In a week filled with mindfulness and healthy living, I really felt like I hit the re-start button! I spent over a week in the south of Spain at a health and wellness spa called Buchinger Wilhelmi, which along with fasting and integrative medicine, has the most beautiful and inspirational yoga and meditation classes, among many other mind, body, and spirit classes. I became so addicted to these mindful practices, that I took yoga classes every single day and sometimes twice a day! Sometimes they were in Spanish or French but it didn’t matter, as yoga is truly a universal language.
I loved the classes with Manuel Medina, a truly inspiring Yoga teacher, specializing in Pranayama breathing and Mantra Meditation, followed by a workshop on breathing exercises and then a wonderful Mantra Meditation class, and I literally spent the most blissful two and a half hours one day in his yoga class, overlooking the gorgeous greenery and tropical flowers of Marbella, Spain.
As Medina puts it, “On the one hand, meditation is in fashion right now, but it’s a very good fashion.”
As Medina explains, “A teacher can teach you how to meditate. You need someone to guide you at the beginning. There is no right technique, you just have to find the right one for you, and daily practice changes everything,”
When asked how long you should practice, Medina suggested, “at least 15 to 20 minutes per day.”
He explained that “by the practice of asanas, breathing, (Pranayama), and eventually meditation, all the Kleshas (negative mental states that cause suffering) will be weakened.”
Medina also revealed that Mindfulness is coming from the Buddhist tradition and even the older Pantajali Yoga Sutras, and he said the root of all suffering is a lack of awareness, or as his teacher Om Prakash Tiwari and his son Sudhir taught him, “Awareness is not mindfulness, it’s mindlessness”.
He went on to explain that “We cannot master the mind, but we can master the breath. By slowing down the breath, you can slow down the mind.”
Throughout the classes, his soothing, calming and almost hypnotic voice was an absolute joy to listen to and follow, reminding me once again that practicing yoga, meditation and mindfulness help you approach life with more grace and ease.
Coming soon this fall!
Our new radio show, Finding Your Bliss: With Judy Librach and Friends will be on ZOOMER RADIO AM 740 / FM 96.7. Stay tuned for my radio interview with Manuel Medina. Will keep you posted about which date the interview will be airing live!!!
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