Numerous studies have provided evidence that Metta Loving-Kindness meditation has the ability to restructure the brain in a positive way.Metta means ‘positive energy and kindness towards self and others’ in the Pali language from northern India and closely related to Sanskrit.
Engaging in this easy and simple practice requires only a few minutes of your day and can shift your perspective.Simply find a calm space, sit quietly, and intentionally direct benevolent and empathetic thoughts towards yourself and others (family and friends; someone with whom you have tension or a conflict; those around the world who are suffering).
Feel free to use these phrases below.Give yourself permission to change these, or make up your own phrases.Repeat each line three times aloud or silently.
“A forest is much more than what you see,” says ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery — trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees and prepare to see the natural world with new eyes.
We are all connected ???? like a web of underground knowing, feeling and nourishing each other. And we can become aware of this support and community by being quiet, by spending time in nature, by being with other beings, and other reflective ways.
Amazingly, Canadian scientist and curious seeker Suzanne Simard found that underground in the forests, trees talk to each other! Forests are communities of language and support. I love her groundbreaking work. Because her proof of unity within forests, she’s offered us a lense into how we are all connected: with each other, with all beings and all nature – helping each other and caring for each other as community and cooperaters.
This is significant and reflects how each one of us is so important to the Whole – we affect each other, most times without knowing it. You have the power and potency to lift someone, to help someone heal, to help someone feel loved. Your thoughts and feelings underground are sending messages???? just like in the forest.
Laughter increases the intake of oxygen-rich air, activates the heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the ‘feel good’ endorphins that are released by your brain. Laughter also activates the vagus nerve and the stress response, helping you to relieve stress. Plus, it just feels good.
I hope you laugh well and heartily at this very funny skit on yoga at the restaurant. It was sent to me by my friend, author Phil Goldberg, whose laughter I find contagious! (If you are interested, he has a wonderful podcast interviewing hundreds of spiritual seekers called Spirit Matters Talk.)
Are your joints feeling achy, creaky and perhaps even painful? Try this flow to nourish your joints. Easy rotations will help to warm up the synovial fluid around the joint to make your movement more graceful, coordinated and effortless, like a clear mountain stream. You will decongest your joints and free up the vital life force through your energy channels.
*Do take care, listening to your body and making modifications to make it feel even better in your body.
Grounding, calming and stabilizing, the downward flowing energy within you is called APANA VAYU. When you feel it and work in your practice to cultivate it, it will help you to find your roots and get grounded. When you EXHALE, you can easily feel this downward wash of energy through your body, especially in the pelvis, legs and feet. Systems energized are eliminatory, reproductive, and urinary.
