Newsletter - 8/28/22

Intro ~

I have entered the portal of this trip, I have crossed through the door !! I write to you from the air, somewhere over Lake Havasu and Bullhead City, on my way to my first stop: New York City, more specifically Williamsburg. 

I have been preparing for so long for this journey, and now all I have to do is show up. All I had to do was get on the plane, and now each moment is meant to be savored. To get to do my favorite thing all the time - meditate !! because each beautiful moment will ground me in the present, therefore I will be in constant meditation with what is around me. All I have to do is receive this gift and enjoy :) how amazing. Meditation is one of my favorite things ever. I’ve even thought about doing proper teacher trainings, maybe one day. As a meditator for 5.5 years now, this practice has done nothing but brought me closer to myself, to the Truth, to the present moment of course, and improved my life. Many people ask me “how to start meditating?” and here is my response ~

How to start meditating ~

I started meditating January 2017 right before turning 21. It had been something I was interested in from afar and through yoga, and I was so lucky to be gifted a membership to a meditation studio in NYC by my parents for Hanukkah that winter. Although I don’t remember my first class, I do remember adamantly signing up for the 30 day challenge that they were running and bringing my punch card everyday to get stamped, sometimes twice a day. I woke up at a very dark and cold 6am many mornings so that I could get a class in before my 8am at The Fashion Institute of Technology started. I became obsessed with diving into the teachings of different lineages, and in retrospect I was building a beautiful bedrock for my practice. When the 30 day challenge ended, I simply thought to myself, “well I have to do this everyday for the rest of my life”. And honestly, I pretty much have. I feel so grateful to have a foundation built in loving kindness and mindfulness, so that when I explore other realms of practice (or literally other dimensions lol), I can come back to the simplicity of this sacred gift and of my breathe. 

Meditation has been one of the most important parts of my life because of what it has taught me. When you are sitting in silence with only yourself and your thoughts, you see your mind in a new way. It is not easy, and it allows you to build self-respect and self-compassion more and more each time you return to the cushion. Even if for only a couple of minutes. The more you can grant yourself that compassion and love, the more you can extend that outwards to the people you interact with on a day to day basis, the barista you see every morning, the people you see on the street. Maybe for some people it is easier to start with loving the outside world and extending that compassion outwards before going in, and that’s okay too. 

One of the most common questions that I receive is, how do I start a meditation practice? Here are my tips ~

~ Find an app that you connect with that has an accountability feature. I like headspace for the 10 day challenge, insight timer for the way it tracks how many consecutive days you have sat, and Open for the guided meditations. 

~ Set aside a time every day for your practice to build a habit. Even if it is 2-5 minutes between brushing your teeth and making your coffee. You’ll gradually become more comfortable sitting and start looking forward to it. Because I started at a studio, I was immediately immersed in 25-35min meditations that were guided, but when I would sit alone I would do 10min. Eventually and very slowly I worked up to 15, then 20, and at the peak of my studies and attending retreats I was spending Sunday mornings in my Bed-Stuy apartment in a juicy 30 min practice in solitude. 

~ Have a place in your home where you like to sit in meditation. I like to have my cushion in front of an open window so that I may look at how the sunlight touches the leaves of the trees. 

~ Try one practice consecutively for 30 days and see how you feel. Evaluate, reflect, move forward from there with loving curiosity <3 

~ If you don’t want to use a guided meditation, set a timer on your phone or on insight timer for 5-10 minutes, and simply observe your breathe. Watch how your belly rises and falls, or maybe how you feel the air going in and out of your nostrils. Each time you notice your mind wander, which it will, gently bring your attention and awareness back to the breathe. This is where the compassion comes in. With how much compassion can you bring your attention back to the breathe when your mind has wandered? I like to use this metaphor as a teacher ~ imagine you are herding sheep in a meadow (or children on a playground), and you notice that one of the sheep has drifted from the pack and is walking away. Do you grab the sheep by the collar, beat it, and say “bad sheep! you stupid sheep!” No, you absolutely do not do that. Treat your wandering mind like a sheep or a child. Gently but firm and sweet. Think of your thoughts like clouds, just watch them pass, acknowledge them for what they are, and let them go. 

You will realize that you are not your thoughts, your identity is not going to the grocery store, making a to do list, or running late for dinner.  You are “I am”. You are oneness. <3 

Meditation is what gets me out of bed in the morning, it is so crucial for my neutral state of peace and for my heart and mind to open like a flower to start the day. Please let me know if you would like more guidance, but the truth is, just fucking start ;) 

with heaps of love and gratitude!!

Gaby

Spark ~

(objects, moments, nouns sparking desire / curiosity, what is lighting me up)

Deiji robe - all I've been wearing at home <3 

Re-watching When Harry Met Sally 

Red light glasses before bed

Books on meditation that I love - A New Earth, The Power of Now, Be Here Now, Love Letter to Earth

~ thank you thank you thank you ~ 

* see you next week, sending you beams of Reiki love through the ethers from my heart to yours *