Living A Meditative Life

The reason that we have "meditation practice" is to become meditative in every moment of our lives. What does this mean? How do passion and excitement fit in? How about communication and love? How do we truly become meditative, peaceful, and full of life at the same time? This was originally a live talk on Insight Timer.

Transcript

So,

Today we're talking about living a meditative life.

And this is a really interesting topic to me because I love,

I love teaching meditation.

But not because,

Not because I think meditation is something interesting to get good at,

But because I think the goal is really to live in a meditative state.

But because the world is so unmeditative,

Like it almost causes us to live outside of ourselves,

To live outside of our truth.

You know,

It almost disconnects us from our soul,

It disconnects us from our path,

And tells us to live other people's lives,

You know.

And then we sort of live filled with anxiety and filled with fear and filled with confusion as to why we're really here,

Right.

So,

Then the yogis come along millennia ago and said,

Okay,

You know what,

We need to bring everybody back to themselves.

We have how many billion souls on the planet and everyone's just running around like chickens that don't know what they're supposed to be doing and all stressed out.

All these amazing people are supposed to be living their authentic lives.

So,

How do we do that?

How do we bring people back to themselves,

Right?

Well,

We bring them back to themselves through meditation practice,

Right.

So,

To understand that,

You know,

We're on insight timer here,

The goal of meditation is not to be a great meditator.

Meditation is simply a technique,

A practice,

A meditation practice of coming back to ourselves,

Of actually being meditative,

Being within ourselves,

Living our lives centered from the inside out.

And this is really different.

You know,

Most people,

We're not trained to live from the inside out.

We're trained to make sure we look good for the neighbors and that our partners are happy and our parents are happy and our boss is happy and our entire locus of control is external.

And we just sort of become these empty robots,

You know,

Sort of just being whatever everyone else needs,

Which I think contributes to that like that long-standing like lack of meaning in life.

You know,

Like Thoreau said that most people live lives of quiet desperation because we just feel so empty,

Right.

Why do we feel so empty?

Because we're not here.

Like we've almost been trained to vacate the premises,

Go do all these things,

Make all this money,

Have the right house,

Have the right relationship,

Have the right number of kids,

Look this way,

Make sure you're skinny,

Make sure you're strong,

Make sure you're,

I don't know,

Look like you're 18.

But it has nothing to do with us,

Right.

So the whole point of a meditative life is to just simply live from this state,

Right.

We can even look at the chakras,

Right.

We talk about chakras all the time,

The energy centers,

You know,

In the lower chakras,

The first chakra,

How we connect into the world,

How we connect into the village,

Right,

Positive or negatively,

Which brings up fear of security and safety and food and all that.

Second chakra,

How do you and I interact,

Right.

How does that masculine feminine dynamic happen in the universe with you?

Third chakra,

Who are you,

Right.

Who are we really,

Right.

Why are you unique?

Why were you put here on this planet,

Right.

Our heart center,

This beautiful quiet center,

Which is a huge part of the meditative life,

Right.

The connection to source,

Infinity,

How we listen,

How we share.

To be truly meditative is to truly connect this infinite self all the way down to our day to day,

How am I going to pay the bills?

We can't do that if we're circling everyone else in our life,

Right.

This is centered.

It's not just centered like I'm me,

I'm centered vertically.

I am fully integrating my divine self into my life.

And this is really,

Really important because see to me like a spiritual practice,

Even just something as simple as meditation,

If it doesn't change your life,

If it doesn't actually help us in the hard times,

Then it's not a spiritual practice.

It's of no use at all.

Just simply being able to sit quietly for an hour and a half with a perfect spine and full lotus,

If that doesn't actually help you in your darkest hour,

Don't do it,

Right.

It's a waste of time.

Go eat bonbons on the beach or something.

Go do something else.

It's a waste,

Right.

So to me,

Like when I was young,

I,

You know,

I was a brain child,

Right.

Like I was one of those kids that my dad,

Like I'd come,

My parents are both teachers and I would come home from school and my dad would joke,

You know,

Why didn't you get,

You know,

Why didn't you get a hundred because I would have got 98% on something and he would just joke that,

You know,

The teacher must have been off today,

You know.

I was one of those,

To me I was going to say I was one of those weird kids like I was.

And the danger of being in our head like that is we actually think we know stuff.

And I say this across the board.

I'm just saying it within the context of my life.

But when we get too much in our head about things,

We think we actually know what's going on.

And I think in a lot of ways I could have ended up really preachy.

I come from a long line of preachers and teachers,

You know.

So I,

This is my theory,

This is my most working theory as to why I married a dairy farmer.

Because I could have so easy lived this sort of,

You know,

The most annoying person on a soapbox you'd ever met.

