3 Steps to Meditation

Blackberry Mountain Wellness Manager Meghan Henley enjoys guiding guests into peaceful meditation. Meghan is sharing her top three tips to help you begin your meditative journey. Remember that the focus is finding your personal peace. Experiment with setting the scene to match what works for you. Create your space and enjoy the benefits of meditation.

1. Find a comfortable and quiet space at the start of your practice. Our favorite spots usually include fresh air or the flicker of a scented candle to help create a soothing sense of space.

2. Pay attention as the air fills with the aroma of the candle or the nature surrounding you. Gently close your eyes and begin to find your breath. Draw your inhale from your naval up to your lungs, filling your chest completely. Next, slowly exhale from chest down to the naval.

3. Meditation is meant to inspire a connection within so don’t be afraid to personalize the experience with the use of a journal, essentials oils or perhaps an art practice.

Are you ready to give meditation a try? Blackberry Farm Wellness Manager Hope Parks has created a centering practice that is great for starting you on an exploration of meditation. As you follow the practice, think of each step: going from fullness to ease to acknowledging the space you hold within (center).

Fullness (2-3 minutes)
Full inhales and complete exhales – work with both to find and feel their capacity. Acknowledge the natural motion and feelings of your breath.

Ease (2-3minutes)
Allow inhales to come without force, and let your body to expand naturally.
Release your physical posture with exhales, slowly tracing from toes to head. Think of each body part as you exhale, concentrating on letting your muscles relax and releasing any tension.
Specifically, soften the tummy.
Notice any tightness that might linger elsewhere and give gentle awareness and breath to soften there.

Acknowledgement
Settle into the ever-present ease of your breath. Acknowledge the space and presence within you that it cultivates. The fullness that is very much there, without effort. Offer gratitude for your sense of being. Let your awareness find center in your tummy or heart space, whichever would feel more ease in this moment. Receive your breath as a gift to that space, a slow, gentle filling.

If visualization is helpful for you: imagine a light beginning dim and growing softly brighter and brighter, fueled simply by your being and breathing.

Integration
Whenever you are ready, or as time allows, for the last couple minutes of your practice, take breaths that would feel like a combination of fullness and ease. I think of the unrestricted, full breaths a baby takes as it wakes. Why not yawn, wrinkle your face and stretch with your eyes closed? Notice the shifts in your sense of being, in your physical posture and your breath. Open your eyes and acknowledge that they remain. Walk in this center as you go about your day.