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Meditation class and workshop updates Mindfulness

Mindful keys to sustainable high-performance

Dear Integral Meditators,

If you have been following my articles for a while, you will know that one main part of what I do is teaching high-performance mindfulness in Corporate and MBA settings. Recently I have condensed the course into a six-module program that I will be offering to the public for the first time at the end of September. It’s designed to be applicable for anyone with a busy, high-intensity life, and it shows you step by step how you can thrive in your stressful environment, rather than just cope and survive!

I have placed the details of the course below, along with a related article, I hope you’ll consider joining me for the journey, the course is on a special 15% early bird discount until the 2nd September, so if you are keen now is a good time to book your place!

In the spirit of thriving,

Toby


Related article: Mindfulness: The Co-Creation of Happiness and Performance

Mindfulness is the art and practice of bringing more conscious awareness to your activities, relationships, thoughts, emotions, desires and motivations. It functions primarily (though not only) as a method of strengthening the conscious mind and its attendant natural intelligence.
In each moment we are making choices about how much conscious attention and awareness we bring to our activities; mindfulness guides us to bring a high level of consciousness to the activities in our life where it is most important to be fully awake and engaged both personally and professionally.
Read full article

 


Starts Septeber 30th & October 3rd – High-Performance Mindfulness Bootcamp – Combining sustainable high-performance with personal wellbeing

EARLY BIRD OFFER: SIGN UP BEFORE SEPTEMBER 2ND AND GET 15% OFF!

The course can be participated in live or online.

In a sentence: Learn how to create sustainable high performance in your work, and increase your personal wellbeing through mindfulness practice. Learn to:

  • Thrive rather than survive under pressure
  • Develop and sustain higher energy levels
  • Improve your learning mindset as you face the challenges of work and life

Is this course for me?

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

  • You head into work feeling stressed and sleep-deprived before your day has even begun.
  • Your need to make sharp, insightful decisions but you have trouble focusing.
  • You experience low energy and volatile emotions throughout the day.
  • You often sacrifice personal time for more time at work, and yet you never feel like you have enough time to complete your never-ending to-do list.
  • You don’t feel like the way you work is sustainable.

If you’re tired of feeling like you’re constantly forced to choose between work and your well-being, it’s time to restore balance to your life. Learn that the relationship between the two is not a zero-sum game; there exists an alternative that will boost your productivity without you relinquishing peace of mind or personal time….
Click here for full details!

 


Starting Monday September 14th – The Men’s Group – The path of conscious manhood

How can you move from coping to thriving in your life as a man?
Much is asked of men in their traditional roles as fathers and sons, partners and husbands, students and teachers, employees and employers. The men’s group is a professionally moderated and confidential forum for men. A forum is a safe place for exploring, learning and sharing the successful perspectives, skills, and strategies needed to address and manage the unique issues, problems, and triumphs in our community.

This is a six-session live weekly program starting Monday, September 14th, 7-8.30pm.
Full details

 


Life-fullness – The Integral Life-Coaching Program with Toby

Are you looking a coach who can help you to:

  • Meet the challenges, stress and changes that you face in a more effective and mindful way
  • Become happier within yourself, in your relationships and at work
  • Be actively accountable for finding a sense of balance/well-being in your life and fulfilling your personal potential?
  • Guide you to find and operate from a deeper sense of meaning, motivation and connectivity in your life?

Read full details


Online Integral Meditation & Mindfulness classes

Build focus, beat stress, cultivate wellbeing!

Each session involves simple practices that you can apply to make a real difference to your wellbeing and effectiveness in life…full details of classes

 


At a glance: All upcoming classes and workshops for at IMA:

Ongoing – Weekly Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday Online class schedule

Ongoing on Wednesday’s, 7.30-8.30pm – Wednesday Meditation for stress transformation and positive energy with Toby (Bukit Timah)

Ongoing on Tuesday evenings, 7.30-8.30pm – Tuesday Meditation for stress transformation and positive energy with Toby  (East Coast)

Starting Monday September 14th – The Men’s Group – The path of conscious manhood

Starts Sept 30th & October 3rd – High-Performance Mindfulness Bootcamp – Combining sustainable high-performance with personal wellbeing


Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

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Meditations on the dance of gentleness and courage

Dear Integral Meditators,

“Sometimes we long for strength, but sometimes the very way in which we conceive that strength gets in the way of our finding it. How might it be if we tried to express the courage of gentleness sometimes in our life rather than ‘hard’ strength that is brittle and inflexible?”

