The Value Of Meditation

This is a fascinating conversation that includes the benefits of meditation, and the value of being in the present. We go into how to deal with stress and ways to accept wherever you are at. We also talk about Astrology,

Transcript

I have been doing Insight Timer for years now and I have quite a few followers, I think 3500. Wow. I have two courses I started but you're doing extremely well, Hundreds and, Well I think about 1000 on one course and 300 on the other. My new one's called the Stress Buster. I love that. I'm working, I'm writing it, I'm recording it and it should be up within a month but basically it covers all the elements that we've been going through including meditation and how to overcome fear, How to overcome depression, Things like you do, Like being grateful. We were just talking yesterday about how you have found that being grateful in your meditation or being grateful has been very, Very helpful for you. It's been very, Very powerful although I have to say that this morning, I mean every day is different, Right? I mean gratitude is, Has been amazing, It still is amazing and then sometimes in life, Even when we're in the present moment, Sometimes the present moment contains things that we deem unpleasant. You know, Grief being one of those things and you know grief is one of those things where the more acceptance we're in, I think the less painful it is but it doesn't eliminate the grief. So I love the idea of incorporating that notion and still finding gratitude even when you're in a period of grief because that can be difficult even for someone who practices every day. Well all of these things are, I mean that's one, I've been doing meditations since I've been 13 years old, I've been doing it every day and it is interesting that just because you've been doing it for a lifetime doesn't mean that things necessarily get easier, It just means you have the tools that are easier to get to, You know, Available. As far as grief, My gosh, You know, That's such a huge thing because so many people have lost loved ones and I don't even like the term lost but that's a term used. But you know here, I have to say being on Maui for all these 32 years has made it easier in a way because I've been so far away from many people who are dear friends or family and it's like I haven't been really with them in person for a long time and that same energy is like okay, They're just in a different place now, They're not on the mainland or they're not where they were in Europe or they're not where they were there, Oh they're there, They're in another place. So you know. Right, It softens the blow a little bit. But you still can miss them of course, You know. But I always suggest for that, I suggest writing a letter, Communicating, Still talking because I do think that if you do it in that way, You don't feel the disconnect. That you can still communicate or you know, Find a way to actually, If you want to record a message or write a message or in spirit, Talk to the person who's not there that I really do believe and that whole CD I did last year was based on that conversation with my sister, Was her really talking back to me, You know, The one I did call In the Hands of God. So I do find that valuable but it takes remembering and it takes a bit of believing, Having that door open to have the belief possibility, Yeah maybe this is possible, You know. Yeah, So much comes down to our belief system which you know, I mean and beliefs can change, They can enhance our lives, They can limit our lives and so sometimes when I'm struggling with things like that, I realize that I have a choice of belief system and if one particular belief system adds to my grief or adds to making life more difficult, It's good to question that and I mean we always have a choice. One of our belief systems and how they make us feel. And our perspectives. And our perspectives. And for you, Just finding out, Being grateful in your meditation made you feel better, It has been proven and it's so acceptable because it isn't a belief system, Being grateful isn't a religion. No. And it's not even considered spiritual because I, You know, I'm asked are you religious? I'm not really religious, I'm a spiritual person but I'm you know, A spiritual person in the body so I'm experiencing everything going on here but as far as many people not wanting to go woo woo, You can be grateful and it isn't woo woo, It works. It really does work. It really does work. Yeah, It really does work. And I'm really grateful for that, That it does because they've shown that it is like a light switch in a dark room when I'm sure you've experienced that, When you can take the time to be grateful for things, You are looking at the positive aspect, Not the negative aspect and you're also able to in a way count your blessings. Right. You know, And be aware that things aren't so bad. It helps alleviate depression, It helps you know, Really change your mood pretty quickly. Well it does because it releases different chemicals in the brain. It does. Which connect with different neurotransmitters. So there's actually a lot of science behind gratitude as well. There's science behind just the fact smiling. Yes. That when there is science behind just smiling actually changes the way your whole body can feel not just the smile on your face but the smile actually is a positive thing for the way you feel emotionally and physically. Yes. So I mean those are two powerful things. You know, I like to say are you smiling in your heart? Is your heart smiling? Not just your mind, You know. Right. But is your heart smiling? I mean if you take a second and put that into your heart and see is your heart smiling? You know you said you came in like many people are harried, There's things going on, There's stuff happening. All of our lives more than ever in these last few years we've got this other layer. Yes. But can we still feel that smile? In our heart. Yes. And I think for a lot of people and the more mental a person is the more they think sometimes you have to wade through the cobwebs and tune into your heart. You do. And stop the mind, You know that