The meditation

• Start by sitting comfortably and just let yourself begin to settle into your seat
• Feel the energy and activation of the past few moments as it dissipates and flows out of you.
• Scan your body starting with your head — let the remaining pockets of tension soften – Jaw – neck and shoulders – spine relaxes – arms – hands – chest – abdomen – pelvis – thighs – knees – ankles – ball mounds of the toes – toes
• Wait. let the body continue to slow down,  staying conscious of the settling process in the body.
• When that seems to level off – gradually become aware of your breath
• Stay present with each in-breath and each out-breath
• As your awareness deepens and drifts beyond the breath, concentrate this expanded awareness back on the breath. Stay here at least five minutes.
• Next, while still attending to the breath, slowly begin to become aware of your body. You are now starting to practice a duel awareness (of breath and body) – think of your breath awareness as if it were the awareness itself and from there begin to notice what else gets your attention. You may start by noticing the effect of your breath in the body – how it creates expansion in the in-breath and relaxation on the out-breath. And then gradually bring in awareness of more of the body, letting the sensations of your inside physiology enter your awareness as you also stay with the breath.
• Then become aware of the whole body, from the inside, still anchored in the breath
• As you sit with the sense of the whole body, continue to let the information from your body flow, uninhibited, into consciousness. You are now in a curious, non-judgemental state of observation.
• After a few moments allow yourself to feel the relationship of the body to the outside,  sensing with your skin your contact with your seat and the room.
• complete the transition back to “normal” by allowing your sense of hearing, and last, sight to help you re-engage with the room
• All this time you are still anchored in the awareness of the breath – which remains even when you are fully returned from the practice.
• Just before you move away from breath awareness make a bridge back into what you recall as the deepest part of the meditation.  Notice what it is like to make this transition. Stay here for just a moment before crossing back over the bridge.

Office Location

The office is five minutes from downtown Portland — two blocks from Cheverus High School — across from Borealis Bread on Ocean Avenue. The parking lot is on George Street.

Payment

Visa, MasterCard, cash and some insurance accepted.

When:

Where: Meadow Wind Center for Holistic Arts
100 Gray Rd. Falmouth, Maine

Cost: To be announced

http://meadowwind.org (for directions & registration)

This workshop will help you gain a sense of expanded presence, felt in the mind, but especially in the body. You will use awareness of the body to explore a more “open,” conscious experience.

The body has established, automated patterns of response and behavior. When you are present with these patterns (which are partially unconscious) you can begin to bring intention to their expression. This is the healing intersection and the source of change. The body’s own energy is used, with the focused mind, to influence these patterns as part of the change process.

Workshop description

We will practice developing tools to access and deepen body awareness, and then look at the sensations uncovered in the process. We will talk about the healing process and touch upon how long-term symptoms of stress, illness, and trauma can be helped with body-focused, or somatic therapy. The workshop will be conducted through demonstration and small group experiential.

The basic steps we’ll cover are:

• Cultivating presence in the body

• What you’ll find in the body
  • states that expend body energy
  • states that block the open flow of energy
  • “automated” reactivity to events
• How change happens
  • regulating high energy flow
  • stimulating blocked energy
  • managing reactivity by the use of “change zones”