Tip of the Nose Meditation – Day 3 When we find ourselves caught in a sudden rainstorm, we take cover. Whether it’s an awning, a bridge, a bus shelter, or a newspaper, the space you choose offers refuge from the prospect of getting drenched. It also offers a pause and a new view. Once we’re … More Immerse Yourself
Tip of the Nose Meditation – Day 2 Two deliberate aspirations of meditation are peace, which could also be referred to as alignment and it leads to happiness; and focus, which could also be called concentration and it leads to clarity. In order to cultivate peace and maintain focus, we’ve got to train the … More The Sweet Vantage Point
Tip of the Nose Meditation – Day 1 Step 2… the 2nd week. The number 2 is awesome because, well… have a listen. It is RE-vealed in the meditation (that’s a hint). Tip of the Nose is the second step of the Practice of Living Awareness. This spot is a natural place to rest your … More Second Time Around
Smile Meditation – Day 3 Have you ever woken up in the morning to stressful thoughts about the day ahead which lead to a sour mood which then leads to obstacles great and small that seem to turn your whole day into a wretched mess? We all have. And then… someone graces you with a … More Choose a Smile
Smile Meditation – Day 2 Your smile will fill you with all that the present moment can bring… this is its design. It lifts and curves and catches. We’ll start every meditation with a smile so as to cash-in on this feature. What’s more, your time spent in meditation generates a universal smile in the … More A Smile is a Bowl
Smile Meditation – Day 1 Welcome to The Practice of Living Awareness, or welcome back! We are excited to begin a new round of guided meditations… in fact, we’re all smiles! Meditation is a wonderful gift to give yourself. Your mind thanks you, your body thanks you, we all thank you. Right on! … More A Breath and a Smile
Hello friends. We have moved into a new year for the next round of Living Awareness meditations. Mid-winter is upon us and it offers wonderful opportunities to settle into meditation and explore our interiors. Although, when is it not a wonderful time for meditation? Each season seems to delight in its offerings: Winter’s stillness; … More A New Year, a New Round Begins on February 4th
From all of us at Spirit Fire, we wish you a happy new year. May your days be filled with peace and inspiration. We pause for a few weeks as we have just completed the current round of meditations within Practice of Living Awareness. The past year saw three full rounds of our online meditation … More Setting Intentions
This is the final meditation of the current round. You’ve arrived! The secret is, you arrive continuously. That’s the beauty of awareness. Each moment holds something new, something you’ve created as a result of your presence. Establishing a ‘living awareness’ in your life serves to make each experience one worth celebrating. And it … More Your Dynamic Living Awareness
These are amazing time we are living in. We are discovering more and more about our outer space and simultaneously we are discovering more and more about our inner space. What are we finding? Both are vast and mysterious.. The more we discover, the more we learn that there is THAT much more to … More You Are Awareness
Heavenly peace. May it be so. Happy holidays. Downloadable Podcast: Living Awareness- Day 1
“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest … More Ripples of Hope
As we generate alignment, we generate an increased capacity to receive and release; to invoke and evoke. We become toroidal. As we generate lightness of being, we send that quality out into the world and it intermingles with other toroidal flows, each communicating and informing. Now add the intention of generating goodwill into your toroidal … More Intermingling Vibrations
Toroidal flow is related to the spiral flow of everything from the water going down a drain to the spiral arms of our galaxy. It is also related to the cyclical nature of life. from the coming and going of days to the coming and going of breath. The heart is a perfect example … More The Torus
What does it mean to feel “centered?” Most would say that when they feel centered, they can sense the fullness of their being. They feel poised or collected or aligned. We could use any number of terms that refer to a sense of equilibrium. If I were to invite you to center yourself, most … More Back To Center
The image above is an artistic representation of the lotus which represents your solar plexus chakra. The solar plexus is the seat of your emotions as well as the energy center which regulates self-realization and self-empowerment. It also governs your digestive system and all of the organs and glands involved in that process. It … More Chakras & The Central Channel
The Central Channel step of our practice brings awareness to the stream, or river, of energy that moves along the spine connecting the energy centers to higher levels of consciousness. “Body” and “ground” are now a part of our meditation training, providing the stability necessary to focus on some of the inner energy … More The River Makes The Riverbanks
