The 5G Meditation Map
The many benefits of meditation on our physical, mental & emotional health have become extremely clear in recent times - through science, through people’s personal stories, & through society’s overwhelming embrace of this ancient practice.
As a long-time meditator, this makes me so happy!
Meditation has had a big impact on my life. I’ve learned to be more aware, patient, & respectful with myself. I’ve learned how to be kind & compassionate with myself while still holding myself accountable. I’ve learned what personal empowerment feels like from the inside out. Plus, I sleep better! All of these qualities were in embarrassingly short supply before I started my mindfulness practice, but it’s amazing what can be nurtured just through the repeated practice of coming to stillness.
To know that so many others all over the world are also finding & nurturing their own sense of inner resilience, wisdom, & light really fills me with profound joy & optimism.
There are a multitude of meditation apps & social media channels available these days, making the practice of meditation more accessible & easier to incorporate into our daily lives than ever before. I like using recorded practices, but I have to say that my personal preference is to meditate on my own in silence. I love that I can take my own time to deeply tune into my moment-to-moment experience & that I’m not restricted to the rhythm of the person guiding the meditation. Yes, it IS harder to stay focused, but then, I also reap the rewards of training that ‘returning to presence’ muscle all by myself. In short, I learn to be my own guide.
This is not to diminish the importance of learning from an experienced teacher. Quite the contrary! As a certified meditation teacher myself, what I love, almost more than guiding students through a meditation, is empowering them with the tools & knowledge for them to be able to develop their own practice. I love demystifying meditation & breaking it down into digestible pieces, so that it doesn’t feel like the practice is dependent on anything outside of the person. Meditation is meant to bring us back to our own true nature, after all.
The 5G Meditation Map
There are so many forms of meditation: mantra, vipassana, zazen, transcendental, visualization, affirmations, breathwork, the list goes on. Finding what resonates for YOU can take some time, so don’t get discouraged if your first experiences of meditation are not resonating. Also, be open to the possibility that your preferred meditation style might change over time. This is perfectly normal. We are in new territory these days, where our ability to CHOOSE has never been greater. Taking advantage of that ability is a wonderfully liberating aspect of being alive right now.
The particular Meditation Map that I’m offering out here has elements of mindfulness, loving-kindness, gratitude practice, as well as connecting to our own highest wisdom. All of these components have been shown, through scientific study & thousands of years of practice, to have significant benefits for the health & wellness of our whole being.
What I like about this 5G practice is that it has both ‘yin & yang’, or more passive & active elements to it. There’s time for being, and there's also time for creating. In this meditation we work with a wide spectrum of what’s possible for our hearts, minds, & bodies when we pay attention & open up to possibility.
The great thing about having a map, rather than a guide, is that we’re more in control of our own experience. We can take as much time as we like in each part, all the while knowing that a tried & true route exists. Because there is no need to worry about getting lost, we can relax & enjoy the journey :)
The 5G Meditation Practice
Remember, each phase can take as long as it wants :)
AND
Feel free to only practice 1 or a few of the phases.
The 5G’s together create a thorough practice, however, practicing just 1 or 2 G’s can also be very impactful.
To experience a fully guided 5G Meditation Practice, click here. May you enjoy:)
1. Get Grounded
This first phase of meditation is very important to help settle the busy-ness of the mind, to come into a state of embodiment, & to connect into presence.
One of my favourite ways of getting grounded is to do a body scan. Move from top to bottom (or from bottom to top, if you prefer), progressively bringing the awareness to each place in the body, feeling it from the inside out. Invite each place to relax, without forcing it. The intention is to relax with whatever’s happening, and so if one place in the body wants to stay tense, we just relax with that also ;)
We bring our awareness & invite relaxation to the forehead, then the eyes, the ears, the cheeks, the jaw, & so on….
What I like about moving from top to bottom is that at the end, when I reach the toes, the scan finishes by feeling the connection to the ground, which, very literally, helps me feel more grounded ;)
Other grounding practices could be
Bring the awareness to the sensation of the breath first at the nostrils, then move down to feel the breath at the chest, then at the bottom of the ribs, and then in the low belly. Feel the breath physically in each of these places, and then feel it move down to the next place. Notice when the breath reaches the base of the pelvis, connecting you to your seat.
On the inhale, silently say in your mind ‘Inhaling’, and on the exhale ‘Exhaling’, and repeat this mantra for as long as you like. You could also use other words on the inhale & exhale, such as Let (on the inhale) Go (on the exhale), or Receive (inhale) & Release (exhale), Here (I) Now (E), or Light (I) Love (E). Repeating simple words can have a surprisingly calming effect on the mind & help bring us into presence.
Simply feel where you’re making contact with the ground (with the feet), or with your seat (the pelvis). Let those points of contact spread out like pancake batter. Or, similarly, feel where the hands are resting on your lap as you sit. Let the sensation of that pancake batter connection fill your awareness.
