Category: mind body connection

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Mindful-flow around 360-degree centering

Dear Integral Meditators, 

In an article from last week I explain awarness as the basic form of love. If you were to combine that with this week’s article on centering, you would have loving centered-ness, balance & flow!



Last 24hours to catch the I-Awake 16th anniversary 50% sale . If you are interested in how sound can help you in your journey as an aide on many levels, check it out.

In the spirit of 360, 

Toby


Mindful-flow around 360-degree centering
 
This article explains an exercise that, once you are used to it takes only a couple of minutes. You can also be putting to good use informally in your daily life once you have put it in place. Benefits include:

  • A more balanced, broad-focused sense of awareness
  • Getting out of a hyper-focused, excessively narrow focused or over-focused mode
  • Getting out of mental drifting into a more grounded sensibility
  • A place of presence that is adaptable, and can move from resting to action relatively seamlessly
  • A specific somatic form of mindful-flow that helps us to navigate the ups and downs of our day more evenly and effectively

 
Our narrow habit of attention
Often in our day, our sense of awareness is essentially focused on a narrow range: in front and out to the sides a little, kind of like your field of vision if you look straight ahead. This is understandable, as our awareness often follows our senses, and our field of vision in particular. However, staying in this narrow range can lead to an imbalance in our awareness that we can re-work quite easily with 360-degree centering.
 
Centering within the four quarters of the body
Actually, your body can ‘sense’ in every direction. All you need to do is to being awareness to the four zones of the body; front & back, left & right, in order to activate this. This can be done very simply, as a preparation for meditation, or as an end in itself. Sitting or standing comfortably:

  • Your front line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the front section of the body, face, neck, chest, belly, hips, front of legs, feet and toes. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this front line
  • Your back line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the back of the body, back of head, neck, shoulders, back, back of legs, ankles and feet. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this back line
  • Your right line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the right side of the body, side of head, right ear, neck, shoulders, right arm, from right armpit down to hips, side of right leg, ankles and feet. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this right line
  • Your left line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the left side of the body, side of head, left ear, neck, shoulders, left arm, from left armpit down to hips, side of left leg, ankles and feet. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this left line
  • Simultaneous – After doing all four individually, take a few breaths where you are aware of all four zones together. Notice what it feels like to be aware of all four sections simultaneously. If this feels too much initially, try just with two; the front and back simultaneously, and the left and right simultaneously.

 
Finding your mid-line
From your crown now imagine you have a line of light and energy going down the middle of your body, all the way down to your perineum. This is your mid-line, the mid-point between the front and back, & left and right halves of the body. Practice breathing in and out of this mid-line.
 
Linking your mid-line to the four quarters
Focusing on your mid-line, as you inhale, gently gather your energy into your center. As you breathe out, relax from your center-line, feeling the energy flowing out evenly to the four quarters of the body. Gradually build capacity to feel the focused inflow to the core as you breathe in, relaxing outflow as you exhale.
 
Related articles:
Making your physical awareness balanced & whole
Finding your spiritual, physical home
Aspects of environmental meditation
 

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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A Mind of Ease Awareness and insight Energy Meditation Enlightened love and loving Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology Meditation techniques mind body connection Motivation and scope Presence and being present spiritual intelligence

The easy way to love more

“Be present to &pay attention to things, feel the basic, rudimentary love. Let it feed you & your life. Imagine it is easier than you think!”

Article: The easy way to love more
 
Two parts of awareness
 
If you look at your experience of awareness, you may notice that you can kind of divide it into two parts:

  • The part that can observe, that can register or be aware the object that it looks at
  • The feeling that comes with the awareness like a ‘touching’ or ‘embracing’. This part is almost sensory

You might basically say that there is a ‘watching’ and a ‘feeling’ dimension to each moment of our awareness.