Just preaching philosophy at you,

Teaching fantastic meditations that promise enlightenment and all this stuff.

And then I end up falling in love with a farmer.

And I was a computer programmer.

I could have had any job I wanted in Toronto.

I was like a woman in a computer field like in the 80s,

Like it was crazy,

Right.

So I marry a farmer.

My mom dies.

I almost die through,

In both of my childbirths.

We buy the farm and life became so hard.

Right,

Like we worked 16,

17 hours a day.

Like literally this had nothing to do with my fancy math degree or anything to do with my brain or anything else.

This was sheer survival,

Just sheer exhaustion.

Right,

And there were good times in there,

Don't get me wrong.

But from my soul's perspective,

What I believed was important about me or what I knew,

None of it mattered.

It was like you got to dig deep and find something else,

Katrina.

Because everything society's told you is important about you,

Doesn't count here.

Because you're not going to make it through the day.

And I fell into great depression,

Like inside.

I mean I still just functioned in the world,

I was a highly functional depressive.

And then of course my world crashed and burned in like 1999 when I had breast lumps.

And all of that,

Whatever,

That huge contrast between what I thought about the world and what I thought I could control and what was real.

Like what was really going on in the world came together in illness and I had a total turnaround.

But I'm really thankful for the 17 years I spent on the farm,

Right.

Because they were very grounding.

Because,

And so today,

In my opinion,

It doesn't matter what we know,

What books we've read,

What practices we do.

If it doesn't actually heal us,

If it actually doesn't create a quiet center inside that helps us in the dark times,

It's of no value at all.

So this is where to me the idea of living a meditative life through the practice say of meditation or running or horseback riding or art or however it is that you find your center.

The point is to be able to live in this beautiful quiet state.

So that's why this talk to me is very,

Very,

It's important for all of us.

Like every single one of us.

It's like one of the reasons I used to love teaching Kundalini Yoga or why I initially began teaching it was because there were no levels.

It wasn't that you were a beginner or an intermediate or an advanced yoga student.

It was an internal journey,

Right.

Every exercise,

Every pranayama,

Every meditation,

Every chant,

Every single person in the class was going to have an equal experience that was perfect on their path.

So I could have people in there of all ages,

Body types,

Levels of experience and this is the point with all meditation practice.

Whether right now your number one practice is using a yoga nidra at night so that you can have a good sleep.

Or whether you sit in 10 minutes of quiet silence just to simply feel the world stop spinning every day.

It doesn't matter because the point is being able then to stand up and walk through your life a little quieter inside.

Right,

That's why we're doing all of this is just to be able to actually go out and live a meditative life.

And by meditative I don't mean like walking around like a Buddha at all.

Right,

I mean,

I mean actually living.

I mean having the courage to take whatever step you want to take next.

I mean making mad passionate love in ways that you've never even thought were possible.

You know,

It's never about just you know walking around and being unaffected by the world around you or having no desires and no ambition or anything like that.

It's really about having,

Bringing ourself to the point that we can hear the truth inside and we effortlessly have the courage to take every step.

That's the ultimate goal of meditation,

The ultimate goal of living a meditative life.

Right,

So what I want to talk about today it's sort of it's almost like a three phased approach.

Right,

There's sort of this beginning place depending on where we start.

But oftentimes I mean if you're anything like me the first is sort of a journey of healing,

A journey of coming into wholeness.

Right,

And that's why we often begin meditation because our whole life is sort of controlled from out there.

Right,

And then the second part is actually developing that witness mind.

Obviously all these pieces interact right,

But we actually have this witness mind where we can actually start hearing our truth.

We aren't only tuned in to everyone else.

We actually can hear our truth and we spend some time there.

Like we spend some time actually in this witness space right,

Observing the world,

Observing ourselves.

And then when that becomes really second nature that listening within is the first thing we do.

Then we sort of move into this infinite expansive possibilities you know where of when we're living and anything's possible.

That being centered is our start point and then from there we look around and we go hmm what would I like to do next.

Right,

Because that's to me the ultimate goal right that this soul gets to live however it wants.

So that's really the that's where we're going to go with our talk today.

So in the first the first part this at this time of healing one of the biggest things about this and you can imagine how this begins especially as a child right.

That all of what we pay attention to is outside of ourselves right.

Maybe we have to make sure we're doing what mom and dad said or maybe we have to do what our teacher says or our boss says or what our peer group thinks.

We need to create this deep training as to being accepted and not standing out and all that kind of thing.

So all the decisions we're making are out there.

Like I was reading something the other day and they were talking about how most people live they make decisions based on two possibilities.

One they are conformists that they're simply doing what other people are doing right.

It's just that's peer pressure right that's just wanting to fit in.

