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The Freedom Academy
The Freedom Monthly Newsletter
For those of you residing in the Riverina I hope you are enjoying our chilly winter! Boy is it cold at the moment but I’m glad to say we had some wonderful rain recently which was greatly enjoyed by all - even if I did have laundry all over my house all week – a small sacrifice for rain I think!
Last months newsletter focused a lot on Man’s Mind and how important it is to stop believing our minds as much as we do. And to help explain this further I found a wonderful quote from Eckhart Tolle:
'The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately ... you usually don't use it at all. It uses you.'
This quote sums up everything and for those of you who are interested in understanding how to use your superb instrument correctly then I suggest you consider becoming part of the Freedom Academy which I am launching in July. For those of you who have been following my newsletter, you will know that I have postponed The Academy till July but I am happy to say that all is going to plan and we will be rolling out at the beginning to mid July – whoopee! I will send out an email in the last week of June updating everyone about The Freedom Academy as there have been some changes and what to expect going forward.
Now to focus on the topic of our monthly Newsletter - Meditation.
Meditation is the best tool that I recommend to you to ‘quieten’ the mind. The interesting thing is that meditation is largely misunderstood and completely underestimated! The first comment I usually hear from people is, “I don’t have enough time in the day to fit in meditation as well”.
Comments like these are a clear indication that your mind is way too much in control of YOU and not YOU in control of it! To someone who does meditate and received the benefits from it comments such as these are amusing. When you learn to meditate regularly you will begin to find that the complete opposite is true. If anything you will find that you cope better with your days, your family, and your work colleagues and are less reactive and begin to become more proactive in your life. Meditation is a mind training exercise that can be so powerful that Buddha, together with compassion, made it the foundation of his teachings.
The stereotype:
or this 
I mean seriously, who can even sit like this???!!! For those of us who are double jointed, superbly fit, thin and athletic (aren’t reaching 40!!) then well done you, you probably can achieve these weird sitting postures! But for people like me – knocking on the door of 40, on the other side of thin (yes fat!) the word supple is something I find in the dictionary - it just ain’t happening! I’ve never been able to sit like this in my whole life!
Now I am not poking fun at the people above (well I am a bit) but the unfortunate thing about this world wide image of meditation is that it creates the belief that meditation is too hard, mysterious and darn right uncomfortable when the exact opposite is true!
For those who have listened to me in the past, I always teach people to keep things really simple. Life is simple and so is meditation. I do not claim to be a meditation expert and I never will be, but I do know how to do basic meditation and teach you how to do the basics and get the benefits that I and many all over the world get.
Meditation helps to develop the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is awareness of who are, where you are, what you are doing and what your impact is. Wouldn’t you love to have that much control of yourself and your life all the time? Well you can start.
There are numerous ways to meditate. Really it is just focusing the mind on one thing and allowing thoughts to rise and fall as you focus. It’s impossible to blank your mind - which is why some people give up meditation. But you can train your mind to focus and so slow the speed of thought and ‘quieten’ the mind. You can focus on your breath, count in your mind or try to experience the beat of your heart. of A lot of people think that they just can’t be quiet, sit still or relax – a strong indication that the mind is overactive and out of control. For some people closing their eyes is difficult – again the mind is in control. Meditation is always easier with closed eyes as the mind does not get as easily distracted by what it sees. If this is you I recommend that you just sit quietly in a comfortable position and find something to focus on. If you are okay with closing your eyes then do so when you feel comfortable. My initial recommendation when you sit quietly is for you to count as you breathe in, hold and then count as you breathe out. I recommend that initially you count up to the number five. Hold for the count of 5 and then let your breath out for the count of 5 and do this breathing exercise for 5 minutes.
Why I recommend that you count is because it gives the mind something to focus on but it doesn’t matter what you choose: regardless of focus the breath will naturally begin to regulate the body and calm you down. Once you are breathing comfortably to the count of 5 then I recommend that you increase this count to 10 and then to 15 (and for the deep breathers 20!) I find for me I can now sit comfortably between 15 and 20. If you work on the principle of 10 in, 10 hold, 10 out to be done for 10 minutes you will be well on the way to calming yourself down.
Meditation is best done first thing in the morning before the mind is at its most alert. I do this exercise often, especially if I wake up at night and can’t go back to sleep because my mind is too active. This used to happen to me a lot but as I have kept up this exercise I find that waking up in the middle of the night is very infrequent now – and when this does happen I have learnt that this is a clear indication that my ego is chewing on something and I need to resolve it but that’s another topic! It can also be done for 5 minutes on your lunch break, in your garden or in your favourite chair. If you find it difficult to get peace then you can even do it in the loo with the door shut.
My favourite times are waking up and before bed.
You can listen to music if you wish but don’t let that stop the practice! If you have 5 minutes and time to select and play music; play music that’s beat is 4/4 time as it’s the same pace as your heartbeat and naturally slows you down.
So where do you get this music? Google free music that is 4/4 time, or free meditation music and download the stuff you like. Some of the music I listen to is:
Tony O’Connor – my personal favourite is Wind Seeker. I love Tony’s music it is very calming and includes a lot of the sounds of Australia’s nature – it’s great. Reiki Hands of Light by C.G. Deuter is another great CD or Healing Harp by Patricia Spero. Listen to this music with headphones or sit by a CD player and play it softly.
And because this is turning into a very long newsletter I will draw things to a close. I recommend that you adopt this exercise this month and next month I will include a small recording of a meditation for you to listen to; to start using when you are relaxing which will build on this exercise. Look out for The Freedom Academy Update towards the end of the month and I look forward to welcoming those of you who are intending to join – I think you will find it is going to be very beneficial and very interesting.
