I’ve just completed the write ups for the summer meditation courses. Both the weekday classes & the Saturday deep-dive sessions will be focused on the chakras as gateways to non-duality.
Actually, all seven chakras have three levels; bio-energetic, mental & consciousness.
In the sessions we will look at all three in an intergral manner, with the emphasis being on the final wisdom-state of the conscious level. The seven gatweays we will cover are:
First chakra – stability, abundance, unity with the world
Second chakra – energy, creativity, union with life
Third chakra – Confidence, power, union with mind
Fourth chakra – Heart, merging, relating – union as love
Fifth chakra – sound, speech, mantra – unity through silence
Sixth Chakra – Observation, integration – union as the witness
Seventh chakra – Consciousness, integration – formless union
I’m pretty excited to facilitate these sessions, I’ve been practising different forms of chakram meditation for the last 30 years, & this will be a conndensation of that expereince into a single 8 session format. If your looking for an ‘inner summer to remember’, this might be your ticket!
Programs can be participated in live, online or via the recordngs. Click below for full details.
What is unique to these sessions is that Toby will be showing how to meditate on each of the chakras as gateways to the non-dual state, which is considered the highest or ‘ultimate’ level of wisdom-meditation practice.
Non-duality is a state beyond verbal description, but it can be understood more deeply & profoundly by approaching it from the seven different levels of the chakras. In doing so the richness of your non-dual meditation, & your ability to apply it effectively in daily life will be greatly enhanced….read full details
“You are the seagull above the whirlpool of your life. See yourself centred, relaxed, skilfully adapting to the wind changes, accepting them, working with them moment to moment. You are entirely at home”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week’s article offers an image for experiencing mindful stress transformation that really struck me.
Also the Wednesday & Saturday Inner smile meditations are also focused on energy and emotional stress transformation, this week we look at moving from fear to fear & stress to gentleness/calm.
In the spirit of seagulls,
Toby
The seagull whirlpool & other stress transformations
At the end of 2014 I wrote an article called ‘The stability of uncertainty’. In it I write about my experience of working with high degrees of uncertainty, stress and change, and learning to quietly thrive on it rather than be oppressed by it. It was a real ‘best of times, worst of times’ period in my life, when I was learning that uncertainty can be transformed and thrived upon if it can be accepted. After awareness, all stress transformation practice begins with acceptance. It is the sure footing that you build in order to then gain the confidence to work with pressure dynamically. Looking back and reading that article, I’m struck by how much of it I still agree with, and find relevant to my own process right now, at this later stage in my life and growth.
On the original article post I noticed that I had used a picture of two seagulls circling above a whirlpool. Looking at it now, I am struck by what a great image this is for becoming a stress transformer. If you imagine you are one of those seagulls. Above the whirlpool there will be strong, fast changing winds, the birds have to adapt moment to moment. Below is a whirlpool that if they get caught up in it would pull them under the ocean. But for a gull, despite all the chaotic energy around them, this feels like home. In fact, this IS their home, their native environment. They are able to stay centred in their bodies, making skilful adjustments to their wings, rejoicing in their capability, enjoying the dance. Compared to the forces around them, they are tiny, like small specks, but they are not thinking about their size or significance, they are busy enjoying being who and what they are, knowing that they can survive, thrive and make their living amidst the turbulence. Thinking about one of the really big gulls, the albatross, it can go out flying over the open ocean for 6 months at a time, which is really quite something!
You are the seagull above the whirlpool of your life
Imagine yourself now as the seagull above the whirlpool of your life. All of the chaos, the turbulence, the uncertainty, the contending forces in your life are like the whirlpool below you, and the wind and weather around you. See yourself centred in your body, relaxed, skilfully adapting to the wind changes, accepting them, working with them moment to moment. You don’t know exactly what comes next, but you deeply trust in your capability to meet and adapt to it. Constantly moving and adapting, you feel stable in this environment, like it is a home. In the sky and above the whirlpool you live, confident in your ability to find what you need to survive, and able to enjoy what comes your way in the moment. You have made tension your friend, and so you feel free, relaxed, the sovereign of your world. You are connected to your natural intelligence and dignity. Bring to mind a challenge you are facing in your life right now. Feel the fear, anxiety, overwhelm, or whatever else you feel around it. Now be the seagull.
