Morning Meditation - Faith In Action

 Morning Meditation. Even if this sounds crazy to you, I encourage you to try it, & observe how your life changes for the better. ✨

#HealingMorning #MorningMeditation #PowerfulState #Prayer #Meditation #FaithInAction

Morning Meditation - Relax Into Your Heart

 Morning Meditation™️. I do this multiple times a day, and it is so calming! Calming leads to healing, and healing is self-care. Treat yourself! ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #RelaxIntoYourHeart  #SelfCare

Morning Meditation - Quiet Time

 Morning Meditation™️. Have you built time into your day to explore who you are? It matters. Make the time. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #SelfCare  #SelfDiscovery

Morning Meditation - Faith In Action

 Morning Meditation™️. Every moment of prayer and meditation is an exercise of Faith In Action. ✨

#HealingMorning  #MorningMeditationArchives  #Prayer  #Meditation  #IntentionallyPositiveThoughts  #FaithInAction

Morning Meditation - Reflection, Prayer, & Meditation

 Morning Meditation™️. Nature can offer valuable lessons and examples to embrace as we meditate, reflect, & pray. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #LessonsOfTheLotus

Morning Meditation - Awaken An Hour Early

 Morning meditation™️. Consider giving this discipline a week’s try and note how the quality of your life changes. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #SelfCare  #AwakenOneHourEarly  #Meditation  #Prayer  #Discipline  #SpiritualPractice  #GreetTheDay

Morning Meditation - The Lord’s Prayer

 Morning meditation™️. This is how I begin my day, speaking this prayer, setting my spiritual energy, focusing my thoughts, and absorbing the devotion of these words. 

🕊

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #LordsPrayer  #StartOfTheDay  #EndOfTheEvening  #Prayer

Morning Meditation - Quiet Shades of Lavender

 Morning meditation. Peaceful moments come in surprising presentations. Today, quiet blessings reside in shades of lavender. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #QuietBlessings  #PeacefulMoments #ShadesOfLavender

Healing Morning Extra - Snow Thoughts

Healing Morning Extra™️. Snow thoughts. ❄️

#HealingMorningExtra™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #SnowThoughts  #Peace  #Beauty

Morning Meditation™️ - Unique Pause

Morning meditation™️. Meditation & prayer work best when we focus and dwell in the unique pause of that moment. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #UniquePause

In the Deep Blue

photo:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Water_drop,_single.jpg

I have been discussing meditation a lot lately.  With close friends, some whom I had no idea were devoted to the practice, as well as with new acquaintances.  I am a starter and stopper.  A drift away from it for a while, then come back to meditation with renewed enthusiasm kind of person.  For anyone who has meditated for even a short while, you know that it requires discipline.  The whole process is about discipline.  Focusing the body, staying still for a prescribed stretch of time, tuning the world out, focusing the mind, focusing the breath, and focusing the will to do all of the aforementioned.

The nature of meditation is to sit in silence and focus the mind.  This is when we are inevitably hit with "mind chatter".  Allowing each thought a moment of clarity and recognition, we then gently quiet that thought and come back to silence.  Each thought, in turn, is given its moment in the spotlight before we come back to mindfulness.  It's one of the most challenging devotions that can be embraced, in my opinion.  It's much easier to let the squirrel energy of all that mind chatter grab our attention and lead us far and wide from the original goal.

I have several friends who do active meditation where they listen to guided meditation recordings whilst doing some other activity such as exercising, house cleaning, etc.  I've tried that and I can see the beauty of combining activity with meditation, but I much prefer the sitting in silence method.  Occasionally I will listen to a guided meditation series, and I enjoy those because they allow a different type of relaxation and renewal.

What I tend to be drawn to the most is my own mental imagery.  From my earliest years of meditation, I've continually returned to the mental image of a deep blue pool where the occasional drop of water splashes down, creating a singular sound (in my head, I hear it as music - a clear single bell tone) and those lovely rippling eddies across the surface of the water.  If you can imagine being in a cave with a deep blue pool of water, and the cave being illuminated, that is the mental image that crops up the most when I meditate. The photo I shared above is a fair approximation of what I see in my mind's eye.

