ONE 11/18

VIOLET

From the Romans to the Japanese, violet has long been a color that symbolizes opulence, and a sign of royalty, majesty, and specialness. Worn by the Virgin Mary in Byzantine paintings and by the women of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, to Kings and Queens of Europe. As a pigment it has been collected from the roots of plants to sea snails, from mulberries and grapes. Its earliest uses have been traced to some cave paintings, where pigments were made from manganese and hematite. As light, it is has the shortest wavelength in the spectrum and in Buddhism it is the color associated with the crown chakra. Leonardo da Vinci proclaimed that you can increase the power of meditation ten-fold by meditating under the gentle waves of violet light. As an idea, violet has always been linked to the radical. It saw a surge in the paintings of the Impressionists. It took the art world by storm, people were convinced the artists had gone mad using this color so copiously in their landscapes, birthing a new condition called “violettomania.” It was Edouard Manet in 1881 who announced to friends that he had finally discovered the true color of the atmosphere, “It is violet. Fresh air is violet. Three years from now, the whole world will work in violet.”

Meditate with violet light. 

Music: Crystal Bowls by Deborah Van Dyke

THREE 1/19

BREAKING PATTERNS

In this meditation you will use the body and its movements to break habitual patterns in your life. Our lives are run entirely by our subconscious, and the body can uncover and express what is under the surface. Allowing your body to move while interrupting any habitual movement patterns will begin to break the cycle. It is not our minds that can do this, it is only through our bodies that we free ourselves.

This meditation is short, and one that you can easily do daily for maximum impact.

Music: “Beginning and Ending” by Max Richter

FOUR 2/19

CLEARING ENERGY

Clearing unwanted energy from the body. There is a lot of rhetoric out there about people who are too sensitive, or empaths that take on other people’s energies. I am one of those people, but the advice to people like us is usually to withdraw, retreat, protect yourself. This is very disempowering. I have found that as I connect more to myself, learn to stay in my own experience when I am with others, and focus on grounding and build my fire then I can handle anything and anyone. 

In this meditation you will use the breath and the body to clear energy. Use this meditation if you feel like you have taken something on that’s not yours. This will help you clear it out and help you strengthen the muscles you will need in the future to not take on energy from others. 

Main tip - the more you stay with YOUR OWN experience when you are with someone or in the world the less you will take on from others. This alone is something to practice. 

Music: “Aries - C, G, E” by Deborah Van Dyke

FIVE 4/19

CREATIVITY / ONE

It takes two energies to birth something new. These two energies are male and female / spirit and soul. This is true in procreation, within us energetically (as we are made of both male and female energy no matter our gender and we need both to be whole), but I think it is also true when it comes to creativity. 

The masculine part of creativity is about receiving ideas. There are creative ideas that are in the air, ideas that are looking for bodies to channel them. The masculine energy also helps us use our brilliant minds to make connections, think new thoughts and invent new things that have never existed before, and helps us to stay clear and focused when we are making. It allows us to connect to the world through our creative practice, it can connect us to life and to others. It helps us when we need to bring people together to create something bigger than us, and it also helps us get our message out into the world.

This meditation was created to help you use the energy of the Sun to activate your masculine side. Use it before you do any creative work where you need to activate the masculine qualities within. 

SIX 5/19

CREATIVITY / TWO

It takes two energies to birth something new. These two energies are male and female / spirit and soul. This is true in procreation, within us energetically (as we are made of both male and female energy no matter our gender and we need both to be whole), but I think it is also true when it comes to creativity. 

This month we will focus more on the feminine aspects of creativity. This is where we traditionally think about creativity coming from. But I still think we can frame it in a bigger way. We tend to only talk about it as emotions, but the female isn’t just about emotion. She is the container that holds all things (emotions being one of them). A great way to understand part of what the creative female energy is like is to think of the ocean. Imagine going to the very bottom of the ocean, where there is no light, formless, and unknown. It is in this depth that new things can be discovered. 

This meditation was created to help you cultivate the feminine aspects of your creative power. *It is best done in the dark, so do it at night or with an eye pillow on.

Music: “Overture (for Other Halfs)” by Brian McBride

SEVEN 6/19

MEDITATION FOR EXPANSION

We know that our bodies have a biomagnetic field (or aura) that surrounds us. It was first thought that this field had limits of a few feet, but recently it has been discovered that it extends infinitely. Stress and tension can cause us to shrink down our fields. This short meditation will help you open back up. You can do it multiple times in the day, or any time you need to relax and expand yourself. I do it any time I feel I need to connect more with the world, have a bigger perspective, or release tension.