Because this first phase is all about settling the mind, it can be filled with lots of distracted moments & resets. This is absolutely ok & to be expected! I myself get distracted very often, in this phase as well as all the others! But rather than get tense or thrown off by it, I just kindly & gently recommit my attention to my point of focus as many times as I need. Losing our attention is not wrong. In fact, it’s a vital part of the practice. Returning & recommiting our attention is one of the biggest things that makes meditation so transformational.
For a guided experience of a body scan meditation, click here
This meditation is part of the 5 Day Introduction to Fully Embodied Living,
where I offer stretches, breath practices, guided meditations & inspiration for healthy nourishment.
Click here to receive the whole 5 Day Intro Program
2. unGrasp or let Go
Once the body & mind have settled a little bit, this is when we can now take some time to sit in open awareness.
The general intention in this phase is to have an open, expansive awareness & to be present with our moment-to-moment experience. The image that works best for me is that of the big sky. We notice the coming & going of thoughts, emotions, & sensations (including sounds) just as we would notice clouds moving through the sky. The key is that our attention is really resting on the clear sky behind the clouds. We don’t ignore the clouds, but we also don’t get carried away by them. We have a sort of ‘witness consciousness’ with them. We notice them with kindness, compassion, & respect, while also noticing how they are always coming, going, & changing. We identify less with the clouds & more with the sky.
This phase is called unGrasping or letting Go because it’s about practicing being able to sit with our moment to moment experience with less attachment to it. We practice being able to see our thoughts, emotions, & sensations without labelling them as ‘me’ or ‘mine’. This allows the possibility of seeing our lives & ourselves from a refreshingly new perspective.
…‘tightness in shoulder’…’worry about toothache’… worry that this is the beginning of losing all the teeth!’ …’ a dog is barking outside’…’’meditating is hard! What am I supposed to be focusing on, again?’…’I'm hungry’…
We notice it all with kindness, equanimity, non-judgmentalness, …& a sense of humour doesn’t hurt either ;)
This is not a time for analyzing or problem solving. It’s a time to compassionately & patiently notice what’s here, maybe noticing what’s been sitting underneath the surface just waiting to be noticed. On the one hand, we can think of this as though we’re meeting ourselves for the first time. On the other hand, we can think of it as though we are simply sitting with a dear old friend, not needing explanations or justifications for anything. Just presence.
While the intention is to not judge our thoughts & emotions, or even how ‘good’ we think we are meditating (or not!), this is much easier said than done. What we CAN do is try not to judge the fact that we are judging ourselves! We live in a society that encourages criticism & comparison, and so it should come to no surprise to us that when we sit in stillness & start to notice our thoughts, we notice that many of them are based in self-judgement, self-criticism, or in comparing ourselves to others. The over-riding energies through this whole practice are compassion, patience, & a sense of humor doesn’t hurt either ;)
Anchoring
This big sky open awareness can sometimes feel like it’s too big to sustain. Because the focus is so open & relaxed to whatever arises, it can be easy to get pulled away by each cloud that comes our way, or to get lost in space!
For this reason, it can be very helpful to have a more concrete ‘anchor’ for our attention that we can re-connect to from time to time. This anchor could be the feeling of the breath in 1 particular spot in the body, such as at the nostrils, or the belly. It could be the feeling of the connection to your seat, or to the sounds around you. Any one of the anchors that we created in the Grounding section are very good options to choose from. This anchor can be used to help return to the feeling of the body in the present moment any time we feel overly distracted or spaced out. We can use that anchor as much as we need, or we can relax our hold of the anchor, trusting that it’s always there, and open up to a more spacious, open awareness, whenever we like.
Sometimes this kind of mindfulness meditation is described as ‘relaxing with what is’, with a focus that’s ‘not too tight & not too loose’, and that’s about one of the best descriptions I think there is :)
3. Guidance
This next phase is where we start to work with our mind to cultivate its potential for intuition & wisdom. After spending some time allowing, noticing, & seeing what’s here from our witness consciousness, we can then take advantage of this more expansive perspective & call on our ‘inner guru’ for insight. How to stay connected with our goals, how to expand our perception of our selves & our lives, how to cultivate our full potential, & how to view our day-to-day problems & stresses are just some of the things we can ask for guidance on. There is nothing too big or small for our inner guru.
Guidance can come in many forms. We can:
Allow a guiding word or 2 (try to keep it short & sweet!) to come into our awareness to help take us into the rest of our day, week, or perhaps even longer if we’re working on a long-term vision. I often keep it simple, such as repeating silently to myself, ‘Peace’, ‘Patience’, or ‘Trust’.
Ask a question, and don’t be shy about getting specific! I think it’s totally ok to ask about something very mundane or ‘unspiritual’, because really, it’s all spiritual when it comes to the choices we make & the perspectives we take. When we simply ask the question, the answers DO come - from the highest part of ourselves, from the universe, from our sense of higher intelligence - it’s all there for us. Usually we hear exactly what we need to hear (although not always what we want to ;) Often we can get an immediate sense of ‘an answer’. But even if we don’t, don’t worry. It’s coming!
