I still haven’t managed to go sit in the woods. We are still battling illness in my house, so I have either been nursing my children, or myself!

Even though I haven’t sat outside to meditate yet, I make a point of grounding – connecting with the Earth – every day.

One morning, during my grounding I was feeling and expressing gratitude to the Earth for supporting me, and for being my battery. I recharge every morning by grounding, and at night grounding helps me relax. As I was feeling this deep gratitude, a message came to me:

You want to heal the Earth? GROUND!

Connect with the Earth. Put your bare feet and hands in the grass or the dirt or the sand, hug a tree, sit on the ground. Reach out and connect in some way EVERY DAY.

Just as a person cannot thrive without physical contact, neither can the Earth.

I received images of children in orphanages who are given minimal care who turn their faces to the wall and fade away; elderly in “care” homes who have no visitors slowly fading into the past.

The farther we move into our technological world of virtual realities, the more disconnected we become from the Earth and from the natural world. I know this, I see this, I feel this, and even I am not willing to give up my computer or my smartphone!

I’m thinking of offering a free teleclass on grounding, with a guided meditation to help you learn to ground. What do you think? Is that something you would be interested in? I look forward to hearing from you!

Blessings,

Mary

While doing some research for my guided meditations recently, I came across a site that I am quite looking forward to making a regular visit to:

The Life Balance Institute‘s “Take a Moment” page.

Each week on Monday they release a brief video moment, an opportunity to reflect, think and be inspired.  I can’t wait to see what nect week’s moment is!

Take a Moment, and treat yourself!

Blessings,

Mary

Take some time, and get your life in balance…

The Peaceful Woman has recently begun Meet-Ups throughout the US and Canada.  The premiere meet-up theme was, “When you can’t access Peaceful, reach for Chocolate!”

At first this sounds like a sales pitch for Hershey’s, but when you get past that, it is really a metaphor to remind us to slow down and access our center.

Rachel Flower, a fellow Peaceful Woman, created a special Chocolate Sensory Meditation for the meet-ups, and it is available to download and experience for yourself.  You will never eat chocolate the same way again!

Blessings,

Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.

When I tell people that I write guided meditations, I get a lot of smiles and nods.  Most people have heard of or tried some form of meditation, but don’t know exactly what “guided” meditation is.

I gave this explanation to a couple of colleagues a few weeks ago, and around their giggles, they both said I had to video it and put it on my site.

In a true procrastinator’s style, it took me about two months to take the video, and another week to upload it.

So here is is: my video explanation of guided meditation.  Enjoy!

Blessings,

Mary

Learn more about the different types of music available to help with meditation in this article by Ben Pate.

Meditation With Music provides a powerful element to the effort to bring balance to the mind and body. This is accomplished through meditative practices or in normal life situations. A person will find that this type of music is growing in popularity as more people become aware of its ability to positively change lives.

Read the rest of the article here…

Blessings,

Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.

The Meditation Society of Australia is one of my favorite meditation sites.  They offer a free online mediation course, and you can subscribe to get daily meditations and words of wisdom emailed to you every day.

Here’s an excerpt about the online course:

Our free online course features a step-by-step guide for people learning to meditate, complete with guided meditation exercises with meditation music that you can download and play. Each free class includes a discussion on a particular spiritual topic and a guided meditation exercise. For members (membership is free) the discussion and exercise are also provided as free radio quality audio mp3 downloads – just click on the link within the classes. Each class is set up for one week, structured for you to meditate and work upon the ideas brought up in the class in your daily meditation. But you can access them all at once if you are on the move and in a hurry to download to your ipod etc.

I encourage you to visit their site, and check out the course, and come back here for more guided meditations, naturally!  I’ll be posting  some new ones soon!

Blessings,

Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.

Here’s an article from the Beginning Meditation Guide about Guided Meditation:

Guided meditations are usually experienced with the help of a meditation teacher, or by listening to a guided meditation recording…a guided meditation can be an experience that is not only relaxing, but one that enhances your sense of self, that transforms your perspective in positive ways, and that inspires you to live your life to the fullest. It’s an effortless and very enjoyable experience that results in deep relaxation, elimination of stress and a heightened appreciation of life.

Read the rest of the article…

Well said!  Remember, you can download a free guided meditation right here, right now, and experience the peace for yourself.

Blessings,

Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.

By Frederic Premji

There are so many advantages to meditation. When I first originally thought of this post, I indeed wanted to make it 100 benefits long (think big right!), however, I wasn’t sure I could find more than perhaps 20-25 benefits. Well, I made it happen! Meditation is as powerful as I thought it would be. Here is the definitive list of benefits that meditation can provide you with:

See the full list…

It’s definitely worth a look.  Thank you, Frederic, for compiling such a great list!

Blessings,

Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.

From ModernMedicine:

“Guided meditation and sharing of experiences has been shown to improve mood and decrease feelings of burnout, according to a study of primary care physicians from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Seventy physicians in the Rochester, New York metro area participated in the yearlong study, consisting of eight weekly 150-minute sessions, an all-day session and then 10 monthly 150-minute maintenance sessions.

“In surveys taken during and after the sessions, physicians reported decreased feelings of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and improved feelings of personal accomplishment and patient empathy.

“…[T]hese patient-centered behaviors have been associated with the improved patient trust, appropriate prescribing, reduction in health care disparities and lower health care costs,” the authors wrote of improved physician mood.”

article by: Morgan Lewis Jr.

Medicine and research are proving what we have been experiencing with guided meditation for a long time!

Blessings,

Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.