Our heart is the centerpiece between our spiritual self and our physical self. Energetically, the heart charka is centered between the crown chakra and the root chakra. These energy centers cascade our unique vibration, one to the next, precipitating our expression downwards into form. Similarly, they lift energy upwards illuminating the fullness of that … More Rooted To The Earth
Once we’ve established “ground,” we get to go places. Firm ground allows us to leap higher. Healthy ground allows us to grow things. Ground supports and enables. In today’s meditation, we use our ground-of-being to magnetize the affirmation, “In the Infinity of life where I am, all is perfect, whole, and complete.” Then off … More Leveraging Your Ground
We have repeated several phrases throughout this round of the Practice of Living Awareness: “Energy follows thought.” “Your thoughts create your reality.” “You are a not a human being having a spiritual experience, you are a spiritual being having a human experience.” All of these support the concept, or the fact, that your body is … More You, The Vessel
Energy follows thought… it’s a fact. Lighted thoughts create a lighted mind. This meditation sets out to generate light in the “third eye” which then projects and distributes this illumination throughout the body and into the world. We start with an explanation of the energetic architecture which creates and directs your innate capacity for … More Generating Luminosity
A dimly lit room allows for general vision, you can see objects and have a general idea of the space. As you turn the light up on the dimmer switch, everything becomes clearer; you may see objecst that you hadn’t seen before. Details emerge. As we generate the light of mind in meditation, we … More The Super-Beyond
Have we mentioned the soul yet? Perhaps not. The word soul derives from the Gothic saiwala and the Old German saiwalo; both meanings speak of origins. It is also connected etymologically with the greek aiolos, which means ‘quick moving,’ ‘twinkling,’ or iridescent,’ and with the latin anima, meaning ‘wind.’ Breath, source, and light: we’ve certainly … More The Illumined Self
Inhalation & exhalation are the exchanges of breath. Inspiration & aspiration are the exchanges of the mind. As we aspire or stretch our awareness upwards toward finer vibrational states, we invite inspired thought-forms to make their way to the mind. With solid ground established within our meditation practice, we can reach to the realms of intuition and co-creative … More The Altitude of Mind
Have we been experiencing the breath or observing the breath? Have we been experiencing the mind or observing the mind? Both. Experiencing and observing can be markedly different, though both collect data. As we experience, we register information with our perceptions in a subjective way. The data we receive as the observer feels a bit more … More The Observer Mind
All teachings that surround meditation have one clear purpose, which is getting to know the mind. Why? The Buddha would say that the source of our suffering is to be discovered within the mind. If we’re feeling stressed or worried, it originated in the mind. If we are overcome with grief, this suffering is … More The Mind’s Landscape
Establishing balance is essential to effective action. A balanced response can be much more productive than a swift reaction. The same goes for balanced dialogue. Ask yourself, “Are my words kind, true, and necessary?” Balance can be the result of core physical strength as well – standing strong and grounded. Balance produces alignment which produces clarity … More Balanced Alignment
Where does your body exist within space? That depends on what you mean by “your body.” Proper asana reflects alignment of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies. As we come to sense the personal requirements for a comfort, equipoise, and focus and put that information to use, we open to door to experiencing the … More Subtle Presence
Welcome back. With Step 8, we bring attention to the physical body. It is a common misconception that meditation is a way to escape or “check out” from physical reality. We would say that the contrary is true – that meditation is the full immersion into the now, and that includes the body, … More Inner and Outer Posture
“Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” That message is on the chalkboard in the foyer of our meditation center in Leyden, MA. We offer that board up for anyone who is inspired to leave a new message. I has stayed there for months. It simply seems to resonate with everyone who comes through … More Allowing Quietude
We pause for a week at the half-way point of the current round of meditations within Practice of Living Awareness. We’ve completed seven weeks thus far and have worked with seven meditation tools. This pause offers wonderful opportunity to integrate all seven into your weekly sittings or to revisit a particular guided meditation from our archives. We’ll be back next Monday … More Setting Intentions
