In this sixteenth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion we chat about what it’s like maintaining a consistent formal (international) mediation practice in/given sometimes significantly fluctuating and uncertain conditions. We also touch on some everyday meditative techniques possible outside of more formal sitting practice including various types of laying down, standing, and walking meditations as well as mindfulness of seeing (and looking). We emphasize how helpful it is sometimes, especially in certain conditions and circumstances, to change the view and relationship to our challenges. Safety, retreat, gender are a few more topics amongst others we weave, or stray into
Related blog posts:
(Or other ways to) join these Q & A’s when they happen live:
- via downloading the free Wisdom app in your app store or via: https://wisdom.audio where I’m @integratingpresence or https://joinwisdom.audio/integratingpresence
- watch on my YouTube channel
*There’s naturally an ongoing open call for meditation (related) questions for the (roughly) monthly “Meditation Q & A” either by the various social media means listed; integratingpresence[at]protonmail.com or just showing to type/ask live.*
Background
Regular, current and past visitors to Integrating Presence may recall the monthly series “Ask Us Anything” I did with Denny K Miu from August 2020 until January 2022 — partially including and continuing on with Lydia Grace as co-host for awhile until March 2022.
For a few months thereafter I did various Insight Timer live events exploring potential new directions and/or a continuation of the Ask Us Anything format while weaving in other related teachings to these events.
Then, after chats with meditation coach Wendy Nash, it became clear to start a new collaboration similar to “Ask Us Anything” simply and clearly called “Meditation Q & A” especially due to the original intent of the Ask Us Anything’s being “discussions about meditation and related topics.”
Past chats with Wendy:
Audio: Nomadic Meditation | January 3, 2024 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #16
Or listen via Insight Timer (app or website)
The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:
Gone live Wendy can you hear me I’ve I can hear you just I I’m clearly having
some technical problems I’m sorry about that now I can hear you a little bit better sorry I’m a little bit late no
you’re right on time I just happen to go live right away so here we are and so
welcome to this what is this is this the I I’ve even lost count of the numbers but you can look uh at the thing here
but this is our um monthly meditation Q&A and today’s topics is um nomadic
meditation and you know here I am in my car again uh in the wintertime in
Missouri and I forgot my headphones so I’ve got these janky headphones uh for
those of you can see and they they’re yellowed on the top so they’re clean in the ear though that’s what what matters
and so this is what it’s like uh meditating on the run I guess I don’t know that’s not the right way to put it
but um I what I’d like to do today is explore uh what it’s like to meditate in
a lot of different places um amongst maybe a lot of different Lifestyles uh
living in various places too I mean I haven’t been a nomad for well I wouldn’t even full Nomad at all but I want to
jump in here and just and talk about uh what it’s like not to just be settled in
one place and meditate all kinds of different situations and things like this and I’ll go mostly from experience
um Wendy how would you jump in and introduce this topic
you know there is an idea a you have to be so first up em hello oh yeah hello Ed
I know the the well not in person but I know of em Reed yes hello Ed uh second I’m calling from Gabby
Gabby country in Queensland so I pay my respects to past to Elders past present
and emerging I have a lot of time for actually the quality of the care that
Aboriginal people have had for 65,000 years with this country so I want to
recognize that and acknowledge that and that is a people that have actually
moved around a lot so they started up in Northern Queensland which is on the east coast and then in 10,000 years they went
and across the whole country and it’s not a small country so it’s about the same size as Europe or the same size as
uh the US the mainland not including um Alaska so that’s how big it is and it
took them 10,000 ye years to go that distance and the thing that I think is
really good is about moving and being in transition and maybe
you go somewhere and you settle or maybe you go somewhere and you go another place and you go another
place and every place is different
so I’ve and because I’ve been in a couple I’ve lived in a couple of different
cultures the culture that I’ve been in has influenced my practice and also how
how much at home I am also influences my practice the weather influences my
practice the physical environment all sorts of different things influence my
practice so technically I’m I’m might even listen to a Dharma talk medit uh
yeah Dharma talk and hear it in one country in one
context go somewhere maybe where the person comes from and I go oh that’s
what they meant or I might hear it in one context and several times and then
come back home wherever home is for instance I spent time in Europe quite a bit so now I’m back in Australia and go
oh I hear that so differently here so that’s what I would
say sorry about that uh it reminds me a little bit of this next thing I’m going to say but I wanted to focus um quite a
bit on just practical things hopefully I don’t bore people too much on uh the ins
and outs of that coming up that I like to talk about a little bit but this reminds me of just traveling in general
too because I don’t know if anybody else has noticed this but maybe look for this the kind of State of Consciousness when
traveling uh at least for some people it tends to like I don’t know expand Consciousness maybe that’s too water
down or cliche of term but even more interesting than that it’s almost like
when we travel then we come back to where we’re living and things are a little bit different after that trip
right at least for a couple days like as we settle back into our regular space of
where we live to me I don’t know how to describe it but the perception seems a little bit
different from the stable kind of perception that’s there when we’re just going about a r routine day-to-day and
things like this so I don’t I don’t know how to explain that effect but I do find it quite fascinating um how that that
is okay so I want to take this if if I can to um just practicalities okay so