The single focus being the pool of water means there are no other distractions and my consciousness is narrowed to each droplet of water as it descends and bounces into the deep blue pool.  In my imagination, this cave is comfortably cool, clean and safe, and each droplet of water, and corresponding bell tone and beautiful ripple drops my consciousness deeper into the meditative state.

As I write this, it has been one of my lengthier stretches of time away from practicing daily meditation, and I find myself ready to embrace it again.  To step back into that mental imagery and focus on, and in the deep blue, and to greet that sense of Inner Peace that comes from opening up my full Self to the voice of the Divine.  It is the wee hours of the morning at the moment, but tomorrow will see me grabbing floor space to sit in meditation again.

Do these thoughts have a point?  They're my ruminations on something that has been a guiding force for much of my adult life.  Perhaps some of you reading this are fellow meditation devotees.  Some, myself included, see meditation as a different form of prayer and connecting to the God-Force.  I know that when I devote daily time to the practice of meditation, my daily existence is enriched.

And the most delightful part of this post?  It came about from a conversation with one of my dearest friends, who knows me better than most, and what I called a "good, old fashioned front porch talking to" where she helped me find some balance.  I have been wrestling with writer's block to a degree I rarely experience and couldn't find a way out of it to save my life.  It felt like I was trapped in a huge room with wet draperies hanging down that would twine about me every direction I turned, until I became immobilized.  The conversation with my dear friend cut the wet draperies and allowed my hands and mind a breathing space.  Directly on the heels of that huge inhale of fresh air came immediate inspiration for this post, and the urge to step back into focusing on the deep blue, allowing the rest of me to expand in awareness.

Higher self

Photo courtesy of Bing images

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body ~ C. S. Lewis

How's that for a powerful statement?!  Quotes often prompt blog articles for me.  I've had this quote saved to my drafts file for several weeks, waiting for all the thoughts to coalesce. 

I was speaking with a friend on the phone recently who is going through some personal struggles.  He was focused quite a lot on dissecting specific words down to their most minute definitions, nuances and applications.  I do that myself, as I always enjoy how written language can change with the slightest emphasis on a syllable, or depending upon how that specific word is used in a sentence.  Stringing words together into a quote such as the one above will have me pondering all the layers and directions and possibilities, and quite often, will open my eyes and mind up to a perspective I might not have come up with on my own.

We do lose sight of our origins, this is a daily truth.  Being on the front lines of this Earth School bombards us with all the raw emotions and experiences that are meant to mold our character, grow us up and refine all the rough edges.  Small wonder that we forget that we are Spirit in essence, merely housed in a physical container.  It is human nature to think in corporeal terms, because we're in a physical reality!

But taking time to remember our own Divinity is worthwhile.  We can't remain here in the physical plane forever, that much is an absolute for this reality.  It is a temporary gift we're given, being able to incarnate here and interact with all the wonderful people around us, to be able to feel, hear, think and express ourselves in a human manner.  I often wonder what the beauty must be in the non-physical plane, as what we are capable of producing here has breathtaking expression. 

When I meditate, there are moments when my consciousness is able to connect at a level that gives me glimpses of that non-physical plane.  Occasionally, I am able to shift my consciousness and step outside of my physical body, and those experiences are transcendent.  As a child, I can remember reading a great deal about Helen Keller and the fact that, despite her physical limitations with sight and hearing, she was able to shift her consciousness and travel great distances with meditation.  She was able to describe other countries in clear detail, down to colors, textures and scents.  When asked how this could be possible, her reply was, (paraphrased here) "My body is blind and deaf, but my Spirit isn't."

Similarly, a story I remember hearing of President Reagan's family caring for him in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease was that his daughter, Patty, would spend hours talking with him each day.  At that point in his disease, he had lost the ability to speak, and doctors were unsure if he could hear conversation around him.  His daughter continued to have her one-sided conversations with him each day.  When asked why she bothered by a medical technician, her reply (again, paraphrased here) was, "His body has Alzheimer's disease, but his Spirit doesn't.  I'm positive he can hear me, so that's why I do this each day."