This meditation was taught to me by Simone Gers. 

Music : “TWTGA” by Bing & Ruth

EIGHT 7/19

WHITE LIGHT MEDITATION

Clear parts of your body and energy field using a high vibration of white light. Strengthen your intuition by allowing it to guide you to the places you need clearing. Things get stuck. We shrink. Sometimes stuff is heavy. It's ok. Light is here to clear your way. 

Purify. Center. Clear.

music: “First Light”, Brian Eno

TEN 9/19

TRIANGLE GROUNDING MEDITATION

This meditation was very helpful for me during the month of October. It is simple and I found myself being able to do it easily a few times throughout the day - sitting, standing, walking, washing dishes - once you know it you can do it anytime, anywhere. It was taught to me by Simone Gers. We were talking about how when most people ground they don't include their whole body, they only include the lower half. This meditation was a full grounding experience for me, and I found that even if I did one breath this way it would shift my energy. It's also important to use your imagination, see the triangle and use your breath to really ground the energy down.

music: “Famosa” by Alex Cobb

ELEVEN 11/19

SUN MEDITATION

What message does the Divine God that is within have for you? What can the Sun illuminate? How can the light dispel dense energy? Create clarity, lightness, and ease with this Sun meditation. Do it daily, any time of the year, but it is especially helpful to do in the Winter months when there is less light. Bring the light of God, and allow your inner illumination to radiate out.

*God / Spirit / Masculine / Sun / Light / Breath are all the same energy - this energy creates space, it dispels. This is the energy of almost all “new age” “wellness” practices today. It can be a very helpful energy, but it can also be misused, and used to bypass or escape deeper issues, and favor the male over the female. Be sure to do this meditation with awareness that this is only half of the whole, there is also the Goddess / Soul / Feminine / Moon / Dark / Body. 

Music: “Ink On Paper” by Michael A. Muller

TWELVE 12/19

PROTECTION MEDITATION

We might all need a little energetic protection these days for one reason or another. This meditation can be done in a longer format - but once you get the hang of it you can do it in a few breaths to create a protective energetic field around you. 

This meditation was taught to me by Simone Gers

Music: “Ocean Flow” by Laraaji

FOURTEEN 3/20

GROUNDING WITH THE ELEMENTS

The four elements correspond to different parts of the body. When we awaken them they can provide us with insight, healing and power. And to experience them collectively guides us to an aspect of our own wholeness.

This is a movement meditation. It sounds very simple but if you fully surrender to it, it is very powerful. You can do it as a daily ritual to help you get into the body. Everyday it will be different. One element might feel extra healing on one day and difficult the next. There is no right or wrong answer, it is here for you to let you experience the wisdom of your body. And the more you do it the more it builds over time, and the more you learn about the different aspects of each element and how it relates to your unique energy.

Music by Brian Eno

FIFTEEN 4/20

SIXTEEN 5/20

PRAYER BREATH

Studies have been done on people practicing powerful prayers (Christian, Buddhist, Zen…) to show how prayer affects the body. Data concludes that certain iconic prayers have one thing in common, that they all create the optimal environment in the body for organs to function at their highest level, and can have all sorts of huge benefits for your body. Turns out it isn’t the words that are spoken but rather the time it takes to speak them aloud, and the amount of time it takes to inhale before the next round. This breath is an inhale of 5.5 seconds, and an exhale of 5.5 seconds. This creates the most balance in the body. This is meant to be a breath you can do any time - any where, every day.

This meditation is without music to help you focus, clear and balance. 

Inspired by James Nestor’s book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

SEVENTEEN 6/20

WATER & AIR MEDITATION

This is a standing meditation, using your body to connect to the depth of the ocean and the expanse of the sky and feel them meet within you.

EIGHTEEN 7/20

LOVING GAZE MEDITATION

A meditation to understand who you are and what you see simultaneously. How does having a loving gaze change the way you see? See yourself, see others and the way you see the world.

This can be practiced with this audio meditation - as well as throughout the day when you are interacting with others and the outer world.

Music: “Glyph I” by Michael A. Muller

NINETEEN 8/20

EARTH & FIRE MEDITATION

Travel through the earth to its core.

Music: “Pagan” by Michael Stearns / “Sequent C” by Tangerine Dream

TWENTY 9/20

SETTING MOON MEDITATION

Go on a journey to uncover who you are in the unknown.