when traveling in a plan uh how do you meditate on a plane you know and I’ve done this before a lot of
it’s timing right if you’re on a short trip you might not have um much time and one Airline like I did SAS they come
around like every oh so often with tea and coffee then there’s other airlines that are really um you know hands off so
usually on an airplane it’s pretty easy because you can sit there I mean I can even cross my legs on take my shoes off
and cross my legs I’m pretty flexible I can do that uh instead of a timer on the phone you can put headphones in even and
have insight timer or whatever the regular Timer app and just Ding and ding so you don’t lose track of time you
could do it like that and most people won’t bother you if you have headphones they’re just oh they’re you know are you are blindfold on in a plane um sometimes
you can’t do that though and one thing I found help or sometimes you meditate in
a space and it’s just not um having the same effect that you that you need or
want and so there’s kind of an experiment I offer people not when you’re driving though is listen to a
dama talk or especially a guided meditation without formally meditating with your eyes open and kind of
pretending you’re around and see the effect it has on the mind and body when you’re doing that um so it’s really
interesting so I won’t say much about I let you experience it for yourself um so let I think I’m just going to start with
um and then time zone adjusting for time zones with meditation if you’re trying to keep a consistent meditation practice
I mean it if you want to it can only be you know three In-N-Out breaths conscious In-N-Out breaths but I’ll
start with a plane because I’ve talked enough here and then I’ll go into other uh modes and then places where we’re at
or where we might be when we’re traveling or just staying short times Wendy what’s your experience on um
meditating on airplanes or have you done it I I’ve have never done that you know I’m I’m in Australia so we do we do Long
Haul so A short flight for us us is five hours I mean we travel domestically and
that might be an hour or something an hour and a half but if we are if we are
traveling abroad the shortest time it can be is probably I think two hours
that’s New Zealand but it depends if that’s from Sydney maybe to Oakland that might be the the
shortest but that’s the that’s the absolute shortest and that’s shorter than it is to get to the other side of
the country so I’m in Queensland to get for me to get to Perth that’s 5 hours so
that’s that um for us I think you know in in
England um when I was there I would I would have to say
Thailand is just halfway to get to Australia because it’s that’s our that’s
our half halfway point to sort of just have a bit of a break so I I have never meditated in all
honesty it’s 12 hours you know 8 to 12 hours for each leg um you know by the
time you get on you check in the movies you cuz I like to check out all the
movies eat your meals and they always you know because it’s Australia it sort of might be
dinner lunch breakfast so
I I I and actually to be honest I I’ve started taking a sedative before I fly
just because I get my I find I’m so jangled from the security I find it
really helpful to to I take hops it’s available in the supermarket it can be
addictive so heads up on that if you have that tendency don’t do that um
but I I just want to get to the other end with as least pain as possible so
that’s definitely where I am well that’s there no judgment here um
maybe this the other stuff might bore you but train is kind of similar uh the domestic trains in the United States are
not the greatest you know what I mean uh and so but they’re they’re they’re big
seats and so a similar type of thing on a train so you don’t have to worry now in a car of course not when you’re
driving that goes without saying hopefully anyone doesn’t need that I have gone on trips like with my uh buddy
in Colorado and um at night I sat in the passenger seat and he was driving and I
could sit on the seat I mean it’s not quite the same thing and it’s definitely an experience of uh sensation extra
sensations of the body formally meditating but other times I will time
it where the people that I’m with we can pull off and find a uh a park too and
with with nobody around or really nobody’s going to say anything too if you just want to sit in the car seat
I’ve gone to state parks too where I like to sit in the woods and so every every once in a while if the weather
permitting and the people I’m with will do it I will sit in the woods on the ground for short periods of time now I
also sat in a park nearby my house and that’s it it’s it’s quite Pleasant if there’s no insects around under a tree
and as long as people are minding their own business it’s it’s like that you know okay so outside the modes of travel
we have places like you know your hotel room okay so this is a really easy one for me I um I sit uh uh with usually I
take the pillows they usually have like four pillows on a hotel room we’ll take one or two and double them up and take
the top cushions or whatever off the bed I mean top sheets or blankets or
comforter or where they call it a duvet in Europe put that on the floor double that up and there’s my zafu in zabuton
and there we go you know um if who’s ever with you when they’re when they’re sleeping or some people even go in the
bathrooms I’ve heard like Tina as musen uh whose book um practicing the gen’s I
just read and put on my YouTube channel she talks about having meditated in bathrooms before so any experience in
airbnbs and hotels or I’m I you know I I am not that kind
of meditator I meditate at home I meditate on Retreat and I see em Reed is in Sydney
so nice to have another Sydney in and now I want to go oh I wonder where but don’t divulge anything private so don’t
do that but I’m like super curious and a little bit distracted with that
um I I think [Music]
um I I like to feel that the place I’m in is safe so one of the things that I
would do if I were meditating is one of things that I would do is I I
if I were in in a place like the forest or wherever I would actually keep my
eyes open and meditate with my eyes open just because I I don’t know a space and
if I feel there’s no one around I might not feel so safe so that might be a
difference between um a safe space for women and a safe space for men because I think
there’s a gender thing on that one so yeah maybe that’s why I I tend not to
meditate in public places cuz I’m actually always looking around to see if it’s a safe space and on Retreat I know
it’s safe and at home I know it’s safe so that’s what I do this is a big one for guys to really