It's a natural primal need to survive to stay in the herd right.

And then the second one was totalitarianism where you're simply doing something because you were told to.

And that could be a boss it could be parents it could be it could be your peer group it could be your partner it could be anything right.

And that how very few people ever actually even know what it feels like to make a decision from inside right.

That it's you know we can say the words but it's like what would that feel like to just make a choice based on me.

That nobody else had to agree with and I wasn't doing it because anyone else told me to either right.

And that's a new thing and sometimes it's even just a that's possible eh.

How does and again it gets easy to say it but there's repercussions there that we'll talk about.

It's not just a case of oh just make a choice for you.

It's like oh like if we're accustomed to only doing things based on other people there's a hundred things there.

There's a hundred mental programs running there that keep us locked in that conformism or that totalitarian sort of idea right.

So to actually make a choice from inside it's easy to say fast but there's a lot involved in that right.

Hence this beautiful process of meditation and I think what's interesting even about meditation.

If you ever struggle with meditation if you ever struggle with that ability to stay quiet.

To trust that things are weaving together inside of you that you can't explain right.

Like when my intention when I decided to do the Tough Mudder and my only intention was to do it without fear.

That was it.

I didn't intentionally do any exercises ahead of time to overcome fear.

I just put it out to the universe and said I want to not be afraid to jump into the cold ice water.

I want to not be intimidated by all these super athletes all around me.

I want to be able to do this fearlessly.

And the universe conspired to sew up my psyche in a way that I could do it.

Meditation is like that.

To kind of trust that every minute you spend in silence is sewing something up that you can't explain right.

It's so slowly shifting.

If your goal is I would like to feel what it feels like to make a decision from inside.

I don't want to be at the at the whim of all the people around me.

I really want to feel this.

Magic happens right.

It literally does shift us from the inside out.

And then one day five years later you're sitting there and you can't fathom that you ever made decisions based on other people.

Right.

It's one of those things that you know they say that one of the number one things that defines a human is our ability to choose.

Right.

It's even in all the religious scriptures that human beings always have free choice and free will.

But if we don't if we're not personally home to make that choice or if the only choices that are okay for us are choices that are also okay for everyone around us.

Are we really making a choice.

Really.

And then we start to have an existential crisis like we start to really wonder am I even here.

Do I even exist.

Right.

The other thing is it isn't always the voices outside of us.

It's also the voices in our head.

It's all the programs the fears the learnings the all these things.

So right now.

If you're looking at me you might just be listening.

But if you are looking at me.

The person looking back the you that is looking.

That's what I define as you.

That's your soul.

So if you can feel the difference feel the you that is listening.

And then feel all the other that is inside your head.

Right.

The you that is listening.

And then all the other inside your head.

Right.

All that other inside your head is also what I would call being externally controlled.

It might be coming from inside of your own mind.

But it isn't you.

It isn't the one listening right now it isn't the one looking here.

Right.

The goal of meditation is to connect deeper and deeper with the one who is watching right now.

Because all of this stuff that's in our head.

It's almost like the recordings of the outside world.

Right.

And we've brought it all inside.

And then we think it's us.

It's not.

Right.

Just you and me.

Right here.

Right.

So part of the meditative process.

This is why when we sit in meditation,

And we allow the thoughts to move through.

We watch the thoughts.

Because they're not us.

They're not you it doesn't matter how scary they are.

It doesn't matter what they are.

They just are floating through.

So every time we meditate,

Imagine living your life.

Connected to that you just here.

I mean there might be kooky thoughts.

Like I was telling you guys a few days ago.

Four days ago.

I was right sideways.

I was just.

I was also premenstrual because I know you want to know that.

But it's like I was just.

Furious.

But I'm really clear about me.

And the personality that I am that's furious.

That furious self.

I'm okay with diving into that.

Because I want to know.

I want to know what's this drama playing out.

What's just hooking my heart and pulling me through a ringer.

I want to know.

I want to know what's at the bottom of it.

So I've got to dive in.

But I am still here.

At any moment I can pull out.

If I want to.

Right?

And this is important.

Every one of us has this right now.

There is the you and the other.

That is in our own mind.

Which even feels like us.

Right?

So just to really be aware that we all have this.

Right?

And this is what we're cultivating.

And the beautiful thing is we talk about wholeness.

Right?

We talk about wholeness and self-love and all that.

It all starts in this center.

Right?

Everything we build on comes into this center.

Our self-love cannot be dependent on other.

Right?

It's kind of like if we have like body image issues.

If our,

We are never going to come to a place of self-love when it's an external judgement we're basing it on.

External in the world.

External in our brain.

That's not self-love.

It has to start here.