Music by Michael Stearns, “St. Francis”

TWENTY-ONE 10/20

NADI SHODHANA PRANAYAMA

I have been doing this breath every morning in my morning routine for the past two months. Many of you who have done an online workshop might have seen this before - but it is worth sharing again. I find it to be such a balancing and calming breath, especially first thing in the morning when the world and body are quiet.

This is a video meditation to teach you how to do the breath. Once you are practiced in it you can do it on your own, anywhere - anytime.

Watch HERE

TWENTY-TWO 11/20

END OF YEAR / NEW YEAR MEDITATION

In the Winter months things go dormant, they fall asleep, rest, retreat inward.

Discover what is ready to reawaken, come alive, be born.

Inspired by a meditation done with Scott Picard

Music: “Diving Deeper, Remembering Love” & “Aurora” by Joanna Brouk

TWENTY-THREE 12/20

DRAGON MEDITATION

How does your inner dragon control you and your life?

We all hold the archetype of the dragon in our psyche. The dragon guards the gold - it is the energy that must be fought on the Hero's Journey in the evolution of our souls. In this movement meditation you will bring up the energy of your own dragon and find out what your relationship to it is. What does it look like? What are its characteristics? How does it control you - with no judgment positive or negative - allow your body to reveal to you what the energy of your inner dragon is and how dictates your relationship to yourself and your life.

Inspired by Joseph Campbell texts

Music: “We Are Aware of the Misery” by Popol Vuh

TWENTY-FOUR 1/21

INNER & OUTER BEING MEDITATION

What happens when you bring all your awareness to your skin? What peacefulness and stillness can you find when you focus on what your skin can feel, the way it holds and protects you, the space around it and the body within.

Music: “Glyph II” by Michale A. Muller

TWENTY-FIVE 2/21

GATHERING ENERGY FROM NATURE

Attune yourself to the energy of nature. This meditation can be done in your home or out in the natural world. Whether you live in the woods or the city, you can receive the energies of nature. Allow them to fill you up, relax you, and open you up as you also give back to them and build a more sensitive and reciprocal relationship.

TWENTY-SIX 3/21

HEAD TO TOE LET GO

Deeply relax every muscle, bone, organ and part of your body as you bring yourself into the present moment and let go of the tension you are holding.

This meditation is best done laying down - use props and pillows to support your body, heavy blankets to signal to your body it is time to let go.

TWENTY-SEVEN 4/21

YELLOW MEDITATION

Josef Albers had a weakness for yellows. When Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895 the following day the Westminster Gazette ran the headline, "Arrest of Oscar Wilde, Yellow Book Under His Arm." In France, since the mid-nineteenth century sensationalist literature was published between vivid yellow covers. For Van Gogh the color yellow became a symbol of the age and the rejection of repressed Victorian values. Traditionally, the pigment that makes Naples yellow comes from Mount Vesuvius. In India the color yellow is symbolic of peace and knowledge. Yellow, in the form of yellow ochre pigment made from clay, was one of the first colors used in prehistoric cave art. The cave of Lascaux has an image of a horse colored with yellow estimated to be 17,300 years old.

What does meditation with the color yellow give to you?

TWENTY-EIGHT 5/21

GROUNDED HANDS MEDITATION

Sink in. Ground. Feel the power in your hands.

TWENTY-NINE 7/21

PETOGLYPH MEDITATION

A creative meditation using your imagination and inner vision to tap into the visual messages your psyche is ready to reveal to you.

This meditation was inspired by a powerful experience I had in Zion. I hope you enjoy it. Please do some writing after, writing all the details of your experience, and even drawing what you saw during the meditation.

THIRTY 8/21

MEDITATION FOR BALANCE

We are being pulled in many directions. Discover a place inside your body where energies can meet and come together. In six minutes you can find a center that is more flexible, open and expansive.

Music by Brian Eno

THIRTY-ONE 9/21

WALKING MEDITATION

A short meditation to do while taking a walk — something to guide you into your body as you move through the world. 

THIRTY-TWO 10/21

WINTER RITUAL MEDITATION

A meditation to align your body and psyche to the rhythm of the changing seasons. What gifts does Winter bring to you?

Created with Dominique Sire

THIRTY-THREE 11/21

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD MEDITATION

What part of you comes alive when you cross over the threshold?

Great to do for a New Year ritual.

