Meditation

No matter what form of meditation you use, the results are always beneficial. At the very least, it will calm the mind and relax the body. At its most potent, meditation can usher us into higher realms of consciousness bringing us that much closer to the Source of our being.

The Center for Mind, Body & Spirit offers many types of meditation. For more information, please left click on the topic below:

Jewish Meditation
Mandalas & Meditation
Shamanic Journeywork
More Information - The Benefits of Meditation

Jewish Meditation

The spiritual practice of Jewish meditation has existed for centuries. Its technique include sitting silently and emptying the mind, focusing on Hebrew letters, sacred words or phrases, visualization, contemplation and chanting.

Traditionally the practice was developed as a way to come closer to the Divine Source; today people also see it as a way to decrease stress and increase relaxation and inner peace.

Benefits of Jewish Meditation

Awakens the spirit
Deepens experience of inner calmness
Brings personal sense of well-being and joy
Enables you to develop a sense of purpose
Addresses life challenges with clear thinking
Heightens awareness and appreciation of daily life

Research has clearly demonstrated that meditation improves physical and psychological health and may prevent certain diseases by strengthening the immune system.

Spiritual Growth

Realization of the Oneness of the universe
Conscious of interconnectedness of all beings
Feel a sense of belonging
Feel a sense of mind and body working together for your highest good
Enhanced capacity to experience and express love and compassion
Having a sense of harmony, a sense of balance, a sense of rightness

"It requires greater acceptance and the release of resistance that the radical fullness of each moment might be met." Page 11 "A Journey of Awakening" 49 Steps from Enslavement to Freedom. By Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.D.

Jewish Meditation: Esther Scharf, MSW

Mandalas & Meditation

Experience the powerful combination of Mandalas & Meditation, a process that awakens the artist within, centers you in calmness and provides powerful insights into your soul's dreams and wisdom.

Meditation

Guided visualization is a safe, relaxing inner journey that allows you to discover your deepest desires and truths.

Guided visualization in a Mandalas & Meditation session opens up and connects you to the inner source of boundless creativity, inspiration, knowledge and healing.

The soft silence created in meditation takes you to a safe place where you can listen to your soul's longings, passions and truths.

Your soul guides not only with words, but also in images of symbols, colors and shapes. We first learn, and continue to learn about ourselves and the world through images. Images have meaning and purpose. Images are often seen or felt as a part of meditation that speaks in non-verbal ways. Working with images from meditation and in the creation of a circular mandala is one of the most powerful and revealing ways to be guided by the deepest parts of inner being.

Mandalas

Mandalas means circle, center and sacred essence in Sanskrit. Mandalas are circular images that represent wholeness and centeredness. Mandalas have been used in spiritual and cultural traditions for thousands of years for healing and help in the journey to enlightenment.

Creating mandalas brings wholeness and centeredness to those who create them. When you enter into the safety of a mandala's circle, your inner truths can be expressed and revealed.

Morning Mandalas

Linda developed an easily learned way to awaken creativity, centeredness and inner knowing, called Morning Mandalas. She combines meditation, painting mandalas, journaling and insight into what is revealed in this process. Anyone can create mandalas this way, even those who mistakenly think they aren't artistic.

Morning Mandalas is a tool that can be used as a daily practice of deep creativity. It balances and enlivens both sides of the brain, relaxes and centers the body and connects to the wisdom of spirit.

Individual Sessions

Linda's individual sessions provide one on one experience of a meditation personally created for you, learning how to easily paint mandalas, journaling about your meditation and mandala, and shared insight into your experience.

Sessions are for hose who want to learn how to create mandalas and experience the power of Morning Mandalas. They are also for those who have already learned how to create mandalas from Linda and would like to continue with this process in their journey toward creative living, wholeness and healing.

Initial Session

The initial session lasts for 1.5 to 2 hours. The cost is $155, which is $125 for the session, plus $30 for a Morning Mandalas art supply kit that lasts for several months.

Follow Up Sessions

These sessions include a personally created meditation, creating a mandala, journaling and shared insight by Linda into your experience. These sessions last for about 1.5 hours. The cost is $125. Art materials, if needed, are extra.

Please call 314.725.6767, The Center for Mind, Body & Spirit to schedule a session.

