If you read my blog last week, you’ll know that lots of little things took my focus and I was having moments of discombobulation. I know exercise plays a large part in my sense of wellbeing, but so does meditation.
When I lived in Australia, I facilitated a couple of meditation groups on a Thursday and so even if I didn’t make the time to sit down on other days, I had two meditations every week. I loved the camaraderie in these groups and while I know the group members appreciated the different guided visualisations and mindfulness medos that I shared, it wasn’t until I left the groups behind to travel to the other side of the world that I realised how much an integral part of life they were for me.
These women are strong, ‘spiritual warriors’ and I watched them over the months, open to their inner strength, grow and face personal challenges, and many of them are now in more fulfilling life circumstances than when they began to meditate. I’ve heard that Christian saying “when two or more gather in my name, there am I in the midst of them” and hadn’t put much thought to it. However, while we were a non-denominational group, it certainly did feel that a certain magic was happening each week, and over the longer term. I know that the ladies would agree that if you open up to a greater aspect of Life, that very same Life will embrace, nurture and support you. I’ve seen it happen too many times and while I don’t know how it ‘works’, I just know that it does.
What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time, since I was so focused on the participants, was that I was also greatly nourished by the wisdom and love that each of these women brought to the groups every week. And the magic that touched them, touched me too.
Troubleshooting
Looking back at my gripes last week, I think a part of my ‘problem’ is that I have missed the opportunity to share meditations with others. There is something in allowing the visualisation to bubble up inside of me and then flow out to others as I speak what I ‘see’, that enriches me (and by all accounts those who sit in meditation with me). It is as if Life had found an avenue through me and by stopping the groups, I had effectively turned off the faucet and shut off Life’s flow. So when I said last week that I felt my life had become smaller, I think that this is what I’d been feeling.
You know, it’s like any gift that any of us has. It could be painting, or woodworking, counselling or neuroscience for example. What do they say? “Sharing is caring”. Whatever we love to do that we can share and enrich the lives of others is like Life’s gifts flowing through us out to the world. And it feels good to do it. Doesn’t it?
So while I’ve found an outlet for my creativity, (and am feeling hugely supported by a great community of folks) thanks to making and editing our Sailing A B Sea YouTube videos, plus having a stash of paints and jewellery making goodies that I’ve yet to actually play with - I hadn’t until recently, found an outlet for my meditations. I mean, you can’t maintain a regular group when you’re sailing from place to place can you?
Solution
A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine and one of the regular meditators at my group, Sandy, emailed me. She said that a few of my old group had said how they missed our meditations. They do have access to other groups, but there was something about ours that they missed. Sandy wondered if I’d be able to record different meditations and put them up on YouTube with simple visuals. That way, the old group members would still be able to get “an Aannsha fix” when they wanted and I would also feel as if I was still doing what Sandy knew was important to me. Sandy also said putting them on YouTube would also give others around the world the opportunity to do them.
Did I like the idea?
I loved it!
I suddenly felt as if a part of me had ‘come home’.
I still had to get my head around how I would do it – given I already spend about 40 hours each week with Baz making our A B Sea videos. What kind of visuals would I use? They’d probably not need to be too labour intensive as most people close their eyes when they meditate, so I figured that wouldn’t be too difficult to put together.
So last week I uploaded a couple of meditation audio tracks I already had – one visualisation and one mindfulness – and set them to simple images. This week, all spurred on, I sat at my laptop and wrote a script for another meditation. This is a little different to when I used to guide the medos, as with the group, I’d just close my eyes and let myself go on the ‘journey in my head’, and basically speak what I was ‘seeing’.
Because this had to be ‘word ‘perfect’, I chose to write a script. I pretended I was sitting with my group and allowed the visualisation to arise out of me via the keyboard. Using our lavalier mic to drown out the sound of torrential rain that was pounding A B Sea’s deck, and just pick up my voice, I sat in my Princess Suite and read the script aloud. After that, it was just a question of editing the audio, adding some nice calming music and some sound effects, shooting a simple video image of a light and putting it all together. And voila! Deep White Light Cleanse and Regeneration meditation was born and is now available here.
Since I made and uploaded that meditation, I’m feeling quietly excited about the potential and so grateful that Sandy prompted me to do this. Now I do feel as if I’m connected to my group again, and am looking forward to fostering this avenue of self-expression in the future. If you'd like to head on over to my YouTube channel to see what I'm offering, check it out here!