understand and my my partner talks a lot about this too that and by the way she talks about the the long hauls to
Australia and she usually has gone through from Europe to Dubai um for you
know for layover and then Australia uh for the the time she’s gone down there but the this for for females I mean I
when she really laid it out graphically about how much uh safety is involved
about you know even just crossing the other side of the street when certain males are coming you know always having
to worry about you know uh their own safety you know if they’re going to have to be in certain you know situations and
on and on and on so I mean it’s sucks uh I mean come on guys dudes uh you know
dude Bros you know be kind you know be uh be a gentleman it’s uh would you want
to would you want to have to be you know in the same shoes you know it’s it’s I don’t know what else to say really about
this but yeah I mean and even in a forest I I did a show in the past about
meditating in nature being in and of nature but some people just don’t feel safe in nature to begin with whether
there’s nobody around at all some people just have a huge sigh of relief when
they get into nature you know um because they feel more supported and less um
pressurized by man’s designs and worlds and ideas and deadlines and yada yada
yada so I I think most people will know right away whether the space uh whether
they meditate they find safety and ease and well-being more in City situations
and indoor buildings or they feel that way in nature um now I’m a mix of both
because it depends on the conditions in nature if there’s too many insects obviously um if if it’s too muddy or wet
or too hot of course that’s the obvious thing right but sometimes people get um
frightened in nature too uh I think there’s some sutas and stuff that says if one has passed ctions certain past
actions I don’t know that they just might be more frightened in general in nature another thing is might be worried
about having enough food or you know not having enough water or things like this um but then it could be the opposite for
for cities and towns like everybody’s interrupting me um you know uh there’s
it’s too noisy yet you know so we know all these types of conditions and
overall we don’t want to spend too many I feel anyway we don’t want to spend too much time trying to get all the external
conditions just right I mean there’s so much we can do to where we get the external conditions the conducive
possible but if all I’m doing is kind of micromanaging my environment or
obsessive compulsive about it or um I don’t know anal about certain things and
everything has to be perfect before I can meditate that defeats the whole point for me you know one of the points
of meditation is being okay with things how they are right are training to be uh
in things how they are and what do I do that how do I see this how do I perceive
this situation that I’m in and how do I respond to it how am I what’s my relationship to the environment that I’m
in that I’m meditating um another one Wendy and I did a show about um you know
holiday celebrations so how are we if we’re around our family or in an environment where we’re living where we
have roommates or other things like that do we have a a space where we can go
where we’ll be in uninterrupted for a short period of time or do we just need
to um be okay with whatever space we can find wherever uh we’re at that we can
meditate in um so I think I threw enough out here for Wendy to comment on all
that so just to heads up emed has said listening to your talk Josh sounds like
a life in meditation a meditative life nice
it really is just real quick to comment on that uh it’s been you know 10 years two hours a day for 10 years and at a
certain point A lot of times it’s like a walking meditation like compared to where I was like 20 years ago it in a
semi- meditative State all the time but I still do a formal practice and it is you know it’s a big part of my day it’s
a habit and so these the mind and stuff Orient to just doing this every day and
so some situations are more challenging but the mind just figures it out and finds a place and a time to do
it I I feel very Laz and Inc
confident I I just go yeah I’m only like at my place where on Retreat I don’t
meditate anywhere else there was a retreat that I did see which was in um uh in the snowy mountains in Australia
which is part of the Great div Great Dividing Range on the east coast and I
had I have always wanted to be at Mount Kiosco or wherever during the summer I always
wanted to do that and now I moving I moved to Queensland and I saw there was a retreat there and booked up or it was
Co and and I wanted to go and then I moved up here and uh so it’s quite a lot
much further away so it’s an extra thousand kilometers from um Sydney which
is where I was and and on top of that I have chronic tendonitis and btis so I
couldn’t even walk it I could barely walk 5 minutes now and
so you there is a I would love to have done that but then I think maybe that
maybe that bird has flown and maybe I will never do that and so I am going to
be leading a a one day class I hope about an hour from here which will be it
at organic farm and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to do it and do a
walking meditation in that just just to to see
what it’s like because walking meditation is great for being in real you know daily life so what do we like
when we walk not to go super slowly but just to notice what do where do we hold
our body what have we got going on for us when we walk and all that you know
know the that that part and I you know I think like a lot of people on meditation
Retreats where it comes to walking meditation most people just go to their I’ve heard this confession from many
many teachers where they go oh I just go to my room and I go to sleep but often I’ll meditate in there
but I thought maybe I need to do walking meditation but I do think that there is
just going back to that that uh thing I was actually thinking about
when I was living in England and it was I felt so out of sorts and so I was
trying so hard just to keep myself from going down some from not going down some
horrible Vortex of unhappiness that I just did my best to keep it all
together and and now I look at that and I felt quite dulled in my
practice in many ways um so but but so
yeah I I I that that’s how it is and then back home so I would be really
curious for you to hear you Josh how do you
experience meditating in Denmark even in in your fiance’s house which I think is
where you live and meditating at home maybe in your parents’ house and meditating when you think back to how it