These several quotes cobbled together in my mind and made me wonder, what is to stop each of us from having similar conversations with ourselves?  Many esoteric tenets hold the belief that we have an Over Soul, or Higher Consciousness.  Some believe that we can tap into our own thread that is connected to the Universal Consciousness, or that which we might label God, and that at that level, our Spirit, or Soul, is the culmination of all of our best, strongest, most noble achievements.  Call it our own personal spiritual anchor, or bellwether of sorts. 

Most of us are comfortable with the process of prayer; some prefer to access that Higher Consciousness through meditation.  I've said many times before that when we are creative or loving, or happy, we are expressing something Divine with our actions.  Why not take time, then, to remember that we truly are that Soul, housed temporarily in a physical body.....and recognize that as such, our Spirit form is supremely powerful and capable of guiding us in the most pure form?  When I remember to do this, I find that my days are much clearer.  Energy flows better and I am in a very present state.  Solutions to problems are more easily discovered, and connections to people who I am meant to find, interact with and teach and learn from seem to manifest effortlessly. 

It is the days that I forget and focus on just being human, wrestling my way through all the front lines activity of a given "battlefield" that life is much more challenging.  Another good friend, a Buddhist, always gives me these amazing quotes that she learns from her spiritual teachers.  Life is as simple, or as difficult as we make it.  That's not a tough concept to read and absorb, but it certainly can be challenging to NOT make life difficult!  I know I excel at that very thing!  Coming back to quiet, taking time to be with myself and remembering who and what I am.....a being of spiritual energy that is connected to the Divine....this is where and when Life flows much more easily. 

So, I do remind myself of Mr. Lewis's quote above.  I am a Soul.  Inhabiting a physical body, yes, but consciously reminding myself that there is so much more than this immediate physical plane of existence. 

What are your thoughts on this C.S. Lewis quote?  Do you take those small moments to reconnect with your own Higher Consciousness?  What method of approach works best for you?  There are no right or wrong answers to these questions; I'm just curious and I know I will value the comments that each of you take time to write here.

Namaste'. 

Blank White wall

Photo courtesy of
http://www.flickr.com/

A blank white wall.  This was my very first experience with meditation at a very young age.  If you grew up in a Christian oriented household, then I think most people can relate to the excitement generated on Christmas Eve night.  In our family, we waited until Christmas Day to open gifts, which amped the excitement level up that much higher.  After everyone was in bed, anticipation of the following morning and opening gifts would take hold of my young mind, making it difficult to sleep.  Even at that age, I recognized that unless I managed to get some decent amount of sleep, I wouldn't be able to enjoy all the festivities of the following day.  No young child relishes the thought of having to take a nap on Christmas Day, after all!

So, I would lie in bed, tossing and turning and attempting to relax enough to sleep.  I have no idea where the concept occurred, but I suddenly realized that I had to corral my racing thoughts.  My way of doing this and blocking out all distracted mental images, expectations, hopes, etc., was to imagine myself standing in front of a blank white wall.  Standing very close to it so that my entire vision was taken up by the clean expanse of uninterrupted white.  I also imagined this white wall to emanate softly blowing cool air, because I've never been able to fall asleep in warm surroundings.  That first moment worked like a charm - I imagine that it only took me 10-15 minutes for this meditative process to calm me enough to fall asleep. 

From that point forward in my life, I employed this calming technique of standing in front of a blank white wall to clear my mind.  I still use this technique to this day when I am having a particularly extreme amount of mind chatter going on in my head.  Insomnia seems to be a common experience as we grow older, and sometimes this method will help to relax me enough to allow sleep to come.

Photo courtesy of
http://www.hubpages.com/

I also employ this method occasionally for meditation, simply to drop my breathing and heart rate into the proper level to access that deep state of calm and reflection.  It has become a Go To exercise when life seems to be throwing a huge amount of activity in my direction.  In order to meditate, we do have to find a way to control mind chatter.  I spoke of this very thing recently with an old friend who is getting back into meditation and yoga.  I believe it is very common for anyone new to meditating, or long absent from the practice, to experience the challenge of mind chatter.  Micro-moments where seemingly random thoughts pop up and refuse to fade away.  One leads to the next, to the next, until eventually you lose focus. Those thoughts come rushing in the moment we settle down to meditate....or to sleep....or to pray.  Who hasn't turned their bedside table out and started their nightly prayers with all sincerity, only to get distracted by some random thought?  It happens to all of us and is certainly something we should forgive ourselves for; it is simply a physiological response the brain goes through as our bodies are at rest.  A method of processing all the minutiae of the day.

