Contemplative Practice – Meditation

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Good evening and thank you for joining us for day two of Spelman College's Admitted Student event. spellbound The Odyssey volume 140. My name is Gabrielle boy and I serve as the admissions counselor over the Midwest. It is my pleasure to be here with you today. This session is titled contemplate of practice meditation. And before I turn it over, I will just give you a few housekeeping notes. This is a webinar therefore you can we cannot see you however, you can see the panelists, guests can utilize the chat function to post questions that will be answered directly in the chat or addressed live. This session will be recorded and can be accessed via the platform by the end of the week. In order to view today's agenda, select the program agenda button at the top of the event platform. Now without further ado, I introduced to you miss Vila. Go I'm sorry, Dr. vitta. golar.

Hello, everyone. Well, welcome to spell bone. And it's my pleasure to be here. I am on the faculty. I'm in the department of dance performance and choreography, where I teach dance history. I also teach a class contemplative practices in the arts. And I facilitate contemplative retreats. I have had a regular meditation practice for about 25 years, and I've been leading meditation here at Spelman for about 15 years. And let me share my screen. Actually, yes, since I said it was going to do that, I'll go ahead and do that. So welcome. And I'm going to stop sharing Well, I'll leave it up because I talk. So I will be will be leading us into meditation today. And if we have time, maybe one or two other practices, but I just want to say something about what contemplative practices are and why they do them. And then a little bit about meditation. So contemplative practices really are any practices that basically kind of turn our attention inward, so that we can access our inner wisdom, we can hear from our, our divinity, our inner self, our inner inner voice. And there are a lot of practices that do that meditation, journaling, tai chi, chi, Gong, walking, yoga, all kinds of things to that. And these practices are really important, because we need them today. And I want to share something just that we know as black women. We know this is the hard time that we've been going through, we've been in a pandemic for over a year, we've had, we've seen the rise of white supremacy, again, and violence against black people. So it's, it's really important that we engage in these practices. And it's important that we engage in them always, but especially as black women now, and I just want to share a quote by Alice Walker, who says, This is not a time to live without a practice. It is a time when all of us will need the most faithful, self generated enthusiasm, enthusiasm to be filled with God in order to survive and human fashion. Whether we reach this inner state of recognized divinity through prayer, meditation, dancing, swimming, walking, feeding the hungry or enriching, the impoverished is immaterial, we will be doubly bereft without some form of practice that connects us in a caring way to what begins to feel like a dissolving world. At this step, shooting for a second and I love this, this quote by Walker, because she's really reminding us that there are that these practices are really helpful for us. And so Reacher's research. Just tell us about meditation that there are great benefits, both physical, mental and emotional, and I would add spiritual so we know that meditation lowers blood pressure, it helps people control their emotions, it increases our sense of well being. Spiritual benefits are really been able to connect with the divine within and give us access to strength and insights and creativity. There are also great academic benefits. To meditation that we have improved memory, we have a greater ability to process and retain information. And again, we have access to creativity which we need, no matter what our area of study is. And so the plan for today is, is to experience meditation. And maybe, as I said, one or two other practices if we have time. And then we'll have some time to talk about setting up a meditation practice at home and some time for questions. So the first, the meditation that we're will be experiencing is meditation on the breath, there are actually a lot of forms of meditation. And when I teach people how to meditate, I encourage them to think of it as two approaches, approach it with a sense of adventure, just to explore an experiment and see what's right for you. Because there are so many forms of meditation, you can be meditating and sitting in silence. You can be meditating, listening to music or to other sounds, you can have guided meditation, where you're hearing words throughout the meditation. And those are just a few forms. But everything doesn't work for everybody in the best possible ways. And that's why I say it's really important to explore and experiment

