More meditator’s experiences

Posted on June 14, 2013 by

I get such a high when I hear how meditation is benefiting those to who meditate.   The excitement with which people share their experiences with me is something I wish I could share with you in the moment it is happening.  To see someone come alive while telling their story is what life is all about – experiencing life, being invigorated by life and awakening to what meditation and mindfulness can bring to your world.

Here are two stories from my students that I’d like to share with you:

A stressed-out dog finds relief

meditating dog

Your pet will love to meditate with you

One year ago, thieves had broken into Karen’s home. Although her family thankfully was not home at the time, her dog was home. Since then, the dog seemed to have post-traumatic stress symptoms and was nervous, shaky and did not want to be left alone anymore. Karen decided to meditate with her dog in the hopes to calm him down. After one week of doing this, the dog has now settled back down and is his old self, and can stay alone in the house!   Pets definitely can sense your energy, and I’ve heard many of my students say that their pets like to join them while they meditate.

Discovering her energy through Qi Gong

qi gong

Qi Gong is a wonderful moving meditation

Betsy approached me with tears in her eyes after having attended my classes for 7 months. I thought something terrible might have happened in her life.  But those were tears of joy as she explained how for the first time in her life, she felt her own energy.  We had just finished doing a Qi Gong (sometimes spelled ‘Chi Kung’ or ‘Chi Gong’) meditation movement exercise. Qi Gong is a slow, ‘internal’ martial art for energy flow that is a moving meditation.  I showed my class how they could feel their energy field. Betsy said she was hoping for a breakthrough in meditation and now she has it.  She had felt the benefits of peace and calm as soon as she started a meditation practice, but now feels she has reached a whole new, exciting level.

I emphasize that every person’s meditation experience is unique and every meditation session is unique.  If you feel that you just don’t seem to be getting interesting and wonderful experiences like others, do not fret.  You are on your own journey, and your meditation experiences are uniquely your own.

~Wendy

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Walk a Labyrinth for meditation

Posted on June 7, 2013 by

Have you ever heard of ‘walking a labyrinth’ as a meditation?  It was new to me, and a simple and wonderful discovery.

A labyrinth is a pattern with a single winding path that leads from the entrance to the centre. All labyrinths are unicursal, that is, they have only one path. Mazes are multicursal and are not considered labyrinths.

A labyrinth is an ancient circular path, a universal symbol of unity and wholeness.

Labyrinths are created on the ground or floor, sometimes painted, and sometimes built with mosaic tiles. Some are inside churches and some are outside and accessible at any time.

Read about the history and purpose of labyrinths here.

In my lovely home city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, I found one on the grounds of the University of British Columbia, at the School of Theology. It’s outside and open to anyone.  It’s a lovely way to meditate and just follow a path in calming meditation.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy:

School of Theology at UBC

School of Theology at the University of British Columbia

Labyrinth - in concrete

Labyrinth – a single, winding path made out of concrete. This one is a Maltese design based on a labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral in France.

Walking a labyrinth

Walking a labyrinth in meditation

It was easy to find a labyrinth with the help of a Google search. Perhaps you can find some in your home town.  Here is a list in the Vancouver, British Columbia area.

Enjoy discovering ways to practice meditation and mindfulness.

~Wendy

Posted in Inspiration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spirituality, Stress reduction | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The best way to achieve Inner Peace

Posted on June 1, 2013 by

Don’t miss this one – it may surprise you.  Here’s a great way to approach achieving your Inner Peace. Read the whole text.

Inner Peace

If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without alcohol,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

Then You Are Probably . . .

Meditating Dog

The Family Dog!

And you thought this was going to get all spiritual …

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can’t eat it or play with it,
Pee on it and walk away!

When a dear friend shared this with me I laughed so hard. For all of you out there who ‘do the work’ (meaning people who are on a self-improvement or spiritual journey and walk-the-talk), my message to you is to lighten up and not always try so hard.  I sometimes see people take their journey so seriously and talk constantly about the self-work they are doing, and I see them striving so hard for perfection. This constant striving only results in constant self-imposed disappointment because they are not ‘there’ yet. If you think about this, you will see that this striving equates to ‘not yet having’ or ‘lack’ in your life.

Notice and experience your human life.  Live in the moment.  Find ways to accept yourself and others.  Yes, continuously learn and improve, but also find a balance just to ‘be’.  Live, love and laugh.

Related post:  Don’t try so hard all the time

~Wendy

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When you don’t judge, you can’t get frustrated

Posted on May 26, 2013 by
judge

How often are you passing judgment each day?

This is one of my basic and common messages when I teach my meditation classes, because if beginner meditators can stop judging their meditation ‘performance’ they will have much better success.

“When you don’t judge, you can’t get frustrated.”

When I say it, I see faces in the audience get curious, and as they think about it, they start to understand it.  The concept is so simple and extremely powerful for yourself.

If you stop judging things in your life, then how can you get frustrated with them?  You can gain some inner peace simply by lightening up and finding some acceptance.

Here is an example I encountered last night:

The scenario…

I saw an invitation to something called a ‘Mantra Meditation evening’, which really sounded intriguing so I took the chance and decided to go, even though I wouldn’t know anyone there and no details were given.  My mind was producing the experience even before I went – I imagined a lovely evening where a guide would lead the group through different chants or mantras to music, and mixed with quiet meditation time.  I was looking forward to it.

As I arrived, the turnout was modest, maybe 30 people, and as the facilitator opened the evening he said something about singing.  I thought to myself “Singing?  Oh no!  I can’t sing!  He’d better not really mean that, this is supposed to be about mantras and meditation! There’s no way I’m going to sing!“.