I don't know that the blank white wall method will work for everyone to calm mind chatter and make meditation or sleep come more easily; I just know it has worked for me since childhood.  For a good twenty years, I never correlated that this practice had any connection to meditative mindset.  When it did connect in my mind, I found it slightly bemusing that a four year old child had managed to cobble this concept together and be successful with it.  Granted, it was born out of a child's excitement about opening gifts on Christmas Day, but as I grew older, it became a valuable tool in my own inner growth and spiritual studies.

Photo courtesy of
http://www.mindflowmeditation.com/

I am guilty of straying from the practice of daily meditation and my recent discussion with this old friend reminded me how much I have been neglecting this vital part of my life.  With daily meditation, I am centered and better able to roll with the inevitable punches that Life delivers.  I am better able to access my inner spirit and intuition, and I am better able to release those niggling, annoying moments that bombard us minute by minute.  One would think all of the above would keep me very strict and true to a daily meditation regimen, but it doesn't.  I get lazy, I get busy and I forget.  One day turns into two, turning into a week and multiplying.  You glance at the calendar and suddenly realize that many weeks have passed without true nurturing of your Inner Light. 

So, the blank white wall beckons me from childhood memories to return to this vital daily practice.  Meditation is an individual duty and joy, although I realize that not everyone will embrace the practice, or even care to learn about what it really involves and how it can really benefit each person.  This isn't a post to encourage readers to embrace meditation.  It is just my thoughts on the topic and the path that I set my very small feet upon at a very young age. 

Photo courtesy of
http://www.minimalwall.com/

I do embrace meditation, although as I admitted above, I fall out of daily practice on occasion.  Perhaps that conversation with my friend was all that was necessary to nudge me and get the mental gears turning.  Once that occurs, it is inevitable that a blog post will be born, and I am ultimately a better person for it.  Writing, you see, for some of us, is its own form of meditation.  I reach a very profound Zen state when I write.  Time ceases to exist, hunger and sleep do not even impinge my consciousness.  Writing the thoughts out and weaving them into a cohesive and lyrically flowing fabric consumes me until that zenith of purity is reached.  Then I am washed in a level of satisfaction and bliss that is sublime. 

And all of these thoughts coalesce and return to that pivotal year in early childhood when I somehow devised a way to calm my thoughts.  I didn't know at the time that this was a form of meditation - I didn't even know what that word was at that young an age.  I simply knew that blank white wall method worked to help me sleep and I continued to employ it as I grew older.  For whatever reason, as a wee one, my brain was receptive and hardwired to esoteric concepts and by the time I was in second grade, I began to search for answers.  Today, the blank white wall still works for me when nothing else will; for sleep, to drop into a true meditative state after a hectic day, or simply to check in with myself and process through the myriad experiences of a given week. 

Photo courtesy of
http://www.wallpaperstock.net/

As I come to a close, I recognize that it is time to get back to daily meditation.  There are no accidents with conversation between friends; I have no doubt that this was God/Universe/Spirit gently nudging me, reminding me that this is an important energy in my life.  Time to come back to quiet, time to come back to calm, time to process and grow.  Time to visit that blank white wall and allow it to work its magic, settling chaotic, erratic thoughts into a smooth, even flow that gifts the Spirit with beauty and peace. 

Just Be

I have spoken many times before in blog format about the frantic pace we lead daily, particularly here in the United States.  I'm no different from the majority of people in this regard; I've been working diligently to establish a new branch of my writing services.  The lagging economy affected everything about my writing career two years ago and I am still adjusting and laying new foundation blocks.  So focused am I that I become my own worst enemy with taking care of myself, not getting enough sleep, not eating correctly and most importantly, not taking time off!