monkey chatter mind. Well the mind likes taking directions. The mind loves to. It's a computer. You can direct it and program your mind. Right. And the mind will go monkey mind very easily unless you program and say you know that's why people use mantras and that's why people do things like counting their breath, Counting one, Two. Yes. You tell your mind to count your breath and then it has something to focus on. It has something to focus on. And that's the other thing that anyone can do that isn't woo woo. You know I had a wonderful Zen teacher, He's still alive, You know I just haven't seen him in years, 32 years. But his name is Bill Kwong Roshi at the Snow Mountain Zen Center and he said breath sweeps mind. So if your mind is doing this, You know your breath, Just breathe. That's not woo woo either. It's proven that if you're even having a panic attack, If you breathe in to the count of four, Hold for the count of four, Breathe out for the count of four, Hold out for the count of four. That is a proven buster, Stress buster. It actually helps deprogram the stress you're under and for your mind. It's physiological as well because it signals the body when we start to breathe, Hey we're okay, It's alright to relax now. And so again the brain releases those chemicals that say, Okay we're not in danger anymore, We're not in that fight or flight thing which when we start panicking we get in that fight or flight and the breath reduces. I found in meditation when I listen to a simple guided meditation and I usually don't listen to guided meditations. I find them distracting for the most part for me. And if my mind is chattering too much in meditation then I'll have my brain label my breaths. Breathe in, Breathe out. I give my brain a job to just label if it's an in breath or an out breath. You know I may have to come back to that many times but that's something really simple. And it works. The simple things really can work because the last thing we want to do when we're under stress is make it feel like it's overwhelming to do what we're trying to do to overcome stress. You don't want anything more to make you feel more stressful to try to overcome stress. And you can't meditate the wrong way. I mean just so many thousands of ways to meditate. You know I mean really I've been doing it all my life and I don't do it the way a lot of people do it. I just do it by going inside and connecting with my inner self, My soul and just do what feels right you know. And you know it's not I don't use transcendental meditation many people do. You know you can do any kind my gosh there's so many kinds of mindfulness now. It's become to the point where there's even some schools that are teaching it. There's some prisons using it with prisoners and they found amazing. Oh yeah there's a whole documentary about it. Yeah that have found that in prison when these people are taught mindfulness how it totally can change. But it goes back to what you said. The thing is it's not as easy as it sounds in some ways when you get into it really because it's if you're in the moment and you're experiencing in the moment even stuff then you have and I found through this Zen meditation I do is that there is if you do it deeply there is that moment where you have to face yourself and acceptance. Oh yeah. You have to face your fears. Oh yes. And there does come that moment where OK can you face yourself you know and a lot of people will distract. We were joking about a movie you heard about. I'd never heard of this Adam Sandler movie. Oh yeah the Adam I don't remember what it's called but you were saying earlier before we went on air wouldn't it be great if I don't know. Oh you said a remote control. Remote control. Wouldn't it be great if there was a remote control for life and I said well there was a movie like that with Adam Sandler came out a long time ago and he wound up fast forwarding through most of his life all of the things he didn't want to deal with including sex with his wife and like meetings with people he didn't want to meet with. He just kept fast forwarding and at the end of the movie he was an old man and he had realized that he had fast forwarded and was not present for most of his life and of course he was really sad and trying to return the remote control. I have never seen that. It reminds me of another favorite movie I have actually I have a talk on this on insight timer the Bill Murray movie was it Bill Murray Groundhog Day which is one of my favorite movies Groundhog Day where you know and in a way I think we went to Groundhog Day when everyone had to get stuck at home for like a year except for me and the people who work every day. I work through it all but it's like okay we're going to do this over until you get it right. We're going to do this over every day every day and there's so much that he had to learn right going over and over and over until he could get the skills down to get it right to what he wanted to be and get and do which was being in love with the other woman and he went on an amazing journey. And again that in that there was the patience there was the perseverance even if it didn't always look patient and getting you know coming back full circle to the meditation it's like I found it doesn't have to be perfect every day and Cindy by the way you're the one who gave me one of the most powerful meditation experiences that I had had in a long time a few years ago when we were at EO Valley and I've gone through meditation and spurts but I'm in my longest run with it and again it doesn't mean that every day is going to be this supernatural experience in meditation although I have many of those days. It's really about the consistency and creating the routine and the habit where you know you're just going to sit down and no matter on the days I'm in a hurry and I have a lot to do I sometimes resist sitting down and I'm antsy while I'm doing it but I do it anyway. So you're developing your awareness. And that's a lot of that's actually what a lot of mindfulness is about is developing awareness of your body your breath how you're feeling your tension there's body awareness etc. I the one thing I