Also the Wednesday & Saturday Inner smile meditations are also focused on energy and emotional stress transformation, you might enjoy these as well!
In the spirit of transformation,
Toby
Rats, meadows, & the World doing Itself (Stress tolerance & transformation)
Undergoing an expansion of capacity more gently
These last few weeks I have been going through a bit of a life change. I’ve felt an urge to take on a few new projects, and the combination of them, in tandem with my existing commitments has left me feeling somewhat dis-oriented and overwhelmed. The interesting thing about the overwhelm in this case is that I don’t feel ‘overwhelmed by the overwhelm’. What I mean by this is that, previously in a similar situation I would be incapacitated by the overwhelm, and then have to cut back on what I am doing in order to get back into balance. In this situation however, I feel more like what I am doing is something that I can do, and I just need to figure out how to relax into it, and my capacity will expand to the size of the challenge.
How to meditate when your mind is too busy, and you feel overwhelmed
I did a coaching session with a client last week, where he had been facing a similar challenge to me; too many things going on on all fronts. As he sat down to meditate, his mind just would not settle; things he had to do kept jumping into his mind. He was sometimes left feeling that he may as well have not meditated!
The positions we explored to help make his meditation time more productive were:
Noticing – That when we feel over-busy, our field of awareness can feel small, like we are stuck in our head. In our head are a bunch of ‘rats in a bag’ all bumping into each other and creating claustrophobia and friction.
Expanding – I suggested that, rather than trying to control his thoughts in this ‘small-mind’ environment, he could try making his awareness big. I mentioned the Zen expression ‘If you want to control your cow or your sheep, put it in a big meadow. To quote from a previous article on the subject: “When sitting with the thoughts in your mind, rather than trying to control them, stop them or ‘fix’ them, you simply make your mind and awareness bigger, like a large open meadow …. In such an environment an animal will tend to simply wonder off, find its place in the field and be content. So, when you make your awareness big, you can sit there watching the thoughts without being so bothered by them, and they in turn tend to gradually return to equilibrium, without you having to work that hard to control or fix them.”
I am the Word doing Itself – In addition to making our mind ‘big’ in this way, I suggested a non-dual perceptual shift. Rather than seeing himself as in the world, struggling to make his way amongst all of the busyness and activity, he should see himself as the ‘World doing Itself’. This perceptual shift means expanding your sense of your body-mind to be the Whole World, way beyond just your small body and individual life. Everything around you is you, you are the World, and the World is doing itself.
This third position keeps your awareness big, and all your little struggles feel correspondingly much more manageable. Because everything feels less stressful and more manageable, dealing with challenges in your life, on multiple-levels becomes much more manageable. We discover that we can take on more, whilst using less energy, and as a result we find our overall capacity increases.
My client liked these three positions, and we did a meditation on them before concluding. Of course, these three positions are equally useful for me in my life, as I expand into the next chapter and explore the limits of my own capacity!
“Can you distinguish your feelings from your emotions? Oftentimes this skill can help you navigate stressful situations more successfully, & with less effort!”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week’s article looks at how to distinguish feeling states from emotional states, & use it to navigate difficult circumstances more easily. If you enjoy it, then I invite you to my Mindfulness for emotional intelligence masterclass this Saturday 25th April, 2.30-4.30pm, live or online!
This week’s Wednesday & Saturday class continue our inner-smile meditation series, which is also focused on mindfulness around emotions. All welcome.
In the spirit of ease,
Toby
How to stop difficult feelings becoming negative emotions
The difference between feelings and emotions
One of the most useful distinctions in Buddhist insight meditation that I have found is the distinction between feelings and emotions. Broadly speaking feelings are simply the experience of that which is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. By contrast emotions arise from a psychological process that involves thinking in a particular way about a feeling. Here are two simple examples:
I see a person who has wronged me in the past, instinctively an unpleasant feeling arises. I then start to reflect on the harm that they have caused me and develop anger or anger. This anger is the emotion, arising from the psychological process of paying attention to the harm done in combination with the initial unpleasant feelings.