was when you’re meditating in your own home and just as it heads up em has said
yeah big fan of walk meditation so there’s so much here Wendy so I want to go over I hope you get to go on that
Retreat I mean I almost want to start a fundraiser so you can do that I mean that’s I you guys let’s uh let’s
encourage and support Wendy I will if there’s anything where you feel incompetent the only thing that I think
there’s incompetence is in comparing this is a really good point um
you hear me brag almost brag or humble brag about all this stuff right or you
know oh I’m so elevated I do all this stuff this is a really good point because this is this common tendency
there’s no shame or blame in doing this because it’s natural tendency to to compare ourselves to others right but
usually it’s a setup for disappointment either that like then I feel like oh I’m so elevated over someone else or I’m not
good enough or even if I’m like okay I’m just as good as that guy or just as good as Wendy you know I I you know that even
that you know even that is like well wait a second we have all these vast differences in richness and who we are
and complexity you know and so one of the ways I found out of that is
comparing it to ourselves but even that me telling Wendy not to compare is is is
still kind of a comparison or you know so I like how do I even tell people about that you know so when when they
don’t ask for it but I want to say no matter where you’re at no matter what your level of practice dedication or
lack thereof it’s it’s uh you don’t need all that you know you don’t need you
know all as long as you’re putting in the effort every once in a while I think you know and like now this goes to the
next part about walking meditation it’s really important so I’ve just talked about formal sitting
meditation and this is where uh I um yeah most people think that’s all
meditation is about but it’s not the there’s four main postures right and the other one are walking and standing and
lying down and so walking is a great way I mean the the Buddha for what I
understand he he highly advocated that because you get to travel speaking about
nomadic meditation before all these fancy vehicles and things like that you know uh and people couldn’t have horses
they walked from places and I walking meditation is one I
I’m challenge I’m challenged at you know because I sometimes feel like oh I have to walk now because I can’t sit longer
so ridiculous but it is a really good one and I’ll just mention a few styles
that I like the Shifu at at mid- America Buddhist Association he has the most unique one I’ve never seen it before
it’s like a Tai chiok I almost have to show it to describe it but all the weight is on the back leg the the then
the one leg moves forward and in the kind of the ball of the foot touches down and touches the touches the ground
and then when it’s when it’s there that all of a sudden it all the weight shifts from the back leg to then that leg and
then that’s the back leg while the the other foot is is then now slightly
touching down on the ground and then once that’s stable then it switches really so anyway it’s like gliding
gliding but then the other style is this maybe it’s the mahasi style it’s where you lifting moving placing lifting
moving placing and so I find that really helpful when you really want to slow down and to see the inner mechanics of
how we walk although it’s completely artificial it shows how much we’re missing and how much more we can take in
and notice when we slow down extreme amount you know uh a John suito another
teacher that I like I like his he’s just it’s a natural movement and so you’re you’re you’re going from the hips right
and it’s like you’re walking in water some of the ways he talks about uh and then you’re also aware of your entire
body eventually and then what’s beyond your body but it always comes to to the center of the body and you don’t have to
walk anything any way special you just notice that there’s a body when you’re walking I I mean this is horrible
instructions that I’m giving here but there’s a book called and it’s free it’s called um a moving balance that he wrote
just about walking meditation and the other one I like is just noticing the sensations in your foots in your feet
how do your feet feel when you’re moving you know um that’s a great one to do too
uh so that way it always keeps your eyes open when you’re walking don’t walk walk
around with your eyes closed unless you want to hit something and have people scared and ask what the hell you’re doing um so now Wendy’s question here um
and I want to ask Wendy too but I’ll answer a question first before I forget tendonitis Wendy I didn’t know this if
you’re if you’re open to talking about this in five minutes of walking okay I’m very fascinated now on how you use that
in your pract well just every every day life in general too but as far as Denmark goes you know there are key
differences um it’s basically based on space and people right so there’s only
so much space in her apartment uh and um
so I have my own little corner there but then there’s certain times when we’re working so a lot of it is T time
management so we’re not on top of each other sometimes you just meditate and uh you know every just go about your day
like I’m not there other times I like it more quiet uh so it is this constant
like um flow and because it’s not the same as when I was living on my own I
could do anything I wanted when I was on my own right pretty much uh unless the neighbor was acting up and I had to go
down there see what was going on with that but yeah I mean so that’s the thing it’s not and this goes to larger
relationship dynamics that I’m that I’m learning as well so it’s it’s not just the same when I’m by myself in my folks
house it it’s it’s a mixture of all these things sometimes in a room then I’ll I’ll be by myself entirely you know
kind of secluded sometimes I’ll hear through the walls because it’s really close to the kitchen or something other
times I’m in with my fiance you know uh sometimes I’ll wake up and do that before she’s awake sometimes we’re both
awake sometimes she’s coming in and out uh sometimes um things need to be sorted
with what’s going on around there so it’s just constant flux and dynamic and it’s not as as steady and stable but but
if there’s a strong resolve in a habit then it’s for me it’ll happen regardless
you know uh and so the things like insight timer help keep it on track and
keep um support in and and track things too so yeah once it’s a habit then it
it’s it’s really for me it’s it’s it’s fairly easy to to do but I know not everybody’s like that okay so Wendy
