My favorite meditations.
Hello Kula Diaries subscribers!
I am going to be sharing my weekly post tomorrow, and in it I reference a list of my favorite meditations that you can use to get started. This is that list!
If you’ve never had a meditation practice before, that’s totally OK. My first experience with meditation was when I was 10 years old. I distinctly remember lying on the floor of our school cafeteria and being walked through a very basic body scan. In college, I attended a meditation class and I still remember sitting there - my mind aimlessly wandering, “I’m not good at meditation”, I told myself.
Meditation is the practice of coming back. Coming back to your breath and coming back to yourself. You cannot be ‘bad’ at meditation. Meditation does not require a spa-like setting. You can do a meditation anywhere and everywhere. It is simply the practice of connecting to the presence within you … and the here and the now. Think of meditation as a ‘gentle workout’ for your mind. The more and more you meditate, the less and less you will get lost in the ‘thought stream’ that has a tendency to whisk you away into unconscious patterns around the past or the imaginary future.
You don’t need to spend an hour per day meditating in order to get benefits from it. When I first started, I did 1-3 minute meditations daily. If I could pick one habit for all humans to add into their lives… it would be meditation. I don’t think that any of Kula would exist if I hadn’t started a regular meditation practice.
With that primer, let’s begin…
To get started, I’d recommend downloading the Insight Timer App. It’s free, and loaded with some amazing meditation teachers.
Secondly, find a comfortable place to perform your meditation - it’s OK if there are sounds. Whatever is happening in the present moment becomes a part of your meditation.
If your mind wanders, that’s totally OK and normal. Just come back to your breathing. Some meditations are guided and others are just music. Sometimes people just set a timer and sit quietly focused on their breathing. Do what feels best for you.
It doesn’t have to be long. It can be as simple as closing your eyes and taking four, conscious deep breaths.
My favorite meditations:
Here is a non comprehensive list of some of my favorite meditations and meditation instructors. I hope that you find it helpful as you begin or continue to deepen your own meditation practice:
This is a short three minute meditation practice that you can do if you don’t have a lot of time or if the idea of sitting for 10 minutes is intimidating to you.
This is a similar meditation practice, but lasts for 5 minutes, if you want to begin to explore sitting in silence for a slightly longer period of time.
This meditation practice explores the idea of being in the present moment… right here, right now.
This is a meditation practice about surrendering and letting go. I listened to this meditation countless times when I was in the process of leaving my job and needing to trust that the universe was supporting me and I found it unbelievably helpful.
This meditation is about connecting with the home within ourselves. It’s beautiful and powerful, and I can’t help but feel intense gratitude every time I complete this practice.
This meditation practice is one of my favorite’s by Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now (which we start reading in our book club in a couple of weeks).
Jonathan Lehmann’s meditations are beautifully spoken and have some wonderful affirmations for setting an intention for your day.
Daniel Schotsborg writes some really interesting binaural audio music using a variety of frequencies that are specifically crafted to stimulate creativity. These are not guided meditations, but musical/sound meditations.
This is a basic body scan meditation from Dora Kamau, who I had the opportunity to attend a virtual class with in 2020. She’s really amazing!
This is a meditation about choosing abundance over fear from Liza Colpa.
This is a wonderful meditation from Tara Brach, the author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion. This meditation is called ‘Gateway to Presence’.
I’ve already shared this one before, but this is by far my favorite Gratitude Meditation. It’s only 5 minutes long, but makes my heart open every single time I listen.
This is a meditation written by me and read by my friend Rose Freeman - and it includes a wilderness musical performance by our duo, The Musical Mountaineers.
While this isn’t a comprehensive list, I hope that it will be a good resource to get you started. Most of these teachers have extensive playlists of meditations. Spend a few minutes on Insight Timer and you will discover thousands and thousands of meditations.
Meditation is one of those habits that is easy to do… and easy not to do. The compounding effects of dedicating a few minutes per day to a meditation practice are too many to count. If you are new, wanting to get started again, or an established meditator, I hope that you will continue your practice!
Please feel free to comment below if you have any questions or need additional recommendations or resources. Thank you all so much for being here!
Love,
Anastasia
This is what I was looking for ❤️
I’m so excited to try these!