Update on the Meditation Challenge: I Totally Bailed!

Mmmhmm, yes I did!!

I was hanging in there for about the first couple of weeks and then, I don't know what happened, but I just stopped making time for it. I kept thinking I would have to catch up when I went back to it and then, never did.

My hope is to find ways to meditate on my own. I've gotten busier, though, I guess, because I often even drink my tea while doing other things. Sigh. I need to slow down, again!

How have you been doing with tea and meditation?

Jeanine

What's Next?

As I conclude the "31 Days to Build A Better Blog" challenge (such a wonderful time I had meeting the other bloggers in the challenge), and myself, have concluded two challenges related to tea and meditation, I am considering what's next, both for me and for this blog.

Tea and Meditation

I know that I am still making changes in lifestyle and I intend to continue. I want to continue working out how to create a contemplative tea lifestyle and still have time for allk the other priorities.

What about you?

Blog Plan

I am pretty sure I will not post every day, but will continue sharing my journey. I intend to post at least twice a week for the month of October, probably on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So far, my ideas are to have a Tuesday "treat", offering a recipe of some kind for tea or goodies to have with tea, and to post an update about how the week is going on Thursdays. If I don't check in, I will post a meditation video you can try with your own cup of tea.

Tuesday Treat


Tea and Meditation Thursdays

This coming Thursday, I may take a break since I have just posted about how it's going, so I'll see you next week!

Jeanine

A Lifestyle Review: Life After 30 Days of Tea & Meditation

Last week, I shared what I have been learning as I struggle to create the tea lifestyle I want. I learned a lot about how to handle not wanting to meditate! But what about all those changes?

30 Days of Tea and Meditation

It has been 30 days, now (as of Oct. 2nd), since I challenged myself after completing the Chopra meditation challenge, to continue the practice of tea and meditation for 30 days straight.
I tried to make room for morning and afternoon tea, for working at home, for homeschooling, for meditating, for family time and for getting enough sleep! And I wanted to slow down and make room for contemplation and reflection, in general.

Almost every one of those changes proved to be challenging. More often than not, something got compromised.

Here’s My Update

I am still creating those changes in my lifestyle and still finding some of them a challenge. But shifting my attitude so that I can fully accept the imperfection of it all has made a huge difference in how I feel about how it’s going!!

And somehow, without any strenuous effort on my part, the changes are becoming easier. There is more a flow, especially when I don’t fight myself. I am getting more sleep, I am spending time with my family, I am finding more time for contemplation, I am drinking more tea, I am getting more work done and having enough time for our homeschooling.

Some days go by without afternoon tea. And sometimes, I briefly lament the things that didn’t get done. But all in all, I’d call it a success!

Homework

Journal about where you are in the process of change. Celebrate the successes! And hold the tough parts lightly, staying open to creative solutions that might pop up while you sip your next cup of tea.

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Something to Think about When You Meditate

The Wisdom of Having a Plan


Though the harvest moon may be in hiding by now, it did launch the harvest season, which means it’s a good time to think about what you want to harvest in your own life.

Last week, I did a full moon meditation prior to making my full moon dreamboard and it just highlighted for me that the whole process of meditating is much easier for me if I have something to think about or a plan before I start. When I did my full moon meditation, I thought through some things but also got some intuitive guidance about how to create autumn bliss next month.

Meditation Prompt

So here are some ideas to get you started if you would like to meditate about your own harvest season. They come from Jamie Ridler, who often offers dreamboard and journal prompts based on the moon’s activity.

From her new moon questions, we are invited to consider what wants to begin in our lives and what we would like to make grow. What do we want to nurture into harvest?

Homework

Your homework: pick one of those prompts for tea and meditation. And let us know how it goes. For extra credit, journal about your experience after the meditation.

See you Monday! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Jeanine

When the Going Gets Tough, Go Deeper

Meditate Deeper


What I mean by that is that when you just aren’t feeling the love for your meditation practice, your tea or other relaxation methods may seem to fall short. In times like those, reach for an deeper relaxation so that at least you get something out of it.

When I didn’t do that, I sometimes found that I felt as cranky after the meditation as I did before. So if you start with tea and that doesn’t calm you, go deep.