Very simply, we can open ourselves up to receiving whatever guidance our inner guru wants to reveal to us. Perhaps, as an answer, we simply sense an energy, a color, a feeling, or even an epiphany. Perhaps in the next few days we meet someone new who brings us a new opportunity that we could have never imagined. This kind of trust in our inner guru requires cultivating & nurturing a strong relationship between the 2 of you, over time. This relationship can be one of the most important ones that we have in our lives.
4. Gratitude, or savouring the Good
In this phase of the meditation, we’re cultivating wholesome, heart-centered states of being, such as gratitude, love, or any other positive state. Gratitude Practice has been consistently shown to bring our nervous system out of the ‘fight or flight’, or survival state, and into the ‘thrive’ or relaxation state. When we’re in this relaxation state, all our internal systems can rejuvenate, repair, & rest. Sleep & digestion improve, the immune system, heart & brain get a boost, & our social relationships & state of mind become more balanced. Gratitude is good medicine.
Gratitude Practice is simply this: Bring something into your awareness that allows the feeling of gratitude to naturally arise. It’s great if it can be for something that happened even that very day, or in the last few days. It can be something small, such as having a delightful cup of coffee, or a sweet, snuggly moment with your kids, or it could be for something big, such as having enough to eat, a safe home, or good health.
Another option for this phase is to ‘savour the Good’. This phrase comes from the work of renowned psychologist, author, & mindfulness teacher, Dr. Rick Hanson. He teaches that in order to counterbalance the human brain’s natural survival tendency to focus more on ‘negative’ events, we must consciously cultivate ‘positive’ states. We could do this by remembering a positive event that happened recently - huge or small. What’s most important is to remember the feeling that this created in the body, and then to recreate that feeling in the present moment. By reminding ourselves of the feeling that this positive event inspired, we actually release more of the hormones of happiness into our system, right during our meditation, which is another brilliant form of natural medicine.
Another option is simply to take a moment to remind ourselves of one of the beautiful qualities of the heart, such as love, joy, courage, generosity, or peace and to let it fill our awareness & our bodies. Reminding ourselves that these qualities are always within us, just waiting to be noticed, can be remarkably empowering & comforting.
5. Grace
A gorgeous way to end this whole 5G practice is to share it. This phase is our opportunity to take all of our grounded energy, spacious awareness, guidance, & gratitude and to send it out. We could send it out in the form of healing, strengthening, or loving energy. We could send it out to someone we know, to a group of people, or to all beings. It’s helpful to clearly visualize & sense this energy radiating out from our heart & travelling to those we wish to receive it.
If you’re feeling depleted in some way, it’s also absolutely acceptable to send this energy to yourself. If you’d like to make it more universal, you could send grace to yourself AND to all of those who are suffering in a similar way. For example, if you are struggling with feeling low on hope, you could send grace to yourself AND to all of those who are also feeling this way. Try it out and see if it doesn’t just hit the spot.
Sending out grace is a form of compassion practice. Compassion means ‘to suffer with’. We are not separate from, or bettter than, the one we are sending the grace to. Sending out grace is the equivalent of energetically reaching out to someone, or to all beings, and giving their hand a squeeze. Sending out grace is saying “I’m here with you”. As human beings, we all suffer, sometimes more, sometimes less. Knowing that we are not alone is so huge, in fact, it might actually be everything.
5G: The Compact Version
The whole 5G Practice can take as much or as little time as you like. Sometimes I take 5 minutes to do this practice & sometimes I take 30. While just practicing 1 or 2 G’s is a great way to have a shorter practice, here is just one idea of how all 5G’s could be done in just a few, short moments:
Grounding. Pick just one of these: feel the weight of the feet on the floor, feel the weight of the shoulders, or relax the jaw. Take a few slow deep, mindful breaths taking this in.
unGrasp/let Go. Take a moment to notice how you’re feeling right now. Allow whatever’s here to be here without judgement. Create some space around it so you can observe it & not get lost in it. Just take a few breaths with this, perhaps naming it in your mind’s eye
Guidance. Allow a single word to come into your awareness that helps orient you in the direction that you want to move in for the rest of your day.
Gratitude. Recall 1 sweet moment that happened in the last day. Take a breath or 2 into your whole body, allowing the feeling to be re-lived inside of you once more.
Grace. Take just a few breaths to visualise & sense energy radiating out from your heart to someone you know who needs it, or to all beings.
Meditation does not change our outer circumstances - at least not immediately. But it CAN immediately change how we perceive our circumstances, ourselves & our lives AND it can give us more resources to be able to more consciously respond to them, rather than unconsciously react to them.
Life can be very stressful. I wish this were not true, but it seems to be true. Having tools to help us move through life with grace, insight, compassion, & confidence is a treasure beyond value. I hope that this meditation map gives you some of these tools.
Please feel free to scroll through other writings on meditation & mindful living found within this blog.
For a fully guided experience of the 5G Meditation Practice, please enjoy this one!