Dean Sluyter Natural Meditation Workshop Video

There's No Trying in Meditation

Just as water runs naturally downhill … just as leaves float naturally to the ground … anyone can settle naturally into meditation. Not trying, just allowing — not doing, just being.

The key is effortlessness. Whether you’re a complete novice or you’ve “tried it before,” if you can breathe you can meditate. In these videos you will be guided by veteran teacher @DeanSluyter ’s easy-going, down-to-earth approach, you’ll test-drive a variety of meditative “vehicles,” such as breath, sound, the senses, the sky, and the simple sense of “I,” and discover which ones fit you best. You’ll find all the practical tips you need for adapting these methods to your daily life, even for a few minutes a day on the subway or in an office cubicle. And as your life opens to deep happiness, clarity, peace, and creative energy, you’ll be inspired to keep on practicing — naturally. - Dean Sluyter Natural Meditation


Part 1 http://youtu.be/WnS_1GGDAfI


Part 2 http://youtu.be/jtwucKe24Ms

Want More? Click here "Natural Meditation" a guide to effortless meditative practice by Dean Sluyter

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK! 

Are Your Choices Magical or Mundane?

Clear the mists around your Avalon.

I remember reading "The Mists of Avalon" over winter break. My roomates were home with their families and I had the apartment to myself. While the snow fell outside I was warm and toasty eating bread smeared with butter and honey just like in my book on the mystical and magical court of King Arthur.

The mists shrouding the Isle Avalon grew and thickened as the beliefs in the old ways were abandoned. The magic was becoming lost and forgotten as the isle slipped deeper and deeper into the fog.

How we long for the magic and "supernatural" in our daily lives. We love to exchange our stories of dreams and experiences with psychics, healers, and shamans, to recount the butterfly that flew by just when we were thinking of a loved one we have lost. We long to have that undeniable, authentic experience to prove to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that Spirit exists and is alive and well in our daily lives. We can't get enough reassurance that those we have lost continue on and are somehow still connected to us in consciousness. We long for magic.

I do. We all do.

I want my dreams to be vivid, even lucid.
I want my experiences to be intense and authentic.
I want to feel close to those I have lost.
I want to feel that my ancestors are here with me.
I want to know that I live in a supportive living conscious universe that accepts and loves me unconditionally.

But what I learned this week is that Spirit is a two way street.

You have to sing out and with all your heart.
You must dig deep and be true in the most seemingly mundane of ways.
You have to get your ego out of the way.

You are called to be present.
You are called to fully participate in life.
You are called to recognize the magic and potentcy of all that is around you.

My daily life is more filled with tupperware dishes than abalone shells, but it's just as profound.
I probably won't find my animal totem from a Facebook quiz but I will find Spirit if I choose to recognize and participate in Life itself.

I choose to take time to listen.
I choose quiet mindfullness over mindless internal chatter.
I choose to reprioritize my day and spend time connecting and being grateful for the gifts of Mother Earth.
I choose to put down the digital devices and be in the moment.
I choose to clear the fog.

I meet people who are such bright lights that just being around them makes me exuberantly happy.
I find myself wanting to be more prepared, more present, more thankful, more true.

I know that every moment is precious.
Every moment is a Divine gift.
That not everything can be explained with words.
Not every answer can be found in Google.

Some things you just have to sit with and revel in their very existence.
To know that magic abounds.
To clear the mists around your Avalon.

Be quiet.
Be true.
Send your prayers.
Sing your songs.
Listen with your heart.
Be grateful.
Hold your vision.

And know.

How to Avoid Holiday Overload

It’s the first week of December and my calendar is full. We have school functions, water polo tournaments, church functions, family visits and myriad other holiday-related activities that seem to punctuate most people’s calendars this time of year. Adding anything else at this point will require some serious juggling, and possibly forms - filled out in triplicate, I suspect...

 There is always a lot going on at our house – and I like it that way. I do not, however, like the stress that comes with being over-scheduled. As we entered this month, I was already feeling a little over-committed. I knew that I needed to do something.

Fortunately, last month Dr. Heather’s focus was meditation, and I was inspired to develop the habit of starting my day with a morning meditation. What a difference a few minutes of daily meditation makes! (I’d like to tell you that I have consistently meditated every morning, but I have missed a few… which is how I can tell you that I notice the difference when I don’t do it.)