like to do a little differently than mindfulness is have soul awareness as well having an awareness of that who you are element which is like another level of like okay it goes to what is my purpose in life and what am I supposed to be doing here you know what's my real purpose and I don't know if mindfulness covers that or not but it doesn't matter it's just like you said there's many ways we can do many things you know and right I like to try to do as much as I do and as much as I do this you know Arley I've been doing this show for 32 years very rarely talk about myself this is very unusual where I talk about that side of myself I really think that what's important is to get out there what other people are doing and hear their story and try to share that way because the more you talk about yourself the more you can get distracted also and get into the me thing and truthfully it can take away from what you really are trying to do you know because you get distracted with what you're talking about sometimes well maybe but I think in this case it's it's not that way because it's maybe people who are listening who are intimidated about meditation or you know I had some unexpected guests last night and I bought a bunch of crystals while I was in on the mainland I spent a lot of money on great and so I have all of these and I've had people coming over and purchasing them and I am just I selling them at my price yeah and kind of crystals oh my gosh I've got a little I've got so many I've got every kind of quartz there is and pyrite and moonstone and a ventering and you know orange calcite green calcite yellow calcite labradorite peach moonstone I mean the list goes on I've never heard of a peach moonstone that one takes the cake I bet it is moonstones are amazing it's absolutely beautiful and you know what I use the crystals in my meditation as well yeah I do too but what I was gonna say was that I don't think that you talking about this is distracting I think it can be really helpful for people to hear some of the things about meditation because I think a lot of the reason people don't do it is because they think well it's overstated or I'm not gonna do it right and and when you talked about the soul's purpose or intent when you're meditating I find that that just comes I don't have to focus on it it's just like that's one of the special gifts of meditation is you're in meditation and all of a sudden things will come and I find myself in these various mudras and things that are just coming through it's like when you take away all those distractions of what you're talking about and all the things that are outside things will come but some people are afraid of that and subconsciously shut down right and you have to be able to face that like we're talking about facing things right because sometimes you know it's just like I don't really want to deal with that you know like we all have a shadow self you know right and and I'll tell you meditation doesn't take that away it does not it just it brings it closer to you so you can I've had on three days and retreats where you can see how people are ready to explode because the stuff starts coming up at bubbling out after a while you know right and if you ever go to a long retreat center do some of these things you will see that people people can get through some pretty weird stuff as things go it just does it can happen and and I don't believe in gurus that's just not me I love the Allen Cohen statement he said he said guru means G U R U oh I like yeah G U R U because you know like okay I could go to someone else say gosh this came up and in a way it's good to have some feedback but it's also good to just go back inside and saying oh okay this came up what happened here and let yourself oh yeah I know I know I came up there yeah and then when you figure that out you've really figured out for yourself you've really figured it out and then it becomes you you you realize after a certain period of time that you that you've changed and that you're actually transforming and reprogramming some of those parts of yourself it's a lifetime process it really is it really is fascinating we have about five minutes left oh my goodness Alan because a brief look at at what we're looking at astrologically so astrologically right now we started the year with a Capricorn new moon and a Venus retrograde and so what does that mean I mean kind of the theme one of the big themes for this year is Capricorn you know plan your work work your plan establish some goals and be consistent with them that's kind of a theme for the year building upon last year where it was about changing the way that we manage our security and make our money and for those of us who worked really hard this is really like like a mountain goat climbing up the mountain we're a significant way up the mountain so this can be a really powerful successful year of manifestation or the continuing of manifestation with Venus in retrograde right now and we really won't be out of that shadow period until the beginning of March you know again I don't like to rule my life by any of these things but there's some classic things that happen like people getting back together with lovers from the past and it winds up being a disaster or you meet someone and it winds up being a disaster afterwards because you know Venus rules love and money and values so sometimes people squander or waste their money or do a lot of over shopping buying glittery things and all of a sudden the money is gone or they take on a big new lease or buy something like a car or a house and then realize they're in over their head once Venus goes direct so just some pitfalls to watch out for you know our thinking just isn't really clear on those matters during a retrograde we're we're just I don't know a week or so away my brain's a little cloudy on the dates but we do have a mercury retrograde coming up and so we're in that pre-shadow period and I'm already experiencing technology wonkiness so you know now is a good time if you've got a wobbly tire if you've got something that needs to be fixed or a piece of technological equipment on the fritz deal