How to Create Your Own Meditative Mini-Retreat

January, like all of the winter season, is a time for naturally turning inward. It’s a time for cozy, warm blankets and hot tea. The winter season is a time to meditate and allow space for inspiration. It’s the time before the seeds are planted in the spring — the time to choose what seeds to plant. A way to embrace the meditative energy of the winter season is to create your own mini-retreat.

What is a mini-retreat? It is time you carve out with specific intention and care for body, mind, energy and soul. It’s a nourishing date with yourself with some form of meditation practice at its center that inspires you!

I get that calendars are booked up so quickly and it’s so hard to find the time for coziness and contemplation. One way to make sure you have the chance to embrace the energy that winter offers is to schedule an hour or two, or maybe a full or half day, on the calendar and call it your mini-retreat. Once you schedule it, respect it like any plan, and say no to other invitations that arise. You’re booked!

So what to do on your mini-retreat? Keep it simple and spacious.

1. Start with an intention. Are you looking for.. Guidance? Inspiration? Room to breathe? Intention becomes your guide for the rest of the time.

2. Determine the setting. Logistics - where is a quiet, inspiring place you can be in? Do you have a space in your home where you meditate? Do you need to get out of the house and take a yoga class? Do creative outlets call to you, like painting or drawing? How about a drive to look at the ocean? A walk (or snowshoe) adventure in the woods? If your inspired setting is outdoors, have a back up plan for weather so you don’t have to cancel your mini-retreat.

3. The activity you choose (meditating, yoga, walking, journaling, maybe a combination) is one that helps you turn inward. Begin with your intention. Take some time with it. Allow your intention to be part of the practice and also leave room to go with the flow. Your practice doesn’t have to look or be a certain way, let yourself have some space.

4. Soak it in. At the end of your practice, I suggest closing by journaling to note your reflections. Spend a few moments in gratitude for any insights you received and for yourself and anyone else who supported you in creating this time.

That’s it. The hardest part is the scheduling, the rest is rejuvenating.

Ground to Grow Bedtime Meditation

Tools like meditation and yoga are versatile in that they can be applied in both the ordinary and extraordinary moments. A meditation while settling into bed:

• Reflect on your gratitudes for the day. These can be big or small gratitudes. If you journal, then write them down, otherwise, let your mind list them and spend some time soaking them in.

• Imagine the earth energy rising up your spine, to the crown of your head and then connecting with the energy of the universe.

• Ask for spirit or your dreams to bring guidance to your attention on a specific question you have, on the path to your highest good.

#restfulsleep #dailygratitude #dreams #gratitudejournal #gettingreadyforbedmeditation

Allow Intention to Arise

Summer is still in full swing, with some of the edge taken off as the weather shifts and the evenings are just a tiny bit shorter. Though for many of us, mentally, emotionally, and plan-wise, things are more edgy than ever as we begin to head into September in this uncharted year of 2020. It feels so counterintuitive in the moment to carve out time for your wellbeing when you feel stressed, busy, or uncertain, but it is absolutely essential -- you know this!

Creating any new habit starts with planting a seed, an intention. That applies to whether you want to find more groundedness and stability through organization, shift your perspective or outlook, or manage your baseline stress level. You do not have to figure it all out at once, but what you can do in the next couple of weeks is reflect on how you want to be and when you want to feel it. Some example intentions might be:

I have a higher perspective when I hear/read ever-changing information.

I am flexible with uncertainty.

I soak in joy when I connect with my family and friends.

I am doing my best in uncharted territory.

Spend some quiet time to let an intention rise up and then allow it to become a planted seed. Perhaps it will come to you while on a walk, gazing at the sunset, sitting around a fire pit, meditating, or some random moment between all the doing. Then let that seed spend some time in the ground, and while it soaks up nutrients, you can nurture it by continuing to come back to it like a mantra, journaling about it, or further meditating on connecting to the qualities of the intention.

The meditation and yoga videos on my website are one way you can connect back to yourself to allow your intention to rise to the surface. I created a Yin Yoga Chakra Series to lead you into a quieter place within yourself. The first in the series focuses on the root chakra, your energy center that keeps you grounded on a firm foundation. Subscribers can access all yoga and meditation content. I also added a 5 Minute Opening Meditation in my Try Before You Buy channel, open to all.

You have a deep well of resilience, tap into it. I am here for you.