Well, sure enough, he began to play a really unique electric guitar of some kind that I had never seen, and he started singing spiritual songs.  Hardly anyone sang along. Internally, I felt my resistance shoot through the roof.  While I like music, I am not a singer! And this wasn’t mantra meditation at all!

Here’s what I did….  

I did not shut down.  I did not get up and walk out because what they advertised was not what they delivered.  I did not get angry.  I distinctly made a conscious observation of my internal resistance and stopped judging the situation.  I decided to let my judgment go, and opened up to experiencing the situation. Gosh, I even sang along to a few of the songs!!  I surprised myself.  Instead of feeling angry and resentful for 90 minutes, I made the shift quite early to not judge the evening based upon my expectations.

After it was over and I reflected on the experience, I knew the likelihood of ever attending this event again was basically nil, but I wished them well and chalked it up to having a new experience.

My example didn’t result in some happiness-generating or euphoric event, but it did neutralize what would have otherwise been a very frustrating and angry experience created in my own mind.

So, as we humans are judging and having opinions about hundreds of things per day, think about some examples of how your experience would be different if you stopped judging it.  Wouldn’t you have a difference experience?  How would your life be different?  I think you would find some peace that may surprise you.

Thank you kindly for reading.

~Wendy

Posted in Healthy Living, Inspiration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spirituality, Stress reduction | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

5 Top regrets of the dying

Posted on May 21, 2013 by

regret nothingMaybe you’ve heard of this before – the common regrets people have on their deathbed. (See below).

I’m writing this not just to remind you about these regrets or to be morbid, but to inspire you to do something about it. Most people intellectually know “Yes, I know, I should do things that make me happier, I should not let others influence me so much, I should… I should…”  But most of us don’t do much about it until our livelihood is threatened – whether it’s a serious illness, or seeing someone close to us die.

I was one of these people.  It took a cancer diagnosis to really wake me up and make the effort to change my lifestyle and my perspective on life. I wasn’t doing too badly, but I let the day-to-day things stress me out. I am one of those people who look back and say that the cancer diagnosis was one of the best things that happened in my life.

Through self-awareness and learning life skills like meditation and mindfulness, I personally am a better, more alive person than I have ever been.  As I see people around me every day that are awakening and having a genuine human experience, it gives me hope that more and more people can do this.

Here are the Top 5 regrets of the dying, as I have seen on many websites over the years:

REGRETS OF THE DYING

  1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
  2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
  3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
  4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
  5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. (this was a big one for me!)

Let these sit with you for a moment. Sit quietly and take them in. Allow yourself to be open to making changes in your life for the better.  Gosh, even do something about it.  I invite you.

~Wendy

Posted in Healthy Living, Inspiration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The Value of Meditation at Work

Posted on May 15, 2013 by
Erica Pinsky's interview with me

Erica Pinsky’s interview with me

An online interview was released where I was interviewed about the benefits of meditation in the workplace.  Erica Pinsky, a professional speaker, author and consultant, attended one of my workplace meditation classes and was inspired to write and record the story of how my weekly lunchtime classes has grown from 12 to 150 participants.

I would be honored if you explored this interview where I reveal what I believe made these workplace meditation and mindfulness classes successful. My hope is that it inspires others to start such sessions in their workplaces. It’s not hard to do, and it truly helps people deal better with stress and changes in the workplace and their personal lives.

  • I invite you to read the article here.
  • I also invite you to listen to the audio interview podcast:
    • Click here to see the podcast page.
      • ‘The Value of Meditation’ is Erica’s summary of my interview. (She’s a superb speaker). 9 minutes.
      • ”Wendy Quan interview’ is the actual interview Q&A between Erica and myself. 30 minutes.
  • (If you have trouble playing the podcasts, click here for an alternative link.)

As always, I love comments, questions and feedback. Please let me know if this sparks curiosity and interest within you.

I hope you enjoy the interview.

~Wendy

Posted in Meditation, Mindfulness, Reviews, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

‘People v. the State of Illusion’ Documentary

Posted on May 11, 2013 by
People v State of Illusion

A film worth seeing

I just saw the documentary called ‘People v. the State of Illusion‘.  It questions what we perceive as reality, and challenges us to become aware of how we are living our lives.

As someone who teaches meditation, which helps people become self-aware and find more peace and joy in their lives, I found this film to be very accessible.  When I say ‘accessible’ I mean that the majority of the population can grasp it and likely walk away with a positive impression and perhaps even start to make changes in their lives.  I could tell that everyone around me was captivated by the film.

If you follow my blog, you know I have learned from Dr. Joe Dispenza (who is an expert speaker in this film). Although I find Dr. Dispenza’s teachings resonate with me, I also realize that only a portion of the population are drawn to him. From the reaction of the audience from the People v the State of Illusion’s screening, I think every person was jazzed by it.

It teaches us to:

  • Taking responsibility for our own experience, our own perceptions, and our own actions.  To stop projecting your own judgments on others and assuming others feel the same.
  • To pay attention more to HOW we live our lives – such as how we interact with others in this world, and less on WHAT – such as the topics that irritate and madden us.
  • If you think your life is terrible and unfair, and you feel imprisoned, you can change your beliefs and perceptions, and create a new life without your circumstances changing around you.  You have the ability to create the life you want.

We were fortunate enough to have the producer of the film, Austin Vickers, do a Q&A session after the screening. He is an engaging speaker. He used to be a lawyer, who has quit his job to make this film and do what he can to help change the world.  If we each take responsibility for our own behaviors and stop blaming outside circumstances, we can change the world for the better.

I highly recommend seeing this film!

~Wendy

Posted in Healthy Living, Inspiration, Mindfulness, Reviews, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments