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If you lay down and listen to a guided meditation, do you quickly fall asleep? If you try to sit, does your body complain so loudly that paying attention to anything other than your back or knees seems highly unlikely? If you are answering (yelling) a resounding, “YES!”, then I have a few suggestions.

Here are some easy things to try if falling asleep is your issue:
1. Switch up the time of day to when you feel more alert.
2. Make sure you haven’t eaten a heavy meal in about two hours.
3. Practise in a cooler room, without a blanket or extra layer. 4. If you are laying down sit; if you are sitting stand and try a moving meditation.

Let me clearly state here that if you are enjoying meditation laying down and you have physical limitations to sitting meditation or simply aren’t interested, keep doing what you’re doing. Really.

Here are some things to try to create more comfort in seated meditation:
1. Cushions, cushions, cushions…soften the ground with a larger cushion on the floor and then raise your seat with a firm cushion under your bum.
2. If all the cushions in the world are not going to help, sit in a chair.

Check back in another day or two for new audio files: a guided seated meditation and a simple standing meditation.

Much love, Katherine

I have just posted a new audio file. This meditation has been one that I have been doing for many years. It is beautiful. If it resonates with you, practice with the recording until it is all through you so that modifying it comes naturally without the recording. The recorded version begins with cultivating loving-kindness for yourself, followed by a loved one, then a person you find difficult in your life and finally, the world. It runs for just under 20 minutes.

In my own morning meditation practice this is the last one I do – my grand finale – and it can last far longer than 20 minutes if you have the time.

When I am practising, I allow anyone who ‘wants in’ to be part of it. I begin with myself and move onto my loved ones who may appear for me individually or sometimes grouped. I accept however they come. Sometimes someone very random will appear and I accept them too.

I always move onto a person I experience as difficult or a group that brings up negativity in me so I can practice to cultivate loving-kindness even when I want to contract and reject the difficulty. (Your difficult person could also be a person you love, by the way.) I don’t know of a better more practical practice than this to live purposefully in love and peace. Even political situations or stories of violence can be part of the meditation if that feels accessible or necessary for personal growth. The important thing is not to be caught up in the story. Stay connected to the practice. You allow the person or group to appear and you do your best to cultivate the feelings generated by the repeated words used in the practice. The meditation provides the opportunity to be with the feeling of contraction or gripping and explore openness and compassion.

If this audio file feels too long, start with cultivating loving-kindness for just yourself and then pause the recording at that point. After practising this way for a while, listen to the recording up to and including a loved one and so on until you have worked your way up to the full 20 minutes.

Let me know what you think in the comments or email me (your comments come to my email anyway).

Much love to each of you. Enjoy the sunny and warm weather tomorrow!

ON THE FIFTH DAY
by Jane Hirshfield

On the fifth day
the scientists who studied the rivers
were forbidden to speak
or to study the rivers.

The scientists who studied the air
were told not to speak of the air,
and the ones who worked for the farmers
were silenced,
and the ones who worked for the bees.

Someone, from deep in the Badlands,
began posting facts.

The facts were told not to speak
and were taken away.
The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent.

Now it was only the rivers
that spoke of the rivers,
and only the wind that spoke of its bees,

while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees
continued to move toward their fruit.

The silence spoke loudly of silence,
and the rivers kept speaking,
of rivers, of boulders and air.

In gravity, earless and tongueless,
the untested rivers kept speaking.

Bus drivers, shelf stockers,
code writers, machinists, accountants,
lab techs, cellists kept speaking.

They spoke, the fifth day,
of silence.

I have been running the last few weeks after meditation and before my yoga practice.

I am the most fair weather runner who has ever lived, by the way. In the Spring it seems like the loveliest idea after a long winter but when it gets too hot, I reconsider. In the Fall, I think, “I should really start running.” Then, it gets cold and there is nothing in me that wants to stick with it.

Yoga is different. It is a love through thick and thin. Hot weather or cold. Cranky or happy. Chubby or lean. Too busy or at peace. I even take my yoga practice on vacation with me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It doesn’t matter how I feel when I start my practice or begin to lead a yoga class, I always feel infinitely more connected to myself and others at the end of it. Mindful movement and meditation is the most underrated and accessible kind of magic.

Running is THE thing for some people and their yoga practice is the add-on that keeps them running. The last three weeks for me in particular, running has been a nice add-on to my yoga practice. During this strange time we are in the midst of, I truly welcome a more intense awareness of the relationship between my heart and lungs. I also just need to move more.

I am not professing a lifelong commitment to running but the combination of this with yoga has felt like a match made in heaven lately.

I have been returning from a run each morning sweaty and with movement buzzing through me. I stretch out my calves right away on the stairs into my house then I head to my yoga mat. I get grounded and use my breath along with the foundations of the poses to grow the shapes.