We all know the basic rules - you can't have day without night, hot without cold, light without dark, happy without sad.  Subsequently that old axiom of "All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl" truly has merit and weight to it.  When I begin to feel smothered in this manner, I know it is time to step back.  So, recognizing that certain frustrations have been building within as I'm racing madly down the road to a serious lack of balance, my thoughts turn to the exact opposite of my current daily existence.  In a word...FREEDOM.

What does it mean to you?  Freedom.  The very word conjures up all manner of emotions and mental images, feelings, expectations, hopes, dreams and wishes.  Freedom represents my beloved country, the United States of America, with her symbol that of the noble Bald Eagle.  I cannot witness one of these beautiful birds in flight without getting a lump in my throat and feeling the sting of tears.  Watching these majestic birds wheeling freely across the blue skies seems to speak to something very elemental within most of us.  When the word 'freedom' comes to mind, invariably, I mentally conjure up a bald eagle in flight.

Specific to my current frame of mind, freedom represents making a living doing what I love.  Not being chained to a dead-end existence in corporate America, as that experience always slowly saps my vitality and energy.  I chose to leave that world and pursue my own path with freelance writing.  Yes, I am accomplishing that goal in slow and sure steps.  Yet there is a niggling sense of frustration and lack that tells me I am getting in my own way.  I tend to excel at dancing with this particular nemesis.  So, with this recognition comes knowledge that it is time to stop.  Simply stop everything and just be.

At times such as these, I always reflect on the few true vacations I've taken.  One in particular was a 12 day trip to Hawaii.  I went with a group of friends and because of the time zone changes wreaking havoc with my Circadian rhythms, I regularly awakened fairly early.  Now, if you know me even slightly, you're aware that I'm not a morning person.  Not even close!  But during that time in Hawaii, I would wake up before the majority of my room mates, shower, dress and take a walk around the neighborhood where our hotel was located.  Across the street was a Catholic church that was always open and I would stop there to sit in the quiet, holy space, listening to the birds singing and just soak in that blissful feeling of freedom we have on vacation. 

I loved it - I chose what to do each day and I answered to no one but myself and the group of people I was with.  No bosses, no phone calls, nothing but my own personal choices and whims for the day.  I can remember being clearly conscious of the delight of that daily existence, feeling the surge of endorphins and pleasure coursing through me that freedom brings.  This is what I need to find a way to incorporate in my life now.

Tomorrow will be a day of freedom.  At times it is necessary to make a ruthless shift and literally walk away from the world for a moment.  Breathing, embracing a certain isolation to purge what was becoming a tangled jumble. Focusing and being what some might deem selfish in order to come back to quiet, come back to balance and reconnect with the pureness of my dreams.  An outward, deliberate and physical act of meditation.  Recapturing that sense of absolute freedom and pleasure in just being.

Law of Attraction concepts dictate that unless we are feeling joyful, we are out of balance and out of connection with the Source, that which we call God/Universe/Spirit...the names for Divine Energy are numerous.  I am feeling that disconnect and it is manifesting as frustration and dissatisfaction.  Yet these same unbalanced emotions are tools.  I am now at a point in my life and evolution where I am able to identify these potential obstacles much sooner than in the past.  I am happy for this awareness, as it allows me to consciously shift and adjust more quickly.  It isn't always easy or enjoyable, but it is necessary.  It is also not feasible for most of us to live in an eternal vacation mindset.  This is not what I am suggesting in this post; I mean more for us to access the pure happiness we experience when on vacation and create an environment that encourages those feelings to manifest daily.  I have stumbled with this in my own personal daily experience, so it is time to recalibrate.

This moment in my life is high charged and delicately balanced.  Webster's Dictionary defines the word Fulcrum thusly:

1 a : prop; specifically : the support about which a lever turns b : one that supplies capability for action

This is what I feel to be taking place - I am at one of those pivotal points.  I can ignore the warning flags and emotions and continue to create more of a tangle in various areas of my life, or I can heed these emotions and be proactive.  Obviously I am choosing the latter.  This is not to say I am in the midst of crisis or impending doom; to the contrary, life is good.  What I am focused on is making it better, and keeping a weather eye on anything that distracts me from embracing happiness and feeling a true sense of satisfaction in my existence.
 