Meditations on the dance of gentleness and courage mini-course

Date: Tuesday & Wednesday 28th & 29th July

This week’s Tuesday & Wednesday classes are a two session mini-course.
This course looks at ways of meditating that enable us to bring the qualities of gentleness and courage into a complementary dance together in our lives, in a way that encourages:

  • How to discover your inner strength through gentleness
  • How to become courageous in a way that uses your human vulnerability wisely
  • Meet fear and uncertainty more effectively and find confidence in the face of challenges
  • A way of relating to others and yourself that is strong and kind

There are three ways of participating in the course:

Option 1 – For free: Simply read Toby’s two articles on gentleness and courage:
Recognizing Three Types of Fear, Meditating on three Types of Courage
Mindfulness and gentleness – Three reflections

Option 2: Participate in the Tuesday & Wednesday class online for the complete course for SGD$50. If you can’t make the live sessions, you will be sent the recordings to listen to in your own time.

Option 3: Participate in either one or the other of the Tuesday or Wednesday online sessions for SGD$30

To book your place please contact Toby at info@tobyouvry.com.

In the spirit of gentle courage,

Toby

 


In case you missed last weeks article: Aspects of environmental meditation

Environmental meditation, simply put, is using the different elements of our environment as objects of meditation in order to effect the transformation of our consciousness, and move us into a state of balanced communion with the Earth. It mostly works directly and experientially with what is immediately present in our surroundings. It is one of the most ancient and primal forms of meditation around, and you can find elements of it in both the eastern and western traditions.
Below are a few ways in which you can start to practice environmental meditation…
Read full article here.


Life-fullness – The Integral Life-Coaching Program with Toby

Are you looking a coach who can help you to:

  • Meet the challenges, stress and changes that you face in a more effective and mindful way
  • Become happier within yourself, in your relationships and at work
  • Be actively accountable for finding a sense of balance/well-being in your life and fulfilling your personal potential?
  • Guide you to find and operate from a deeper sense of meaning, motivation and connectivity in your life?

Read full details


Stress-transformation coaching with Toby

Stress, anxiety, fear, pressure, anger, attachment – Ordinarily we see these states of mind and emotion as negative; things that get in the way of our happiness and well-being, and prevent us from achieving the goals and quality of life that we would like.

But what if there was a way in which we could learn to work with these negative and difficult energies in such a way that we could transform and redirect them, making them sources of positive and empowering energy, helping us to accomplish our goals and awaken to a new level of fulfillment?

Stress transformation coaching with Toby is exactly that; it shows you how you can transform your stress, anxiety and other difficult emotions into forces for the good in your life…
Read full details

 


Online Integral Meditation & Mindfulness classes

Build focus, beat stress, cultivate wellbeing!

Each session involves simple practices that you can apply to make a real difference to your wellbeing and effectiveness in life…full details of classes

 

 


At a glance: All upcoming classes and workshops for at IMA:

Weekly Online class schedule

Ongoing on Wednesday’s, 7.30-8.30pm – Wednesday Meditation for stress transformation and positive energy with Toby (Bukit Timah)

Ongoing on Tuesday evenings, 7.30-8.30pm – Tuesday Meditation for stress transformation and positive energy with Toby  (East Coast)

Tuesday’s at 12.30-1.20 – Ongoing Tuesday Lunchtime meditation class @Space2B

Coming in July – High performance bootcamp: Using mindfulness to operate at your peak without burning out


Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

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Meditation recording – Think well or don’t think (& new visualization & qi gong meditation)

Dear Integral Meditators,

Here’s this weeks guided meditation, you can read more about the practice in the article below, essentially its how to practice three mindful positions around your thinking:
8 minute power meditation on thinking well or not thinking

Lots of new online sessions coming up, including Sunday Qi gong light body meditation, a visualization masterclass, and next week’s Full Moon and Wesak meditations.  Scroll down below for the details!