If you haven’t started meditating, I encourage you to start with Deepak Chopra’s guided meditations. You can find more information here.

The holiday season is considered by most people to be a time of joyous celebration. It’s a time for gathering together with those you love.

So what is it about the Holiday Season that causes some people to stress-out and go overboard?

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is probably one of my favorite holiday movies. Who cannot relate, at least a little, to Clark Griswald’s desire to create the perfect Christmas for his family? We all sympathize as he carries on despite Fate throwing curve after curve at him. He finally snaps, but only when it appears that he has let his family down. He can shrug off disaster after disaster, but the thought of personally disappointing his family is more than he can bear, and he loses it. How many of us live under that type of self-imposed pressure during the holidays?

I could feel myself nearing the edge, and I did not want to go there. So, I set my attention on the intention of keeping this holiday season as stress-free as possible, despite the many activities my children, husband and I are involved in.

During my meditation, I posited the question: what needs to happen to keep this holiday season as happy, bright, joyful and connected as possible for me and my family?  

The answer that I received was to schedule “downtime” into my calendar each week. It’s not an answer I would naturally gravitate to, but I am going to trust the wisdom of my inner guidance. I know that the idea of scheduling downtime probably sounds obvious to some of you, but I am one of those can’t-just-sit-and-watch-TV types. I don't do downtime well, but I am really good at multi-tasking! I have blocked the Friday evenings as family/downtime (not all of my Fridays were open, so I used Sunday evening as an alternate). We have more Fridays open than Sundays this month, so it worked better, but I suspect Sunday will be the regular day if I decide to continue this beyond the holidays.

What will I do with my downtime? I hope to spend it with my family (or those family members who are available – I’m not going to increase my stress level by turning this into an attendance required activity). Maybe we will drive around to look at Christmas lights, or watch a holiday movie, or just take a walk. Maybe I’ll convince my children to put away their electronics and play Scrabble or Monopoly. Maybe we will bake some cookies… as long as it is fun! I do not intend to use the time to start a project – no cleaning out closets or reorganizing the garage.

There is no doubt that the holiday season brings its own special stress. Whether it’s the cantankerous, eccentric relatives, or the turkey that wouldn’t cooperate, there will likely be moments that threaten to push you to the limit. When that happens, actually, preferably before that happens, take some time to ask yourself what you need from this holiday season. The answer might be far simpler than you think. 

Meditation, Purpose & Emerson

What is your plot of land?

This Sunday was our final week in our month on meditation. Rev. Dr. Heather Clark talked about using meditation as a tool to connect with the very essence of who we are and to ask how to manifest our good in the world. To ask "What is trying to manifest through me?"

I can't think of a more practical role for meditation.

I've always wondered if a strong life's purpose was innate in some people or was it something developed, something nutured and encouraged to grow until it then took on a life of its own. I remember watching the movie "The Secret," and when Neal Donal Walsch said that there is nothing declaring what you have to do or be, I felt a great sense relief. But while I desire freedom of choice there is a longing to have a strong sense of purpose, a strong sense of your plot of land.

I say "plot of land" because Sunday's talk from Rev. Dr. Heather made me think of Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." Whether our true calling is predetermined or self chosen it doesn't matter as long as we know how to find it.

Because ultimately I know that no one is going to tell me what color my parachute is. Because ultimately I know that every answer in a multiple choice quiz is a compromise of who I am. Because ultiimately I know that it's even more than taking your "own counsel" ... it's tapping into who you truly are for the answers that truly matter.

I'm going to share a couple paragraphs of Emerson's "Self-Reliance"

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Answering that question of "what is my work" or "what is my purpose" is the stuff that builds lives and the satisfaction and happiness that comes when one works in harmony with their true nature and gifts. And as Rev. Dr. Heather Clark pointed to the not so subtle shift between "How do I draw abundance into my life?" as "What is it that wants to be created through me?" The second question draws you into alignment with your greatest good, your greatest expression and therefore your greatest gift.

Sometimes to Open Your Eyes, You Must Close them

Did you enjoy the video? Don't forget to share your thoughts on meditation, life or whatever is on your mind!