Between The Stimulus & Response Is A Space...

There is a distinct shift in my reactions when I meditate and do my yoga practice compared to when I don't.

I noticed this in a friend who used to be so judgemental. When she started meditating regularly, she became much more accepting and understanding, and I enjoyed her company a lot more.

People often say, "Oh, I can't meditate; my mind is too busy!"

Meditation is not to stop our thoughts; it's to shift how we relate to them.

When we provide space in our minds with a long, slow breath, we train ourselves to pause between being triggered and responding.

Adding visualization to our breath gives us a focus that the mind can anchor to. I started meditating by visualizing a flower in my heart, opening and closing with my breath.

In the Meridian Flow classes, we meditate on moving our chi (energy) with our mind and breath, like golden threads of light, which creates a pause from thoughts.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

And in that space lies our freedom

~ Our freedom from being at the mercy of our reactive mind.

When the mind is racing and creating cortisol, this affects our cells, which over time results in emotional and physical disease,

Meditation coupled with mindful movement is the remedy, as our mind is not only in our brain but throughout the entire body.

Our issues are in our tissues.

The combination of a long, slow breath leading the pace of the movement of strengthening and stretching provides inner freedom from both physical and emotional dis-ease.

This ultimately increases our emotional intelligence. It's been shown that our emotional intelligence determines more of our future success in relationships, careers, finances, and overall fulfillment than our IQ.

The good news is that mindfulness meditation and yoga are being taught in schools instead of detention! They're also being taught in prisons and juvenile institutions instead of punishment, as they've been shown to reduce recidivism.

Mainstream society is waking up to the powerful results of meditation, breathwork, and yoga combined! It's so exciting and hopeful.

In the upcoming 200-hour Yoga Teacher training, students learn to meditate with breath and visualization. Then, they learn to share it and teach it.

They learn to establish a daily practice that keeps them calm and centered. Then, they learn how to teach others to do the same by designing yoga sequences that create stability and strength and release tension.

This is the studied and documented reason Harvard has included yoga in its medical curriculum! It's also the reason so many doctors, nurses, teachers, therapists, social workers, parents, and college students have come to take this training: It increases our emotional intelligence, makes us nicer people to be around, and provides us with the ability to share it with others.

It is deeply fulfilling to help others find mental, emotional, and physical relief, and there are many venues for sharing this widely studied and respected practice.

Many people take the yoga teacher training to deepen their practice, and because of the freedom it provides them, they can't help but want to share it with others.

Let's spread the good news and live a fulfilling life!

From my heart to yours~

Namaste,

Maggie