Love as the basic feeling or emotion

Continuing with our train of thought here, you could regard the ‘watching’ dimension of awareness as the basis of our mind and thoughts. With regard to the second, ‘feeling’ dimension of awareness, this then acts as the basis of our emotions and feelings. Awareness divides up into these two dimensions of mind (thought) and emotion/feeling.
When we value something that we meet or see, our awareness pays attention to it, we ‘give it’ our attention. You might say that this giving of attention is the basic emotion, love. Because we give somebody or something a value, we pay attention to it. That attention is basic love.
You will know this from your own experience, when someone else listens to you, pays attention to you, considers you, acknowledges you, then you feel valued by them, which is a really simple way of feeling loved.

Loving is easy

Sometimes it can feel like it is difficult or hard to love. Sometimes we feel exhausted by the demands of others and the world. We don’t feel we have the capacity to love. Sometimes (maybe often?) this is because we are trying to hard to love, we think it is something more difficult than it is. If we understand that all you need to do to love something is to rest your attention upon it, we discover it is not as difficult as we thought, in fact it is easy!

Different domains of practice

To discover experientially how easy loving is in this basic sense, we need to practice. Becoming basically present, perhaps smiling very gently, practice bringing attention to, and therefore extending love towards:

  • Yourself, or a part of your inner-self
  • Your body, or a specific part of the body
  • Other people, those you know, like, dislike, don’t know
  • Things in nature, plants, animals, trees, the ocean
  • In-animate objects, paintings, ceramics, anything you like

 
Don’t over think it!
 
On way in which we can sabotage ourself here is by trying too hard. We think we must have to pay attention and think a certain way, or really try and feel affectionate. By doing this we can miss the total simplicity of what is going on here.
 

Attention = valuing = love

 
That’s really it! And it is a wonderful gift that you can give to yourself, your body, other people and the world around you. One thing to understand is that, in this context, love is the thing that happens before you think about it. Sure, sometimes we love others after we have developed a way of thinking about them and what they are/do/stand for, but attentional love is more basic, more simple, easier than that.
 
Sit/stand/walk. Be present to/pay attention to things, feel the basic, rudimentary love. Let it feed you and your life. Imagine it is easier than you think!
 
Related reading: Lazy compassion (compassion & care through awareness)
 

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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A Mind of Ease Concentration Integral Awareness Integral Meditation Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology mind body connection Mindful Resilience Mindfulness Stress Transformation

Does meditation always make things better?

“Meditative presence & mindful-flow are what you might call perineal life pre-skills. The better you are at them the more ways you find to be effective & content amidst a wide range of circumstances”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article explores meditation as a life-skill, as opposed to a formal practice. It articulates why, if you understand this, the danger of your meditation becoming imbalanced in any way reduces substantially.

This week sees the start on Saturday of the  Meditations for transforming negativity and stress into energy, positivity & empowerment deep-dive sessions. All welcome, particpation can be doen in person, on line or via recording.

In the spirit of flowing presence,

Toby


Article: Does meditation always make things better?
 
I recently received an article from a college entitled Meditation can help and it can harm. This is what happens when it goes wrong. It legitimately points out that not everyone who tries meditation benefits from it, and that sometimes meditation can ‘make things worse’ in the sense of creating imbalances, or increasing things like anxiety. What I want to do in this article is:

  • Offer some pointers around what meditation and mindfulness are in the broadest sense
  • Propose that, done in balance, these three fundamental aspects of meditation will be helpful to anyone
  • And give an example from my own experience 

Meditation is:
 
So then, speaking in broad, overarching definitions, the basic meditation state is:
 
“Not being lost in thought, not falling asleep, present to an object of awareness in the moment, and aware that you are aware of it”
 
This definition is basically a fancy way of saying that meditation is practising being present! When you are meditating you grow capacity high quality presence. Broadly speaking, the greater your capacity for presence and being present is, the more effective you will be in life. The reason for this is that good quality presence releases what I would call your natural intelligence in that moment. This facilitates better self-regulation, awareness, decision-making and so forth.
 
Mindfulness is:
 
Broadly speaking (again) mindfulness is attention training. In order to be present, you need to be able to pay attention well. Good quality mindful attention has two aspects, focus and flow.
 
