Stilla Meditation

I believe that outer peace comes from inner peace and that inner peace comes from allowing ourselves to be what we are and feel what we feel. To connect with our needs, our deeper nature, is not a small task in the face of war, we need each other. 𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟. 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒, 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣...

'I remember when I was a kid there was this famous saying in activism —I don’t remember who it's attributed to originally— that says: “if you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention”. And it’s true: If you go to a factory farm, or you go to a sweatshop, or you go to an open-pit mine or a landfill, like, fuck, you’d be pretty outraged. And then it's like, “How do you do your normal stuff, in t...

"We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are" - Anonymous We see our reality through our preconceived ideas, assumptions and opinions. Between us and the world is a filter created from our past experience, our culture and expertise. It is said that in the mind of the expert there are few possibilities, in the mind of a beginner there are infinite. The expert limits herself by thinking t...

You know the voices inside that says "you are bad" and "you should..." and sets an impossible bar to live up too. I'll try and present a way of understanding them as "The Inner Trojka", which is an understanding that comes from my teacher, Kåre Landfald. The inner Trojka is the inner Critic, the inner Pusher and the inner Perfectionist. They can be experienced as voices in our head, but often we a...

Why meditate? I could drop a list of benefits, but I don't think that would move you much. So let me instead try and share my own motivation. "We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one." - Confucius This is the only chance I get. I hold in my hand the infinite beauty and mystery of a human life. So much potential for Freedom, Strength, Love, Kindness, Compassion, Jo...

You are all so warmly welcome to the first Friday meditation of the new year

Olympic finals, 100m sprint. For the sprinters, this is probably one of the most important moments of their career, perhaps even their lives. They have prepared for this moment for years, basically all their lives, and now they are finally here! And how do they face that? https://youtu.be/2O7K-8G2nwU?t=187 Look at Usain Bolt the last few minutes before the race . He looks laser-focused just like e...

For me, admitting to myself that I need to rest is one of the hardest things. The Inner Pusher doesn’t really like it when I’m not being productive and working towards my goals. Is it the same for you, or do you find it easy to take time to rest and recover? The story we tell about a happy life is often equal to a life in constant productivity, action and doing and not so much credit is given to s...

A little something about **Non-striving**, one of the seven attitudes of mindfulness as described by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I find myself leaning forward a lot of the time. I feel my weight more towards the front of my feet than flat across the whole sole. Is it the same for you? The energy in that posture is a "going somewhere"; Forward, onwards, to the next thing, to the result, to the end of whatever...

We cling to so many things in life, material things, thoughts about how things should be and feel, ideas and views about ourself and others. This is a clinging on the inside, like a contraction, not so different from a closed fist, desperately holding on to what we don’t want to lose. The story goes that you can catch a monkey by putting a banana in a narrowly barred cage. The monkey reaches in an...

Jon Kabat-Zinn outlines The Seven Attitudes of mindfulness: Non-judging, Non-striving, Acceptance, Trust, Patience, Beginner’s mind and Letting go. This is how he describes Non-judging: Mindfulness is compassionate, openhearted, choice-less awareness. It is cultivated by taking the position of an unbiased attentive witness to your own experience as it happens in the present moment. To do this requ...

Today seems like a really good day to delve into the first meditation technique I ever learned; Following the breath. But why? The breath can only be experienced in the present moment, and in that way it act as an anchor in the Now for our attention. And when we practise paying attention on the present moment in a non-judgemental way, over time this gives rise to a greater awareness... and also, s...

Somewhere I’ve picked up the analogy of the body as our dear pet, perhaps a dog. It’s quite happy to serve us and it doesn’t need much; some sleep, good nutrition and healthy movement. But we often treat our body more like a slave than a beloved pet. Demanding more and more from it, pushing it to bend further, stay awake longer, have more energy than it has. Today we’ll take a break from that and...

Today we’ll see how we can use our breath as a way to find ease and relaxation.

I want to invite you to do a very short exercise with me. Right now when you are reading this, stop what you are doing and feel the breath in your belly. Without any need to change it or wishing it to feel different, just follow three breaths. Do this now. Make a mental note how that was for you. Do you feel any different now compared to before? Today we will experiment with a few different mindfu...

About sharing. We can share all kinds of things; food, experiences, things. And we can also share ourselves. This is what we do when my let another person know what is going on inside of us, in the moment. “This is what’s alive in me right now.” Sometimes we do it by using words and describing our experience and some times we do it my simply living it fully, this is what young children do, they fu...

Disease, dis-ease. Lack of ease. The lack of ease can range from not even noticeable until it goes away (like a kitchen fan) to a perfect hell, but the components are usually the same: - Difficult emotions such as shame, guilt, anger, sadness or fear that we are resisting in subtle ways, most often not consciously - Discomfort in the body in form of tension to various degree - Non-productive thoug...

I went over some notes yesterday and came over this quote from Svagito Liebermeister, Osho therapist and spiritual leader: _Meditation has nothing to do with feeling calm, meditation is about watching_ And with inspiration from that we'll watch our breath today.

Today I want to share my current understanding of what being a human Being means. In my experience there are two modes of being: Personality or Being. *Personality* This is the ego structure that holds our our coping strategies, reactive patterns and compulsive reactions. It’s built on fear for our survival, of abandonment, rejection, loosing autonomy, etc. At its foundation it is the rejection of...

I had a conversation with a friend some days ago about being a whole human Being and I thought I’d share my experience. I used to experience myself as being something living inside of my skull. If I’d been asked to point to where I was I would have pointed to at the head. I knew I had my body ofc, but it felt like it was “just my body”. Me, my spirit, the sense of “I” was not there. I wasn’t prese...

When the head is spinning, the breath can be the anchor in reality that you need! You can never experience a past or a future breath. The only breath that you can experience is the one happening right in this moment.

I want to invite you to a short exercise. Read this slowly, take it in and notice how you respond. What happens in your body and your mind? The first poison is to believe that you are better than others (paus, feel) The second poison is to believe that you are less than others (paus, feel) The third poison is to believe that you are equal to others (paus, feel) You exist beyond any comparison. Now...

John Kabat-Zinn describe the seven pillars of mindfulness: Acceptance, Trust, Patience, Letting go, Beginner’s mind, Non-Judging and Non-Striving. Here’s a little something about Acceptance: Seeing things as they actually are in the present. If you have a headache, accept that you have a headache. In the course of our daily lives, we often waste a lot of energy denying and resisting what is alread...

This meditation was very inspired by Alan Watts. I hope you enjoy listening to your silence!

The breath. There is so much for us to learn and deeply see in our breath. - It reminds us that we are deeply supported - Even though we have no idea how we breath, the body continues to do it for us, without us having to do anything. - Flow of life in contraction and expansion - It mirrors how life constantly flows between contraction and expansion. We see this in nature with the seasons, we see...