Friends,

Today for the first time in a long time I practiced formal meditation.

The much needed reminder that I need to actually and regularly engage in the spiritual and magical practices that nurture and nourish me came from the random inspiration of one of the many YouTuber’s I follow. I’ve been binging their (utterly non Witchraft or Spirituality related) vlog and podcast and channels for comfort video and came across one from 4 years ago about meditating every day for 30 days. I’ve been seeking a lot more of what I might call comfort and mental nutrition content in my online explorations recently. (more on that in a later post…) Spurred to activity by this random bit of inspiration I tracked down a longform meditation music clip and grabbed my iced coffee and got down to business!

I closed my eyes. I tried to focus on my breath. I sat silent allowing the meditation music to wash over, around, and through me; it was there… as much a part of the environment as the air I was breathing, but I wasn’t focusing on the music. I tried recognize when I was thinking. To let the thoughts drift away. Returning, repeatedly, to a focus to my breath. At times it was a steady, deep, in and out. At others times in response to some inner urge I breathed in on a 10 count, held for 10, breathed out for a count of 10, and held for 10, and repeated. If my body needed to shift or change position I moved. Rolling my head and neck, or my shoulders, repositioning my arm, adjusted my stance in the chair, and then returned to my breath.

After a time, when I felt I was somehow done, I opened my eyes and pressed pause on the video. The elapsed time read “10:20”. I was surprised by this as it had not seemed that long a time, I had somehow expected a shorter elapsed time, but there it was 10 minutes and 20 seconds. I felt relaxed and a little energized and focused. I’ve saved the video, and a few other meditation related videos, as well as poking around the creators Spotify streams. I can tell I need to be doing more of this!

As I said it’s been a while since I’ve sat in any sort of formal meditation. Usually I am catching a few moments in my morning or during the day, if I remember to do so. Although it occurs to me that seated meditation has been a much rarer format for me. Moving meditation, featuring a dropped and open attention technique while on a walk, usually in nature. featured prominently in my practice for years before I moved to Florida. I’ve explored seated meditation, and even went to a couple of silent meditation group sessions over the years, but overall it’s been short bursts of meditation for me. With occasional bouts of regular practice.

…

So I started this post immediately after my meditation session and have been returning to in throughout the afternoon and evening, between chores and some other comfort watching. Coming back to the piece to edit and write some more. A piece like this used to be very easy for me to write and put together, now it feels like a lot of effort. On the other hand after the meditation session I was actually able to get far enough in a piece of writing that I could comfortably come back to it and complete *something*.

I’ll keep you all updated on the ongoing adventures, but it is now time for bed.

Bliss and Blessed Be,
Pax/Geoffrey