There are essentially two extremes that you can go to with mindful attention:

  • You can try and focus too hard which means the mind can’t settle
  • You can relax too much, and forget what you are trying to pay attention to

Like meditation presence, building mindful flow, i.e. balanced, good quality, sustainable attention will generally only help you in your life. It will help you with being present, with basic reality orientation, with sustainable effort and so on…the better you are at it, the more capable and resilient you will be in the face of life challenges.
 
Another definition of meditation:
 
“Meditation means to focus our attention on an object that, when we contemplate it, causes our mind to become positive, calm and/or happy, in a balanced way”
 
This is a definition that I was taught in my Tibetan Buddhist days, back in the 90’s. In this sense, meditation is simply the art of remaining oriented in a positive manner as life happens to you. Like the first two definitions, the better you are at the ‘positive mindfulness game’ of meditation, the better things will get.
 
A personal reflection:
 
When I left my life as a monk in 2001, I was in many ways under a lot of stress:

  • I had left an old familiar life
  • I was in a foreign country with no job, so a lot of uncertainty
  • I was quite isolated
  • There was a lot of emotional trauma I was working thru
  • I had a high learning curve from starting my own business

 
I was also quite burned out from having overtrained in formal meditation (over quite a long period of time), so doing a lot of formal, sitting meditation was not that helpful for me. However, the fundamental meditation/mindfulness skills of:

  • Being present in a relaxed, focused manner
  • Orienting and centering around positive objects of awareness

 
Was always fundamentally helpful to me during that time. The fundamentals of meditation and mindfulness are what you might call perineal life pre-skills. The better you are at them the more effective you are, and the more ways you find to be content amidst a wide range of circumstances.
 
One final point, understood in the above manner, we can start to understand that meditation is a creative activity, not a narrow, rigid set of parameters. Without wanting to fall into a cliché, it’s a way of life!
 
Listen to Toby’s meditations on Presence & flow, as well as mindful positivity.
 
Related reading: The foundational pillars or goal-poste of meditative presence
Your basic mindful flow state
Meditation – Life as a positive mindfulness game

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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A Mind of Ease Beginners mind, resilient body Energy Meditation Inner vision Integral Meditation Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology Meditation Recordings Meditation techniques mind body connection Mindful Confidence Mindful Resilience Mindful Self-Leadership Presence and being present Stress Transformation

Four stress-transformation ‘flips’ – article & guided meditation recording

“A confident relationship to our stress sets us up for a lifetime of curiosity, wonder, excitement & adventure. An adverse relationship to it sets us up for a path of anxiety, oppression, limitation and fear”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s newsletter is on four stress-transformation ‘flips’. If you are wondering what stress-transformation looks like as a meditation you can also listen to  a 15minute guided meditation on these four aspects of stress-transformation. 

The 15minutes a week Stress-Transformation online program features a wide, creative range of meditations like this 15minute recording. As well as it’s buy-alone price, it is available at a 50% discouont if you get it with either the Wednesday class, Saturday Deep-dive or workshop versions of the stress-transfromation programs (which can be done live, online or via recording). 

In the spirit of confidence in transformation,

Toby

Article: Four stress-transformation ‘flips’
 
There are many, many ways of transforming difficult, debilitating stress into positive or growth stress. Over the years I’ve developed lots of fun, creative techniques for doing so that I continue to teach in my meditation classes, and coach around in my coaching sessions. What I am going to do here is to outline four essential ‘stages’ or ‘flips’ that are foundational to all stress transformation practices. They work as individual units of practice, but I find that when they are put together and practiced sequentially in this order, they become exponentially more effective. In this context ‘flipping’ simply means flipping from debilitating stress to growth, or positive stress.
 
Witnessing – from fighting it to being curious about it
 
The first position then is witnessing. It means to step back from your stress and, rather than being caught up in, identified with or fighting it, to observe and be curious about it. Watch it and get to know it with your observational awareness, try to take it incrementally less seriously, give yourself room to play.
 