tendonitis what’s going on with that ah yeah so that was you know talk about
mindfulness of the body not so during the pandemic I couldn’t get to the gym
or I was very limited in what you know I was stuck at home and the only thing we were allowed to do was because I was in
one of the real so Australia was locked down in a lot of places and certainly Sydney was and so I the only reason you
could go out and in many places you could only go out for an hour it was to do exercise so that was it exercise and
shopping I think that was grocery shopping at that so that was that all you were allowed to
do um and so I thought well I’ll do the couch
to 5K and I think I might even have mentioned it where I went for a run and I did it that’s a particular program and
it was really good I got I got quite good and then I thought okay well I’ll keep going and I noticed that I didn’t
warm up well and I I thought I’ve got these trainers and they they’re okay but
you know whatever I didn’t want to spend $300 for buying you know a pair of trainers and so and then I noticed that
I found myself um walking like a duck I get out of bed and I just be like flat
and be like and then I was going that’s so
weird and then I looked it up and they said this is a tendonitis and I thought ah well I’ll stop but then we moved
house and we moved up here and I went to the gym I went to a gym
and they’re like push push push and it was too much on my body and then I
also uh took up some and we moved house so I did a lot of carrying which means that the feet were really thin and I
didn’t know what was going on I didn’t know what the exercises were I’d try some but then it would hurt anyway so
and then we we got um in the lawn here
and it’s a bit of a gradient and so I was I wanted to stretch out my legs but the problem my calves but the problem
with that was that I was pushing the lawn mower up and so I just really I was
lucky that it didn’t tear so tendonitis is the Achilles heel which is at the
back there but then there’s btis the GP the other day said that it’s some sort
of sack of fluid and that is now inflamed so I’ve just been I’ve had to
stop pretty much all walking I’ve have I have to ask my partner to put away my bicycle if I’m too tired I have to
because I do cycle but I’m not allowed to cycle kind of like that with my foot
going up and down I have to cycle with it basically on my tippy
toes so and I don’t cycle a huge amount cuz I don’t know what it’s like around where you live uh Copenhagen is really
good for bicycle paths but I don’t know you don’t live in Copenhagen so I don’t know what it’s like there well I mean
it’s a huge bicycle um in general right so yes of course Copenhagen it’s about
an hour outside of Copenhagen and there’s pretty much bike trails everywhere people ride on the streets
anyway to uh I would say way more per populous well obviously in the United States that goes without saying so at
least some cities in the United States they’ve they’ve start putting bike uh TR um paths on some of the streets but for
the most part you know small towns in the midwest there’s next to nothing everything’s so spread out you know um
so I would really I guess Wendy meets more cities so I’m I’m out of the big cities right now um St Louis yeah
Columbia the college towns I think the college towns are way better in general yeah yeah and just so um emed she’s in
Sydney and or he’s in Sydney so um that
they’ve actually got some amazing bicycle paths but this conversation isn’t about bicycle paths this I just
know that because I have that transport advocacy here so I’m really keen on that but basically I can’t mow the lawn I
can’t I can I can walk a little bit I have exercises so one of the reasons I
was late because it’s about lunchtime now is I wanted to do my exercises that
I need to do before coming on air because I have them I have to do them three times a day and I thought I’ve got
it takes 2 and a half minutes so I thought quick get that done so that was
one of the things that bite to eat so but but it does really make you
stop and yeah I gained weight which was really unexpected and unpleasant and I
live with pain chronic pain and it’s an
interesting I can see how you get to you know your late your 60s
or whatever I’m not in my 60s and then you suddenly gain weight because you fall over you have an
injury and then and then you have to rethink everything that you do about how
you move it’s quite amazing so and and since we’re talking about
transition and moving and all those sorts of things and Pain Management because a lot of meditation is pain
management and being mindful about you recognizing your limitations and going I
can’t do this I need to change what I’m doing so so I think it is it does change
your practice because your mind it is it is
saddening to not feel you can do things like the dishes sometimes it’s like I’m
too tired to do the dishes I’m too tired to cook I’m too tired to
chop and and it does it does make it difficult and there is a mindfulness
practice about loss in all that and um and so maybe that’s not quite what we
were going to just talk about but I guess it’s talking about where was I where were you in one place which is fit
healthy active and then something small happens it’s so small it’s just like two little
pieces on the back of my feet and then I’ve got a whole new world that I have to navigate and I have to rethink
everything that I do and do a lot of mindfulness of body practices so what
you’re describing as the walking meditation I’m never going to do that
but I I I I couldn’t even stand for long I couldn’t do standing
meditation but there are in the training that I’m doing about mindful of the Tara
twoe teacher training they say you can actually just uh they do a lot of M uh
movement mindful movement practices so you know stretching your hands and things like that and there are lots of
things that you can do to change your State of Mind very quickly that don’t
require you to it’s a different form of meditation because it’s meditation on
the go which I love because I I love to have meditation things that I can give
people to instantly calm down so they instantly feel better and they don’t
have to think I need to do something big fancy I need to have a clear mind
whatever so over to you these are really important to because when I talk to
people about that aren’t so serious about Med like I am which is very you know there’s very few people like that
unless they’re you know living in monasteries yada yada yada it’s always oh I should be doing this I should be
doing this I need to do this I you know I re I know I need to do I just need to
okay so but Wy when you talk about that uh can I ask real briefly how long has