I have been doing a full practice but here are a select few yoga postures that have felt like pure heaven after a run…

• 

The other really feel great postures have been seated forward bend and standing forward bend against the wall, full warrior series, triangle and reverse triangle, bow and camel, downward dog, head stand and simply sitting back on my heels with my toes curled under. If you have a firm rubber ball or a good quality tennis ball, use it to roll out your feet and glutes.

What activity do you like to pair with yoga? Tell me all the juicy details about your love affair. If you have any questions about the postures above, let me know.

Stay healthy and happy, Katherine xo

I have always liked the poem below by E.E. Cummings. Read it now and let it reach into you as a reminder to consider what really matters. When we clear away the stories we tell ourselves and let the noise and clutter fall away, we are left with who we really are…these incredible vessels for love. Enjoy.

Let it go –
e.e. cummings

let it go – the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise – let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go – the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers – you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go – the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things – let all go
dear

so comes love

Okay…so before I do a grand reveal on the ‘Easter’ treat that I have been eating a lot of since last spring, allow me to preface this post with: don’t judge it until you eat it. Promise?

I offered to bring some of these beauties to a family get-together last year for Mother’s Day and was greeted with a very tentative and unenthusiastic, ‘Um, okay.” I made them in small little mason jars (they were super cute) and they were practically licked clean. So trust me. This is gonna be good.

Without further rambling, here’s a recipe-like thing to throw together:

1. Make chia pudding at least 2 hours ahead (or the night before) so you have some on hand when cravings strike. 1/4 of chia seeds to 1 cup of vanilla almond milk or whatever you want to use to expand the seeds. Stir or shake well in a jar and leave it in the fridge.

2. In a bowl scoop out two generous tablespoons of the previously made chia pudding, add another generous tablespoon of nut butter of choice, cranberries, chocolate chips, pecans and any fresh chopped fruit of choice (and/or chia jam if you have any on hand).

3. To make it look pretty, layer everything in a glass jar and ta-da! You have a super satisfying and filling snack sure to keep you from solely eating chocolate as a meal over the next few days.

Here’s a picture of three brands I am using at the moment that make this extra yum…

Enjoy!!!

Hoppy Easter!

If you have ever wished that your yoga class could be a solid Savasana session, then do I have an Easter treat for you.

I have just recorded a Yoga Nidra session and have posted it to the site. It is just a smidge over a half hour and is a sweet taste of the practice. Please, please give it a try and let me know what you think.

A Little About Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra, often referred to as yogic sleep, is deeply relaxing and restorative. Anyone can do it. The initial stages alone (breath awareness and rotation of consciousness) magically calm your nervous system. The practice also focuses on cultivating multiple levels of well-being by integrating what in yoga is called the koshas or layers of the self. Investigate more on the koshas if this is of interest to you.

I was first introduced to Yoga Nidra when I went to India in 2007. I practiced daily while I was there and then regularly once I returned home. I was convinced I would never abandon this beloved practise for as long as I lived and then I promptly fell off the wagon. I jumped back on two years later after I had my daughter and was trying to juggle free-lance work and motherhood. I was more sleep deprived at the time than I ever knew was even possible. Yoga Nidra saved my sanity when I literally didn’t feel I had a single moment to spare. I currently practise (in addition to regular meditation) whenever I feel depleted or particularly anxious. It is a gift every single time.

A Little About Sankalpa A Sankalpa (or a resolve) is a short, positive statement in simple language that marks the beginning of Yoga Nidra after you have reached a level of relaxation. Think of it as a way to plant a seed in your mind that is sure to flourish.

There is often an emphasis on allowing your sankalpa to arise ‘naturally’. I believe it does arise naturally. Eventually. In the meantime, don’t agonize over it. At the beginning I knew when I was using a fake-o sankalpa and you will too. It will feel forced. Or you won’t even remember it from one session to the next.

Here are examples of possible sankalpas so you get the idea…

I empower others.

I am adaptable and resilient.

I let go of what no longer serves me.

I learn from each moment.

I am loving and loved.

I listen to my body.

I speak kindly to myself and others.

I am healthier everyday.

I am peace.

I choose happiness.

I communicate with clarity and compassion.

Enjoy the recording. I hope this practise helps you to feel calm and steady. Pass it along to yogis and non-yogi types. Lay down, throw on some headphones to listen and just relax. I have no doubt this would be Easter Bunny approved.

Much love, Katherine

Hello…Thank you to those of you nudging me into action on the blogging front with emails and texts. I am a reluctant user of technology on many fronts…social media and an online presence in any respect hasn’t been my strength.

This is such a strange time for so many of us and as more and more avenues to subtle acts of kindness seem to close, others open.

This morning I was out for a short run and someone along my street had both their garbage collection bins pushed over from the garbage pickup. Normally I would feel good about righting them again but today I paused thinking it might freak someone out to see me touching their bins even if it was meant to be helpful. This kind of second guessing can be heart-heavy. I want to be a source of sunshine in the world but this is no longer possible in ways that feel familiar. At least not for now.