Flowing – from resisting emotion to feeling and releasing them
 
The second position is to notice your experience of emotions around the stress, if possible, naming them. Having done this, then rather than trying to get rid of them, or indulging them, or repressing them, set up a pattern of breathing whereby as you inhale you are feeling/experiencing some of that emotion, and exhaling you are relaxing into it/releasing it. An emotion is a type of feeling; feelings want to be felt. By consciously allowing yourself to feel and then release stressful emotions, they become much more workable.
 
Framing – from being lost in the inner conversation to creating it
Here we take position one, witnessing, and apply it specifically to noticing our inner conversation around the stress. Simply watching and dis-identifying from the self-talk can be really useful in itself. But here was are also then concerned amount making creative alterations to the narrative that ‘spin’ the conversation in a more useful direction. “I can’t do it and so I’ll never be able to do it” is a completely different conversation from “I can’t do it yet, but by trying and failing I will learn how before too long”.
 
Appreciating – from feeling unlucky and hard done-by to appreciating the opportunity
In all situations with stress, there is an opportunity to grow, something to be learned, something that we can put to use. Appreciating what the stress we are under can do for us gives us a way to value it, to get excited about it rather than feeling anxious or oppressed by it. It also gives us a purpose and direction to move our stress towards, something we can do with it. Rather than being in the way of our path, it can become the path itself!
 
Stress is so much a part of our life that our relationship to it is literally ‘life-defining’! A positive relationship with our stress sets us up for a lifetime of curiosity, wonder, excitement and adventure. An adverse relationship to it sets us up for a path of anxiety, oppression, limitation and fear . These four ‘flips’ give us a chance to make even our most difficult stress workable, and to make us confident in the face of it.
 
Listen to the four stress-transformation flips guided meditation by Toby

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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 
 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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A Mind of Ease Beginners mind, resilient body Energy Meditation Inner vision Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology mind body connection Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Stress Transformation

Slowing down to speed up – Staying productive & creative when you are low-energy

“Acknowledging & accepting low-energy, gives us a choice to work with it rather than against it. From a position of acceptance, we can then make choices that move us toward energy & creativity”

Dear Integral Meditators, 


This week’s article looks at how to work with low-energy states skillfully, rather than just fighting them and getting even more tired!

A few chances to bolster your energy through mindfulness & meditation this week: 

In the spirit of wise fast & slow, 

Toby


Slowing down to speed up – Staying productive & creative when you are low-energy
 
As we reach the mid-year mark, I’ve been having to manage my energy level fairly mindfully as it comes under stress from various different directions. When there is a lot going on it can be difficult to realize how low on energy you are getting until it is a too late. Below are a few mindful methods I’ve been using to navigate the run into the summer break without breaking apart!
 
Mindful of the possible vicious cycle with low-energy
 
When we are in a low-energy state, we are also in a reduced willpower state. This means that it is very easy to try and start a task, but then simply getting distracted by something. For example, I have an intention to get a few emails done, but I get sidetracked by youtube instead. This now means that I am low-energy and my energy has been further depleted-dissipated by distraction. This then means that I am even more tired, but I have not gotten the task done. This might then mean that I stay up later in the evening to get things done (also in a distracted manner), which then means I get to bed too late, which then means I wake up feeling low-energy, and so-on in a vicious cycle. Sometimes going to bed too late also means I am ‘to tired’ to fall asleep, or I sleep in a non-relaxed or stressed manner.
With a cycle like this, low energy breeds distraction, which breeds self-judgment and stress, which makes us even less able to stay productive, which leads to feelings of overwhelm, which leads to lower energy and so on…
 
Going slower to go faster
 
If I am in a low-energy state, I find the faster I can recognize it the better. From this awareness, normally my next position is acknowledgment and acceptance of the state of tiredness, and a choice to work with it rather than against it. From this position of acceptance, I then make choices like:

  • Reducing my ambition for the rest of the day, achieving less, but in a way where I feel good about what I have done and get to bedtime on time, ready to recharge for tomorrow.
  • If I’m feeling too tired to do anything, I normally take a few minutes to do nothing. Doing nothing helps my energy to gather, and for me to get clear on the next task that I want to do engage in.
  • Look at my inner narrative, and ‘spin’ it in a positive manner. A simple example of this is I focus on what I have achieved (today/this week/this month) already, and how I can feel good about that, rather than all the things that I haven’t done yet/should have done by now. This helps me to feel happy where I am presently, which takes the edge off any feelings of stress or tiredness.