and see what works for you, and what works for you today might not work for you tomorrow. So just continue to experiment. One thing that I also think is important to say is that you cannot do it wrong. I think a lot of people when they're starting out to meditate, they have this idea that if I'm meditating properly, then my mind is completely quiet. And I've reached this, the state of calmness, and you know, this unshakable calmness. That might happen, but it might not. And if it doesn't happen, that doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong. It just means that meditation like anything else requires, it's a practice. And we know that anything that we practice, whether it's running or lifting weights, or dancing, or playing tennis, whatever, some days, we're better at it than others. Some days, we feel like we're really in the flow, and we got another days, we wonder why we ever thought we were good at it. And but the thing is, is to approach with non judgement, because if we judge ourselves, we're actually going to kind of make it worse, but approach it with non judgment and, and just accept whatever it is that happens, knowing that if we intend to meditate if I intend to meditate, and I sit down to meditate, and my mind is just active, active, active active, that's fine, I'm still going to count that as a good meditation because I took the time to stop and to cease my regular activity. And to focus as much as I can, within an image I like to use is the image of you want to increase your biceps? So you get some weights and you start, you know, you start doing curls? Well, you don't just do one or two curls, and then like, okay, yes, I got the biceps, I want it, you have to do them regularly. And so with meditation, it's the same thing. Just do it regularly. No matter what's happening, just keep meditating. All right. So what I'd like to do now is really just to have us meditate. And I'm going to give some instructions, and then lead us in meditation. And then we'll have time for questions. And then if we, as I said, if we have time, we might be able to do another thing. There are two things that are really important with meditation. One is posture, and the other is breath. And the reason posture is important is is that if we are sitting in the best way for our body, then we can really fall focus, we can shift our focus, we can place our focus where we want it to be. If we're if we haven't attended to our body, then we might be focusing on the pain and our hip, or knee or leg or our back or we're you know, we're just uncomfortable. So we're always trying to find some form of comfort. So if we can attend to that right away, that helps us It helps our body to feel good, so that we can sit for as long as we want to sit and also good posture helps the breath to move freely in our body. And the reason this is important is that the there's a connection between the breath and the mind. I know I said earlier that our Mind is not always going to be quiet when we're meditating. This is true. And if we focus on our breath, our that can help our mind to calm down. The mind is naturally it wants to, it's naturally active, it wants to think that's what it does. So by focusing on the breath, or whatever we focused on in meditation, we're helping our mind to, to calm down. So I'm going to invite you where wherever you are just to, to take a nice meditative posture, I'm going to close my eyes, though you don't have to, you can have them open if you like. And if you have them open, just have a soft downward gaze, so that your attention really is inward, or nearly we're looking out, we are noticing, we're sensing. But with meditation, we want to turn everything within. So I invite you heavier, to sit in a nice upright posture, you might want to think of sitting with dignity, I think that's a good word. When I think of that word, I find myself kind of lengthening a little bit, but I'm not rigid or tight or stiff. You want to be relaxed and alert. You can have your hands on your thighs, or in your lap, palms down, palms up, doesn't matter.

As much as you can just allow your arms to hang from your shoulders. And let yourself feel heavy and supported by the chair, or the couch or the bed or the floor, wherever you're sitting. And when we meditate, we are really, one of our goals is to be as much as we can in the present moment, we want to let go of the past, we want to let go of the future as much as we can. And when the mind thinks that's where it's going, it's going to what was or what might be. So one way to help us be in the present moment is just to be aware of what our senses are communicating to us in this moment. So as you're sitting here, settling into your meditation position, to be aware of what your senses are communicating to you. You're hearing my voice, you might be hearing, heat or AC in your room or other voices, outside or elsewhere in your home. You can be weird that the temperature and the row, you can be aware of what it feels like as you're sitting. Are you noticing your butt in the chair or your back against the chair, your feet against the floor, whatever you're noticing. Are you noticing anything specific with your body? Is there any tightness anywhere? Is your mind thinking are there emotions circulating? whatever is going on. Just be aware of that.