It has to start in our soul.

Right?

So in the beginning,

When we're in this space,

This healing space,

This bringing all of our parts together space.

Right?

One of the most beautiful parts of the practice is kindness to self.

Right?

To kind of sit with it.

And like let's say you really struggle to meditate.

Right?

And meditation,

Meditation can be anything.

Like there'll be places in the world that you instantly become quiet.

Right?

When I was traveling,

Like for some people it's being in nature.

All they have to do is take one step into a forest and every cell of their body relaxes.

All that chaos,

All that anxiety,

Everything built up in the nervous system says,

You don't have to do a single practice.

The practice is being in nature.

And your whole body like an amoeba or something just goes.

Or it's sitting by the ocean.

Or it's swimming in the sea.

Or it's going for a run.

Or it's reading a book with a cup of tea.

Meditation really can be anything that works for you.

When we say that we are all perfectly unique,

It also means that we each have a perfectly unique way to come to center.

For some,

It may be some version of silence.

It might be mantra.

It might be some kind of guided meditation.

But you need to do whatever is right for you without any judgment.

You know,

Why can't I sit like that person for two hours in silent yoga or something,

Right?

It's like,

Don't do that.

That is not kind.

Because that's what that person likes to do.

I'll tell you that right now.

They like it.

They like sitting silently like that.

They dig it.

And if you don't,

It's because you're not supposed to.

Right?

And everybody's different.

Like I was traveling for a few years,

Right?

And it's a little unnerving at times.

Kind of never knowing the language.

Never knowing where to find good coffee or whatever,

Right?

It's a little odd to not be around your friends and family and stuff for extended periods of time.

And for me,

One of the most peaceful places is Franchescan churches.

When I was in Europe,

The Saint Francis of Assisi,

The order of monks that followed him,

They had these little churches all over the place.

All churches didn't work for me because some churches kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies.

But the Franchescan churches,

Because Saint Francis of Assisi only believed in poverty.

And that's a huge long story which I love to talk about actually.

But I love Saint Francis of Assisi so much.

But for him,

The practice of poverty was his way to God.

He was born to wealth and so that was his way.

It was not for everyone,

But that was his way.

So there's something humble about the whole order.

There's something humble about the churches and how they served.

And anyway,

Everywhere I went in Europe,

If I found a Franchescan church,

I would go,

I would walk inside,

Sit down,

And every cell in my body would just rest.

Like my shoulders would literally leave my ears.

And my mind would go clear.

And I,

Well,

That's where words disappear,

Right?

Something magical happened.

And that's just me,

Right?

So it's really important that your meditative life includes not just like classic meditation that we might do here on Insight Timer,

But things in your life that really naturally bring you there.

It could just be listening to music.

It could be dance.

It could be ecstatic dance.

It could be anything,

Right?

I have this weird thing because,

You know,

Because I live alone right now and when I eat dinner,

My favorite thing to do when I eat dinner,

And I look forward to this every day,

Is I watch some weird clip of the Big Bang Theory on YouTube.

I've seen them all a hundred times and I don't even care.

It's like this weird little kick I have.

But it brings me real happiness and real joy and I just sort of feel like me,

Right?

And you just have to do what's you.

That's it.

It's not,

It doesn't have to be interesting and deep and whatever.

It's just,

You know,

Just be you,

Whatever that is.

And then we're centered,

Right?

It doesn't matter what it is.

We just have to come back to center.

But this takes,

If I have a whole pile of judgment inside of me that says,

Well,

That's ridiculous and you should be communing with the food,

Katrina,

And you should be like,

You know,

Like,

Forget that.

I want to watch Sheldon.

That's what I want.

So that healing time looks different for everybody,

Right?

It's kind of like when we sit in quiet,

It sort of depends on what it is that's offside.

I remember one time I was teaching meditation in like an outpatient clinic for people who had psychological issues.

And so I was hired,

You know,

And I'm in this room and everybody's there and there's always a psychologist or a nurse or someone who's facilitating,

You know,

Just being there for the patients,

Right?

And I'm sitting there and I'm teaching some kind of meditation.

And I'm watching everybody's all in,

Right?

Like all the people,

The participants,

They're like doing it.

They're like really into it.

They're like trying,

They're doing the mudras,

They're doing all this stuff,

Right?

But the nurse is staring at me with wide eyes the whole time.

Like this.

Okay,

Of all the people in this room,

You really should be,

You know,

Setting a good example for like going along with this meditation practice.

And anyway,

At the end,

You know,

We sort of check in with everybody and I'm like how's everybody doing?

They're like wow,

It's like so calm,

This was awesome and blah,

Blah,

Blah.

So then I looked at the nurse and I said,

How you doing?

What you doing?

