What is Instinctive Meditation™?

Last year, I completed meditation teacher training. A six month long deep dive into the process of finding natural doorways into meditation.

Every week we would journal an end to the sentence: “Instinctive Meditation™ is…” based on our experience of what we had practised that week.

We were invited to explore the journey of disovery during this process of learning. To define what it meant for ourselves. An inquiry of our own self rather than imposition from another.

So straight from my journal to you — For me, Instinctive Meditation™ is:

… working with what is effortless, there, arising and passing.

… noticing the in between, the whole experience, the shifting, changing processes.

… day to day engagement with all available senses.

… attending to the rhythms of life, internally and externally, noticing the flow of opposites.

… flowing with it all, accepting and welcoming it all.

… living life, loving self.

… following your internal rhythms, instincts and honouring these.

… embracing desire and its complexity as a whole.

… going your own way.

… a celebration of the whole of you, not a war against yourself.

… embracing the darkness as well as the light.

… welcoming depths as a portal to healing.

… playing and exploring the opposites.

… a path of joy.

… permission.

Learning to meditate this way felt like a breath of fresh air. Fully aligned with my sense of myself, the world and others. Integrated perfectly with what I already had learned in my life and work.

Meditating does not have to be hard. It can be flexible, shift and change — according to your needs. Your own instincts. It is a practice of connection. With yourself. Others. Life.
—Ash

Ashlea conducts monthly workshops on meditation and embodiment at Wilderness Yoga Coffs Coast. To book in visit her events page.