Tag: meditation

Meditation for Sleep: Exploring the Benefits

Meditation for sleep is a powerful antidote to the hectic, fast-paced lives that many of us live. Here at Still Sitting, we encourage you to start building a regular meditation practice for this very reason. But finding the right time to start your meditation practice can be difficult. So, why not try during one of… Read more »

New Year, New Meditation Practice

Post updated 1/22/20 Starting a New Meditation Practice The new year is a great time to start or restart a meditation practice. Starting anything new can sometimes feel daunting so we’ve put together a few very basic guidelines for starting a new meditation practice. I had a chat with Koshin Christopher Cain, one of the… Read more »

The Sleepy Sit: Staying Awake While Meditating

Staying Awake While Meditating When we lived at the Mt Baldy Zen Center we began our day at 4 a.m. with a pucker-inducing dose of hot lemon tea, followed by almost an hour of chanting. Both tea and chanting helped keep everyone awake while meditating. Monks and nuns of all types get up before dawn… Read more »

The Benefits of Breathing Deeply

Breathe in, breathe out. You can’t help it of course, but you can bring consciousness to it -– and that in turn changes your breathing.  Breathing is one of the few activities that we do unconsciously but that we can affect consciously. Meditation can change the quality of our breathing, and breathing deeply can change… Read more »

The Gift of Lovingkindness Meditation

Lovingkindness meditation is a way of offering friendly kindness to yourself, to others or to the world. Lovingkindness is based on Buddhist teachings that emphasize compassion, love and kindness. This is also be referred to as Metta meditation. In Lovingkindness meditation, there are phrases to repeat to yourself throughout the meditation.  The phrases below are taken from Real… Read more »

Sitting Tips: Your Meditation Foundation

We thought we’d go back to the basics and share a series of sitting tips. Whether you are completely new to meditation or are an old master, it can be helpful to revisit the foundations of the practice. In order to sit comfortably and deeply in meditation, your posture is ideally relaxed and attentive. Finding a  position that works… Read more »