How to Enjoy Meditation: Relax Your Belly!

Here’s the link!

https://soundcloud.com/sally-miller-109610788/relax-your-belly-10-minute-guided-meditation

In today’s episode I’m going to teach you about a practice called Relax Your Belly.

Relax Your Face 10 minute Guided Meditation

Here’s your link to this week’s free guided meditation: https://soundcloud.com/sally-miller-109610788/relax-your-face-10-minute-guided-somatic-meditation

Relax Your Tongue 10 minute Guided Somatic Meditation

Here’s the link to listen to your free 10 minute guided meditation: https://soundcloud.com/sally-miller-109610788/relax-your-tongue-10-minute-guided-somatic-meditation

Feel the Ground 10 minute Guided Meditation for Equanimity and Stillness

Here’s the link to your free 10 minute guided meditation (audio only): https://soundcloud.com/sally-miller-109610788/feel-the-ground-10-minute-guided-meditation

10 minute Meditation to Clear Your Throat Chakra with the Sanskrit Vowels

Here’s the link to your free 10 minute guided meditation:

https://soundcloud.com/sally-miller-109610788/10-minute-throat-clearing-meditation-with-the-sanskrit-vowels

This week we get to talk about how to clear your throat chakra.

Now if you’ve ever struggled with public speaking, the courage to say what you really want to say, to someone you know or someone you don’t know, or any kind of throat issues, like soreness in your throat or coughing fits that happen after yoga, which is actually really common! A lot of people in Shavasana start coughing because things get stirred up in our yoga practice. And many times our throat is holding stuff that we want to say but we haven’t been able to say.

So this practice of clearing your throat chakra is going to take you through something called the Sanskrit Alphabet, and chanting the Sanskrit Alphabet in your throat.

I want to explain that a little bit because the Sanskrit Alphabet is different than a lot of other mantras. You might know mantras like om, om name shivaya, hare krishna. There’s many kinds of mantras.

But the sanskrit alphabet is different because it’s associated with different parts of your body. And it’s awesome because that means we can chant the sanskrit alphabet in an embodied way. 

And if you follow my work with yin yoga, you know that the style of yin yoga I reach is all about being in your body. I call it somatic yin yoga. So you’re going to learn, in this meditation, how to chant in an embodied way. 

Instead of just chanting while you’re thinking of other stuff, or chanting while you’re driving , which is also really good and cool (or chanting while you’re cooking) you’re going to chant specific sounds with your eyes closed while you’re feeling your throat.

The sanskrit alphabet has many letters and sounds. The ones that are associated with the throat are the vowels. So in the meditation you’re going to learn how to chant the 16 sanskrit vowels and feel the vibration of them (you’re going to try - it might be hard if you’ve never done this before)… you’re going to try to feel the vibration in your throat. And you’ll hear in the guided meditation that I ask you to put your hands on your throat if you’ve never done this before…. or if it’s hard to just take your mind there and feel your throat (without your hands…. even if you’ve been doing yoga for 20 years, that can be hard… you just put your hands there and you’re sure to feel something.

The way I’m going to teach you the sanskrit vowels is call and response. So I’ll chant 2 vowels and then give you silence, and you can chant them back outloud.

Now the best way to do this meditation is seated upright. Because the sanskrit alphabet is in the chakras (you’re learning about how to clear your throat chakra) but all the chakras (all 7 energy centers) have different sanskrit sounds associated with them.

And because they’re all lined up along the central channel (if you haven’t learned about the central channel - go back and watch the video about the central channel that’s on my youtube channel)… it really matters that you’re upright.

So I wouldn’t say you can’t do the practice if you’re on your back, but you’re going to have a whole other experience if you sit upright to do this meditation.

So best to do it when you’re upright, and best to do it when you can make the sounds outloud.

So this is one where you want a little privacy if you can.

And to not be shy about making sound.

Part of what heals the throat is making sound.

So when I go “A AA….”…. (those are the first 2 vowels of the sanskrit alphabet)…. I want you to try and do it back. “A AA…”

And just see how it goes.

I love this practice. I’ve been doing the sanskrit alphabet in this embodied way for a really long time - like at least 10 years, maybe 15 years, and I’m convinced that it completely changed my voice.

People always give me the feedback that my voice is really soothing, and that they love coming to my classes for my voice. And I know, because I listened to recordings of myself speaking when I first started teaching yoga, I know that my voice has changed dramatically. And I’m positive that it’s because of chanting… and specifically chanting the sanskrit alphabet.

So a fun thing you could do, just to collect your own data, about if this practice is working or not, is make a recording of yourself reading something. You could just get a poem and read it outloud. 

Then do the Sanskrit alphabet practice for a couple weeks. Re-record yourself saying that same poem, or singing your favorite song, or practice teaching a yoga class.

And notice how your voice changes!

10 minute Meditation for Anxiety (Earth Breathing)

In today’s episode of Meditate with Sally we get to talk about a practice called Earth Breathing.

Here’s the link to listen and practice along:

Earth breathing is incredible.

It’s a meditation practice that’s very ancient. People have been doing earth breathing across all different cultures. Not just in ancient India, but also Tibet, Africa, and Native American traditions. When people felt stressed out, they would lay down on the earth. let their body get heavy, and connect to the immense support of the earth below. 

So in this guided meditation, in Earth Breathing, you get to meditate on your back.

Which is huge! Because most people think that in order to meditate, they have to sit upright.

But it’s hard to sit upright! It’s hard on our knees, on our back, our neck might hurt, etc.

So the first awesome thing about Earth Breathing is that you can meditate on your back.

The second awesome thing about Earth Breathing is that it helps with all kinds of anxiety.

So that’s the main reason to do it.

If you feel anxious, you can do Earth Breathing and it’s going to help.

Whenever I feel like I don’t have enough time, and I’m anxious because of that (like there’s so much to do and there’s not enough time), if I lay down on my back and I do Earth Breathing, somehow it helps and I feel like there’s an abundance of time, and I can relax.

I also notice that when I feel like I don’t have enough attention, if I feel needy…

In yogic psychology, we would say that’s an imbalance in the Earth Element. 

If we don’t feel like we have enough (of anything), we need to connect back to the Earth. 

So laying down on my back, feeling the Earth, going through the practice you’ll listen to when you click the link, can make a huge difference if you’re feeling needy. 

The third thing that Earth Breathing is really good at is for when we’re in a scarcity mentality. 

When we feel like we don’t have enough money.

And again it kind of works by magic, because don’t the practice isn’t going to automatically put money into your bank account.

But what I can say it will do is help you see what you do have. 

So I want to encourage you to try this practice if you feel like you don’t have enough time, attention or money. 

When you listen to the meditation, you’ll notice that I take you through cues about your breath. I’m gonna ask you to exhale and lower your attention into the earth. And then when you inhale, you’re going to inhale and breathe your attention into your body.

And what this does is create a relationship (a felt embodied relationship) between you and the Earth.

Earth Breathing is extremely grounding. So if you struggle with anxiety, give it a try!

It only takes 10 minutes, you get to lay down on your back, and I’ll talk you through everything you need to know.

And don’t forget to be gentle with yourself.

Just do the best you can.

And I’ll see you next week.

-Sally