What will this produce, this moment out of time?  I have no idea.  The main goal of the whole exercise is to just be.  I am promising myself a day of bliss in whatever form that manifests.  No contracts will be thought about; looming deadlines will not exist, bills can wait and troublesome connections are relegated to a distant back burner.  I am taking a personal holiday and re-establishing the bonds within myself with the dreams I came here to accomplish.  The laws of quantum physics and nature dictate that energy given is energy that returns, amplified.  My intention is to dwell in an energetic mindset that is positive, happy and open to all that is good.  Negative energies and people who get in the way of this objective are stumbling blocks that distract us all from dwelling in perfect accord and balance with our purpose and dreams.  The amplified energies that return to me are within my ability to shepherd and guide.  This is my own gentle reminder to myself that I chart my own course, and it is healthy and intelligent to choose happiness and freedom.
 

Oftentimes when I begin to feel bogged down with a lot of junkie energy, I meditate on the mental image of being suspended in the mist that blows down off a waterfall.  I imagine that mist floating through my physical and etheric bodies, sweeping clean all dark spots, all smudges of other peoples' energies, dissipating fatigue and disappointments and leaving behind a refreshed person.  A cleansed body, mind and spirit.  This is such an effective mental meditation that I do it quite often...unless I allow myself to get distracted and caught up in superfluous issues, people and circumstances.  Time now, to be.  Just be.
 

I don't know if this will resonate with anyone else.  No doubt anyone reading this post will remember a similar moment in their own lives where they had to slam the proverbial brakes on and symbolically leave the planet for a while.  I'm off on a journey to reconnect with myself, take silken energetic thread and stitch my joyfulness back into brilliant, fluid fabric that will ripple and shine and as a Dream Catcher would, capture those corresponding energies that match my dreams.
 

Just be.  That's the goal.  Those are the instructions.  Two simple words that allow a world of experience, releasing of spiritual blocks, and soaring until I feel renewed.  Writing about this with clear intentions is already lifting my spirits and I am smiling as I come to a close.  Perhaps this blog will nudge you to take a personal moment...a day of freedom for yourself.  If so, don't freeze up - don't stress out, as those are contradictions of your goal.  Be good to yourself.  Be joyful.  Be free.  Breathe in each individual beautiful moment.  Absorb it all.  Release the negatives and for this one moment, concentrate completely and magnificently upon YOU.  Just....Be.

Mandala memories

When I was a child, I would draw endless series of circular patterns that radiated outward in repeating shapes.  I would take my crayons, and later, colored pencils and paints and color these drawings from lightest shades to deepest gradations of colors.  I was very particular about this and could spend hours thus occupied.  To my surprise, I won a few art contests with some of these depictions.  They were always pleasing to my eyes, but I never knew what to call them when asked for a label to apply.  I just knew that the patterns made a sort of logical sense to my eyes and made me feel centered and at peace when creating them.  There was a sensation of pulsating energy as I would create the layers and patterns.

Fast forward into late teenage years and I was deeply involved in spiritual searching, reading every book on mystical teachings that I ran across, investigating various religions and spiritual practices.  Eventually, I began to see similar patterns to those that I had obsessively created as a child.  It turns out that what I was drawing could be likened to a mandala. 

Mandala (मण्डल) is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions, their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the shape of a T. In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the Universe from the human perspective. (Wikipedia)

Depending on the age of those of you reading this blog article, some of you may remember the childhood game called Spirograph (TM).*  Spirograph was a set of plastic wheels and templates with which you could create endless mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. (Wikipedia)  Although a mouthful to speak, those shapes are basically representing the same beautiful patterns found in mandalas. 

Another representation of this type of beautiful shape can be found in a kaleidoscope, which is a is a tube of mirrors containing loose colored beads, pebbles, or other small coloured objects. The viewer looks in one end and light enters the other end, reflecting off the mirrors.  (Wikipedia)  This was another device that could keep me entranced for endless hours, gazing at the ever changing patterns and colors inside that magical cylinder. 