Countdown to Meditation Bliss

Your homework for today…

Here’s one technique for creating a deeper induction as you meditate. Countdown from ten to one, slowly. You can picture the numbers in your mind, or imagine being in an elevator and watch the numbers light up as you go from tenth floor to the ground level. Or you can imagine walking down ten flights of stairs.

If you try it, let me know how it goes.

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Tea is the Warm-Up

When I don’t feel like meditating, I find that it feels like a chore that I just want to get over with as quickly as possible. So it was in that spirit, last week, that I decided to combine my tea with meditation so that when the cup was empty, I could count myself done.

When to Drink Your Tea


Usually, I drink tea first, reflectively, and begin the process of slowing down my thoughts and easing into a more relaxed state. And then I meditate. But this time, I tried to do the whole thing while sipping tea. And it might have worked, if I hadn’t been so impatient to be done.

But I think for my own best experience, it’s better to slow it down even more than that and make tea the warm up to my meditation experience.

Homework

Your homework: try it both ways and compare. Let me know which way works better for you.

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Meditating with Mantras

“Focusing on one word reaches down into the spiritual, emotional, or mental desire and pulls it up through the physical, and it gives you energy. A mantra lines up your deepest energetic intentions, which are very subtle, with your gross intentions out in the world.” –Patton Garrett Sarley, CEO of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

Healing Mantras


There were some days last week when I did not feel like meditating at all. And I hardly cared what happened during the meditation, either. I just wanted to check it off my list!

So I thought I would make it easier by just planning to repeat a mantra. Then, I thought I might as well make it a healing mantra and chose affirmations I wanted to embrace.

What I found was that I felt discomfort as I repeated the things I don’t yet believe. So I altered the words to reflect where I am now.

“I intend to believe…”


“It is my goal to let go of…”

And it was very empowering to support myself in that way. So if you want to work with affirmations as mantras, make sure the statement or phrase is encouraging (be courageous) or reflects where you are now (I am becoming ready to…).

Homework

Your homework: create an affirmation mantra and try it out for five minutes or so. Let me know in the comments how it goes.

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

What I Know for Sure after a Week of Struggling w/ Tea & Meditation

Experience Leads to Wisdom


I spent last week sharing some of the struggles I have been having as I try to make all these “contemplative tea lifestyle” changes. What I would like to share this week is what I am learning as I persist. Here’s one thing I am learning to do…

Embracing Imperfection

Or at least, allow it. Then, try for actual acceptance. After a while, you might find you can embrace it. I’m not sure I am there yet when it comes to meditation. I still feel disappointed when it doesn’t go the way I want. But I’m getting there. The more I encouraged myself to let go of the demand for perfection last week, the better I felt about my days as they ended.

Your homework: pick something imperfect in your world today and make a decision to allow it. That’s it! If you decide to reach for acceptance or to try embracing it, that’s extra credit! :)

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

A Sea-Infused Shamanic Journey

Preparing for the Journey

In yesterday’s post, I shared my intention to do a shamanic journey motivated by concern about my son’s need for healing beyond the normal healing techniques we use, and described all the things I did to prepare for it, trying to quite my active mind and get very deeply relaxed. It sounds, I imagine, like I must have spent a great deal of time leading up to it, but I think the tea time was about 20 minutes or so, and the shamanic reiki process was another 20 minutes, including deep breathing, crystals, hypnotic induction, etc.

And I may not have needed as much time. But I trust the process more when I know I am very deeply relaxed!

The Journey

Remember the really clear blue water I was swimming in during my meditation the other day? Well, that’s how it started. So I just swam around for a while wondering if anything else would happen when suddenly, there was my son.

I asked him what he needed and he began to talk to me about spending time together and playing games and watching movies and other things we need to include in our family time. Suddenly, a big monster appeared, which I killed. One of my arms became a weapon and I knew what to do without having to stop and think.

Another one appeared, this one more shadowy, and I took care of him, too. Now I know at least one way to interpret who these monsters represent. But I believe that in journeys, just like in dreams, symbols can have more than one meaning.

After the second monster-like being was taken care of, I began to build a protective structure all around him. It seemed to happen in slow motion, one wall at a time. Then I made it big enough for both of us, then our whole family of four (my partner and stepdaughter weren’t there right then but I knew they would be soon).