‘More haste less hurry’ as the saying goes, or, if you like, ‘Less haste, more hurry’!
 
Observing outside influences (or perceived ones), and setting your own pace
 
A final point here, when we are tired, it can be quite easy to be pushed out of balance by environmental influences. A stressed-out colleague or boss, the opinion of our partner, the anxiety of our children, an uncomfortable commute home in the evening. These can all push us out of balance, adding dis-orientation, dissipation and confusion to our already low-energy state. The more you can be aware of this, the less likely it is to influence you unconsciously, and the more likely you are to be able to find and keep your center in the eye of the storm.
 
Related reading: Tired of being tired – Relaxing into, not fighting with your fatigue
You already have what you seek – Getting resilience from resilience


© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

12noon on Saturday – Meditation Masterclass Series at Space2B

Sat 20th, 5.30pm & Weds 24th June, 7.30pm – Summer solstice balancing & renewing meditation

Sunday 28th July, 9am-12noon – Mindful Resilience workshop – Practices for sustaining effectiveness, happiness & clarity under pressure

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How to stop difficult feelings becoming negative emotions

“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:
 

  1. 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.
  2. 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:
 

  1. Physical pain arising from sickness or injury
  2. Pain or irritability arising from hormonal or other biological or energetic imbalances within the body
  3. From people who say or do harmful things to us or have done so in the past
  4. 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…
  5. 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!
 
Related reading: “Insight Meditation – Improving Your Subjective Experience by Developing Your Objective Perspective” 

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

Ongoing on Wednesdays – The inner smile – Meditations for inner regeneration & connecting to the Earth – An 8-week course

Ongoing on Saturdays – The inner smile & Earth healing deep-dive – An 8 session practice series

Saturday 25th April, 2.30-4.30pm – Mindfulness for emotional intelligence masterclass
 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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Healing thru the Earth, & Earth-as-Self

“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!

Finally, heads up for the Spring Equinox balancing & renewing meditation on the 18th & 21st March!

In the spirit of resilient identity,

Toby

Healing thru the Earth, & Earth-as-Self
 
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?”
 
Related article: Yin stability – Mother Earth meditation
Born from life, not into it
Connecting to your Big Mind

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Date for your diaries:

Wednesday April 1st, 7.30-8.30pm & Saturday, 4th April, 5-6pm – Which meditator are you? – Free meditation seminars: The five types of meditators & how to build your path to inner freedom

 


Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

Ongoing weekly on Wednesday – Beginners mind, resilient body – a 10-week integral meditation course

Starts Saturday 17th January, 5.30-6.15pm, & then weekly – Beginners mind, resilient body deep-dive: An 11 -session practice series

Wednesday 18th (7.30pm) & Saturday 21st (5.30pm) March – Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation

Saturday, March 28th 9:00am – 12:30pm – Inner smile & energy balls meditation workshop – Build health, confidence & energetic resilience in life

Wednesday April 1st, 7.30-8.30pm & Saturday, 4th April, 5-6pm – Which meditator are you? – Free meditation seminars: The five types of meditators & how to build your path to inner freedom

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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

Categories
A Mind of Ease Beginners mind, resilient body creative imagery Energy Meditation Greenworld Meditation Inner vision Meditation techniques mind body connection Mindful Resilience Primal Spirituality Qi gong Tree of Life

Yin stability – Mother Earth meditation (& new Gaia trance sound-tech track)

“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!
 
In the spirit of Earth connection,

Toby

Yin stability – Mother Earth meditation (& new Gaia trance sound-tech track)

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.
 