Until July, take care and keep warm!
Isha
For those of you residing in the Riverina I hope you are enjoying our chilly winter! Boy is it cold at the moment but I’m glad to say we had some wonderful rain recently which was greatly enjoyed by all - even if I did have laundry all over my house all week – a small sacrifice for rain I think!
Last months newsletter focused a lot on Man’s Mind and how important it is to stop believing our minds as much as we do. And to help explain this further I found a wonderful quote from Eckhart Tolle:
'The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately ... you usually don't use it at all. It uses you.'
This quote sums up everything and for those of you who are interested in understanding how to use your superb instrument correctly then I suggest you consider becoming part of the Freedom Academy which I am launching in July. For those of you who have been following my newsletter, you will know that I have postponed The Academy till July but I am happy to say that all is going to plan and we will be rolling out at the beginning to mid July – whoopee! I will send out an email in the last week of June updating everyone about The Freedom Academy as there have been some changes and what to expect going forward.
Now to focus on the topic of our monthly Newsletter - Meditation.
Meditation is the best tool that I recommend to you to ‘quieten’ the mind. The interesting thing is that meditation is largely misunderstood and completely underestimated! The first comment I usually hear from people is, “I don’t have enough time in the day to fit in meditation as well”.
Comments like these are a clear indication that your mind is way too much in control of YOU and not YOU in control of it! To someone who does meditate and received the benefits from it comments such as these are amusing. When you learn to meditate regularly you will begin to find that the complete opposite is true. If anything you will find that you cope better with your days, your family, and your work colleagues and are less reactive and begin to become more proactive in your life. Meditation is a mind training exercise that can be so powerful that Buddha, together with compassion, made it the foundation of his teachings.
The stereotype:
or this I mean seriously, who can even sit like this???!!! For those of us who are double jointed, superbly fit, thin and athletic (aren’t reaching 40!!) then well done you, you probably can achieve these weird sitting postures! But for people like me – knocking on the door of 40, on the other side of thin (yes fat!) the word supple is something I find in the dictionary - it just ain’t happening! I’ve never been able to sit like this in my whole life!
Now I am not poking fun at the people above (well I am a bit) but the unfortunate thing about this world wide image of meditation is that it creates the belief that meditation is too hard, mysterious and darn right uncomfortable when the exact opposite is true!
For those who have listened to me in the past, I always teach people to keep things really simple. Life is simple and so is meditation. I do not claim to be a meditation expert and I never will be, but I do know how to do basic meditation and teach you how to do the basics and get the benefits that I and many all over the world get.
Meditation helps to develop the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is awareness of who are, where you are, what you are doing and what your impact is. Wouldn’t you love to have that much control of yourself and your life all the time? Well you can start.
There are numerous ways to meditate. Really it is just focusing the mind on one thing and allowing thoughts to rise and fall as you focus. It’s impossible to blank your mind - which is why some people give up meditation. But you can train your mind to focus and so slow the speed of thought and ‘quieten’ the mind. You can focus on your breath, count in your mind or try to experience the beat of your heart. of A lot of people think that they just can’t be quiet, sit still or relax – a strong indication that the mind is overactive and out of control. For some people closing their eyes is difficult – again the mind is in control. Meditation is always easier with closed eyes as the mind does not get as easily distracted by what it sees. If this is you I recommend that you just sit quietly in a comfortable position and find something to focus on. If you are okay with closing your eyes then do so when you feel comfortable. My initial recommendation when you sit quietly is for you to count as you breathe in, hold and then count as you breathe out. I recommend that initially you count up to the number five. Hold for the count of 5 and then let your breath out for the count of 5 and do this breathing exercise for 5 minutes.
Why I recommend that you count is because it gives the mind something to focus on but it doesn’t matter what you choose: regardless of focus the breath will naturally begin to regulate the body and calm you down. Once you are breathing comfortably to the count of 5 then I recommend that you increase this count to 10 and then to 15 (and for the deep breathers 20!) I find for me I can now sit comfortably between 15 and 20. If you work on the principle of 10 in, 10 hold, 10 out to be done for 10 minutes you will be well on the way to calming yourself down.
Meditation is best done first thing in the morning before the mind is at its most alert. I do this exercise often, especially if I wake up at night and can’t go back to sleep because my mind is too active. This used to happen to me a lot but as I have kept up this exercise I find that waking up in the middle of the night is very infrequent now – and when this does happen I have learnt that this is a clear indication that my ego is chewing on something and I need to resolve it but that’s another topic! It can also be done for 5 minutes on your lunch break, in your garden or in your favourite chair. If you find it difficult to get peace then you can even do it in the loo with the door shut.
My favourite times are waking up and before bed.
You can listen to music if you wish but don’t let that stop the practice! If you have 5 minutes and time to select and play music; play music that’s beat is 4/4 time as it’s the same pace as your heartbeat and naturally slows you down.
So where do you get this music? Google free music that is 4/4 time, or free meditation music and download the stuff you like. Some of the music I listen to is:
Tony O’Connor – my personal favourite is Wind Seeker. I love Tony’s music it is very calming and includes a lot of the sounds of Australia’s nature – it’s great. Reiki Hands of Light by C.G. Deuter is another great CD or Healing Harp by Patricia Spero. Listen to this music with headphones or sit by a CD player and play it softly.
And because this is turning into a very long newsletter I will draw things to a close. I recommend that you adopt this exercise this month and next month I will include a small recording of a meditation for you to listen to; to start using when you are relaxing which will build on this exercise. Look out for The Freedom Academy Update towards the end of the month and I look forward to welcoming those of you who are intending to join – I think you will find it is going to be very beneficial and very interesting.
Until July, take care and keep warm!
Isha