In the spirit of mindful thinking,

Toby


Article: Think well or don’t think

Here’s a mindful game that you can play with yourself. Take a period of time, say between 3-15 minutes. In this time frame your principle object of mindfulness is going to be your thoughts. The rules are that whatever you are thinking about you should either think about it well or simply stop your thinking…  Read full article


Sundays 6-6.50pm – Qi gong energy body activation meditation (Livestream)

These are Qi gong meditation sessions to activate and enhance the flow of ‘qi’ or subtle energy in your body. We will then be using this flow for:

  • Enhancing physical health and healing
  • Increased emotional wellbeing and mental balance
  • Access to deeper, more dynamic meditation states to transform and regenerate your body, mind and soul…Full details of session

 


Tues 5th & Weds May 6th – Online Full Moon Meditation & Manifestation Session

This meditation, done on or around the full moon capitalises on the heightened lunar energies at this time of the month to:

  • Bring energy and health to our physical body
  • Increase benevolent, life affirming emotions such as appreciation, joy and gratitude
  • Release patterns of energy, thinking and feeling that are no longer serving us
  • Focus on clarifying our intentions and manifesting our current life-goals

Read full details 


Thursday 7th May, 6.30-7.30pm – Wesak Meditation on Compassion

Toby will be leading a meditation to help you to:

  • Find a place of coolness, peace and stability amidst the turbulence of your own life.
  • Connect to the energy of compassion.
  • Connect to your own deeper intention to work for the greater good.
  • Connect to the ‘Community of Bodhisattvas’, those indomitable beings who work continuously for the wellbeing of the world

Full details of Wesak class


Saturday 16th May, 4-6pm – Mindful Envisioning – A meditation, visualization & imagining masterclass

A picture speaks a thousand words! Learn how to build powerful meditation states through your imagination and visualization that can be put to many practical uses…
Read more about the workshop


Online Integral Meditation & Mindfulness classes

Build focus, beat stress, cultivate wellbeing!

Each session involves simple practices that you can apply to make a real difference to your wellbeing and effectiveness in life…full details of classes

 

 


All upcoming classes and workshops for at IMA:

Weekly Online class schedule

Ongoing on Wednesday’s, 7.30-8.30pm – Wednesday Meditation for stress transformation and positive energy with Toby (Bukit Timah)

Ongoing on Tuesday evenings, 7.30-8.30pm – Tuesday Meditation for stress transformation and positive energy with Toby  (East Coast)

Ongoing Sundays 6-6.50pm –  Qi gong energy body activation meditation (Livestream)

Tues 5th & Weds May 6th, 7.30-8.30pm – Online Full Moon Meditation & Manifestation Session

Thursday 7th May, 6.30-7.30pm – Online Wesak Meditation on Compassion

Saturday 16th May, 4-6pm – Mindful Envisioning – A meditation, visualization & imagining masterclass

Saturday 16th May 10.30am-12noon – ONLINE Get your meditation practice started now – The shortest & most time effective meditation course ever


Integral Meditation AsiaOnline Courses 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

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Integral Meditation Meditation class and workshop updates

Transforming Stress into Happiness – An Introduction to Integral Mindfulness Meditation – A Five Week Online Course

Carrier ShellStarting: Thursday February 4th

Up until 19th February catch the special early bird price, see below!

In a sentence: Learn a simple, powerful series of mindfulness meditation techniques to enhance your quality of life, sense of inner wellbeing and transform stress and difficulties into causes of happiness.

Course overview:  This is a five module online course starting onThursday February 4th that aims to provide you with practical, streetwise mindfulness techniques that you can start using right away to transform the way you experience your reality, improve the quality of your relationships and increase your work effectiveness.

An outline of each of the course modules:

Module one introduces you to the basic mindful flow state and how you can use it to cultivate and improve your focus, concentration and inner peace

Module two shows you how you can find progressively deeper levels of freedom from stress and tension using mindfulness

Module three focuses upon techniques for increasing your mental positivity when under pressure

Module four looks at how you can deal with difficult emotions more effectively, even learning to transform them in to positive ones

Module five looks at how you can connect and cultivate deeper levels of inner stillness through the use of simple mindful visualization skills

In each module you will receive:

  • A written article by Toby explaining the mindfulness technique clearly, its practical applications and relevance to your daily life
  • A ten minute guided MP3 mindfulness meditation on the module topic

How it works:

After purchasing the course, each Thursday starting on 4th January you will be sent an email with the module article and a link to download the MP3 meditation recording. You can then read the article and listen to the recording in your own time. It is as simple as that!

How much does it cost?