Related article: Tired of being tired – Relaxing into, not fighting with your fatigue

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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 Trance  will 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
 

Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

Ongoing weekly on Wednesday – Beginners mind, resilient body – a 10-week integral meditation course

Starts Saturday 17th January, 5.30-6.15pm, & then weekly – Beginners mind, resilient body deep-dive: An 11 -session practice series

Wednesday 18th (7.30pm) & Saturday 21st (5.30pm) March – Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation

Saturday, March 28th 9:00am – 12:30pm – Inner smile & energy balls meditation workshop – Build health, confidence & energetic resilience in life

Wednesday April 1st, 7.30-8.30pm & Saturday, 4th April, 5-6pm – Which meditator are you? – Free meditation seminars: The five types of meditators & how to build your path to inner freedom

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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

Categories
A Mind of Ease Beginners mind, resilient body Energy Meditation Meditation techniques mind body connection Mindful Resilience Mindfulness Presence and being present Stress Transformation Using the Energy of Negative Emotions

Tired of being tired – Relaxing into, not fighting with your fatigue

“Relax into fatigue, work WITH your body, rather than fighting with it to complete the task when you are tired”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article looks at how to work with fatigue & stress, rather than against it. If you want to get more done with less effort, this practice can be quite transformative!

Heads up for the Saturday, March 28th 9:00am – 12:30pm – Inner smile & energy balls meditation workshop – Build health, confidence & energetic resilience in life, which is very much focused on re-calibrating our energy-fatigue dynamic…

In the spirit of acceptance,

Toby

Tired of being tired – Relaxing into, not fighting with your fatigue
 
Tired of being tired
 
When we are tired, often without realizing it we can find ourself fighting with the fatigue. The sensation of fatigue, particularly when we are stressed is uncomfortable, dulling, even actively painful. Consequently, we unconsciously react to the pain by:

  • Repressing it
  • Pushing it out of our awareness
  • Taking our mind away or ‘out’ of our body to avoid the discomfort
  • Seeking distractions, something to take our attention away from being tired

As a short-term coping mechanism, this can work for a while, but as a method it is very inefficient because:

  • We must expend effort avoiding the fatigue, and we are tired already
  • It sets up an antagonistic relationship between ‘me’ and the fatigue. I am fighting it rather than working with it
  • We start to dis-connect from our body, and the mainly legitimate signals that it is giving us about our energy level and what we are experiencing

If we persist with this approach, then the medium to long term effect is that I become ‘tired of being tired.’ What this means is not only am I literally tired for the first reasons that my body is signalling to me, but I am also tired of having to always fight, avoid and repress my feelings of being tired!
 
Accepting fatigue
 
The first step towards a more ergonomic and compassionate way to deal with our fatigue is to get in touch with and accept our fatigue. If we are a fatigue repressor, then this can feel pretty counter-intuitive at first, but it releases the potential for a whole new dynamic. As you are reading, get in touch with your body, and the feelings of fatigue or stress in it.

  • Notice your resistance to it initially, or your antagonism
  • Try and relax yourself and your body a little. In particular, soften the area of your body that contains the pain of the fatigue
  • Breathe in and out of the area, breathing in extend a bit of warmth and compassion to this body part, as you breathe out, encourage it to release the fatigue so that fresh energy can come into the body-tissues

If you build competency at doing this, then temporarily the pain will lessen, and you will feel a bit more energy. If you need to keep on working or doing whatever you are doing, then you do it in a more relaxed way, working WITH your body, rather than fighting with it to complete the task. Working with the body and its fatigue means:

  • You are no longer losing energy resisting and fighting your fatigue
  • You and your body-mind become a much more singular energy that can move forward with purpose
  • Your body responds to your encouragement and acceptance with energy, so it helps you because you help it(!)

When you need to rest, rest!

  • When we fight with our fatigue, this can de-sensitize ourself to it so that sometimes/often we fail to respond in the most obvious way, which is to build in time for more rest. Instead, we just keep pushing on, we procrastinate, we ignore the signals until we are in a state of different degrees of burn out or over-fatigue. This then takes much longer to recover from that plain old tiredness.

