Ellie's Act of Kindness - A Guided Meditation

It is finally ready, a bit spur of the moment, but an act of kindness none the less. When considering doing an act of kindness, it seems like big things come to mind - helping others in need, volunteering, and so on. But I have always been an advocate of the everyday human, you know the one, perhaps similar to yourself, who takes care of their own needs and such. Well, this type of human also should have kindness granted (absolutely, do I hear an amen?). That is my focus.

I decided to do something close to the heart of the blog, and therefore have created a a short guided meditation (mp3) for anyone who wants to rediscover kindness. This download (free of course) is 14 minutes long and features no subliminal messages. It is not straight out hypnosis, but close.

Basically it is a relaxation audio that guides the listener through visualizations to inspire and remember kindnesses granted and given.

Please enjoy!

Click here to download

or visit the download page at archive.org.

A Quick Good Morning

I am off to a late start so this will have to be a quick, throw down the Espresso conversation. I did not want you to think I had forgotten you.

Here's a thought for meditation: According to Jack Kornfield in A Path with a Heart, we should look at our difficulties as challenges that lead to positive transformation, if we go about the challenges correctly. If we use what bothers us, little or big, learn from it and embrace it as a life lesson, we move forward in our evolution (this is paraphrased from chapter 6). all our little road blocks are really pitt-stops for refueling.

It is a very timely read with all the Internet page rank issues abounding for those of us who are paid bloggers.

Trying to stay positive.

Travel Meditations

The people I traveled with recently are a creative lot. So, when it came to group guided meditations, my themes often involved unlocking creativity and such. But what I really noticed was the imagery that was enhanced by place or space. The stories, poetry and sketches that came forth from a simple guided meditation say at the Cadillac Ranch in Texas were astounding. While others were doing artistic endeavors afterwards, I continued meditating and seeing where the subject of the location would take me inwards. Still, I am processing all of it and what I learned about myself.

As I am contemplating a trip back to the UK, I noticed that the British Museum has an exhibit called The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army. These are literally an army of terracotta statues that were buried along side the First Emperor from Xi'an, China. Tickets are going like mad, so I have heard. But how fabulous they would be for a meditative exercise. I suspect, though, that it might prove difficult to do so at the museum with hundreds of people being shuffled through. And I have no pull there to get special dispensation. LOL.

In discussing this idea with my companions, another idea surfaced. Why not actually go to the actual site? Why not see the 8000 (plus) statues where they were discovered in Xian, China. There would definitely be something spiritual about this, probably interesting energy, and being surrounded by this archaeological find would resonate a deep cord in many of us.

Here's the fabulous thing, dialaflight.com is currently offering a few side trips from the UK to China for just this sort of thing (not sure about the meditation part, but just to see them in their natural environment). They have an affordable package that includes a three night stay in China (they have longer options available) that would be perfect. I have always wanted to visit China, but perhaps now I can satisfy my craving for England, and seeing the Terracotta Warriors in their natural glory in the Orient. Life is exciting.