it been going on when did this did it start around Co kov is when when you
started training for the couch to 5K right and it started it started around that time right or was it before
then it started during Co um
probably what it’s now it’s sort of uh 20 maybe three years ago and I kept
thinking oh I’ll rest it and it’ll go away and it felt better but then I’d do something and it got worse and then I
and so it was not something which was so acute that I was like okay I’m just
going to lie and bed and I need to sort this out it was like a lot of uncomfortable body things which you do
it and then you rest and it goes away except it was never really quite going
away but it was away enough for me to go it it’ll get better because a lot of
things you move them and then it gets better so yeah so it’s several years
now it’s it’s wild and so of course a big part of meditation practice maybe
not informal is our relationship to what’s going on right and yeah you hear
so many stories and I’m sure we talked about it like people who identify with being athletes and then some injury
comes along and they can’t I mean their whole reason almost for living goes away now and they can’t do their sport or or
their thing and they don’t they don’t know what to do anymore you talk about people with serious injuries where their
bed written go go go go go all of a sudden and then they’re just they don’t know what to do they can’t do really
anything and then now they’re faced to be with themselves in a way that they would never choose otherwise to I mean
even the lockdowns themselves it was what they say the retreat that nobody asked for you know uh mentioned before
and so what comes to mind to this is yeah like Wendy was saying what kind of
um practices and perceptions and Views in relating to things that are beyond
our control that are helpful and uh the one thing that comes to mind is is practical thing is the three breath
Highway take the three breath Highway you know speaking about uh driving or riding a bike out there you know being
present for three full breaths you know you want to get on that Highway we get on get on the three breath Highway too
you know um uh so yeah this notion
of of relating and changing one’s habits and styles too you
know so uh the other thing that came up was chiong so there’s a lot of mindful
movements and chiong is a really popular one too you know yoga has been quite a big one for a long time um physical
therapy I mean that’s the classic Western thing if someone hurts thems physically they go into physical therapy
with a a trainer to uh I know chiong is these these Chi movements I was doing a
lot of thing with jny um for a long time and another teacher on insight
timer uh found it very helpful so and even for walking
meditation now let’s uh let’s talk about standing uh or even a substitute for
walking meditation I’ve heard some people teach too and I I miss this one is just shifting your weight or at least
starting off so you could do the whole practice shifting from the right to the left because a lot of our walking is
really just the body shifting sides you know and rebalancing so that’s a great
one to do if you don’t have enough walking space either is to compensate for walking practice uh standing
meditation I really like to uh because it’s a it’s a really masculine one right I can stand and get this um uh this like
kind of upwelling upwelling of energy um and make sure your knees aren’t bent and
because we do this you know we’re standing in a line of the store right we’re standing and so you can use it as
a formal practice or I don’t know I don’t know if you teach people standing meditation I’d be interested in hearing
about that and then I think with um this whole notion of um injury and recovery
and movement and training and doing things differently I think we also want to talk about lying down meditation uh
from a formal posture and this one is not taught as much about but before we go into that I guess uh if you have
anything to say about uh standing or anything like that standing
meditation so I did lead a standing meditation it was an online class and
and I just said okay so stand up and everyone could do that because they were still attached so that was fine and and
then I just said okay so just stand and notice so I did stand and just
notice how much the body moves when it’s not even going anywhere just you could
feel a shifting in the musculature and everything was just slightly in the body’s moving back and forth keeping you
like that and then to pick it up and then put it down and pick it up pick up
the foot and then put it down and just to notice where the body moves to and
from and I also talked about and so we
have our feet and we use our feet all the time and we don’t even notice until
you’ve got an injury and you go ah well I’m not going to do that anymore so so I I did do a meditation
like that that was really really nice I haven’t done so much lying meditation because usually
that involves snoring so I think a lot of people don’t do lying
meditation because you just just you just fall asleep yeah basically it
really is you know because we’ve been conditioned so much when we lie down we’re mostly going to sleep right I mean
that’s just how we’ve been conditioned The Habit over and over and again through our entire life so if you want
to do the more training about that and you know and they don’t teach it much in Buddhist practice either because if
you’re in a meditation Hall you they don’t allow you to lay down usually and let you know because then you’re going
to sleep you’re not sleep you’re not supposed to fall asleep when you meditate uh you know usually in formal
practice if you’re on Retreat you know uh in the meditation Hall as far as I remember but now the the the Shifu that
that I said he taught a formal lying down and it’s on the right side and it’s
you know the Buddha was known as in the Lion’s posture so tilt keeping your head up you know those famous statues and
things like that but his is more you just put your head where you’re comfortable you can have a pillow or
whatever your arm if if I remember right and then you you might want to have a pillow between your knees because you
don’t want to have bone on bone if you can help it excuse
me and then he takes a pillow and puts it in the gut so you’re at you know so
then you’re having a physical point where you you you can press it and your knees are curled up a little bit a
little bit like in fetal position but enough so where you can position the pillow in your gut so you have that
feedback so so um so you’re not as easily to go to sleep right because if