And be aware of yourself breathing. Just notice your breath coming in and out. You might notice that by your belly rising and falling or your ribs expanding and contracting or air passing through your nostrils or along the back of your throat, whatever it is, just notice that

and now let's breathe more intentionally by taking three deep breaths, breathing into the nose and out of the mouth, everyone in their own time.

After your third exhalation, allow your breathing to return to its normal rhythm and its normal pattern. So we're going to meditate for about five minutes and as we meditate. Just focus on your breath. If your mind becomes active, notice that you're thinking and gently return your focus to your breathing. If your mind becomes quiet into it if thoughts arise again, again, notice that you're thinking Don't try to push this out. Way, the same time, don't engage them. Just notice that they're there and gently return your focus to your breath. Let's focus on the breath. Take one more deep breath in and out

of your body.

And sit back.

When you're ready, you can open your eyes.

Thank you. So it would be great to get some responses in the chat about what that was like for folks or you haven't had any, through any questions that I can answer about your experience to see felt relaxed. Another tour truly relaxing, that's great. Beautiful, relaxing, calming that was needed. feel less stressed out lovely. Okay, first, I'm trying to meditate. Excellent. Is it normal to have memories appear that we thought were gone? Great question. With meditation, you kind of don't know what that can happen. You don't know if old memories will will come up. But they may. And my suggestion is that when that happens is just to continue to meditate just to kind of hold them in your meditation. Hopefully that will help. It's a any suggestions on breathing techniques, ah, what count should be used when inhaling and exhaling? I would say for breathing whatever works well for you. Some we do not breathe to the same depth. So some of us could count to four and that would like breathe in for four gallons. Breathe out for four counts. Or for some people, it might need to be three or some people might need to be five or six, or seven. So I would say just experiment and see what works for you. How many times a day should I meditate? I would say I would start with once. And maybe or or twice. and. and finding a time to meditate is really, it's very personal. Like, for me, I used to always meditate in the morning. Now I meditate at night. But for some people, I meditate at night just before I go to bed. For some people that works better, like right after work or on their lunch, lunch hour or something like that. So I would say experiment, see what works for you try, try. If you are an early riser, it might be great to meditate in the morning. If you have a hard time getting out of bed and you're just rolling out of bed just in time to get to class, then maybe that's not the time to meditate maybe at the end of your classes or at night. What but again, just experiment to see what works for you. And some folks like to meditate a couple times a day, like in the morning in the evening or whatever works. And I would say if you're new to meditation, or if you are just kind of wanting to refresh your meditation practice, I would say start small like you can I see what about meditative eyes open. I'll come back to that. I would say start with five minutes. And then just see just do five minutes for a week and then maybe add another minute after that. You could do that once a day twice a day that would be wonderful. Okay, I'm going to do the eyes open or closed and then is the presence of meditation strong at Spelman. If I forget that somebody put that back in in the chat for me, please. Some people meditate with their eyes open. Some people meditate with their eyes closed. I don't think it really matters. It all depends on what works well for you. For some people meditating with their eyes closed means that they fall asleep. For some people meditating with their eyes open means that the they're they're always outwardly focused and can't quite meditate. So, so I would say again, experiment, I'm gonna answer the one about the music first, and then come back to the meditation at Spelman. Again, sometimes I often meditate in silence, but sometimes I meditate with music. And so you can find some music or nature sounds like, like the ocean or something like that.