THIRTY-FOUR 12/21

INCLUSION MEDITATION

The self doesn’t exclude any part of itself — it includes, includes, includes… As a means of coping, our bodies naturally try to separate from things like stress, pain, annoying thoughts… but what happens when we include them into our experience without becoming them? A. We become more integrated and whole. This simple meditation allows you to practice including what your senses are aware of around you, the sounds, and feelings… thoughts and emotions. Spend a few moments including it all and find yourself walking away more whole.

THIRTY-FIVE 1/22

EARTH & AIR MEDITATION

Support your body in this season. Ground your body and open up. Feel more centered and lighter.

THIRTY-SIX 2/22

LETTING GO MEDITATION

Time to let it all go. Relax your body and mind.

THIRTY-EIGHT 4/22

GREEN MEDITATION

Emerald, kelly, celadon... Green has long been a misunderstood color. During the Middle Ages clothing was rarely green because colors were never mixed (still, no one knows why) and no one could figure out how to make it, it was considered bad luck on stage during the time of Shakespear, and celebrated as the color of dress for fertile young women according to Jan van Eyck. Wassily Kandinsky has said about the color, "Absolute green is the most anesthetizing color possible... similar to a fat cow, full of good health, laying down, rooted, capable only of ruminating and contemplating the world through its stupid, inexpressive eyes."

Find out what green means for you and how it can be healing. What shade will you discover?

THIRTY-NINE 5/22

ORANGE MEDITATION

Vermilion, cinnabar, sedona, tangerine... In his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912), Wassily Kandinsky wrote, "Orange is like a man, convinced of his own powers." It was the Impressionists who convincingly illustrated orange's power. The painting that gave the movement its name, Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise, has, at its center, a bright orange sun. It is the color of the most expensive spice in the world -- saffron, an aphrodisiac (Cleopatra was said to bathe in it.) The Eighth Wonder of the World is the Amber Room: 6 tons of amber panels in the palace at Tsarskoye Selo in Russia made by a Danish craftsman in 1701. Czarina Elizabeth used it as her meditation space. The Greeks called the amber elektron, associating it with light from the sun.

Find out what orange means for you & how it can be healing. What shade will you discover?

FORTY 6/22

BLUE MEDITATION

Cobalt, cerulean, verditer, lapis lazuli, International Klein Blue... The Egyptians valued blue, but most Western cultures didn't even have a word for the slice of the spectrum between green and violet. It was only during the twelfth century that blue came into favor. Members of the French court believed particular blues to be divine. Only in the Middle Ages did Mary Magdalene begin to be depicted in the color blue, the precious ultramarine to be exact, making it the most coveted of colors for centuries. Prussian blue was the blue Picasso favored during his blue period, after the death of a friend. St. Elmo's fire, which dances on ships' masts and across the windows on airplanes during storms, is bright blue.

Find out what blue means for you & how it can be healing. What shade will you discover?

FORTY-ONE 7/22

SCENT MEDITATION

Using the sense of scent to help ground you and bring you into the present moment. This one is a fun one ;)

Music : Julianna Barwick

FORTY-TWO 8/22

SPECTRUM MEDITATION

Open up by traveling through all the colors in the spectrum. Bringing your awareness to your senses helps you ground into the body while strengthening your perceptive abilities. Move through the world feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting, seeing more. 

Music : Joanna Brouk

FORTY-THREE 9/22

BREATHWORK FOR SLEEP

I will start off by saying I know for a fact I DO NOT have the solution to sleep issues. Sorry. But, I DO know it’s importance, it seems like it’s THE most important thing we can do for our overall health. And I know that so many variables can get in the way of our ability to get a good nights sleep, and it can be so frustrating. A few weeks ago I went through an unexpected period of waking up around 1:00-2:00am and not being able to go back to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:15am. Nothing I did helped, so I decided to take advantage of that time lying awake to “rest” in a different way. I ended up doing very very gentle breathwork. Sometimes it would help me drift off to that alpha or light sleep, which after nights of not sleeping felt like heaven. So, I offer you this tool of very relaxed breathwork as something to try when you wake up and can’t get back to sleep. 

What I found to be important was that when I woke up I didn’t pull out my phone or computer, so do this once with me in your ear, and then you’ll know the technique, and you can do it on your own. You can start it, fall asleep, and if you wake up just start it again. It might help you finally fall asleep, or you might not fully get back to sleep but it’s the next best thing — breathwork fully relaxes your nervous system and is very restorative. 

FORTY-FOUR 10/22