Then, I thought of creating a door so we could let other friends and family in, and saw them coming in to be with us.

Then I saw us moving about in the world still surrounded by this protective covering. I saw my son in college, I saw my future home, I saw myself teaching at a retreat center, I saw my family swimming together and many other brief flashes of future.

Coming Back

And as usual, I just sort of knew when it was complete, and began the process of returning, which I have to do slowly or I get disoriented.

What was unique about this return is how empowered and energized I felt! And how safe. And hopeful about my family’s future.

Homework

You may not have much experience with shamanic journeys, but you could try your hand at creating your own guided meditation.

What kind of experience would you want to create?

Give it a try if you dare! :)

See you Monday!

Jeanine

Of Tea and Shamanic Journeys

Today, I decided to do shamanic reiki during my meditation time, using the same music as usual, instead of the drumming that can make journeying easier, because I knew my son would have a harder time relaxing with drum sounds. My son, incidently, was the reason for the journey. I had been concerned about him for the past day or so, and felt like I was getting some intuitive impressions that he needed my help with healing something.

Tea First

Because journeying calls for an even deeper level of relaxation than guided meditation, I decided to drink more chamomile tea beforehand and to wait a little while after that before doing the shamanic meditation.

Crystals

I also have been using crystals lately as I meditate and for this journey, I decided to hold them for a while before beginning the journey. I don’t know if this is a problem for others but my mind doesn’t just wander, it jumps around like a whirling dervish and sometimes, does a little creative writing when it is supposed to be quiet and receptive.

Does that ever happen to you?

So I knew, already, that holding a rose quartz crystal in one hand and an amethyst crystal in the other is amazingly soothing and deeply relaxing. I have used them before when I am stressed out or irritated by something my little darling son has said or done. I also have used them for guided meditation in the past when I wanted to do a spirit guide meditation and wanted to make sure I was relaxed enough to hear or see clearly.

Well, it occurred to me about a week and a half ago that I had forgotten about them and their use for meditation and I immediately began using them again. Isn’t it weird how you can forget something like that and then have it suddenly pop back into your head?

Anyway, once I knew I was plenty relaxed, I decided to load the deck by adding one more thing: a hypnotic induction technique I have been throwing into the pot from time to time.

And then, I did a 20-minute journey, which I will tell you about in tomorrow’s post.

Announcing: Homework

Thought I'd change things up a bit and start making homework suggestions.

If you aren't already participating in my 30 Days of Tea and Meditation challenge, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is either (1) to have a cup of tea and take a few minutes to savor it and let go of today's stress ~~ maybe a soothing cup of chamomile tea while you observe the full moon? Or (2) to take five minutes to meditate tonight (while staring at the moon?) and either way, let me know how it goes.

If you are participating in the challenge, grab your journal and leave it open beside you as you meditate. After today's meditation, jot down anything that seemed significant about your meditation experience.

Any subtle invitations, gentle nudges, creative solutions or other kinds of intuitive guidance? Write it down. And I would love it if you would share it here, too! (I adore comments).

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

The Saga Continues! (How's It Going for You?)

Picking up where we left off yesterday, I have been talking about all these changes I have been making. Maybe too many!

What about you? Do you ever feel like you have taken on too much? What do you do and how do you handle it? Let me know in the comments!

Are We Having Fun Yet?

When will these fabulous changes become fun? Well, there is the pride of accomplishment. The awareness of what “enough sleep” feels like. The thrill of noting that I want nothing more than to go to bed when it is not yet midnight (although that doesn't happen every night, I confess).

But I am still not getting enough done and my family is still not getting enough of my time, according to them.

Also, I am bored! So I am having some withdrawal, and probably, attempting too many changes at once.

I am not sure how I got from adding one cup of tea a day to adding tea plus meditation to tea lifestyle to getting up while the sun is still stretching.

But you can be sure I will continue blogging the good, the bad and the ugly about my experience!

How Is It Going for You?

What about you?

What changes have been a challenge for you? How’s it going? Leave me a comment and let me know what changes you're working on and how they are working out for you!

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Too Many Changes! (Can I Just Go Back to Bed?)

In this blog post, I want to continue the saga of too many changes at once!!

