“In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake.
Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is intentional but non-judgemental. It enables us to deepen our capacity for acceptance of ourselves and others. By bringing ourselves into the present moment, we are able to see more clearly how past experiences can structure and distort the present and how our attempts to influence the future only bring us suffering. Developing our capacity for compassion emerges from Mindfulness. Hence we become what psychoanalysis calls better ‘contained within ourselves’ as a result of being better able to see and accept things just as they are. While Mindfulness practices are very simple, they are very hard to master and require practice. It was wrestling with this difficulty that lead me to undertake a training in meditation. Through this I have learnt the value of good preparation for practice; in essence, you cannot meditate before you have learnt to concentrate and you cannot concentrate before you have learnt to relax.
If you would like to learn ‘The Mindfulness of Breathing’ or the ‘Meditation on Loving Kindness,’ you are welcome to contact me; if you would prefer to work through them alone, you can find them under my ‘Meditation & Relaxation practices’ at this link: http://students.leeds.ac.uk/info/100002/support_resources/895/meditation_and_relaxation_downloads and if you would like more information on Mindfulness https://www.mindful.org/ is a good place to start.
Meditation
In Sanskrit, the Dru star is the North star; this is the star around which the universe is said to revolve. So the aim of Dru Meditation practice is to find and learn how to maintain a place of stillness within ourselves; a steadiness notwithstanding what is going on around us. To achieve this, it is helpful to prepare for meditation and this preparation is achieved through using a variety of techniques which include physical activations, energy block release sequences, breathing techniques (pranayama), active and passive concentration techniques, kriyas (techniques impacting on the frequency of your energy) and deep relaxation techniques. These preparations enable our meditations to be less spoilt by distractions.
Dru meditation is a clear process and with a daily practice, one that can be completed in roughly two years. Like Mindfulness it has religious origins, but you do not need to follow any religion to utilize the process. I do not have or teach any religious affiliations but as a psychotherapist, I am interested in and respectful of people’s spirituality. The roots of Dru Meditation are in the Hindu text the Baghavad Gita and the process is one of working through 5 levels or layers of consciousness otherwise described as ‘Koshas’. The first, the Anamaya kosha (physical body), is the site of Mindfulness practice and practices of self-compassion or acceptance. These build the foundations for the work that follows in what are known as, the energetic, emotional, intellectual and blissful bodies. The latter two are wholly unconscious. In each layer there are specific meditation practices which need to be mastered before you move on. What unifies Dru with depth psychology is its capacity to surface our unconscious processes and with practice, enable the meditator to directly impact upon them. In time and with work, the quality of your consciousness becomes a function of choice. For me, it is a working through analogous to Jungian psychotherapy’s approach to the archetype of The Self. I offer both one to one meditation training and I do group work. I also integrate mindfulness practices, where appropriate into my psychotherapy work.
For Meditation Resources & Information
If you would like to learn to practice Mindfulness or Dru Meditation, just call James Taylor Dip Psych, Dip Med, UKCP Reg on
07973 428365