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WE HAVE A CONVICTION
Coming home to ourselves
We invite you to play
and explore, to discover your own unique,
personal meditation style. Meditation is
unrivalled to anything. It's a creative,
dynamic powerhouse. It raises energy,
reduces tension; it even helps you to respond
appropriately and, is a welcomed break from the
world. Beyond that, it is a universal
gateway into the cosmology of life, a time to
reside in your heart and let
your spontaneous juices flow in the stream
of consciousness - that is love and
life. We all meditate for different
reasons.
How and when we meditate, is a personal
matter, indeed.
We know what food
we love to eat, what clothes we
prefer to wear or the music we love
to listen to, right down to how we enjoy
making love; our essential nature is always
informing us. When we love someone or
something, we want to pay attention; we pay
attention on purpose to what matters.
Imagine transferring this love to your
meditation? Why not bring the essence of
what you love about life to everything you do,
as a way to renew and restore?
Meditation
is our intention to stop and engage with
our body's physiological yearning to
rest, renew and recover, this brings immediate
affects to our nervous system,
bio-chemicals and
mood.
During the day I
meet people who are in constant turbo drive and
under pressure to perform.
For my own self-preservation, when I meditate,
I immerse myself in some of the things I truly
love about life, it's like entering a gateway -
the laughter of children in my family, thinking
about my beloved partner, the ocean's pristine
energy, hiking in the mountains, being with
those I love, preparing a meal, playing
frisbee, dancing, riding my bicycle. The need
for clarity, renewal and self-care is an
instinct that calls our attention. It is the
rhythm of life pulsating its electrifying
vastness above, below and all
around.
Meditating on all the
sensory qualities I love is a compelling
focus - I allow the laughter of children
to penetrate my skin, I see the mountains, I
touch the people I love, I hear the ocean, I
smell the fragrance of the mountains and sea, I
taste and see my food, I embody the play of
frisbee, the joyous motion of dance, the
rhythmic flow of cycling. Savouring life's
radiant magic helps me attune to my senses, my
sensuality through my sensorium. My senses are
entrances into the primordial power that is
life, therefore, I am attached and connected to
myself and the world through my body, instincts
and emotional truth. These gateways are a step
forward to balance, alignment and integration.
This is Instinctive Meditation.
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"When
you allow your
attention to be
called to
something you
love, the flow
is effortless.
Effort only
comes in when
you try to
block out
thoughts, or
make yourself
focus in a way
that you don't
want to."
Dr
Lorin Roche -
The Radiance
Sutras
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Most people spontaneously
meditate without realising it, their body
naturally attunes to the rhythms of life in
one way, or another. Sadly, those rhythms
are knocked out of us when we practice
meditation using only one meditation
technique; particularly if it's a technique
we have outgrown.
To
thrive in today's demanding world we need to
fully access our inner resources, to trust our
body's wisdom and reside in the truth
of it's knowings and learnings.
Meditation is
profoundly uncomplicated, it is instinctive,
effortless and natural. And a healthy practice
builds on those qualities of pleasure, love and
enjoyment. Not everyone needs detached,
rigorous and disembodied meditation practices
in the 21st century; practices that were
specifically designed for celibate monks who
lived in isolation in monasteries hundreds and
hundreds of years ago; practices that
controlled their passions, desires and
emotions.
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"If
you adopt ideas
and ideals that
were developed
for monastic
life, it is
like taking
antibiotics
when you don't
have a
bacterial
infection. Many
women feel
dried up and
depressed after
years of
diligently
practicing
Eastern
meditation, as
though they
have been led
from their
feminine
nature."
Camille
Maurine &
Lorin Roche,
Ph.D
'Meditation
Secrets For
Women'
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As a former Buddhist nun I am
deeply grateful for the knowledge and
contribution generations of meditators have
passed on, the lineages of yogis, lamas and
roshis who have courageously made their way to
the West disseminating their way of
peace.
If the truth be
known, I no longer live an exclusive lifestyle.
Being a woman with all kinds of different
roles, including the role of teaching
meditation, I want to be contained, held and
supported by the flow and rhythms of life, not
governed by strict, outdated rigid practices. A
thriving and authentic meditation practice
teaches one to trust, to trust one's instincts
and needs which are always guiding us towards
wholeness.
Women
specifically, and sometimes, men, do not need
such constraint and control, particularly, if
you are in relationship, have kids, a career, a
mortgage, a purpose and goals. Women are
designed with highly responsive nervous systems
and are emotionally sophisticated, we don't
need intense rigorous
practices.
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"Women
have learned all
kinds of
mantras and
techniques, and
have taken
vows, followed
gurus, but it
is their
adaptations and
integrations
that have
brought power
and beauty to
their
meditation. It
is our job to
stand on our
own ground, in
our own bodies,
and to adapt
meditation to
the needs of
our lives."
Camille
Maurine
'Meditation
Secrets For
Women'
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Today more than ever, the body
and psyche of our beautiful planet earth,
reflects who we are collectively, it mirrors
every nuance, each disturbance and shift,
signaling an intimacy that is enormous and
alive.
Our body and
psyche is calling for our attention towards
life affirming, engaging
practices.
We need practices to encourage
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Softness |
Flow |
Tenderness |
Vulnerability |
Freedom |
Permission |
Embodiment |
| Pleasure |
Openness |
Connection |
Imagination |
Courage |
Sensuality |
Female
wisdom |
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"One
day you finally
knew what you
had to do, and
began ..."
Mary
Oliver
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Giving in and giving over to
the restorative powers of rest in meditation,
sets off a powerful elixir much like bathing
and soothing our muscles, viscera, bones and
body fluids - our body's healing ambrosia
softens, sweetens and humbles, the most
fatigued time poor sceptic.
Consider the following
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How
much pleasure can you
tolerate?
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How
much intimacy can you
stand?
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How
much freedom can you
take?
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How
much of your own sweetness can you
drink?
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How
much do you trust
yourself?
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How
much of life's intensity can you
tolerate?
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How
much creativity are you willing to
explore?
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How much
passion and purpose can you
live?
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"If
you are afraid
of being
spontaneous,
then you
probably don't
trust yourself
and you will
not let go as
much during
meditation, you
won't go very
deep ... this
is part of
life's wisdom:
you only get
what you are
ready for, so
if you are
getting it, you
are ready for
it."
Dr
Lorin Roche
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Why do I need coaching?
Old habits die hard, so ensure
your habits are good ones, right from the
start.
Learning to
meditate should always be about techniques that
make you thrive and evolve. When that deep
principle is in place, meditation is a life
affirming experience; there is no war with the
self. When you receive individual coaching,
it's confirmation of your priorities and
self-worth, an investment in your belief that
you can learn to trust your instincts, to know
what's right for you, each and every time you
show up for meditation. This assures an
enduring, life long engagement with meditation;
a dynamic that extends it's range further into
your inner and outer world.
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"Our
body's
intrinsic
intelligence,
has it's own
unfolding,
imaginative,
dynamic story.
To stand in
it's way is
like harming
the very earth
we walk
on."
Arian
Young
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