I am sick, giving rise to unpleasant feelings in my body. I start to think about how this sickness is ruining my only two weeks of holiday in the year and I start to develop the emotions of frustration, despair and sadness.
Here we can start to see the basic distinction; pain is simply the feeling arising within the moment. We experience emotion when we combine a feeling with a psychological process of focusing on the feeling in a particular way. With regard to painful feelings, often we compound the pain they cause us by focusing on them in a way that causes us to experience emotional suffering, as in the examples above. The key therefore in preventing painful feelings becoming full blown emotional suffering is to avoid thinking about them or focusing on them in such a way that negative emotions are stimulated.
Some sources of painful feelings
The five sources of painful feelings below are a non-exhaustive list, but it gives an idea of the variety of different sources that can cause painful feelings within us. Any of them if focused on in the wrong way can cause negative emotions to arise:
Physical pain arising from sickness or injury
Pain or irritability arising from hormonal or other biological or energetic imbalances within the body
From people who say or do harmful things to us or have done so in the past
From psychological and/or existential anxiety, e.g.: Worried about not being good enough, fear of dying, fear of stepping out of comfort zone etc…
From spiritual crisis; for example, when the old self or ego structures are collapsing in order for a new level of self-sense to arise.
An insight meditation for acknowledging and releasing negative feelings
Here is a brief insight meditation form that we can use to prevent difficult feelings turning into negative emotions:
Stage 1: Breathing in I am aware of my painful feelings, Breathing out I acknowledge those feelings fully. Stage 2: Breathing in I experience my tight grasping at those painful feelings, Breathing out I relax my grasping at those feelings, Stage 3: Breathing in I detach from those feelings, Breathing out I extend compassion and understanding to those feelings.
In stage one as we breathe in, we become consciously aware of any painful feelings we may be experiencing, as we breathe out, we acknowledge them fully. Often, we try and repress or deny negative feelings, which in turn allow them to build and transform into negative emotions. Fully acknowledging what is there and gives feelings the attention they need in order to be addressed.
In stage two we observe how we are clinging to these painful feelings, grasping at them tightly. Then, as we breathe out, we consciously release that tight grasping, energetically relaxing our body and mind.
In stage three we detach from those painful feelings, at the same time as extending a feeling of compassion and understanding toward them. We combine the objective experience of detachment with the positive emotional tonalities of compassion and understanding.
Suggestions for Daily Practice
The essential point is that feelings can be distinguished from emotions, and we can prevent negative emotions from arising by avoiding focusing on painful feelings in the wrong way. The brief meditation technique I describe above can be done as a two-minute exercise or as an extended meditation, taking a few minutes to focus on each of the stages. It is a meditation that is worth doing sometimes even if we are not fully aware of any negative feelings inside us, as often it will bring to light feelings within us the need a bit of tender loving care. Of course if there are also practical things that we can do to alleviate the negative feelings, like taking medicine, or having a conversation to clear the air with our partner about a hurt we have then this should be done to!
“If we can allow ourselves to skilfully acknowledge & experience difficult emotions, there is a corresponding release of a range of positive, enjoyable emotions.”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week’s article focuses on emotions & how you work with them as a major lynch-pin of your energetic resilience. Its something that we will be exploring in depth in the new Wednesday and Saturday meditation series on building confidence & resilience with the inner-smile practice.
In the spirit of integration,
Toby
Mindfulness, emotions & your MRVA’s (Mass rapid value assessments)
Healing and regenerating the energy of your physical body and internal organs
Revitalise and transform your emotional vitality
Build a warm, empowered & confident relationship to your life
To really get these skills to work effectively, we need to understand the energy of emotions, their power, and how to get them to flow healthily within us. Emotions are psych-somatic, partaking of both our bodily and mental energy. A good relationship to emotions opens our life-force and joie de vivre tremendously. A blocked or combattative relationship to our emotions tends to constrict our life-force, limiting our energy in life no matter how hard we try. Here is a working definition of emotion from Nathaniel Branden, for the purposes of this article
“An emotion is a value-response. It is an automatic psychological result (involving mental and somatic features) of a super-rapid subconscious appraisal. Emotions are psychosomatic embodiments of value judgments…Since emotions are the product of complex integrations of ideas beliefs and experiences, they cannot be commanded out of existence, neither by and act of will or by repression. It is a disastrous error to imagine that an emotion – merely because it is judged undesirable – can be repressed or dismissed with impunity.” *
Emotions happen very quickly then, as our body-mind engages in many ‘Mass rapid value assessments’ (MRVA’s). Once an emotion has been stimulated, it IS, whether we like it or not. So how should we approach it. To quote Branden again:
“If we acknowledge and permit ourselves to experience our painful or undesired feelings, without self-pity, and without self-condemnation, we facilitate the process of healing integration.” *
If we can allow ourselves to skilfully acknowledge and experience difficult emotions, a corollary benefit will be the release of a whole range of positive, enjoyable emotions.