you’re feeling this uh an external object pushing back into your stomach
it’s it’s um a little bit easier to stay awake so a lot of times what will happen
anyway you you’ll you’ll fall asleep but then you’ll wake up and you can continue meditating and you just go with the
breath too breath of the belly in in that method now another way to do it is um what call constructive Rest In Yoga
where you put your knees in the air and you put your hand like a karate ch shop on the floor and so then when you’re
when you’re when you fall asleep your hand falls down your knees although some people can sleep with their knees in the
air uh so that so if you’re still falling asleep and you want to do this kind of a formal training then you might
want to try something else um a lot of times though if you’re just going to bed at night what I do is I just will’ll sit
an intention or whatever my regular meditation intentions and just see how long I can be with the breath until I
fall asleep you know it’s better than nothing if if you really want to get involved with it you can um see if you
can catch the last breath right before you fall asleep I whether it’s an in
breath or out breath I have not been able to do that however a few times upon Awakening I can know you set the
intention before you fall asleep I want to be aware of the first breath that I take when I wake up and I have been able
a few times to see if it’s an in breath or an out breath the first one or maybe it’s you’re just awake for 30 40 seconds
and then you’ll you’ll know so that’s that’s a good um technique too not to
mention lucid dreaming and dream yoga stuff like that I haven’t really got into that I mean as a practice formal
practice I know people that have but now back to the standing um Wendy talked about the
noticing the the movement uh uh lifting and placing the body and how the body will auto correct and it’s interesting
to to to lock and unlock the really you don’t want to keep them locked too long because you could you can fall out uh
the one thing I found really fascinating about standing meditation as far as I know no one has ever fallen asleep while
standing up I’ve done it before when I’ve completely exhausted and still want to meditate and I stand up and I have
fallen asleep before but the body will just barely move and’ll it’ll wake up and catch itself before falling over so
it’s pretty fascinating I don’t recommend uh getting sleep deprived just to check that out but that that has been
my experience as well there’s then you can get into subtle movements too like just tucking the tailbone in or out will
also kind of adjust other parts of the body as well um yeah and then this so
it’s that’s a fascinating practice to all these um these formal poses and also
the transition between the postures that’s a tough one because a lot of times we’re running around like a head
on Wheels right you know that’s all the body is a lot of times at least for me when I’m not mindful it’s just a head-
on Wheels and then we don’t even notice when we’re transitioning between even just notice uh what kind of state we’re
in when we come to the cushion and then uh kind of make another intention or resolve am how long am I going to be
aware am I going to notice when I stand up getting out of the sitting posture
how much how can I be mindful and I really like Wendy mentioning earlier about opening the eyes during meditation
because most of our life we’re around in eyes open now I’ve noticed I can go a
lot deeper when my eyes are closed but so but uh I I like to at least end the
meditation session a lot of times with the eyes open because it’s a nice transition can kind of keep the
meditative state with the eyes open and it cultivates this meditative um state
to bring forward to her everyday life so I I was just thinking um when I
lead a meditation one of the things that I do when I lead a meditation is actually I get people to put their
fingers in front of their face and then I stick my arms out to the side and they
so that they track they track that so that it triggers the um peripheral vision and then drop the hands and that
then sets up a sort of a broad mind and then when I go to when I bring
people back I bring them back and I say before you Open the Eyes just see see if
you can just engage the peripheral vision and then open your
eyes and it’s just to keep the mind a little bit
calmer that’s beautiful I don’t know how I haven’t heard of that and I have to try that now yeah and so yeah you’re
starting with a narrow and then going into expanded and then before you come
out you’re you’re you’re starting from that spot again instead of just am right
back into it right yeah and mindfulness go ahead and and just when you’re in so
just different places to be mindful so when you feel stress so if you just now you’re sitting in the car so if you just
notice your um peripheral vision just keep looking at me in the screen so just
keep looking at me and now trigger your peripheral vision and then you’ll see
your body just suddenly drops or there’s some ease or something
yeah I mean yes absolutely and what I like in that too is when we get in a
kind of fight ORF flight situation there gets to be tunnel vision right so all the things that we no longer need to pay
attention to in order for survival get thrown away and we get focused on either
fighting flighting or freezing and so the cap all our capacity is now going
into a singular thing and I I liken that to if we go through our Our Lives when
we’re not in rest and digest are relaxed and don’t have the really capacity to
expand our Consciousness and in in in broader in in Vision too then we’re kind
of more focused and and society says go go go go go do do do do do get to get to
point a who cares about what else you know if you’re traveling on in in a car or certain you’re just going to point A
to point B you’re not slowing down enough to to take in what’s more than the goal that we need to do next the
next thing I like to to do or well I haven’t I don’t do it much but it’s fascinating just mindfulness of vision
most of us are very visually driven so much of our Consciousness and mental
capacity I think is taken up by um the visual field uh visual Consciousness and
visual objects right so there’s a difference between looking and seeing okay looking is kind of what we’re
looking at and seeing is just kind of this passive state where what’s happening where when we don’t choose
anything in particular particular IND visual feeli to pay attention of so and then there’s the
awareness being aware that we’re seeing you know not what we’re looking at you
know are are judging something but what is actually aware of of seeing or