The cost of the course is US$49, but there are two early bird promotions:

Up until 19th February it can be purchased for US$29

From 20th-29th February it can be purchased for $39 after which time the price will be fixed at $49

PURCHASE THE INTEGRAL MINDFULNESS ONLINE COURSE SPECIAL EARLY BIRD PRICE OF US$29 VIA PAYPAL HERE

Any questions or further enquiries contact info@integralmeditationasia.com

******

Toby Ouvry bw (142 x 196)About the teacher, Toby Ouvry

Toby has a BA Hons degree in Fine Art from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Subsequent to his degree, Toby spent ten years doing his foundational training in meditation and mindfulness, specializing in the Tibetan Tradition which included five years as an ordained Buddhist monk.

He has been practicing and teaching mindfulness & meditation for over nineteen years. As the founder and principle facilitator at Integral Meditation Asia he delivers mindfulness programs to both the public and corporate sectors. His clients include both government organizations in Singapore as well as numerous SME’s and MNC’s. He is a meditation and mindfulness blogger, and the author and creator of over fifteen practical workshops and courses on the subject.

In his teaching, facilitating and coaching he combines practical mindfulness and meditation techniques from three sources:

  • the world’s great wisdom traditions
  • cutting edge practices that are currently emerging from both the integral and evolutionary consciousness movements
  • His own practical and creative experience

Toby is also an artist and entrepreneur. As such his presentation of mindfulness reflects a strong interest in both how it can be linked to work performance and engagement, as well as stimulating more deeply the innate capacity for creative intelligence found within both individuals and groups.

You can find out more about Toby’s work on meditation, mindfulness and integral living by going to www.integralmeditationasia.com, to read his mindful blog writings go to www.tobyouvry.com

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Integral Meditation Life-fullness Meditation class and workshop updates

Online Class & Free 5min Audio: Meditating on Benevolence – Yours Sense of Inner Wealth

Dear Integral Meditators,

I’ve been thinking for a little while now about how to create an inexpensive way in which people can participate in the Integral Meditation Asia meditation & mindfulness experience online from anywhere in the world.

Below is the first of what I am planning will be a series of monthly meditation offerings for people to participate in! Scroll down to read further details & to listen to the free five minute meditation.

Up until July 14th it will be on a special launch offer price of Sing$15.

In the spirit of the journey,

Toby


Online Class: Meditating on Benevolence – Yours Sense of Inner Wealth

Types of class: This is a class available online, upon payment you will be sent the download links for the MP3 recordings and other class materials.

In a sentence: Combine relaxation and focus with the cultivation of benevolence, or your sense of big-heartedness and inner wealth

More details: The main content of this class is a 45 minute meditation where you will be guided through a process that helps you to

  • Connect to and cultivate the feeling of benevolence within your body, heart & mind
  • Enhance that experience of benevolence by connecting to your own personal symbols, images and role-models of benevolence
  • Further strengthen & grow your benevolence by receiving and giving benevolence to significant others in your life
  • Focus on ways in which you can integrate benevolence into your daily life & actions in a practical way

Listen to a free five minute sample of the class meditation:

Giving and Receiving Benevolence 5 minute sample

In addition to the main recording you will receive:

  • A short 12 minute ‘essential meditation’ on benevolence to help you continue integrating benevolence into your daily life
  • A PDF mindmap summary of the practices in the class & written article on benevolence entitled ‘Benevolence – Your Big Heartedness’.

The cost: Up until July 14th launch price of Sing$15  (US$11, UK£7 equivalent)
At the end of July 14th the price will go up to Sing$20.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE MEDITATION ON BENEVOLENCE CLASS

Note: Please allow 24hours from the purchase date for the class to be sent to you


Upcoming Courses at Integral Meditation Asia:

Click HERE for the July schedule of classes at IMA


Integral Meditation Asia

 

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Integral Awareness Integral Meditation Meditation class and workshop updates Meditation Recordings Mindful Self-Leadership Mindfulness Motivation and scope Stress Transformation

Leaping Like a Tiger: Mindful Self-Leadership

Dear Integral Meditators,

What sort of ideas spring into your mind when you think of the words self-leadership? Integral Meditation Asia is excited to bring you three opportunities to learn about mindful self-leadership this May!

Before I talk more about that, just a quick reminder for anyone interested in the‘Meditating with the Tree of Yoga – A Twelve Module online Course’ the special price offer of $39 will be coming to an end this Thursday 17th April. So if you are interested, do make sure you get it before then!  