Why did I begin creating these shapes and designs at a very young age with no example to follow?  I have my own thoughts on that.  One thought is that something within me simply resonated with the geometrical logic found in the repeating shapes.  Another thought is that I was recreating shapes from another time, memories embedded in the layers of my Spirit.  Both thoughts make complete sense to me, as I have always been drawn to the concepts of Buddhism. 

Similar repeating patterns can be found in nature; in flowers, in gemstones and crystals, in the whorls of certain lichen and mushrooms; in snowflakes, and even in the humble mature dandelion. Artists have reproduced these shapes in stained glass in majestic cathedrals and carved them into stone and wood. The majority of married females on this planet wear a diamond solitaire ring cut, shaped and faceted in such a manner as to reproduce this same geometric pattern within the depths of the gemstone.

I am not a mathematically inclined person, so I cannot tie together all the theory and calculations necessary to explain these repeating patterns the world over.  What I can say is that there is a strong presence of some type of quantum theory at work with these patterns.  Mandalas have been created for thousands of years to aid in meditation and to drop the consciousness into progressively deeper states of relaxation and trance state.  I can clearly remember feeling an inestimable sense of peace and calm as a child when I would intently create these patterns with my crayons and pencils.  The finished products with their intricate layers of color would please me enormously.  The shape that I most often created is similar to this photo with lotus flower-like petals radiating outward.

I don't know why this particular subject popped into my mind to write about tonight.  I had just finished my evening meditation, so perhaps my thoughts drifted to a focal point that I often visualize to calm my thoughts.  The more I thought about these shapes, the more similarities I came across, and the more it fascinated me.  These shapes appear over and over in science and nature.  We as human beings have recreated these shapes in glass, in metal, in gemstones, in fabric, on canvas, to please our eyes, yes.  I feel there is also deeper purpose in the recreations of these beautiful shapes.  From a mathematical standpoint, something of such linear balance has to resonate at a high and equally balanced frequency.  Could the mandala shape, when done with clear intent and calm, pure heart, create a powerful energetic point? 

We are affected by the beauty of these shapes.  Does this happen because they are pretty, or are they pretty because they touch our senses in a deeper manner than the most obvious ones?  The chicken/egg theory is at work here to a degree.  I don't have answers to most of these questions; they are more musings...ruminations on my part.  I once listened to a wonderful historian on television who espoused the concept that much of the fascination and plain enjoyment of learning is that some basic mysteries remain, as yet unlocked to our inqusitive minds.  This thought always makes me smile and embrace the simple pleasure of creating or witnessing something beautiful.

Whatever the reason was that drove me as a small child to create mandala-esque drawings is not completely known.  Having been slightly different in mindset from that very early age, I look back and am rather impressed with the fact that I never deviated from my focus, no matter the questions or criticisms of those early drawings.  There was something within that drew me deeply into spiritual studies that continue to this day.  And to this day, grabbing pencils and sketch pad to trace out another whirling wheel of color and shape pleases me and centers me.  Mandala memories remain a constant and continue to focus my consciousness as they appear to have done for others in centuries past.

____________________________
*Disclaimer: no financial gain occurred from the mention of the product Spirograph (TM) in this blog article.

Unorthodox Meditation

I've been absent from blogging for a bit longer than is 'normal' for me, although I already exist outside the accepted norm of multiple posts per week.  Usually, my blogging process is to wait for inspiration to strike.  I don't stress over it, or worry that it won't happen because it always does.  People, places, things, moments all come together in a beautiful harmony that will inevitably spark thoughts which lead to a blog article being born in my mind.  It is a pulse of sorts, with a rise and fall aspect to how inspiration and writing occur for me on a personal level.

These past ten days or so have been curiously quiet in that regard.  Again, I haven't worried overly much.  Friends online have begun to email with concerned questions of, "Is your RSS feed messed up?  I'm not getting your blog posts.  What do you mean, you haven't been writing??  You always write!"  That's a composite comment of many.  If nothing else, it was a pleasant thing to know that people who follow my blog do look forward to reading my newest work.  This didn't do anything, however, to spark that next line of thought that would create a blog post.

So, I have remained open and receptive, but somewhat detached.  There are simply times when we all feel the need to retreat.  It is not that there are not words or topics to be written - there are many.  I just haven't felt that sense of rightness that I normally do with blogging, so, although I have been writing, I haven't posted anything.  Tonight, I spent time thinking about this.  It suddenly occurred to me that I have been engaging in what I would call an active state of meditation. 

'Active', in that I have been living the process outwardly, rather than only mentally and emotionally.  I have been writing, quite a lot, yet none of the drafts of posts have resonated as being just the right note for being published on my blog.  So, I have written thoughts in snippets, lines of text to come back to or delete, some fully realized posts that will eventually be posted.  The sudden epiphany that just hit me is that this is the same process we experience with traditional meditation.

When meditating, we usually sit or recline quietly, allowing thoughts to flicker across our consciousness.  We study those thoughts, embrace them enough to honor the thought, then we gently tuck them away and come back to quiet.  It is usually a completely mental, inward exercise.  Occasionally this will manifest in a different manner - through exercise, through creating art, through music, through spending time in nature.  For me, these past 10 days or so have become a physical manifestation of meditation. 

I have been physically processing a great deal of information and experiencing the effects this information, these contacts and these thoughts are all having on my body and immediate surroundings.  I have been discarding some long held behaviors and activities that no longer serve me, while giving deeper thought to some I wouldn't have even contemplated mere weeks earlier. 

I am sure this is nothing new under the sun.  I am positive we all go through these active meditative states occasionally.  For me, it is a bit unorthodox, but a method that I do occasionally feel shifting to the forefront of my attention.  Because it is so completely different to my regular process of meditation, it can be slightly uncomfortable and cause frustration and confusion.  I remind myself that this is another instance of Stackable Energy and breathe deeply as I navigate my way along, casting the occasional assessing gaze upwards at that tower of blocks of energy. 

Generally when this physical type of meditation takes hold, I do tend to retreat a bit.  Sometimes I will become mildly or aggressively ill, depending on the nature of the shifting and meditative energy that I am facing.  Indeed, this past weekend, I came down with an indeterminate stomach bug that further pulled me back from the world.  I have found that this is part of the whole process and seems to be the physical body's way of cleansing old energy, clearing the way for fresh, new energy to flood forward.

Perhaps this all sounds slightly cryptic and muddled.  If so, forgive the indulgence.  It makes perfect sense to me and is part of a concept I have been working on for a while.  So, rather than writing about a specific topic that struck me in that lovely rush of excitement and enthusiasm, I chose to write about the less sparkly, more subtle aspect of inspiration....that of doing constant inner housekeeping and refining of mental discipline, energetic flow and methods of communicating.  Without this slower, more quiet interaction with Self, I would not be able to write the lighter, or, conversely, deeper, more evocative posts.  Yin and yang.  Endless processing and striving for balance is what I chose to write about this time. 

When this type of energy hits my personal horizon, bigger shifts are in the works.  I have come to recognize this particular rhythm and cycle.  What is it bringing my way?  I have thoughts and dreams, but at this moment, I am choosing to not limit the possibilities with labels and words.  I am staying open to the experience with arms open and heart full of expectation.  I am going through a dramatic shifting of energy, which generally occurs in my life every 5-7 years.  This shift has been enveloping me for the past 18+ months and is still in a state of flux.  Some of it is mutable, meaning I have control over the eventual outcome; some of it is immutable, and something that will happen regardless of how I resist or embrace the inevitable outcome. 

No, I don't always immediately embrace it.  Oftentimes, I fight it, resist it, struggle to impose my own will, my own wishes and my own wants.  I have learned over a lifetime, however, that this only postpones the inevitable and puts me through a lot of needless grief.  Knowing this still doesn't always make the process enjoyable, but it does help to adapt and assimilate the new energy patterns.

I have somewhat of an idea and understanding of what is coming towards me.  There are days it feels just right and other days it feels like my shoes are on the wrong feet.  This is when the physical act of outward, active, unorthodox meditation becomes necessary.  I am navigating my way through it all, swimming with and against the currents at various moments.  In a few days, or a few weeks, I will step back into my regular routine, slightly different than it used to be, but better for the changes.