The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Today we explored wholeness by listening to the inner voices that are difficult to hear.  These voices want to be heard.  They often express painful emotions and reflect underlying beliefs that cause us suffering. We created a “ministry of presence” capable of listening.  The ministry is made up of healing councils such as: “a council of forgiveness, compassion and openness.”  We then cultivated loving presence and engaged our inner council to feel, listen and care.

We drew inspiration from mediation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg’s new book, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom. In Real Live, Sharon describes how we can engage a ministry of presence and form inner councils of support. It is part of her intention to help reader’s live more expansively from the truth of their being.  Mindfulness, presence can help us to  lead authentic lives.  We can extend our ability to accept and care for others to the degree we can do this for ourselves.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored the experience of attunement.  We reflected on the widespread loneliness that afflicts so many people.  People are born in belonging.  We need belonging to flourish throughout life.  We visualized someone who loved us without judgment through good times and bad.  We rekindled the sensations and emotions enriching the memories of love. Like our meditation practice, these experiences and memories can be a resource for us in sustaining belonging in our lives.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  This week we explored the qualities of empathy and compassion. We practiced a compassion meditation in which we directed caring and compassionate phrases to someone who is suffering.  The practice can help us turn toward suffering while offering our loving presence.  In the expansive presence of loving awareness we gain perspective as to what might serve to alleviate suffering.

We drew inspiration from mediation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg’s new book, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom. In Real Life, Sharon encourages readers to live more expansively.   When we live expansively, we have room to experience both positive and negative emotions and to view them with openness and curiosity rather than restriction and resistance. When we are willing to experience emotion we develop our capacity to extend compassion to ourselves and others.

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