On meditation in the month of February.

Following on from my last post on "Forgiveness and breaking free in the month of January", I drew the meditation card for February. I keep drawing this card out so I think the universe is trying to tell me something!

I don't find meditation that easy, even though I tried out the headspace guided meditations a while ago, as I mentioned a previous post "Divine nine or nine ways to stay present". And yet, there are so many benefits to meditation. Here are a few.

Having said that I found three practices in February very meditative. The first was (and is) my reiki practice. I am practicing self-treatment and distant healing as often as I can, as well as giving reiki treatments to my mum on a regular basis. Sometimes I close my eyes while giving reiki and at other times I have my eyes open. The ritual of setting my intention, dedicating the session to the highest good and then using the symbols or reiki positions bring me into a state of deep relaxation and contemplation.

The second was my first ever experience of having a sound bath. A sound bath I hear you cry? What is that? A sound bath is a type of sound healing where the body is bathed in sound from all kinds of instruments or the human voice and resonates at a state of high vibrational energy. 

As a passionate musician I was keen to explore what sound healing is like and so I went along to a talk and demonstration of sound healing by Katie Rose at the College of Psychic Studies in South Kensington, a stone's throw from the Natural History Museum. People of all ages and backgrounds came along to the session. Katie used a variety of instruments and vocal techniques to lead the group through several exercises to loosen us up, banish stress and tension and increase our vibrational energy. The exercises were liberating and a lot of fun! At the end we sat in a circle with our eyes closed while Katie used her voice, drums, gongs and flute to take us on a meditative journey through sound. My whole body vibrated as I was wrapped in a multi-layered blanket of sound. It was a truly amazing experience and something that I would like to explore further. I am thinking of learning sound healing as a way of bringing my musical and healing interests together, so watch this space!

My third practice during the month of February was (and still is) jogging. Yes jogging! I recently signed up for the Race for Life event which will take place on 11th June 2014 in Battersea Park. The Race for Life is a fundraising fun run on behalf of Cancer Research UK. I decided to follow the excellent jogging training plan and soon I was out there in my lycra, with my iPod shuffle, jogging along the waterfront at Battersea Reach. I never would have thought that jogging was meditative but I do find it so. The rhythm of my body moving along with music and watching the light reflect off the Thames helps me focus on the now and I soon find the busyness of my mind settles down and I can enjoy just being. So there we have it, three practices that help me become more meditative. Go on, I dare you to give these a go too!

Co-creation, Crypt and Courthauld's

It's all c's today isn't it? Yesterday I decided to sign up to the Co-creating our reality 100 day challenge and I will begin my season 1 of the challenge next Monday, 25th February 2013. This is a global community and website where individuals put into daily practice the law of attraction, law of deliberate creation and law of allowing and so on. As I have been one for setting goals at the beginning of each year for some time now, this new challenge is not too far removed from that.  I think that the laws of attraction, deliberate creation etc are actually aligned with my walk with God....after all he/she created these laws and they are called many other names too! For example, if I reflect on prayer, I conclude that praying to God is about setting my clear intentions  - that is my intention towards God, the Universe, other people and the world around me as well as to myself. When my prayers are answered, then that is an example of how a co-created reality with God becomes manifested. I like the co-creating our reality 100 day challenge because it is very practical and there is already a loving, supportive and global community living this out on a day-to-day basis. I think it will be fun! I heard about it from watching Lilou Mace's Juicy Living Tour as Lilou is one of its co-founders and is living proof that it works! I'll let you know how I get on.

Moving on to the second 'c' for Crypt, I walked from my home in Battersea all the way along the Thames path in the glorious early spring sunshine and up the Mall to Trafalgar Square. Having worked up an appetite for lunch I went down to the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square for a tasty soup and pud washed down with a scalding hot pot of English breakfast tea.  

Music has been so much a part of my life but in recent years I have put it aside while running around in the field doing aid work, so today, after lunch, I decided to enjoy one of St. Martin's free lunchtime concerts. Trio Aquilon gave a magnificent performance of Timothy Salter's 'Shadows I and II" and Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor. The church was packed to capacity.

After that uplifting experience I strolled up the Strand to the Courthauld Gallery at Somerset House, to take advantage of the cut price tickets available on Mondays and I soon immersed myself in the wonders of Renaissance and Impressionist painters and sculptors as well as catching the Becoming Picasso exhibition, well worth a visit! What a fabulous day, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Declaring a year of creativity

When the clock struck midnight on December 31st 2012, I declared to myself that 2013 would be a year of creativity for me. For quite a while I had been longing to express my creativity in different ways but had often put off making a start in favour of focussing on my humanitarian aid work. Now I feel it is important to bring into balance the other facets of my life and personality and make room for them. By this I mean I feel I am more than a humanitarian aid worker - I am a writer, a musician, song-writer, painter and drawer, photographer, energy healer, naturalist (not naturist!) and cook.

I had started this process a little before December 31st 2012 though, having made home-made peppermint creams for my friends and family over Christmas! Yummy! They went down well...And forayed into the realms of producing photobooks through Photobox, which is fun and very satisfying. I made a photobook for mum for Christmas covering many of our day trips to palaces and parks in London and I have just produced another for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, a little memento of a long weekend in Brisbane when I popped over to Australia on R&R from Papua New Guinea where I was on mission to the United Nations. Ssshhhhhh don't tell him!

In recent weeks I have been fascinated by mandala art. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning the container of essence or energy, circle, totality, completion and/or primordial sound. It is the space where inner and outer worlds meet, a place that can hold the powerful energy of intention (creation). 

Isn't that wonderful? Mandala's have often been used in spiritual practice for meditation in Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity to name but a few ... think rose windows of cathedrals for example. I find them a celebration of the beauty of form, the splendour of colour and sacred geometry, in which the mysteries of life are held.

I had been yearning to do some drawing and painting for a long time and felt prompted to have a go at drawing a mandala. Where to start? Well, I found many useful 'how to' videos on Youtube. I plucked up the courage to pop into Ryman's to buy a sketch pad, compass and felt tip pens and then sat down to 'have a go'.  My first challenge was to overcome the fear of not doing it right! I took a few deep breaths and swirled the pencil and compass around the page. When I relaxed I began to notice energy imprints on the page, which guided me to put down the shapes and I intuitively felt, which colours to place next to each other. See photo on the right for the finished mandala. What do you think?

The experience of drawing the mandala took on a therapeutic, almost trance-like quality as I found myself zoning out and feeling lighter as I put colour to the paper. Today I completed another mandala, this time it is in monochrome - black and white. 

Inspired by birds, I call this "soar". I hope you find it as uplifting to look at as I did to draw it! I am interested in your feedback.