymore. But it was built with love. And the hardest thing was that in the transition we lost thousands of comments left by our visitors. Each comment was meaningful and special to us. Chances are you won't notice that your comment is missing, but if you do, know that we loved hearing from you and hearing your thoughts. Do feel free to comment again!

Last but not least, we built our old website ourselves. You might even miss that "homemade" look, but it was high time we had a logo and a more "professional" face for the world. So here's a shout out to Yesh & Tash for our beautiful logo and new website.

Summer Solstice Guided Meditation

Four times a year the solstices and equinoxes remind me of the cycles of change. As a lover of light, I always look forward to the long days of summer. And yet, when the solstice arrives, things are turning the corner. After this longest day, the days will get shorter as darkness increases.  This, plus the fact that we have listeners from all over the world, and half of the world is experiencing the shortest day, caused me to wax philosophical. What started as a meditation to celebrate the light of summer morphed into a meditation reflecting on change and how we can relax into it. Our latest podcast - Summer Solstice Guided Meditation - is an opportunity to relax into change and view our current life situation from a broader perspective.

Guided Meditation for Renewal

Every moment is fresh and new, unlike any that has gone before or will come again. So often expectations based on what has happened in the past cloud our ability to let in what is actually happening now. This latest Guided Meditation for Renewal podcast is an opportunity to let go of expectations, ideas about how things are or will be, and be open to change. Life is constantly creating and renewing. We breathe in oxygen to enliven and nourish all our cells. The out breath carries away what isn't needed. Every cell in our body is being replaced with new cells. This meditation invites you to open to the flow of life energy, allowing it to renew you and your life on all levels.

This meditation was recorded live with my guided meditation group. I am thankful that they came up with this theme. It was interesting to hear everyone in the group describe their unique journey with this meditation. I would love to hear about yours!

Flowing with Change Meditation

We've had several requests for a meditation having to do with coping with change, and here it is.  

Just looking at my own life over the past couple months reveals a staggering amount of change.  I'm sure any one of you could report the same. 

Change, of course, is in the nature of life.  It's constant.  Life is movement.  Life is one thing morphing into another.  We don't realize how many changes we are experiencing all the time. The weather changes, our moods change as our hormones fluctuate, relationships, technology and institutions are constantly changing -- it's endless. 

Change can be exciting, but it can also be challenging.   Whether it's a major life change or a myriad of other smaller changes, change is constant and change takes time and energy.  What's more is that it can be mentally and emotionally challenging.  We need to develop mental clarity, emotional stability and adaptable bodies to deal with all the change.

Meditation is one of the best ways to surf the waves of change.  The Flowing with Change Meditation can help with change in several ways.  First, it helps us relax into the reactions that we have to change so that we can be more clear mentally and have more emotional stability. The second is that the deep relaxation of meditation helps us recharge our batteries so that we have more energy for dealing with change.  And finally, the meditation helps us connect with that which doesn't change -- the unchanging nature of our own awareness which is present throughout all our experience.  That awareness is wakeful and intelligent.  It is unchanging and constant, and recognizing it helps us to feel anchored in the midst of change.