Here’s what I have been doing: morning tea and meditation, and whenever I can, afternoon tea. But before I was used to that change, I got inspired to make some more changes. And since the fall season is my most energetic time, I figured I better make use of the motivation before winter hibernation sets in!

More Sleep?

So I decided to start implementing some sleep changes, going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. The way I planned it, this would guarantee many, many wonderful things!

Enough sleep, enough time for both homeschooling and work, morning and afternoon tea, morning meditation, family time and that whole slowing down thing I’m trying to accomplish.

At night, instead of working, I am sitting on the couch with a Jane Austen sequel, keeping an eye on the TV and trying to read at the same time so that I won't (1) be bored and (2) worry about the work I still haven't done.

In the morning, far earlier than usual, I "yawn and stretch and try to come to life!"

But How Is It Going?

Well, I'm bored and on some nights, I have refused to play along, staying up late again and getting up later than I planned.

Any suggestions for making peace with all these changes?

I will feature your comments in an upcoming post.

And the saga continues tomorrow!

Jeanine

And So It Goes! More Tales on the Journey to 30 Days of Tea & Meditation

As you may have noticed if you have been reading along, my tea and meditation changes have led to more changes in lifestyle! Now I am trying to change my sleep and work habits so that I actually get enough sleep and have more time for rest and family. It is a part of the whole "contemplative tea lifestyle" change I have been angling for but I hadn't expected to decide to go crazy.

And I mentioned in my last post that the first day did not go so well. It is getting easier each day in some ways, but I would not yet say that it is "easy!"

As a night owl trying now to sleep like a lark, I am running into some difficulty. For one thing, I am naturally foggy in the morning and part of the reason for that is my allergies.

The other part is that it's too blankety-blank early!! But I chose to try it because it seemed like the only way to get enough sleep and have enough time for both work and homeschooling.

Following my natural rhythms made my days and my nights too short! So I rearranged my schedule somewhat and now, have more time for tea and meditation, and for everything else. Still not enough time! But more time.

More, tomorrow, on how it has been going!

How has it been going for you? Are you participating in 30 Days of Tea and Meditation? I would love to hear about your experiences!

If you want to know about someone else who is meditating with tea, check out A Girl with Tea.

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

More Time for Tea

As you know, I am doing all I can to create a slower, contemplative tea lifestyle, and for the past few days, have tried changing my schedule a bit to see if that would give me more work time without losing the slower feeling I am trying to create. My hope was that it would give me more time to play with so that there was less rush and less loss.

So far, it seems to be working!

First Day

But the first day did not start off as well as I had hoped. Though I went to bed much earlier than usual, it was about an hour later than planned. So, I was still tired when it was time to get up. And I was a bit foggy so at first, it seemed like I was moving through molasses.

Because of that, I started working a couple of hours later than I had planned and only had an hour or so before I needed to get into the meat of our homeschooling day.

Tea and Meditation

On the other hand, the morning tea ritual was wonderful!! I loved the whole tea and meditation experience
and my son enjoyed it, too. We had a slow morning and a good one!

Next week, I'll tell you more about how those first few days went.

See you Monday!

Jeanine

Meditating about Transformation and Change

As I’m sure you remember from the past few days of this blog, I have been concerned about how to find the time for work and homeschooling and morning and afternoon tea, and meditation. And I received some intuitive guidance that led to making some changes in my schedule.

But I wanted to do that day’s meditation, too, to see if I would get any additional information because the advised changes seemed a bit extreme!

The Guided Meditation

The meditation was deeply relaxing and did include guidance from animal spirit companions. I saw myself swimming in beautiful, clear blue water, and I could see everything around me and was swimming easily in a kind of flowing motion (like a mermaid, it seemed).

Mermaid?

I asked what that meant and the message I received was that I was going to be able to see clearly what I needed to know and see. And the changes I wanted to make would flow easily into my life.

I also was reassured, again, that I was not alone and would have all the help I needed.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll tell you how this week’s changes have been going…

See you then!

Jeanine

Transformation: Changing & Shifting Priorities

At the Beginning

In this blog post, we pick up my story with the next piece of intuitive guidance that came my way.

So, in my search to find the holy grail, which really means the time to do the work I believe I am supposed to be doing, without losing the other things that are important to me, I was reassured when I did my intuitive reading that all is well, that I am being guided into the changes I am making.

