Key Points
- Meditation is freedom from distraction.
- Mindfulness meditation is being aware of the present moment (good or bad) but being neither for nor against the experience.
- Heart cultivation meditation is acknowledging everyone as an equal giver and receiver of love.
- Offer loving kindness, compassion, joy and serenity to everyone. You don’t have to like everyone, but you do have to unconditionally extend the four qualities of the heart.
- Yoga nidra is a guided meditation where students are suspended between wakefulness and sleep.
- Moving meditation is the seamless link between breath and movement.
- Teach from experience. Have a robust personal meditation practice before teaching others.
Read and Watch
- Yoga Sutras: Book Three
- Meditation on Youtube and in Textbook
Practice
- Part One. Create loving kindness (Exercise here and in your textbook). On individual scraps of paper, write down the positive habits and emotions that you wrote in the left column. Put them in your pocket.
- Part Two. Do a walking meditation (no headphones, no companion, no specific route). Bring your positive scraps of paper with you. Every time you come to a beautiful spot, pull out a scrap of paper and reflect on what you wrote.
- You are reflecting on positive habits/emotions. The intention is that a mantra reveals itself to you on your walking meditation. Write down your mantra when you get home!
ePortfolio
Watch How to Teach Meditation on Land and Heart Youtube Channel. Before teaching meditation, it’s important to be clear on your own reasons for practicing meditation. Reflect on these reasons in your ePortfolio.
Teach and Discuss
- How does social media affect your ability to live mindfully? Have you reduced or increased use of social media? Do you have tips for students who struggle with too much social media? How can meditation help suppress the jealousy, loneliness or anxiety that social media use can prompt? (Note – if you don’t suffer from these feelings with social media, this is a chance to try to relate to people who are different from you.)
- We will do a yoga nidra practice. Be sure you’ve read the section on yoga nidra prior so you can reflect on the practice with the group.
- Teach a 10-minute meditation. Incorporate (at least) one of the four qualities of the heart. See Heart Cultivation Meditation. You’re encouraged to include a few poses in your moving meditation, but that is optional if seated meditation practices are more authentic to you.