Mandala Artist & Meditation Teacher: Linda Wiggen Kraft, BFA, MBA

Shamanic Journeywork

Journeywork is a spiritual practice most often associated with native cultures, which enables us to navigate "inner reality". Inner reality, in this sense, is the internal landscape of a soul's experience. We always enter this realm with integrity and clear intention, usually for personal betterment or for the betterment of the greater whole.

Students of this recently revived technique will learn to use a consistent drum beat to establish themselves in time and place, and then journey into inner reality with the help of an animal spirit as guide. The identification of the individual's animal spirit will be made.

This will mark the beginning of a long-term relationship between you and the world of spirit, a relationship that will add great depth and peace to your daily life. Individual instruction lasts about two hours and will give you the understanding necessary to begin your own explorations.

As with any spiritual practice this requires a deep level of commitment. Your ability to journey successfully will strengthen over time.

Rattle and Feather (A Shamanic Approach to Clearing and Balancing)

Our central nervous systems emit a constant micro-electric impulse. This impulse is the vital essence of our life. From a shamanic point of view, it is also the lifeline emanating from us to the always flowing energy of the natural world.

Because it is electric in nature, the spinal column can accumulate oppositely charged particles, which are created in times of intense emotional stress or prolonged mental focus. When this happens there is a static build up along the spinal column that begins to interfere with the normal electrical charge. This static can be felt as a perceptible, uncomfortable heaviness on our spines resulting in weakened posture, muscle tension and an inability to be comfortable in our bodies.

This heaviness can be removed.

We put the body in a receptive state through drumming and chanting, then use the sound of the rattle to break apart the interference and move it off of the spine. You may experience soreness along the spine in the twenty-four hours following the session, an indication that the intrusions have been removed.

Soul Retrieval

This ancient technique returns pieces of the soul, or self, that may have been fragmented away from our normal waking consciousness during times of personal trauma. Physical abuse, the death of a loved one, violent environments, care accidents; all of these may cause soul loss. Modern psychotherapists define this fragmented self as being "dissociated", a condition that can cause us to feel tired, spacey, or disconnected from the content of our daily lives.

Almost all of us experience some soul loss in our lives, but as we mature we naturally move past the perceptions that may have caused the soul loss in the first place and the vital essence that splintered off may return on its own. However, the more severe the cause, the more difficult it is for the vital essence to find its way back. In these cases, help from an outside source is valuable.

Each soul retrieval takes about an hour and a half. You will rest comfortably as I use the drum to put myself in a light altered state and then, with the guidance of my helping spirits, travel into the landscape of your soul's experience to identify the soul loss and bring the fragments back to waking consciousness. With the return of this pure, vital essence, you will receive a renewed sense of wholeness and presence in the world. The recovery of missing memory is also common, creating a new path for emotional and physical well-being.

Shamanic Journeywork: Jen Loui

More Information - The Benefits of Meditation

Meditation has grown in popularity since the early ’70’s when extensive studies were done on its effectiveness. Though it has been in existence for thousands of years; those of us in the West are just beginning to fully understand its potential as a deterrent to illness, stress and anxiety. Meditation, even in its simplest form, stops the racing in our minds, giving both body and mind time to "re-boot." It can be practiced for two or three minutes in the middle of a hectic day, or, preferably, during a time set aside each day in comfortable surroundings.

Affirmations or mantras can be added to the meditation to deepen the experience and the benefits. No mater what form you choose, the result will always bring peace.

Studies show that even the simplest meditation technique provides the following benefits if practiced daily:

Re-strengthening of your ability to focus
Lowered blood pressure
Slower heart rate
Control or reduction of chronic pain
Noticeable reduction in the number of headaches and backaches
Strong increase in your ability to handle stressful situations
Profoundly strengthened immune system

A study done in a retirement home showed significant strengthening of the elderly participant’s immune defenses against tumors and viruses.Yet another study showed that the bodies of those practicing meditation regularly developed an amazing ability to by-pass stress. Normally, the hormone norepinephrine (a hormone released in reaction to stress) stimulates the cardiovascular system, increasing blood pressure. But in those who meditated daily, the hormone did not have the usual effect. Instead, their blood pressure actually lowered. This same response is seen with beta-blockers, which are prescribed to control blood pressure.

In this age of "a pill for every ailment," meditation stands as the least invasive path we can take to ensure strong minds and healthy bodies -- and it is the most natural and abundant of remedies.

Meditation: Jen Loui; Esther Scharf, MSW; Linda Wiggen Kraft