How to acknowledge and experience emotions
A simple way to begin is to sit down, sense into yourself and simply describe the emotions you are feeling. You can either do this organically with whatever is there in the moment, or with regard to a particular emotion you are struggling with. As you do this you will notice there are both bodily and mental aspects to it. My go-to practice for years now has been something called sentence completion. You create a sentence stem, and then complete it, either writing or verbally around ten times, in whatever way occurs to you, as quickly and non-judgmentally as you can.
Here is an example around depression: If I allow myself to experience and acknowledge the feeling I am calling depression within me –
I feel like there is a huge weight on my shoulders
My eyes stare from hollow sockets
My mouth hangs open like a zombie
I want to sleep for a thousand years
I feel overwhelmed by all the things I have to do
I resent others for leaving me with all the responsibility
I feel confused about what to do next
The world feels like an insurmountable mountain
I can feel myself more present in my body now, landing and feeling stronger
I feel a release and renewed enthusiasm and I move through it
Here you can see that, by the end of the sentence completion I’m already kind of pulling out of the difficult emotion, and moving toward something better. Better still, I have processed the emotion and an now move on from it into the next part of the day in freedom. All this can sound a bit too good to be true until you actually try it, but once you get the hang of it all sorts of possibilities start to open up!
* Quote: Nat Branden, from ‘the Disowned Self’, chapter on the undiscovered self (Page 27 & 33)
“’Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone’.The tricky thing is that with a busy mind, where there is conflicting or competing energies, this is often the last thing that we feel like doing!”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week I’ll be doing a couple of open talks and meditations on the five types of meditators:
Wednesday 1st April is online only
Saturday 4th April is Live in person & online
Details and links are below. If you are not able to make the sessions live, but want to have a listen, let me know & I’ll be happy to send the recordings on…
Beneath the session details you can find this weeks artcle on ‘Muddy water – Meditation as waiting, allowing’.
This week’s article: Muddy water – Meditation as waiting & allowing
Back when I was teaching meditation classes as a monk, we used to use the analogy of muddy water to explain meditation. It is quite well known, and you may have heard of it yourself. It basically says that a busy mind is like muddy water; if you leave it to stand for long enough, the mud will settle and the water becomes clear. There are a couple of ‘sources’ for this analogy:
1. In chapter 15 of the Tao te ching, Lao Tsu refers to it: “Clear as a glass of water. Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?”
2. It can also be found in the Buddhist sutras, specifically the Surangama sutra, where it says: “It (meditation) is like purifying muddy water by placing it in a quiet vessel which is kept completely still and unmoving. The sand and silt settle, and the pure water appears. This is called the initial subduing of the guest-dust affliction.”
3. More recently Alan watts refers to it in his teachings in ‘the way of Zen’, where he says “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone”
The main thing I want to emphasize here is that clarity is achieved through leaving alone and waiting. It is very difficult for us to try to clear our mind in meditation, but the effort itself prevents us from letting the ‘mud’ of our mind settle, and achieve clarity. The clarity is ‘achieved’ essentially by:
Waiting
Watching
Letting alone
Being patient
Doing precisely nothing, the less the better!
So then, you could consider it a perfectly valid meditation practice just to sit down and wait. The key here would be to do nothing else; just sit, wait, relax. The tricky thing is that with a busy mind, where there is conflicting or competing energies, this is often the last thing that we feel like doing! We want to:
Get rid of the conflict
‘Achieve’ clarity
Escape from, not have to face, what is within us
Get it done quickly
All of this makes it quite difficult to do nothing other than wait, watch and allow.