Practice points

  • Notice your resistance to fatigue
  • Practice relaxing into and working with your body and feelings of fatigue
  • Notice the greater enjoyment and efficiency of working with, not fighting your tiredness
  • Be decisive around rest

 
Related reading: Mindfulness, productivity, self-regulation & the 85% rule

Stress resilience through Cauldron breathing – Keeping your belly energy soft

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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

Categories
A Mind of Ease Beginners mind, resilient body Energy Meditation Integral Meditation Meditation techniques mind body connection Mindful Breathing Mindful Resilience Qi gong

Stress resilience through Cauldron breathing – Keeping your belly energy soft

“If we don’t keep moving our belly energy, the stress can really get stuck, becoming a permanent, or semi-permanent feature of the way we are”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

Awareness of energy, breathing and movement are all keys to building a multi-dimensional resilience practice. The article below outlines a classic qi gong breathing technique that I recommend you make a regular part of your routine!

If you enjoy it, then do have a look at the Qi Gong for Improving your Health and Energy Levels & for Self-Healing workshop that I will be doing this Saturday morning. Its a practical introduction to next level sustainable energy.


In the spirit of the cauldron,

Toby

Stress resilience through Cauldron breathing – Keeping your belly energy soft
 
Much of the stress, and the resistance to stress that we accumulate as we go through our day works its way down to our abdomen. If we are stressed, we can lose our appetite, or get indigestion. We talk about having a ‘knot’ in our stomach, or ‘butterflies in our tummy’. If we don’t keep moving our belly energy, the stress can really get stuck, becoming a permanent, or semi-permanent feature of the way we are. This pattern then leads short- and medium-term stress to become longer term, chronic stress.
 
Belly breathing in Qi gong, and reverse belly breathing are techniques of breathing that you can turn into habits, that keep the energy in the belly moving. If your abdomen gets stressed, the breathing will help to gently shift the stress out. It works basically as a massaging mechanism for the abdominal organs. It can also be practised as a breathing meditation technique, where you can build depth of meditation at the same time as doing a deeper de-stress.
 
Here are the basic stages of the practice, you can do it as a gentle, yin breathing practice, or as a more yang deep-breathing practice according to preference:
 
Stage 1: Practice breathing nose to belly: Breathe in through the nose, activate your diaphragm, sucking the air down into the bottom of your lungs. If you do this, you will notice your belly moving out a bit as you inhale. The diaphragm pushes down on the internal organs below it, creating a gentle squeeze, as it moves down, and release as you exhale. This squeeze and release creates a massage effect, helping the belly to release any tension that it may be holding onto.
 
Stage 2: To increase the massage, squeeze the muscles in your perineum to about 25-35% power as you inhale. This firms up the pelvic floor, so that as the pressure comes down from the diaphragm, it is sustained because the pelvic floor holds its ground below. If you do this you will feel a greater pressure build up in the belly as you inhale, and a greater release as you exhale. This gives a more powerful massage to the inner organs as you breathe. As you breathe out, relax the muscles in the pelvic floor.
 
Stage 3: As you inhale, gently tense the muscles in the front of the abdominal wall, so that the belly cannot move outwards. If you do this, you will feel a greater pressure in the belly; diaphragm moves down, pelvic floor holds its position, and now the belly keeps position, so the pressure has no where to go. Release the belly muscles as you breathe out. This creates a ‘cauldron’ effect in the belly, building pressure and squeeze as you inhale, releasing it as you exhale, helping any stress-knots in the belly to be released, so that energy can keep flowing through it.
 
Optional stage 4: As you do the cauldron breathing from stage 3, imagine an energy ball, about the size of a golf ball sitting behind your belly button, a few centimetres into your abdomen. As you breathe in, feel this ball filling with light and energy, as you breathe out, feel that light and energy expanding out from your belly into the rest of your abdomen,  body and aura, dispersing stress and energy blocks as it moves outwards.
 
Doing a few of these breaths when you are stressed can really help. It is a great general health practice. If you create a habit of it, you will be helping your body to help you regulate your stress, and build energetic resilience for a lifetime.
 
Related reading: Functional breathing
Reverse abdominal breathing

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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