Mama?
I tried to explain to my kids that doing my set means: don't disturb me!
This goes really well. As soon as I am up and ready to start I can set the timer and about 30 minutes later I have at least one boy sitting on my lap. This is not dependent on time. I tried 4 am and variations up to 8 am.
If they are up already they might watch something and I think YES! but again the demand for breakfast or a fight and it is really important that I react and now.
In the beginning I was very upset, taking it personally. But it does not really make sense to be upset with a crying 3 year old that begs for breakfast at 5:30 am. I still try to make them understand that this is my private time, as they request it for themselves and my oldest gets it already a bit...
So I have started Sodarshan Chakra Kriya and I am at day 20 or so of my 40 days and I discovered something.
In this meditation the breath is hold in for about 25 seconds while the Navel Point is pumped and a mantra is chanted mentally. And then it is really essential to time the exhale and inhale right afterwards to make it to the next exhale and be able to pump 48 times before that.
It is not a hard meditation but I really have to concentrate a lot - on the timing of the breath, that the pumping is at the Navel Point and not anywhere else and that the chanting happens there as well and to keep the eye focus on the tip of the nose and what to do with my hand before and after breathing - and it might happen that I lose one or the other focus. But still, because it is already very dear to me this meditation, I insisted while inhaling that I can do things after my set or I just signed a no. But only a few days.
As soon as I got used to all the elements and focusing seemed easier, I was not really here anymore, I was within and there was no reason to react on anything anymore.
I might get one or another attempt but my eyes are almost closed, so no eye contact and the breathing must look like I really cannot talk because it became quieter around me.
And you might think that is what meditation is but believe me I never focused that fast within and could keep it for the entire 31 minutes. The mind can still run but everything else is perfect to stay focused within, I guess that is why it is an easier meditation
If I would have more experience with meditation I would commit to 120 days or maybe longer, but there are so many interesting meditations already waiting, that I might have to come back to it, as Bound Lotus has already part of my daily routine since last October and that for at least 1000 days .......
Learning how to meditate in a tent...
I mentioned that we just spent some time camping in the Inner Hebrides. And I must say it is not my favorite to stay in a tent but I had good moments. One of them was to realize how calm it can be.
It would have been beautiful to do my set outside watching the Burg and the sea but the midges and rain did not let me. I sat in a separate compartment of the tent, heard my kids playing but really noticed and felt the silence. No distraction, being on a remote Scottish Island, the phone had no signal, the closest building was our friends caravan and the sea just there by our feet.
This nothingness is amazing. I forgot that I used to live like this for 4 years. People ran away because they could not bear this nothingness.
It was weird to sit in a white space, white all around me. But it is so nice to have the full support of this incredible silence to meditate.
Obviously thoughts turn loud and I am all over the place but additionally there is this feeling that there is something bigger out there and I am of it. It feels good.
I do not remember having felt that close anywhere lately, living in a city.
I read so often, Choose a place you won’t be disturbed, feel vulnerable, or get distracted. And I understand why and what. But I don't think I really did understand until I experienced this.
My room is still messy enough and there are a lot of distractions around me but I remember this calm silent space and try to go there whenever I sit down.
And the best part of it is to pretend to have no signal and concentrate on one point.
1st blog post - 1st of August - 1st day of a New Set
That was a funny moment this morning when I had the idea of starting a new blog - a Kundalini Yoga Blog. I was in the middle of my kriya in a separate part of the tent while my kids where asking their dad to draw a superman and Ben 10.
The wind was punching the tent as my youngest son had noticed and I wondered how to accomplish a front bend in this confined space...
I just smiled.
Sometimes I am really puzzled when and how things happen to come into my life.
I have started Kundalini Yoga about six years ago or better a teacher passed my life on a course we visited together in Scotland and she invited me to a morning sadhana. I remember her enthusiasm while I lost my breath doing breath of fire. It was 5:30am and I thought we are mad.
But it seemed really special to me then, maybe too far to reach? Or I just did not know anything about Kundalini Yoga or where to find people involved. But I found a book and started practicing by myself. Time past by, I returned once again back to Scotland to do a course, traveled to an island during this course, met my husband and moved to the island.
After a while another Kundalini Yoga teacher moved to the very same island and we started to practice together! This was very special living so remote. I learnt a lot and am very grateful for this. And I could continue my practice during and after 2 pregnancies. We left the island after 4 years and we live in the big city now ...
So here we are again, visiting this very corner of Scotland and I remember all this. I am in the middle of my Kundalini Yoga teacher training and today I have started a new 40 days kriya and meditation which I was allowed to choose by myself.
While I looked for a suitable set I had a conversation about Kundalini Yoga music and misunderstanding my friend I found a Wahe Guru track I really liked. It said Sodarshan Chakra Kriya, so that is how I found this new meditation I started today as part of my 40 days set but that might be another blog post ......