And she just looked at me and she was so honest.

And I so appreciate her.

And she said,

There is no way I am closing my eyes.

Do you have any idea who lives in there?

And I love that,

Right?

Because this is the journey,

Right?

It's just sort of being able to say to myself,

You know what?

I don't know who's in there,

But I'm not that thrilled with being alone with them right now.

But this is part of the journey,

Right?

Being able to actually look at ourselves with that perspective,

Right?

And just say,

Whew,

Well okay,

I'm not quite sure exactly what I'm dealing with.

I don't know whether this is ancestral,

Karmic,

Stuff I put up with with my parents.

I don't know what it is,

But there's a bunch of untangling to do up there,

Right?

And it's just,

That's cool.

That's the journey,

Right?

It's great.

I mean,

It was the best thing she ever could have said.

You know,

Maybe it was something she had to say out loud,

Right?

That she had to hear.

I don't know,

But it was great.

I was so thankful for her.

So the reason I say that story is that the healing part of using meditation is so different for everybody.

And as I'm saying this,

I have a feeling I should do a more expanded talk on that section.

Sometimes I have to actually talk about something before I realize what I really want to say.

But as we develop that witness mind,

Even the witness mind to be able to say,

Wow,

There's some really interesting programs running up there.

Like to even be able to connect enough with self to observe our own mind.

Like our mind is an organ.

Like to understand that our mind is just like a liver or our kidneys.

It's a functioning organ in our body.

And you can look at your liver and say,

Okay,

My liver's got some toxic buildup.

All right,

Maybe I need to do some cleansing of my liver,

Right?

Well,

The mind is just another organ of the body.

It's not your soul.

It's not your spirit.

It's an incredible organ.

But it can be filled with toxic thoughts and old programs and stuff that's not ours that slowly need to be able to be released.

Right?

So from that center,

The first step is developing that witness mind,

Like being able to actually observe ourselves with kindness and say,

All right,

Let's look at that.

So now imagine every time you meditate,

No matter what kind,

Like imagine you're just sitting in quiet meditation.

And you sit in your center and the thoughts go through and you stay in your center no matter what.

Even if you get twitchy and stuff and you kind of watch,

What are we doing?

We're strengthening the witness.

We're strengthening our connection to our soul.

Now imagine taking this into your life.

Right?

Imagine you're out in the world and someone says something and your mind gets all,

Starts to fly,

Or your body starts to get twitchy,

Like you kind of want to react to this.

Right?

And instead,

You stay in this witness and you observe.

Right?

I'm not saying you don't respond if you're supposed to or anything like that,

But at least you're actually responding.

You're not just knee jerk reacting based on the past or something that's happened before.

Right?

That you're actually in your center in this moment.

So every time we meditate,

Every time we practice coming back to the breath,

Coming back to center,

We now are able to go out into the world and something's going on and you're able to go,

Hmm.

Right?

This is a meditative life.

Like even asana.

Think of the practice of asana.

You know,

And there's a million versions of hatha yoga out there.

Right?

But the true core of asana practice is when we hold our body in a certain posture.

It's not just our physical body that's in that posture.

Our mind is in that posture.

Our emotions are in that posture.

So,

For example,

If you spend your life kind of like,

So for example,

If you've been really hurt,

Or if you've had sexual abuse,

You'll see oftentimes that the shoulders will come forward and will protect our hearts.

Right?

Will protect our vulnerable self.

Right?

Or maybe we're kind of depressed and we're sort of bent over or slouching in some way.

And then we say,

Okay,

You know what?

I'm going to sit and meditate for 10 minutes.

And you sit and if you sit slouched like this while you're meditating,

What are you thinking?

You're like,

I can't do this.

I'm terrible at meditation.

This is awful.

Right?

Our posture,

Our asana is actually contributing to our mind because our body,

Mind,

Spirit,

Soul,

It's all the same.

They're not separate.

This is very,

Very important.

Right?

They're not connected.

They are the same.

E equals MC squared.

Energy equals matter times the speed of light squared.

Energy and matter are interchangeable.

Your emotional state,

Your physical state,

It is interchangeable.

So if physically,

This is the asana we hold while we meditate.

This is our mental asana.

This is our emotional asana.

So if you suddenly sit,

Sit straight,

And you put your shoulders back,

And you sit with your arms clear,

And you tuck your chin in and you bring your crown straight to the ceiling,

And you hold this asana,

Now what are our thoughts?

And you breathe.

Right?

That's a whole different thing.

This is the point of asana training.

This is why we do warrior pose.

Right?

This is why we do mountain pose.

I am the mountain.

Right?

Tadasana.

I love tadasana.

Tadasana is one of my favorite postures.