A second message was that I am on the cusp of transformation of some kind. Something new is happening.

And right now, I need to choose my priorities and then, get rid of whatever might distract me from them.

A Shift in Priorities

I was encouraged to look at all the good choices and pick the ones that are best for me right now. Once I have selected them I will be helped to make them happen. More good news, right?

So I did that and created a whole new schedule around it which would make time for getting enough sleep, getting a lot of work done, homeschooling, morning and afternoon tea, and meditation.

Speaking of Meditation

But I still wanted to see if there was anything else I needed to know that would be revealed during meditation. Especially since this new schedule involved some fairly radical changes, like going to bed a good deal earlier than this night owl usually does.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you how the meditation went!

See you then!

Jeanine

Intuitive Guidance about Playing Hide-and-Go-Seek with Time

Playing Hide-and-Go-Seek with Time

When last we left off in this story, I was distracted in church by all the things I haven’t had time to do in the past several weeks and was planning to try to find the missing time by doing an intuitive reading and addressing it in meditation. We hadn’t meditated that day because we were in a rush to get to church (no slowing down that morning because I knew how crowded the parking lot and seats would be).

So when I got home, the first thing I did was the intuitive reading. Here’s the message I got from it…

Intuitive Reading

The most important message was a reminder that this process I’m in of trying to slow down, not work at night or on weekends, and make time for morning and afternoon tea, has been six months or more in the making and that it began with gentle nudges that did not originate with me (or not consciously, anyway).

Which means it’s not just me in this game; I have help! Good news!! I am really reassured by this because it tells me that it will probably all work itself out.

But there was another encouraging message before I meditated. I’ll tell you tomorrow…

Jeanine

Finding the Missing Time

Misplaced Time

On Sunday morning, while listening to the sermon in church, my mind wandered just a smidge and I thought about how I seem to have misplaced time for some of the things that are important to me. They are mainly work-related things. They may not be as urgent as they feel. I mean, I’m pretty sure I have some workaholic tendencies.

Missing in Action

Still, I was wondering where that missing time is hiding and whether or not I would be able to find it. I was never very good at hide-and-go-seek! If not, and here’s what I decided to meditate on, I wondered how I will live out some of the possibilities revealed in one of my recent guided meditations.

Once I got home, I decided to do an intuitive reading, too, to get as much helpful information as possible.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what I found out in the intuitive reading…

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Creating Contemplative Weekends & Weekdays

Weekends Off

I had such a great weekend this past weekend that I decided to try to do it every weekend from now on, to take the weekends off and to try not to schedule so much work-related stuff that I find myself working in spite of the plan.

When you work at home, there is no easy demarcation between work time and time off. You have to create that yourself and I have not been so good at stopping!

Guidance During Meditation

So I decided to get some help during meditation. As I drank my tea and then, later during the meditation, I tried to picture myself having an ideal weekend and an ideal workday. I actually asked for guidance during the meditation: "show me an ideal weekend...", etc.

What I saw first was me sleeping!! I know I need more sleep than I have been getting and part of what was so wonderful about this past weekend was sleeping in each morning.

I also saw myself reading, watching movies, hanging out with my family, etc. What I did not see was the computer!

Same thing for weekdays. At night, I saw myself watching TV and reading. And laughing!

How are these 30 days of tea and meditation going for you?

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

New Guided Meditation from Deepak Chopra...

Speaking of Guided Imagery...

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I have been noticing that I seem to have the bext meditation experiences when I include some sort of guided imagery in my meditation. Sometimes I make it up myself, sometimes I use something I have acquired somewhere else. Doesn't seem to matter as long as I take the time to relax deeply first (and that cup of chamomile tea beforehand loads the deck in my favor) and then, go into guided imagery.

A New Guided Meditation

Well, I received another follow-up email from the 21-day meditation challenge and, in addition to promoting their upcoming gatherings, they offered a brief meditation from Deepak for all the meditation challenge participants.

To try it out yourself, click here. Let me know what you think.

Warning: it is quite brief. When it was over, I turned on the meditation music CD I bought and continued with deep breathing and my own made-up guided meditation.

And what type of meditation works best for you? Does it help when you combine meditation with tea?

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine