Another introductory session to learning the JUST SIT way of meditation. Sit More, Stress Less.
Settle, Sit, That’s It
Just Sit®. Find YOUR practice
Just Sit® and Find your Center, An Anchor for your calm self.
HOW? Easy. Cultivate a ‘practice’ that you can sustain because it’s not hard, or boring, or demanding. A practice that works for you – not your friends or some expert. It’s you and only you who has to keep doing it! So love your practice!
And by ‘practice’ I do not necessarily mean any conventional ideas about meditation – I mean finds your own ways to find calm, find ways to purify your nervous system and re-invigorate naturally. This is NOT complicated, this should NOT cost alot of money. This should feel EASY and SATISFYING and make you want to keep coming back for more because it doesn’t get dull.
I have created the Just Sit® methodology precisely to provide a simple framework with variability of both time and content.
REMEMBER: Many practices! One Intention! Gratifying Results.
“Sit now. stress less”
5 easy steps to finding your way into a sustainable meditational practice
- Make it a Habit: 7 days in a row to start?
- Set up you space – cushion, chair, scent, timer
- just sit framework – See SST below
- 3 minutes or 33. Just Sit
- Techniques – just breathe or try some different approaches
Just Sit® as simple as SST
The Just Sit® framework is what provides the continuity. Within it you must feel free as a bird to play, try, experiment. Don’t yuck anyone else’s yum over this. Chanting may seem silly to you but may just work a charm for your friend.
Settle – Pick a time and set a timer. Take a seat. Feel grounded.
Sit – Pick a practice: Easy breathing, patterned breathing, chanting. (We will have a variety to choose from)
That’s It – Acknowledge your efforts however long or short. Promise yourself to be back tomorrow.
CLICK HERE TO TRY IT: Here’s a version of the Practice to get you familiar and get you started. Like it? Share it but let me know!
Basics of the Just Sit® way:
Can You commit to 10 minutes a day? (even 3 will do, or stretch yourself to 18!)
Just Sit for 3 minutes so you can say you did it! Don’t get hung up on time. Just do it.
Can you commit to 28 days in a row? (even 7 will do)
Habits are formed for sure in 28 days but even 7 will show you how many benefits there are so if it is easier for you to get your mind around 7 then go for it. The only way to develop a habit is to commit to it and keep re-committing any way you can. Some days you’ll feel like skipping. Please don’t skip, just do less. WE all have 3 minutes.
Techniques make the sitting easier and we will keep recording them but for now check out
There are any number of techniques and “things to practice” while sitting and those will be available (some are already are from plain deep breathing, alternate nostril, to counting backwards with breath, to So Hum) on this site. These techniques will give you a lot of choices on how to approach each sit.
I am going to say it again: One man’s meat is another’s poison
Try as many techniques as you like within thin JUST SIT® framework. and see what works!
Remember this adage. It is true for everything from self-help to food and medicine. Only you can know what is best for you.
You will only know what works by trying it. (possibly working with someone like me to guide, teach and keep you inspired to continue).
The benefits are real:
Clarity, better sleep, calmer nervous system and a host of medically proven benefits related to blood pressure and the immune system.
Next Month I will introduce a Just sit 7 day Practice called “Get your Flow on”
Build Energy Now! Your Choice
Build and store energy now – Think Baskets
I love baskets. I buy them whenever I see them. Store things,, carry things, sort things. I love the way they feel and look, all those shapes, artisanal, made mostly by women all over the world for centuries. Colorful or raw, caramel or colored straw. so how does this relate to stressing less? Follow my logic – you have to be aware of your energy stores and you have to consciously choose to recharge and keep building energy as surely as you deplete it.
Thought of the month:
You get to choose what you allow in your awareness so choose to be aware of your energy levels and then choose to do something about it when they get depleted.
In other words: Choose energy and reject depletion.
Here’s where the baskets come in. A teacher I adore once scolded me for allowing my pranic basket to get depleted. She meant my stores of energy. and she gave me a nifty visual to go along with and create awareness about my energy!
The Visual
Imagine that you carry a lovely basket under an arm, resting on a hip. When it is full of energy, prana, elan vital, vitality, ‘get up and go’ you feel great! But, when you don’t get enough sleep, you hand out your energy to this person and that, this task or that and your pranic basket gets emptier and emptier, energy stores get depleted, your immune system weakens, your temper gets short, tolerance for everything from problems to loved ones runs dry.
Problem: you expend energy without adequately restoring it.
Solution? Always build energy so that you have energy to spend. Like a bank account. Never let it get so low you bounce the check. That baskets needs to be constantly tending, filled and re-filled. First of all get adequate rest and correct your diet. Beyond those basic measures there is my eternal favorite advice: Just Sit!
Just Sit!
Find a way every day, a few minutes or half hour, to sit and breathe. Release your mind from constant loops of thought, to –do lists, let your body soften and expand. Fill your lungs with deep full long life-giving, energy building breath!
The Basket of Prana Meditation. An 18 minute ‘Classic Sit.’
Settle: find your seat. Check in with your body and find your comfortable posture. Soften obvious areas of tension by letting it all drain down and out into the earth. Allow yourself to feel heavy, grounded but also expansive. Now notice your breath. Notice how it comes in and out, just notice, don’t do anything with it. Inhaling it expands your rib cage, exhale, contracts. In and out, open and close, a simple rhythm that is all your own.
Now imagine that you have around you any number of lovely baskets. They are all empty. One of them will hold any thoughts that come up. You can even separate the kinds of thoughts into different baskets: work, ideas, memories, judgements, worries. AS any of these arise softly label them and drop them into their appropriate basket. They will wait there for you., They will be there if and when you need them. Don’t go out of your way to call them up but when they arise you know what to do with them. Once deposit is made go back to the breath softly and gently coming in and out.
Imagine the inhale comes up through the earth, up the spinal column and exhales out through the nose into the air around you. Inhale up, pulling energy from the earth and exhale out into the air around your body.
If you want let your mind imagine your body in space and the air around it saturated with t this delicious nutrient rich energy. Keep the breath coming up from the earth and out through the nostril to the space surrounding you, forming a kind of protective energetic barrier.
Now imagine that with each exhale you are filling up your pranic basket. With each inhale you collect energy from the earth and the exhale deposits the energy in your most special basket. Keep inhaling and exhaling. Gently, quietly imaging that you storing and restoring energy you will use when you need it.
Now scan around your body, encased in all of that protective energetic space. Inhaling and exhaling feeling your mind focus back on the sensations of your body. Feel your seat, your feet, your hands, the air coming in and out through the nostril. Maybe even a tingling sensation all over the body, the energy flowing, the blood also full of nutrient rich energy from all of that oxygen. A few more delicious breaths.
Now gently open your eyes.
I want better digestion
Better Digestion with a few basic practices
One way to improve digestion (and overall well-being) is to focus on the way your very own body reacts to what you put into it. This means you need to develop ways to notice what happens when you eat certain foods; drink red wine versus white or none at all; the way skin reacts to one lotion over another etc.
If you learn to pay attention your very own body tells you everything you need to know.
In this post I ‘ll share a few strategies, ways to look at yourself and notice more. Let’s focus on food since it is most commonly related to digestion. But also, I’ll offer a contemplative practice that will help hone your skills of noticing your own individual rhythms.
First the Food:
In Ayurveda-land we focus a lot on noticing. Noticing what is going on, noticing what works and what doesn’t. Since every reaction is ultimately personal to you it is only you who can really know. learn simple effective ways to think get your digestion running smoothly. Mostly it’s about getting to know yourself, paying attention to yourself, nurturing your self.
Identify Qualities: I have touched on this on other posts: click here to read about Qualities
Ayurvedic Article on Digestion: To get a handle on the hows and whys in Ayurvedic terms read this ‘Joyful Belly’ article:
Find your very own Personal Rhythm:
Of course I have to throw in a word about meditation: Just Sitting is a terrific way to slow down, shut out some external and internal noise and start to pay attention to what your body is telling you. And here is a practice that specifically encourages you to notice and become involved with the rhythm that is unique to you – your own heartbeat is the perfect metronome.
2 Practices to enhance sense of personal rhythm:
Just Sit Breathing Rhythm – click here
Find Your Life Rhythms – Click here