7 day meditation challenge: Balancing the feminine and masculine principles of meditation.

Hey everyone,

Below is a link for the 7 day meditation challenge @eco-alex from @eco-train has set up for us.
If you want to join you still can!

https://steemit.com/meditation-challenge/@eco-alex/7-day-meditation-challenge-everyone-wants-to-meditate-but-no-one-actually-does-it-join-us-today

I am Clara, I am also part of the eco-train and have meditated daily for years. I have moved through ups and down, trying out this and that. And, like I said in one of the comments on Alex's post:

'Meditation for me is like turning the light switch on inside. If I don't meditate or connect to the Divine in some way I feel like I am stumbling around in a dark room, feeling like I can't find anything.'

So you can imagine how important meditation is for me. Basically I can't do without. I feel it's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and I would love it if you gave that to yourself.

I would like to share some of the things that have helped me along the way.

Meditation is something that needs to be enjoyable most of all, why else would you do it again?
For it to be enjoyable it needs to have a balanced mixture of both masculine and feminine principles.
(Please note that I am talking about feminine and masculine energie that lives in all of us, like yin and yang.)

First we need discipline: a masculine principle. Without discipline we won't take the time to start doing it.
We need to make sure our spine is straight so the energy can move freely through our body, that also takes some discipline.
We need to make sure that the place we sit is cleaned up a bit.

Then we also need practicality and compassion, both a feminine principle.
Meaning: we need to see how much time we actually have and if we don't have much, we need to not waste half of it cleaning up, but just sit down and do our sadhana ( spiritual practice), because better to do it even though under imperfect conditions, then not to do it at all.
The same goes for how you sit. Make sure you are comfortable. Meditation is not a punishment it is a gift to yourself. There are more then one ways to keep your spine straight. You can easily heighten your pillow or even sit on a chair if that works for you. Sometimes I even stand up or dance. ✨
Don't be too hard on yourself, congratulate yourself for making this time for yourself.
Start small, if you have said you would commit to a fifteen minute meditation then stick to it. Don't do it shorter but also don't do it longer, because then tomorrow you might not feel like it anymore.
It is better to do it short and regularly, then long and irregularly.
I'm sure eventually you'll get to 'long and regularly' if that is what you wish for, if you keep going the easy but steady way.
And most of all find a way of meditating that brings you some joy. Wether it is the joy of having a quiet mind or of having opened you heart chakra. 🌺 Do the kind of meditation that brings you what you crave most.

What Alex says is right, if you start the meditation with some chanting it makes all the difference as chanting opens your heart and when your heart is open, your presence is much more likely to be there then in your head.

I'd like to add to that: Start with some movement like yoga or tai-chi or dancing. Get into your body before you sit down to meditate, because:

'The fastest way to quiet the mind is to move the body.' Gabrielle Roth from five rhythm dancing.

...And it will ground you. A grounded body is a good energy circuit. You will see that your mind will be much calmer to start with.

Hope that helped.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Good luck with your challenge!

Lots of love Clara

Check out @ecotrain for more posts about meditation.