Back to Mindful Self-Leadership: You can read the full details of the courses on MS-L below, and I have created a five minute video Leaping Like a Tiger – Mindful Self Leadership which you can view here:

Yours in the spirit of leading and leaping,

Toby


Mindful Self-Leadership: Take Control of Your Life Direction and Wellbeing Through Awareness, Curiosity, Courage and Care.

A Free Talk, a Workshop and an Online Course

In a sentence: Learn how you can develop deep confidence in yourself, take benevolent control of your life, overcome inner inhibitions such as fear and invite fulfillment and wellbeing into your life through the practice of mindful self leadership.

Overview: The best place to learn how lead is within yourself. Do you agree?

Developing your Mindful Self-leadership is about how you can:

  • Feel increasing levels of comfort and confidence in your relationship to yourself, your life and in your ability to take your life in the direction that you truly want it to go
  •  Develop your self-knowledge and self-understanding so as to find out what will really make you most happy
  • Find ways of being making use of the challenges that you face, by taking responsibility for them and leading yourself to the best solutions to those challenges
  • Learn to communicate with yourself and others in a way that encourages you to express your deeper values in the way you think feel and act
  • Develop a capacity for self-leadership that will be an inspiration to others and encourage them to develop their own self-leadership skills
  • Do all of the above using a set of mindfulness practices that enables you to drop into states of mind that are relaxing, peaceful and regenerative, and that will help you dramatically reduce the amount of negative stress and anxiety in your life.

If you have been answering ‘yes’ to the above points then the course in mindful self leadership is for you!

This course is suitable for:

  • Those who may be new to mindfulness and who want to learn it in a way that cultivates the self-leadership skills outlined above.
  • People who are already familiar with mindfulness and meditation practice and wish to learn how to use it in a leadership context.

There are three opportunities to participate in the Mindful-Self Leadership training:

  • Attend a free introductory talk on Mindful Self-Leadership at 10-11am  on Sunday 4th May the  at Basic Essence
  • A three hour Mindful Self-Leadership workshop in Singapore in Sunday May 18th at Basic Essence. For full information see details below.
  • A Five week Mindful Self-Leadership online course that will begin on Thursday 22nd May see below for full details.

What does it cost?:

  • The Introductory talk on 4th May is FREE
  • The three hour Mindful Self-Leadership workshop on 18th May is Singapore$130
  • The five week Mindful Self-Leadership Online Course is Sing$200 ($180 before May 8th)
  • You can participate in both the Mindful Self-Leadership three hour workshop AND online course for a combined price of $300. In addition to this you can get an early bird price for both the 3 hour WS of Sing$285 if you book and make payment before Thursday,  May 8th

TO MAKE PAYMENT FOR THE MINDFUL SELF-LEADERSHIP 3 HOUR WORKSHOP BY CREDIT CARD, CLICK HERE

TO MAKE PAYMENT FOR THE MINDFUL SELF-LEADERSHIP 5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE BY CREDIT CARD, CLICK HERE (Sing$180 before May 8th, after that $200)

TO MAKE PAYMENT FOR THE MINDFUL SELF-LEADERSHIP 3 HOUR WORKSHOP AND 5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE BUNDLE (EARLY BIRD COST JUST SING$285 BEFORE 8th MAY) BY CREDIT CARD, CLICK HERE

Free Talk on Mindful Self-Leadership

Date: Sunday 4th April
Time: 10-11am
Location: Basic Essence, (For location Map click HERE)

******

Details of the Mindful Self-Leadership Three Hour Workshop:

Date: Sunday May 18th
Time: 9.30am-12.30
Location: Basic Essence, (For location Map click HERE)

This three our workshop introduces four fundamental mindfulness practices that you can take into your daily life in order to develop your capacity for confident self-leadership. These four practices are as follows:

  1. Encountering – Developing your foundation for mindful self–leadership by increasing your capacity to encounter ALL of your reality without being intimidated by it
  2. Accepting – Mindfully accepting all of whom you are in order to lead yourself beyond who you are
  3. Envisioning – Connecting to the values of your personal self-leadership style
  4. Empowering – Taking responsibility for respecting who you are and expressing it appropriately in your life

Each of these practices invites the ongoing development of your own personal self-leadership style and understanding of how it can be integrated into your daily life.
As well as guiding these exercises Toby will here will be giving talks on each of them, and there will be time for exploration of the practices through Q&A.

