Kim Anami

10 12

Your Inner GPS

What is your truth barometer?

How do you connect to it?

I have had a meditation practice for over 20 years. My interest in methods to alter consciousness led me down many paths….until I realized that I didn’t need anything external to take me to higher states of consciousness.

The methods I had used, like drugs, were opening doors that I could open without them.

I was first formally taught how to meditate by a TM practitioner. She gave me a mantra to use and I sat for 20-30 minutes a day in meditation.

I loved it.

I could feel how much it elevated and centered me at the same time. I felt more poised, graceful, calm, patient and aware.

I was able to digest the signs from life and take them in. I missed less opportunities (which are always coming at us) because I was able to see them in the moment.

I’ve since taken on other practices but I do enjoy using a mantra still.

The idea of a mantra, is that it is a charged word or sound. It has a high vibration. By chanting or singing it, you can raise your level of consciousness.

I’ve had a daily, usually morning, practice now for over two decades.

I like doing this in the morning, both to set the tone of my day and to have it out of the way.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been roadtripping. Routines are interrupted, more compromises have to be in place to meet everyone’s needs.

If I do miss a morning mediation, I generally fit one in later in the day or evening.

It’s rare that I don’t.

A couple of days ago, I didn’t meditate in the morning. We drove during the day and evening, and decided to press on late into the evening. My son took the wheel (I’ve been teaching him to drive stick) and I rested.

When we rolled into our destination town late at night, we could not find a hotel. Well, there were hotels, but nothing we felt comfortable staying in, for one reason or another.

We tried about five.

I was stymied.

Every other town we’d arrived in, without a plan, we somehow, intuitively, drove up to a great spot. Without even trying, we’d find ourselves next to an amazing beach and I could do yoga and meditate on the sand the next morning.

Not that night.

Then it hit me.

I had not done my meditation yet that day.

**

In various spiritual classes over the years, I’ve heard tell of a story to explain the power of meditation.

A very old, Stradivarius violin was found. It had not been played in centuries. Researchers put it underneath a microscope to examine the molecular structure of the wood.

Then the violin was played.

The scientists examined the structure again.

It had changed.

The change was retained as the violin continued to be played.

After several days (maybe a week), of not playing it, the violin reverted back to its old structure.

Our daily practices may not always seem like they are having a massive impact on our lives.

The yoga, the meditation, the sex dates.

All of these things keep us sinewy and responsive. Tuned into life and the flow.

My intuition was less acute on the day I had not meditated.

What came so naturally that I didn’t even attribute it to anything but random luck, was actually the product of me making consistent efforts to hone my ears and keep myself in the flow.

When I paused those efforts, I saw how I removed myself from that flow.

By prioritizing my self-care and the things that connect me to self and spirit, I’m able to listen to my inner GPS and act on it.

Usually, without thinking. The answers simply arise. They bypass thought.

Today, I was so committed to a powerful meditation, that I drove an extra 60 minutes out of the way before anyone else woke up, to ensure I’d have a great, uninterrupted experience.

This is my meditation spot: in the middle of an old-growth redwood forest. (Instagram image above, with yoga mat).

It was totally worth it.

~ Kx