A friend told me a story the other day about witnessing a father using a raised and firm voice telling his little girl while they were on the sidewalk, “I told you not to walk toward people. It’s dangerous.” What kind of imprint does this leave on a child when every person she passes is a threat? There are many disheartening stories like this at the grocery store…online in hate-filled comments and maybe even from people you love in your life who are struggling with fear and anxiety.

Amidst all of this though, there is beauty. I received the loveliest message yesterday from a friend who shared a photo of the sun breaking through the clouds accompanied by what he explained as an internal feeling of hope. I received wedding photos today from another friend whose daughter was married last week (without guests) but who felt that this was what it was all about anyway…she didn’t want to wait to marry the man she wants to be with through thick and thin. Over the last few weeks, I have connected with people I haven’t spoken to in a long time, I have said hello to more people on my street than I have since I moved here ten years ago and I have been part of a writing group that has brought me a great deal of clarity around my feelings of the swift changes to life as we know it.

I also have had more time to think about how I might contribute to the health and wellbeing of others. This blog might be a teensy way toward that end. So I have decided to post some guided meditations and other inspirational things over the days, weeks and more to come.

So to begin…I have posted my first guided meditation for you to try. It is one I have been using lately. It is imagining your own inner light or love as moving from the core of you toward your skin and then falling through the body into the floor and beyond the floor, taking all worries and tension with it. This might be how you work the entire meditation to feel strong within yourself during this time of uncertainty. If you felt steady and it was comfortable to do so, you could expand the light into the world, as a healing gift beyond your skin. You could allow this light to absorb any suffering and then using your body as a kind of filter to release this suffering (the world’s and your own) as you did before. Please try it and let me know what you think. The audio file has been added to the site.

Also…here is a poem I wrote for my writing group that I want to share. Maybe it will also make you feel hopeful..maybe it will make you feel like you have just watched the sun break through the clouds.

Much love to you and every single being on the planet,
Katherine

Something Feels Different

Cruising has become
extreme travel
without a mooring point
without a safe harbour

My body
Definitely, my body
feels different too
It feels just like this
what once was rote
is no longer the route


My mind was proficient
at holding firm at the helm
leading my body here
now there
now here and there
Hurry. More.
Not enough.

The body has now
taken up navigation
What else is
there to do?
Go. Run.
(It tells my mind)
Be Yoga
Breathe

Cruising has become
extreme travel
without a mooring point
without a safe harbour

This makes me
hopeful
about where
the wind might
take all of us
who remain afloat

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20

Happy, happy weekend…So here are the healthy habits I have been tracking this month:
1) more time enjoying winter weather
2) more time engaged with intentionally loving acts
3) more time embracing vulnerability

Here’s how it’s going so far…only meh. Fine tuning is definitely necessary.

The first one (enjoying more time outdoors this winter) has been the easiest. And it should be. Outdoor time = check mark. I have a naturally social and active ten year old who wants to go skating, skiing, walking/hiking and tobogganing. This, combined with my intention to resist hibernation, has legitimately increased my engagement with winter. Yay? Mostly. There has been a catch. My mind. When I go to add a check mark to my habit tracker I think things like…’would I have gone if I wasn’t taking a bunch of kids?’ or ‘the mild weather alternating with gorgeous snow falls and sunshine makes it easy to want to be outdoors so does that really earn me a check mark?’

Do you have a voice like this? A voice that doesn’t immediately whoop it up on your behalf?

I have also discovered that the second and third things I am tracking (intentionally loving acts and embracing vulnerability) are rather slippery to track in the first place because each one is too broad of a category. Add to that the voice of the inner critic and I am doubting how authentic any of my check marks are. I wonder things like…’isn’t that really just practising presence?’ or ‘that one doesn’t really count because…’

Here’s how I am attempting to get around it like a yogi 🙂

• Be more specific about my intention (what am I tracking exactly)
• Acknowledge thinking but choose presence and generosity toward myself instead
• Relax into whatever is with the intention for daily practice

For example:

Outdoor activity time (enjoyed or not, encouraged or not) = check mark. I will not be open to discuss this with my inner critic.

Intentional loving acts and embraced vulnerability need to be more specifically defined to get around ‘that doesn’t count’. My inner critic is just too creative and persuasive.

So this month I get a check mark for every opportunity I find to choose loving-kindness over being right. There will be further opportunities to act with love of course but earning a check has been defined.

I get a check mark for every opportunity I find to practice presence when I  encounter vulnerability (mine or someone else’s).  I might or might not act on it specifically. The better I become at finding these opportunities, the more likely it will be that I will respond to them without interference from my inner critic (or so I imagine anyway…time will tell).

How is tracking going for you?