Really just one, one kind of definition of the definition of meditation that I really like a lot is meditation is substance, substituting another object of attention for your thoughts, substituting another object of attention for your thoughts. So rather than focusing on my thoughts, I'm focusing my breath, or music, or it could be a candle. It could be, you know, I'm outside, I'm just watching, looking at the sunset, something like that. And somebody's saying to us in an anchor other than breath, breath stresses them out. So sound, touch, feel, yes, moving, meditation, walking, meditation are all all wonderful forms of meditation. Meditation is has become very strong at Spelman. I've been I was doing this for years. And then I stopped and I started again, with the pandemic leading meditation at lunchtime at noon on Thursdays for 45 minutes. Other folks, I have done that as well. And they do that. There are classes there's there are sound Bad's that are offered through the Wellness Center, which just kind of listening to those singing bowls. Those Tibetan singing bowls is kind of a form of meditation. There is yoga in the museum every Monday, which includes a bit of meditation at the end. So I would say, I would say, yes, meditation is very, very strong at Spellman. Yeah. And let me see if I, if I missed anything else that I can say. Yes, call music is good, other sounds good. Also meditate with a mantra, like love, or Ohm or something like that, where you just kind of repeat that silently to yourself as you breathe. And if you can walk while meditating, then what really is meditation? Ah, great question. So walking, meditation is usually kind of walking, maybe in a circle, or you're walking back and forth around, but you're walking slowly. So that you're not having to pay so much attention about where you're going. But it's like you kind of get in in the rhythm. It's kind of like, sometimes runners get in what they call the zone, where they just do just kind of in this kind of other state. I think it's it's akin to that in a way that's, that's running. But it's the brainwaves, what happens with the brainwaves is probably akin to meditation. So I hope that answered the question. I'm not sure. Another thing that's like walking meditation is walking a labyrinth. Spellman has a labyrinth, which is a it's, it's kind of like a maze, except that amaze, you can get lost and their dead ends and things like that. With the labyrinth, you can't, there's one way in and there's one way out. So you don't really have to focus on where you're going. You can focus on a question or a prayer or just your breath or whatever, as you go in. And then as you come out, these are great questions. I think I have another minute or so before the host need to start transitioning to the next thing. Any other questions that I can answer? Or that I missed? I guess what I would like to say in closing the second exercise, let me just tell you about the second exercise the second exercise. Oh, thank you. Thank you for my your comments about my voice. The second exercise is a gratitude practice where you just make a list of everything that you're grateful for in like two minutes. And then just make a list. And if you run out of things to write, then just then begin to develop the things that you've written like why you're grateful for that particular thing or what it means to you. And then after you've done that writing, just pause for a few moments, just to feel what you feel like when you've actually written that list. Alright, so I want to share, I can find it.

Oops.

I think my time is up, but I just wanted to share my contact information, which now my slides are all

it's all. Okay, and here it is. v kohler@spelman.edu. All right, let's stop sharing. Thank you so much, everybody. Great being with you this evening.

Thank you so much, Dr. golar. Now we're going to go ahead and pass it to miss Morgan offer, who will then pass it to Sydney, our spell tonight.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello, everybody. I bet you don't

remember me from yesterday.

My name is Morgan offered. I am one of the admissions counselors, as well as the Spelman alumna class of 2019. Thank you all so much for joining in on this session. I see it was very well received. I personally appreciated the quiet space and some of you said that you want it to music so I very I've it's news to me that there's versatility in meditation, my dog actually came and sat right next to me, so I guess she was feeling it do. This is just a reminder that this session was recorded. So you all will have access to this at the end of the week through the spell ban website. Although this is the closing for day two, please feel free to play around this club on website to learn a little bit more help solidify your decision. But we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. I cannot believe Tomorrow's the last day. But we look forward to seeing you all there. And I hope you all enjoyed day two chapter two of empower, and I'm gonna pass it over to city.

Thanks, Miss Morgan. That was just what I needed. I feel so powerful and relaxed, and I don't even feel like rubber anymore. This was another full day again, you were given so much information. The time is just flying by with you guys. I cannot believe it is the end of chapter two. However, I'll let you go ahead and get to the dinner table. But I'll see you tomorrow for our final day of activities to check your packing list for things you need for tomorrow. And I hope you have a better understanding of why an institution like Spelman College is dedicated to empowering its students tomorrow again starting at 3pm. We will discuss life postponements