Not just because it's,

You know,

Dead simple.

But it,

Tadasana,

You guys know tadasana?

It's like,

Tadaasana.

We'll see if I spelled that right.

I don't really spell it wrong.

It's supposed to be in Sanskrit.

But tadasana is mountain pose.

Right?

You stand tall,

Your crown is to the ceiling,

Your shoulders are relaxed,

Your arms are at your side,

Your feet are fully grounded in the earth.

Right?

It always reminds me of the movie Mulan.

I loved the movie Mulan.

Luckily it was big when my kids were little.

So I got to watch it 400 times.

There's this great scene where the emperor is,

Emperor is like just this little dude.

Right?

Then there's this monster bad guy.

Right?

Sean Yu or something like that.

And he's this huge Mongolian,

Like just amazing,

Great big guy.

Right?

And he comes swooping down and he's overtaking the kingdom.

And he swoops in and he says to the emperor,

You know,

Bow before me.

And the emperor stands there in all of his like four foot two self.

And he stands there and he says,

No matter how the wind blows,

The mountain cannot bow to it.

That's my favorite.

Right?

That is tadasana.

Right?

So I practice tadasana standing in line at the grocery store.

I practice tadasana everywhere I go.

If I have to wait anywhere,

I literally just stand.

I place my feet.

I straighten my back.

I drop my shoulders.

I stand tall and I breathe.

I can't tell you how different this makes you feel.

This is the power of asana.

This is why asana is one of the eight limbs of yoga.

It's not so that you're able to touch your toes or something.

That's irrelevant.

It's holding our bodies in the postures of life.

Because it alters our mental state.

Like if you struggle with fear,

If you struggle with anxiety.

If all you do is start by changing your asana,

Hold a different position.

If you meditate,

Don't meditate lying down.

Sit up tall.

Like own your space on the planet,

At least in your own home.

Right?

And like start to rewire your whole being.

Like you imagine when you're raised in a home that's difficult,

You learn to become invisible.

You even learn postures to kind of,

You know,

Become quiet.

I remember when I was young,

I was the oldest and I did have some rebel years in my teens and drugs and all kinds of stuff.

Right?

But.

And so on occasion I would get in trouble and my dad would just get furious.

And he wasn't a violent person or anything,

But he'd get pretty mad and I was a hardcore people pleaser even as a teenager.

And it was funny,

I even knew to kind of just sit quietly like this.

And then if I would sit quietly and kind of do this,

He wouldn't get as angry.

Right?

He would calm down.

But my next sister,

If she got in trouble,

She would jump on the bed,

Get taller than him and yell at him back.

And I always think of that.

The difference between me taking the subjugated asana and her taking the I am king asana.

It's so funny.

The other thing that's really interesting about even asana,

For example,

There's a one of the parts of the eight limbs of yoga is pratyahara.

And it's all about they call it withdrawing energy from the senses.

Right?

And there's a million interpretations of this.

But one of the interesting parts of it to me is the ability to stay centered when the world is highly stimulating.

Right?

It's not necessarily just like you can practice it through kind of sensory deprivation almost.

And you don't have to be in a sensory deprivation tank,

But to even sit quietly and close your eyes and not get caught up in the sounds,

Not get caught up in the smells,

Not get caught up in the body feeling and allow yourself to go deep within to connect with self,

Regardless of what's going on outside of you.

This is a real,

Like to withdraw from the senses and come in to that you that we're talking about.

Right?

It's not defined by the outside world.

Right?

Think of the value of pratyahara in life.

Right?

So you walk through life,

You are in your beautiful tadasana,

You are the mountain.

Right?

And you walk through life,

And all of a sudden,

Craziness is happening and that person's going through a breakdown and this is happening and oh my gosh,

And this person's trying to piss you off or whatever,

Right?

The world can be kooky.

Let's say you walk into work one day.

And,

You know,

For me,

I'm self employed,

So I can be really picky as to who I spend time with.

So every so often,

If I actually had to work in a company,

Or be on a board of directors and I didn't get to choose who is there,

That's where we practice Mountain Pose and Pratyahara.

You are here,

And there's a million things that are going to pull you offside.

Right?

A million.

Right?

If you have practiced actually staying within and not getting pulled off by anything,

You sit there and it's like you're practicing pratyahara right there at the board table,

Looking around and this person's here and this person's manipulating that person and this person's trying to do this and all this,

And you're just sitting there going.

And it's not that you're not paying attention,

And it's not even that you aren't listening,

But it's not going to pull you off center.

That's the point.

Like we come out of millennia of power struggles and control.

Right?

This is why we learn meditation.

This is why we learn yoga,

To actually be able to hold this beautiful center,

No matter what's going on.