Mastering, or at least getting better at this waiting process in meditation then starts to bleed into our daily life. Where we start to see that we can achieve several things much more easily by waiting and non-doing, rather than striving and getting busy. We start to access the art of Wu-wei, or doing-by-non-doing. This is a way of getting things done that is complementary, not contradictory to our striving and achieving approach. Indeed, it can make our striving and achieving more skilful and relaxed when we realize we don’t have to try quite as hard as we thought. Rather it is a matter of trying smarter rather than trying harder…
“Awareness of colour & facial expression are two ways of using mindful attention to improve your mood and energy with very little effort. You just need to remember them & return to them often”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week’s article focuses on working with colour & facial expression, both powerful, enjoyable methods for enhancing mood & energy.
The two ‘mindful positions’ that we explore in this article are:
The energetics of colour, and tuning into the colour you need right now
The expression on your face, and working with what it is communicating
What colour does my body need?
If you have ever drawn or painted with colours, you might have noticed that concentrating on colour can feel great. After an hour of working with a green, blue and yellow landscape picture, you can really feel how these colours make you feel relaxed, calm and energised, even if you aren’t a great artist. Similarly, if you go outside and just notice the colours in the landscape around you, you will notice that certain colours feel great to just stare at, absorb the energy of and relax. On a slightly deeper level, if you ask yourself the question what coulor does my body energy need right now to move toward balance? Quite quickly you will notice your body intelligence will suggest a colour to surround yourself with.
If it needs energy it may move toward oranges or reds
If it needs lifting, it might move towards yellows
If it needs balancing and harmonizing, it might move toward greens
For calmness blues, and so on…
You can then just imagine yourself surrounded by that colour and let your body-mind absorb it, with often rapid effect. You might feel also that the colour has a ‘sound’ or vibration, which you can enjoy too.
Variation: You can imagine a point of energy in your belly, heart, and head. Ask each of these areas of your body what colour it needs. Breathe each of these colours into the particular area of the body, building that colour vibration there. You will get to know what colours work for you powerfully very quickly if you do this.
Your facial expression
The expression on your face communicates how you are feeling, but often we are unaware of it. If you are on a commute, and look at people’s faces, you will see this quite clearly! If you become aware of your face, and notice tension, stress or a bad mood there, here are three stages you can try:
Notice the expression and the mood it embodies. Accept it, even exaggerate the expression a little to really get a feeling for what is there
Next, relax your face, release the expression, move your face toward a calm, neutral position, enjoy it
Third, raise the corners of your mouth a little, so that your face is in the position of a half-smile. Feel the gentle joy and radiance of this expression, let it spread from your face into your body, and any parts of your body-mind that might need a bit of warmth and support.
There you go, two ways of playing with your attention to improve your mood and energy with very little effort. It’s just something that you need to come back to often and put to use!
“If we are able to acknowledge our self-hatred & work on forgiving ourself, then overcoming our resentment & hatred of others becomes 100% easier, as does opening to love”
Heal and regenerate the energy of your physical body and internal organs
Revitalize and transform your emotional vitality & balance
Work with colour & vibration in meditation
Promote your Mind-body connection – By directing awareness and a gentle smile to internal organs, we deepen somatic awareness, fostering relaxation and vitality
Connect to the living energy of Mother Earth for personal healing & planetary harmonization
The article below is an example of this type of inner-work.
Healing hatred, opening to Love with the help of the Earth
In this piece, I’ll be pointing out some mindful positions to help to heal our wounds of hatred and resentment. The positions draw from:
A traditional Qi Gong method of smiling to our internal organs to heal emotional imbalances
Connecting to Mother Earth as a support for our practice
Looking at the psychology of working with and transforming difficult emotions
Want to let go of hatred toward others? Forgive yourself
One distinction that I would like to open with regarding hatred is this; if we are able to acknowledge our self-hatred, and work on forgiving ourself, then overcoming our resentment and hatred of others becomes 100% easier. Recently I was in a coaching session with a client. The principal subject of the session was feeling resentment and hatred to members of her previous company who had conspired to get her sacked. A key moment in the journey came when she recognized the hatred she had toward herself for being so ‘naïve’ and foolish as to be taken advantage of. By acknowledging the grudge she bore toward herself, and practising forgiveness and support to that part of her that was ‘foolish, naïve & stupid’, relatively rapid healing was able to be made regarding letting go of hatred towards others in the outer situation.
