Top 5 things you will NOT experience in my meditation workshops

1)   Receiving a mantra that you can not share and that you must keep using.

A mantra is a word or phrase that we repeat to focus the mind during meditation. It can also act as an affirmation for a concept or way of being we'd like to embrace. Some monks give secret mantras to yoga students, but I believe in each of us creating our own mantra that is uniquely ours. I also believe that mantras very often change, according to the circumstance.

2)   Describing HOW LONG my practice is, nor will I ask anyone else in the room to share how long theirs is.

Meditation is a personal practice (not perfect), and if you feel the need to compare or live up to what I do as an instructor, or anyone else in the room, then I have failed to teach that point.

3)   Calling myself a meditation expert.

Like you, I’m just doing the best I can to try to quiet my busy mind. While I have had yoga and meditation training, and have a practice (not perfect) of my own, I have aspirations to be even more dedicated.  I will always yearn to embrace stillness even more than I do today, and my guess is that we are all learning.  In the practice of meditation, I don't know any true "experts." As Ram Dass shares, "We're all just walking each other home."

4)   Giving you only one style of meditation to try.

In my early days as a yoga instructor, I had just one meditation technique to offer my clients – a twice a day, 20-minute practice. It’s no surprise that most of them failed, and that I couldn’t hang through it either.

Today I understand that there are many ways to experience stillness and mindfulness. I hope that one of the many ideas presented in the workshop will be a fit for you, and that you’ll notice your life changing as a result. (Mine has...)

5)   Claiming that meditation is the answer to all of life’s challenges.

It’s not. There are times when you should purposefully occupy your mind with things like light movies and fiction, because what you are going through is too scary to sit with.  This may be the death of a loved one, the sudden loss of a job, or an unexpected diagnosis. During challenging times like these, there are safe ways to practice mindfulness, and you'll learn these.

My goal for the workshop is simple - that you walk out with a solid understanding of the benefits of meditation and are inspired to create your own unique practice.