People hear meditation and think of a monk on a frozen mountain top, a hippy in some cult like setting or a kind of magical being levitating above that ground doing masterful defensive moves like Yoda.

While there is nothing wrong with those, just realize meditation is a method you find to get in touch with yourself, peace, serenity, the universe, God… whatever you are trying to achieve and connect with. Call it working on light and shadow of the self, grounding, anything you’d prefer.

It is shutting out the world and noise around you. Zoning out, drifting in thoughts. This can be achieved in simple things. Listening to music, sitting in silence, praying, or even gardening. However you find a method that works for you the goal is to be calm and heal and work through things.

A lot of people keep themselves busy with work and fight listening to their thoughts because they hurt. The thing is, that won’t stop and it will only get louder if not addressed. If you look around the internet these days plenty of people are giving threads of what I write about in fragments but never go deep or thoroughly through it or focus on small portions.

When meditation, looking within and drifting through your thoughts, let the thoughts come. Let them flow. Acknowledge they hurt but don’t fight, just listen. Do nothing at first. This may take several tries over time. Eventually, take note whats the loudest thought, the one that keeps coming back and might be pleasant or might be horrible.

Face the thought, ask what do you want? What do you need? Ask it with genuine compassion. After all this is actually you that’s talking to you about something you need to hear to move forward. Might not find the answers right away. Just try to stay calm hold space for it and listen as thoughts flow around it.

As you get the calm and peace with the thought and it quiets, find the next one. Rinse and repeat.

Congratulations, if you took the time to do this, you are learning to love yourself a little more. Hold compassion for your wounds and heal them.

As you sit there, do not get discouraged. It takes years for even trained monks to achieve anything on a grand scale. Be happy with the small achievements, even just sitting with yourself is an achievement not many are willing to do.

I promise you, if you face it and hold on to life in gratitude for the little things you have… you can rip through some of the most horrible memories and destroy negativity holding you down. Call it demons or scars or wounds whatever you want, it is possible to crush them and move forward. It can feel like not moving at all especially if there’s a lot. But changes even internally with eventually come and show outwardly. I believe in you. You go this.

Not everything has to be about wounds either. Be sure to sit and think about all the good things you can think of even if its something like ‘I woke up today’, ‘I saw a pretty animal I liked’, anything. Appreciate the tiny little things, slow down, even if its ten minutes once a week at first.

Find yourself. Find peace. Find healing.

Like this red-bud photograph, we have layers.

Look deeper and like the shape of the red-bud leaf, love yourself

and clear out the things you need to like the sage beneath.

Begin to Speak Work-book/coloring book purchase here / or here to the website page for previews and free video.