Mind and body are intimately connected, so our journey towards stillness can start with using the body – which is easier to work with than the mind. The body can be used for healing emotions and the mind, and also as an anchor for developing tranquility.
Several spiritual traditions work initially with the body for grounding attention, in support for going deeper into ourselves, to subtler states of consciousness. If your body and breath are not calm and harmonious, your mind will likely be bogged down, and won’t be able to sustain itself in higher states of meditation.
In this episode I interview Peter Petersen, a qigong and meditation practitioner and teacher, and a wellness coach. We talk about:
- movement meditation, and what it can do to your emotions and body
- the benefits of doing qigong before meditation
- the power and importance of loving-kindness meditation, and how to practice it
- Peter’s experience in a 7 days Vipassana retreat
- realizing that we are the observer of thoughts and emotion, and can, thus, “step back”
- how the environment, people, and stuff we read/watch influences our thoughts and feelings
- neuroplasticity and how we change our brain by repeatedly thinking in a certain way
- the need to slow down
Links and people mentioned
- Master Li Jun Feng
- Sheng Zhen Qigong (style of Qigong)
You can contact Peter through his site, www.awakenbodyandsoul.com or via email.
Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. – Alan Watts
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