Mindful positions for transforming hatred into love
Position 1: Connecting to Mother Earth as support
As you sit or stand, be aware of the Earth beneath you. Feel her energy rising into your body through your point of contact with the floor, embracing you like a Mother holding a child. If you like feel your feet/body sinking a few cm’s into the Earth, her body merging with yours.
The organ that often holds hatred in Taoist belief is the heart. Inwardly direct your attention to your physical heart, smiling to it gently. As you do so feel yourself getting in touch with any hatred or resentment you may feel toward others, and particularly toward yourself. Feel and experience that hatred as a cloudy, darker red energy within the heart. When you are ready, breathing in, feel the hatred, breathing out, release it down your body into the earth, like ice melting into water. Let Mother Earth receive the imbalanced energy so it can be recycled in her body. Let go of the hatred, connect of you can with forgiveness, particularly toward yourself. Be held by the Earth as you do this.
Position 3: Receiving love into the heart
Feel energy rising up into your body from Mother Earth. Filling your body with light. In particular feel it flowing into your heart, which begins to glow with a bright, clear red energy, and the energy of love. Enjoy breathing with this energy, feeling it build strength in the heart. Extend this love towards yourself, the Earth and others.
Hatred transformed
So, the hatred transforms mainly into the love here. But you may also like to feel that the hatred has been transformed into a particular type of courage, strength and clarity within the love that is able to see and protect from the malevolent intentions of others, enabling you to move safely and confidently through the world.
End with a period of relaxation, non-doing and integration.
“Release the weight & burdens of your life downwards into the Earth. She in turn receives it, taking it into her body, where it can be recycled & renewed”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week’s article looks at ways of relating to the Earth that are healing & regenerative, as well as them relating to ourselves AS the Earth, which can lead us to developing unusual inner strength & independence.
If you enjoy the article, we will be doing a related meditation in this week’s Wednesday & Saturday meditations, you would be welcome to join!
Experience yourself sitting or standing on the Earth. Feel her body beneath you. Feel your body as a part of here body, which of course it is. Imagine your body sinking a few centimeters into the floor, so that you feel like your body and the Earth are connecting energetically. Feel her energy supporting you from below.
Releasing the wounds of adulthood
In the state described above, spend some time getting in touch with the emotional wounds, burdens, and trials of your life. Sense how they turn up in your body and your body energy. As you breathe in, feel yourself getting in touch with the weight of these wounds. As you breathe out, feel yourself releasing them downwards into the Earth. She in turn receives this wounded energy, taking it into her body, where it can be recycled and renewed.
Receiving regenerative energy
Now sense downward into the Earth, and feel her energy rising into your body, flowing in particular into the areas of your body that carried the emotional wounds, the fatigue, the world-weariness that you released downwards previously. Feel these areas of your body becoming renewed and strengthened. Spend some time relaxing with this experience.
The Earth-as-Self
Experiencing your connection to the Earth, reflect upon how your body and energy came from her, and is a part of her.
Your body came from your parents bodes, the bodies of all humans come from the Earth
Every time you eat, you take the body of the earth into yourself, her body becomes your body
You are like a leaf, the Earth is the tree. The bigger identity of the leaf is the Tree. You are the Earth!
Imagine your sense of your body expanding outwards, becoming the size of the room that you are in, or the landscape around you. Experience your body as the whole room, and or as the whole landscape around you. Feel roots growing down from your body into the Earth, filling it. Feel your energy moving down and expanding into the Earth. Feel your massiveness, stability, and solidity. You are the Earth, the Earth is you.
From this position of Earth-as-self, having renewed yourself through the Earth, turn and inwardly face your life, and your life challenges. Feel your strength, equanimity, and compassion. Connect to the new beginning in each moment from this position of calm, resourced Earth-strength-that-you-are. Go and meet your life.