The richness of an interlude is apparent through meditation. Is meditating not an interlude in and of itself? As we meditate we detach from outer activity – from rushing to and fro, from responding to life’s daily demands, from planning, from reminiscing, from tasking. Meditation offers an opportunity to go within, to observe and … More Peaceful Abiding
Inspiration is big part of the creative process that allows for expression. It is a process of collecting (inspiration) and letting go (expression). You guessed it… sounds like the breath! Yes, but it’s not so simple. In fact, it couldn’t be more dynamic and unique. Why? Because each breath and each inspiration is new. … More Inspiration and Expression
As we enter into our 7th week of this round of meditations with The Practice of Living Awareness, we pause and take stock; after all, at the end of this week we’ll be at the half way mark. Hopefully the tools we’ve meditated with thus far have offered you access to that inner-most aspect … More Silence Speaks
As the news of the week rolls out, it is easy to default to focusing on our differences and on that which separates us. And so it is the perfect time to generate some heart focused positivity and offer it to those in need. A loving-kindness meditation reminds us to see ourselves in others … More May You Know Peace and Ease
Heart-Mind joins two principles that underlie our reality: (one) that energy follows thought, and (two) that we are all part of a complex interdependent and interconnected community of life. As we begin to embody heart-mind, we begin to participate in creating a world in which cooperation, respect, and harmlessness move to the forefront of our … More The Middle Way
We recognize the heart as the organ responsible for the circulation of blood. It is one of the vital organs of the physical body and vital to our existence. The heart is our connection to life… literally and figuratively. We recognize that the heart relates to our ability to express and receive love, as … More Looking Into the Heart
We allow for peace. We create space for it. You need only sense into the experience of judgement, criticism, blame, and divisiveness to feel the contraction; separation requires a contraction of sorts, a cutting-off. Peace on the other hand, is inclusive. Appreciation, generosity, and a notion as simple as well-being, are expansive in nature. … More Release Into Peace
It is tension that holds the raindrops to the window above. Tension is an intensification of pressure. Pressure built up in the clouds that formed the rain… pressure eventually leads to release. Eventually the droplets will fall. Tension can also be created by anticipating a future event or visualizing a goal. In this case, … More Releasing to Spaciousness
It is autumn in New England and this year the leaves are especially dramatic. Each day the landscape is made new as fresh colors splash across the tree line and leaves toss about in the wind like confetti then land to create ever-new, ever-colorful, ever-changing ground cover. It is a spectacle that I look forward … More Timely Release
To accompany today’s meditation, I’d like to offer a question posed in a note from The Universe (as provided by the ever-inspiring Mike Dooley). It says everything about the art of allowing… “Tell me, what advice would you give a child who came to you asking what their favorite color should be? To follow … More The Art of Allowing
The definition of inspire is: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. This word is derived from the Latin word inspirare meaning: breathe or blow into; from in (into) + spirare (breathe); to excite, to inflame; to put life into the human body. May it be … More Inspirare
Step 4 within the practice brings awareness to three powerful choices: softening, opening, and receiving. Our physiology chooses these for us every time we breathe. We receive oxygen on every inhale, all day and all night, consciously or unconsciously. Becoming intimate with this occurrence creates powerful shifts toward being fully present in the moment. “We … More The Softening
Flow Meditation – Day 3. We’ve been ending each meditation with a mantra of sorts. It moves us through breathing light into the mind, breathing light into our feeling nature, breathing light into our physical body, and breathing light into our sense of self. The mind, the emotions, and the physical body are all aspects … More Breathing With and In The World
Flow Meditation – Day 2. Are you able to go with the flow? Do you meet change with open-mindedness and little resistance? Fact is, adaptability is essential to our longevity; at very least, it helps us get through the day with ease. Practicing flow helps us cultivate lots of positive qualities – a willingness to … More The Ever-Present Flow
Flow Meditation – Day 1. We begin Week 3 with a familiar concept – flow. We have all experienced flow. Time flows. Rivers flow, Breath flows. The number three has a way of supporting rhythm and flow. All colors flow from the three primary colors of blue, red, and yellow. The genie grants three wishes … More The Rhythm of Three