And then from that space,

We actually can make choice.

We can actually suss out what's going on.

I'm not going to play with all of your nonsense.

I mean,

That's just your nonsense.

Right?

But ah,

Okay,

Now that bit of nonsense,

That's not nonsense.

Okay,

We're going to look at that.

There's some truth there.

But how can we ever discern it if there's eight things of crazy coming at you?

Right?

So we practice with drawing.

And again,

This is what I mean.

Your meditation practice,

You have to be practicing something that's valuable in the outside world.

So why is hearing that silence important?

So that you connect with it,

And then you go out into the world,

And you're kind of always the eye of the hurricane.

Right?

And sometimes if you want to jump out and spin around a bit,

That's cool,

Too.

But you always can come find your way back to center.

The other thing I really want to mention is,

I believe in the eight limbs,

It's called dharana.

I mix them up sometimes.

I think dharana is focus.

Right?

There is such a bliss of focus.

So the meditative life,

If you imagine what this is,

Right,

It's the ability that no matter what we're doing,

This is all we're doing.

Mind,

Body and spirit.

Whether we're writing an article,

Whether we're teaching a class of children,

Whether we're cutting the lawn,

Whether we're driving our car,

Whether we're washing dishes,

Whether we're doing yoga.

This is all we're doing.

Right?

So we are practicing yoga,

And thoughts come in.

Oh,

I need to pick up this when I leave.

Oh,

I need to go get groceries.

And you go,

Inhale,

Exhale,

And come back into the body.

Why do we do that?

We are practicing focus.

Our minds are just constantly,

We keep grasping on to all these random thoughts,

Instead of constantly coming to focus.

The beautiful thing about focus,

When we live like that,

Like when we live in this absolutely centered way,

And I'm washing dishes,

And all I'm doing is washing dishes.

It's like your whole body just,

I want to say this,

But it's like you become orgasmic.

And I actually really mean that and it may sound silly,

But I remember my teacher Jim used to say,

He didn't understand why humans were stressed out all the time.

He's like,

Why don't people just walk around fully orgasmic?

Why would you choose to be stressed out all the time?

And when you ever experience this full focus on any task,

If it's creative task,

That's even better.

But on any task,

If we can simply stay focused,

We can experience bliss.

So every time we meditate,

Why do we chant?

Right?

Chanting breaks up the mental patterns that we keep getting caught in.

Right?

And it's a very annoying thing because the chants like smacking our brain patterns,

Right?

So it's something we tend to fight against.

But then once it breaks through,

We're able to focus and focus is bliss.

Right?

One of my favorite things to do because,

You know,

I work a lot at home or on my computer,

Whatever,

Is to actually I'm going to say,

You know what,

For the next 45 minutes,

I'm turning off my phone,

My emails off,

Everything's off.

And I am only doing this one thing.

And I'm so happy.

And that one thing could be creating videos,

It could be writing an article,

Or it could be balancing my books.

It doesn't matter what I'm doing.

It's the focus that's blissful.

Right?

It doesn't matter whether I'm like,

You know what,

I'm gonna wash the dishes or I'm gonna,

I don't know,

Ecstatic dance.

As long as I'm focused,

It's perfect.

Right?

But the bliss also comes from doing what's next.

Right?

From actually being able to hear inside and say,

What does my soul want to do next?

This.

And then your body will focus on it.

If you say to yourself,

Oh,

Well,

That'd be nice.

I should do these three things first.

You'll never be able to focus on them.

Because that's not what you're meant to do next.

Right?

And we've done a lot of talks on here about Satya,

About listening for inner truth.

Right?

But how do we listen to inner truth,

If we're not home?

Right?

So all these things blend together.

And that's what I mean.

Like,

Whenever,

Whatever it is for you that really brings you centered,

Just do those things.

Because as soon as you're centered,

You hear your truth,

You're able to focus on the next step.

You feel bliss.

We hold our posture differently,

We walk through the world differently.

Right?

And the final goal of this whole thing,

Right?

You know,

The healing,

The centeredness,

All this kind of thing.

The goal to me is actually really accessing these upper chakras.

Right?

Really bringing that infinite,

All those infinite possibilities into our world,

Into the lower chakras,

Into the physical.

Right?

Because all of a sudden,

It's like everything changes when we're inside.

We hear the truth.

We've actually practiced staying in that center in the middle of an annoying board meeting.

We have sat in difficult communication.

I mean,

In a different like an argument or something with someone or a difficult discussion.

And we've been able to stay centered and truly listened and truly listened within and then responded in a different way and seeing the relationship,

Seeing the communication go differently.

We've seen this happen.

We've seen the benefits of being quiet and seeing how a conversation that's gone a certain way your whole life suddenly goes differently.