Standing on your own feet
ADULTHOOD, by Anthony De Mello
To a disciple who was always at his prayers the Master said, “When will you stop leaning on God and stand on your own two feet?” The disciple was astonished. “But you are the one who taught us to look on God as Father!” “When will you learn that a father isn’t someone you can lean on but someone who rids you of your tendency to lean?”
“Experience yourself in an interactive, friendly communion with the Earth, where you feel gratitude and receive sustenance from her, and she in turn enjoys the connection with you”
Dear Integral Meditators,
It has been a fast-moving 2026 so far, both in terms of daily life and in terms of world events! Obviously, meditation and mindfulness are a pillar of how I build capacity to hold space for stress in my life. In my article below I outline a simple meditation for connecting to the Earth that can be done anytime.
Beneath the article is some information on a new track from IAwake technologies called Gaia Trance. I’ve been working with their sound technology since about 2011, and I have found it to be extremely useful. Gaia Trance is a great track collection for attuning to the energies of the Earth, and I’ve been enjoying the effects of listening to it. It is on special offer for the next few days, so if your curious, this could be a good opportunity for you to try it out!
Looking for stability, calm, coolness? Look no further than below
You can do this exercise either sitting on a chair, or standing in the traditional qi gong horse stance, with knees slightly bent and feet about a shoulders-width apart. Place your hands down, about 10cm from the sides of your hips, palms pulled up so that they are facing the ground. Breathing nose to belly, start to sense downward with your mind, focusing particularly on the soles for the feet, and the palms of the hands. Move your awareness down into the Earth, sensing her gentle life-force. Imagine your feet sinking down a few centimetres into the floor, so that your body & the body of Mother Earth are connecting more deeply. Feel the energy of the Earth flowing up into your feet and the palms of your hands.
The energy flowing up from your feet flows into your perineum, lower belly, at the back towards the kidneys, at the front of the belly, to the area just behind the navel
The energy flowing up from your hands flows through the arms into your heart, spreading out from there
You might sense and feel the Earth energy as being golden or blue (or another colour), or you may just feel it as primarily a sensation. Let the Earth energy cool, balance and relax any stressed areas in your body. If you feel the need, you can also send any difficult energy in your body down into the earth, where it can be ‘recycled,’ a bit like compost(!) You can send this energy through your feet or out through the palms and fingers.
Let the energy from the Earth go to wherever it needs to go in your body to effect healing and balancing.
If you like you can imagine yourself growing roots down into the Earth, so that you feel grounded and stable, like a tree (see my article on ‘Standing like a tree’).
Try and experience yourself in an interactive, friendly communion with the Earth, where you feel gratitude and receive sustenance from her, and she in turn enjoys the connection with you.
Towards the end of the practice, feel the Earth qi or energy in your body gathering as a ball of luminous light behind your belly button, a few centimetres behind your navel. If you like you can place the palm of one hand over your belly as you do this.
From I-Awake: We wanted to let you know about our upcoming release, Gaia Trance: An Ecstatic Resonance with the Living Earth, developed by iAwake’s remarkable friend and colleague, Nadja Lind. Here’s the story behind Gaia Trance from Nadja: “There have been times when I felt completely disconnected—my nervous system fried, my body in pain, my mind heavy from PTSD symptoms. In those moments, these neuro-acoustic tracks became my lifeline. Not just to calm me, but to shift me—instantly. From shutdown to clarity. From overwhelm to relief. From numbness to joy. Real joy. And to this day, it still amazes me how effortlessly these tracks work their magic—every single time.”
Gaia Trancewill retail at $37. We will introduce Gaia Trance with a limited time offer of 20% OFF ($29.60) from March 5th – 12th only. Here is more information about this latest release: Drift into spaces shaped by water, tropical birds, a golden shimmer, and a gentle tribal didgeridoo beat that pulls you forward in waves—rising, expanding, softening—before easing you into a quieter descent. The embedded frequencies sit underneath this flow, with alpha and theta guiding the journey and delta settling in more gently toward the end.
Enter a hypnotic earth trance carried by primal resonance, subtle rhythm, and flowing natural textures
Elevate your consciousness immersed in a finely layered soundscape of live didgeridoo, water, and tropical birds, gently progressing from alpha to theta to delta frequencies
Feel grounded, expanded, and calmly renewed as the journey settles into a soft, restorative descent