In addition to the workshop you will receive:

  • MP3 recordings of the practices and talks that are done during the workshop
  • Full workshop notes with all of the mindful self leadership exercises included as well as other relevant articles and materials.
  • All in all you will have a very clear idea of how you can continue your mindful self leadership practice in your daily life after leaving the workshop
 ******

Taking Control of Your Life Through Mindful Self-Leadership – A Five Week Online Course

Start date: Thursday May 22nd

Course Outline: This five week online course is an in depth exploration of how you can develop your mindful self-leadership style in order to:

  • Develop increasing confidence and self-direction in life
  • Align yourself with what will really make you inwardly fulfilled
  • Take advantages of your challenges in life to further self-knowledge and discovery
  • Assert values and actions in your life that are congruent with who you are
  • Become the leader you want to be when he going gets tough in your life
  • Combine self-leadership with the daily cultivation of inner peace and wellbeing

Module titles:

Module 1: Getting started; a outline and overview of the elements of mindful self-leadership and how to start cultivating your experience of it on a daily basis
Module 2: Accepting who you are in order to go beyond who you are – Exploring the paradox of mindful self-leadership
Module 3: You can’t practice self leadership if you don’t know where you want to go – Getting to grips with what you really want in life
Module 4: You know more than you think you know – Accessing your inner guidance for the purposes of mindful self-leadership
Module 5: The long leadership journey to where you are – Exploring the spiritual dimension of self-leadership

How it works: Upon registering for the course you will be sent the link to the course webpage together with the password to access it. This will be the place you can go in order to access, listen to and download the course materials. Each week during the five weeks of the course you will be notified when the latest module has been uploaded.

For further details: Please contact info@integralmeditationasia.com

TO MAKE PAYMENT FOR THE MINDFUL SELF-LEADERSHIP 5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE BY CREDIT CARD, CLICK HERE

TO MAKE PAYMENT FOR THE MINDFUL SELF-LEADERSHIP 3 HOUR WORKSHOP AND 5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE BUNDLE (EARLY BIRD COST JUST SING$285 BEFORE 8th MAY) BY CREDIT CARD, CLICK HERE

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No Name (Meditation Spaghetti Western Style)

 Dear Integral Meditators,

I hope this message finds you well, I’m currently back in the UK and enjoying my time re-connecting to the summer landscape with all the woods plants and greenery that surrounds my family home!

 

Wishing you all the very best in your meditation practice,

Toby

No Name (Meditation Spaghetti Western Style)

The man or woman of no rank is a nice practice found within various meditation traditions. Essentially the idea is that, when in meditation you can temporarily drop all the labels that you normally attach to yourself and just be.
During our daily life we build our sense of who we are around labels;

  • I am an architect, manager, artist, teacher, saleswoman
  • I am this type of son, wife, father, daughter
  • My friends think of me as this type of person
  • Etc…

When we set these labels aside we become free to be, to be “ourself” and to connect with our “ true” or essential self; the self that lies beyond the labels we stick upon ourselves.

As a longtime fan of the Spaghetti Western and the man with no name, I often do this meditation with a visualization that looks something like this:

  • I am sitting on a bench outside an empty bar/hotel in a western (as in wild western) town that has long since been deserted by its inhabitants
  • There is the creaking of an old signboard above me, a gusting breeze, a big sky. A few of those rolling bushes are going by in the street, the town is surrounded by desert scrub, no one is around.
  • In this space I simply imagine myself sitting thinking of nothing, dropping any memory of who I am.
  • Progressively I become just a man, then a human being (genderless), then just a being, I just be, allowing myself to merge with the vastness of the landscape around me. I relax deeply.

Returning to your identity
The idea of regularly dropping your identity is to gain freedom from our normal automatic over-identification with the labels that we allow to consciously and/or unconsciously dominate our identity. By doing this we develop the capacity to live a life that is psychologically free from these labels, but that enables us to use these labels wisely and appropriately when necessary.
For example I’m Clint Eastwood, the world famous western actor. Oh no sorry forgot, I’m Toby Ouvry the meditation teacher, or at least I was before I started this article, and I think he’s still there!

© Toby Ouvry 2013, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com