And you go,

Wow,

This is the Buddha concept.

Right?

When the Buddha would say,

Don't believe what I said,

Go out and do it.

Then it won't be a belief.

It'll be something you know.

And this is the journey.

Right?

The more we practice this quiet inside as we walk through the world,

We just simply know it's true.

Right?

This is what then gives us the courage to actually take the step.

Right?

Whatever that is,

Whatever the truth is we hear inside,

Because we've seen it work,

We've seen the benefits,

We know to listen.

And then listening and acting become second nature from that center.

Right?

And then we know and then I think we really become human.

And this centeredness thing,

It isn't just like,

It's like,

I don't think I've ever gone come through a time in my life that I actually walked around like looking like a Buddha or something.

Like,

Life can still be messy and crazy and everything else.

Right?

It's even like,

It's almost like taking everything you do,

And just slowing down a little bit.

We're not stopping living.

I mean,

All of this stuff.

I really started journeying with all this when my children were two and four years old,

On a dairy farm.

There was no time for long meditation stints or,

Or,

You know what I mean?

Like we tend to learn in the world.

Right?

That's sort of the blessing.

That's the joy.

It's even let's say you're making love.

Just slow down.

Just whatever you're doing,

Just slow down.

Right?

If you're hanging out with your kids,

Just slow down.

That's all we have to do.

And then when we do that,

Suddenly we start to witness.

And suddenly we start to see all the different possibilities.

And maybe an old memory pops up from our childhood and says,

Oh,

Whoa,

Who knew that was still in there?

Okay,

I have to work on that.

Like all these things weave together.

Right?

All we have to do is have the intention.

Right?

That we want to have focus.

That we want to be still inside.

That we want to be able to have choice.

I don't know.

And then our life just becomes this really interesting positive feedback loop.

Right?

Wow,

I really slowed down there and had a different outcome.

Hmm.

Positive feedback.

I'm going to try that again.

Right?

Then all of a sudden,

It's all we do.

We just know that we all know that there's never a benefit from staying in that externally controlled space.

Right?

The benefit always comes if all we do is pull in a little bit even.

It's like magic.

Right?

Amazing.

Amazing the effects of it.

Right?

Let me take a look at your questions.

Is Tadasana good for fear,

Worry and stress?

Oh,

Yeah.

Tadasana is good for fear,

Worry and stress.

It depends on you.

Right?

For example,

There may be times that you actually need to be in child's pose.

Right?

What if you allowed yourself a 10 minute meditation in child's pose?

You know child's pose.

Right?

Child's pose is the most safe posture there is.

You have this beautiful spine protecting you like a turtle.

Right?

All your vulnerable parts are inside.

And you lie there and you breathe and you feel safe.

Right?

It all depends on where you are on the journey.

Maybe what you need is to feel safe.

So I would spend 10 minutes in child's pose.

Maybe play quiet yoga music and just breathe deeply.

And then maybe stand in Tadasana to feel powerful.

It just depends on you.

And this is where to sit quietly and even even look at different books on Asana and trust the guru inside.

Trust you.

That if there's something that calls you,

Right,

If you ask what is best on my path,

What is the medicine that I need right now?

Look and see.

Right?

Just see.

And in child's pose,

For example,

Child's pose is also something if you struggle with breathing deeply,

It sounds kind of curious,

Right?

But when I used to teach,

I used to teach kindergarten teachers how to teach yoga to children.

And child's pose was actually a really beautiful posture to teach children to do for other children,

Where one child would go down into child's pose and the other child would put their hand on their back just gently.

And then the child that's in the pose has to breathe in a way that moves the other child's hand.

Right?

So what it does,

And this is for all of us,

Right,

Like you're in child's pose,

And you actually breathe into your back.

You actually expand your lungs into the back.

This is a huge deal.

Right?

And it's a really fun thing for kids,

Right?

Because suddenly they have to breathe deeply and the other child can feel.

And I think,

That sounds really silly,

But it's really fun and the kids can do it.

And it calms them right down.

Right?

And then bit by bit,

We start to back breathe as well.

Like even right now,

Imagine how you're breathing.

And imagine including your back in it.

Like imagine your belly expands,

Your ribs expand out the front,

The side,

The back.

Like your breath just becomes so much bigger.

And then what you're doing is you're actually allowing your nervous system to heal you deeper.

Right?

So,

Super fun.

Yeah.

So thanks so much.

I hope you have a lovely day or a lovely evening.

And we'll see you next time.

Reviews

Always so much wisdom in your talks, I love how you keep it all grounded to “real world” experiences.

Soooo good! So human! So….there!
So…here! Deeply grateful for finding this. 🥰🙏✨❣️