with it now but because we all don't we always have some this is like this is like time like wrap that stuff up yeah good it's always good advice anyway right we have a Venus Mars conjunction coming in February which should be really fabulous you know getting that masculine and that feminine together and but it is happening while Venus is still in that retrograde shadow so that'll be interesting especially with Valentine's Day in February much later in the year we have a we have a Mars retrograde in Gemini and that's a period that lasts for about five months and Mars is about our motivation our desire our willpower and when it goes retrograde we may lose track of what it is you know we may we may lose our connection to desires that we held and that we you know were motivated about with Mars and Gemini you know Mars is also represents anger and aggression and so when it's retrograde there can be a lot of repressed anger that comes out in the sign of talkative Gemini there could be some fiery communications later in the year but there's a lot of Mars stuff going on all year so to me in a nutshell because I know we don't have a lot of time is that we're really getting an opportunity to rewire or again meet our shadow in the way that we that we assert our will I mean it's going to meet up with Pluto and Square Uranus so that could be some sudden surprises of volcanic you know situations and anger coming out which may kind of flip the lid off for us of what kind of shadow issues related to the way we assert our energies are we going to deal with during the retrograde so it's how do you move through the world are you aggressive versus assertive are you weak-willed and needing to sort of boost yourself in that way are your desires getting in the way of you accomplishing your greater Capricornian goals that this year is kind of started out with so so how does your willpower or the lack thereof you know support or sabotage and I think we're going to get a big chance to look at that this year I almost said until I was aware of what I was almost going to say is I don't like this Mars thing you know I oh gosh okay what did I just almost said what do I need to do if I don't like Mars I gotta look at what Mars is to me and then figure out how to deal with it because I much prefer Venus over Mars oh well you know Venus is like you know let's just liken it to waking up in the morning and Venus will say oh the bed is so nice and comfortable and warm and I just want to stay here for longer and you know just luxuriate under these sheets and you know of course if you're with someone luxuriate in the touch and just the companionship in the relationship but Mars is like you know come on it's time to get out of bed we've got things to do let's make the coffee let's get up you know so we we need Mars yeah I I will look at Mars in a new way and I'll also realize that maybe my shadow self needs to accept this thing you know and be open to what the good that can happen once you learn how to work with Mars you know right especially with some of these things in okay there's lessons to be learned through everything if we look at all the lessons we learned over the last two years I mean believe me we have had some heavy-duty lessons we've learned we have absolutely and we have more to learn we have actually for Mercury retrogrades this year Venus and retrograde Mars and retrograde I mean there's a lot of rewiring that's gonna happen this year good to have a good electrician handy huh definitely okay I God is my electrician I'm sorry when you wire me in right wire me and yeah no I mean because there is gonna be a lot and you know what that's what makes life exciting the hardest part I think for people who try to find out the answer of what's gonna come there's a two thoughts that come to that looking at the future can cause anxiety you can fear false illusions appearing real and the brain is all too happy to gather information to support those fears and and if you do something like you try to figure out too much you know it's like you're tempting fate sometimes it's like well is this writers that writers am I gonna do this and so it's like sometimes that can really trigger the monkey mind can so I've got it I've got a quick thing that a friend of mine says bless it or block it you know and so I've been kind of getting into that lately and what you don't have to believe in God you don't you know it's just like get that mindset you know bless it or block it and just be okay that will be loosely attached it doesn't mean you don't plan you don't have desires you don't try to make them happen but again we all know about attachment and how much pain that causes well we've all had to go through so much change that we've had to learn to let go and detach I want to make sure we get your websites and you have a new one that's just starting up I think do and it's finally all of the edits are done with it and so some of you know me as an astrologer and you can find me at oralea star astrology dot com that's O R A L E A star with two R's astrology dot com but what many of you don't know is that I am also have a master's degree in speech language pathology and have been serving in that field for almost 28 years working with people of all ages and all disorders and I take all types of insurance now and you can find out more information if you know someone who needs some speech therapy at speech therapy Maui dot com you do an amazing job with it you've helped a lot of people and when we were talking just yesterday you brought up some interesting points some of the people who had actually gone through COVID used your help you see and we were just talking about mercury retrograde and we're already we're in that pre-shadow yeah no that was interesting no I mean it is and mercury it's weird because I was told I have mercury and retrograde in my chart oh well then for you it should not be as difficult as it is for a lot of other people well I just want to thank our guest here Orly it's always wonderful talking to you thank you so much thank you Cindy always a pleasure yes thanks for having me in today always always nice to pow wow with you too