looking you know so it’s like taking a step back and now knowing what’s what’s
knowing the seeing and so mindfulness of seeing is is a really interesting thing
to do as well
I’ve never heard of mindfulness of seeing so yes that’s a interesting one
that reminds me of the who am I um meditation and I’ve been looking a
lot at that we can talk about that another day because we’re coming up and today’s topic is nomatic
meditation so that’s right and so we we can review some of the practices we
mentioned and a lot of these are actually things we can do wherever we go
I I think too and just to tease the next one well um you know we’re going to talk
about specific spaces you know internal and external spaces and we we covered a
little bit and quite a bit of this today but we’ll go into to more detail and one
of the reasons I wanted to bring this up too well I’ll I’ll just tease it enough for that we’ll we’ll have plenty of time
to talk about that in our next one and that’s later on this month so we’re going to do two this month in in order
to make up for the one I missed we missed in October so Wendy how would we uh do do we want kind of recap what
we’ve talked about today um and or any I mean would that even make sense I think
we given enough I’m just a spout of information a lot of times unfortunately
but I really enjoy Wendy’s um the the the the balancing out my information
overload thing here and just the kind of beautiful heartfelt practices that she
engages and and yeah I I feel like I never have enough time like I just have
to inundate with a lot of things instead of just yeah slowing down and really
going deep but you know it is what it is we we should we should raise that as a
topic actually about you know that sense of you’ve got to get it out you’ve got to get it out you’ve got your time what
how do we understand time actually in our meditation practices and and in life
so what would I say we started off about we started talking about different countries to meditate the sort of space
that we’re in psychologically in that culture in different cultures we talked about walking meditation mindfulness
meditation um I guess uh lying sitting
standing we talked about I guess sort of Mount Kiosco and
and snowy mountain Retreat that I wanted to do the summer the summer in the snow’s Meditation
Retreat and whether I could get there we talked about tendonitis and btis and the
impact of physical ailment on our meditation practice in our daily life
and how we have to kind of take stock we talked about how are we relating to our
practice definitely and we talked about peripheral vision and
seeing seeing what is the difference between
looking and seeing and seeing meditation and and a sort of awareness of seeing so
who is who is seeing which is a basically a who am I practice so I think
that’s pretty much everything I’ve I recall how about you yeah the only thing
I would really add is just all my little specifics about giving little tips and hints if you want to do uh more formal
meditation while traveling and in different types of spaces and environments uh where people often say
oh no I’ve got too much hectic in my life or I can’t do this or whatever or
maybe it’s just too weird I mean a lot of the things that I’ve talked about it’s just too much or too weird and that’s okay too you know uh but I just
kind of from experience of what I do and uh how I do that and yeah I think it’s
um beautiful melding of information techniques um sharing relating of what
we’ve done and gone through and I think yeah it was it was a good time here and
looking forward to doing this um meditation spaces next time so this will
be yeah spaces and maybe we’ll do one on U perception of time in the future and
yeah somewhere something along those lines we’ll we’ll flush it out later so yeah so I I I for me I think our
clocks are slightly different because my because I’ve still got a couple of
minutes left on my timer but I’ve got 40 42 after heum okay all right great I was
just going to wrap up a little bit more or a little bit early I guess here yeah I put I found out that comments on the
screen uh yeah if I do the overlay like right now I don’t know if Wendy can see it it will show up on the video but it
will only show up from when I turn the overlay on so I can see all the chats now but they’re not showing up on screen
like they did last time so I guess I could leave that on again um I don’t know any settings I’ve only seen em Reid
come on because it depends on where where people are and and what people are are doing emed may have gone off anyway
to do something else with her day her his day so yeah so I know there’s the
answer cool thank you both welcome you welcome and it’s nice to have you here
mindfulness of appreciation um gratitude yes we do show
too yeah definitely it’s it’s nice to have a a regular participant and
checking on with us and nice to know that you’re a Sydney and or you’re in Sydney anyway and yeah so I think they’re on
the treadmill there you are so there you go you do your thing mindfulness of walking mindfulness
of walking on the treadmill mindfulness of running on the treadmill whatever it is that you’re doing Mindful and and
just know that actually your body works I couldn’t do the treadmill because my
my feet won’t work that that will hurt my feet too much so noticing if you didn’t have your feet if your feet had
tendonitis and btis or whatever how would you be able to do
your what exercise would you be able to do what Tre treadmill so it’s it’s quite
a thing yeah um so I think we’re at time there yep so you go no to say amazing
how this body has its own inbuilt intelligence too it just we don’t have to sit there and say okay mouth chew
this food this way just like this over and over and be no it just does you know the body will just when we’re in a
healthy state it will just move itself you know it has its own inbuilt intelligence just amazing and we can uh
we can drill into this with mindfulness and notice this we don’t have it’s a beautiful thing we can go in and out of
that as well uh it’s amazing thing this this sack of meat you know uh when it’s
functioning and then when it’s not functioning right too that’s another opportunity to see it a different way be
with it a different way and relate to it a different way so Wendy thanks again so
much for joining and may you all be blessed with um the greatest nomadic
meditations and um really good health and great meditation and just you
know keep on keeping on yeah and here we are happy New Year yes happy New Year
bye everybody all right bye
Integrating Presence 
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