More park meditations, and an audio file review of "Flying Underwater"

This week I've done a couple more post-workout 'sit, breathe and just be' meditations in the park between my house and the gym.

I'm not sure what inspired me to try that the first time, but it really, really seems to work for me. Even on days when I don't have "the best" meditation session there, it usually still feels streets ahead of how a similar session would be were I to have it at home on the sofa or my bed.

Something interesting I noticed is that I find I need to close my eyes more when I'm sitting on the picnic table in the park though... there are so many things to distract my senses there. Even with my eyes closed, I'm still getting constant feedback from the scents, sounds and sensations on my skin - but somehow, without adding sight to the mix, I can happily just sit and observe myself sensing. As soon as I'm getting input from my eyes as well though, it feels like it's too much - if I try to be mindful about my surroundings, it becomes overwhelming. Huh... I never really thought about that before.

I also did a sitting meditation last night before bed, intending to try out another of the free sample audios I'd downloaded from Dragon Rising (note: at the time I wrote this post, their server had gone down - apparently this does happen from time to time) This particular one was called "Underwater Flying".

Now, I'm not entirely sure why, but I'd expected it to be another guided visualisation, like the Ice River one I mentioned a couple of posts back (Oh, while I think about it - I did try the Ice River one again with different headphones, and no still luck, unfortunately. The music / vocals balance was still off enough that there were still places I totally lost the flow of the visualisation... so no, I won't be purchasing any of the downloads in that particular series, alas - and it had so much potential!).

Anyway, no, I was wrong about Underwater Flying being a guided visualisation. It was, in fact, just a piece of music... but it was a wonderful piece of music - great to sit and breathe/meditate to... The sounds woven into it really did suggest an underwater journey to my mind's ear, so yes, the title is a good reflection of what it feels like to listen through the piece. I'll be moving this one from my 'meditations' playlist to my 'meditation' one (yes, I have separate playlists for the two!), and using it again in future for any unstructured underwater journeying I do.

This one I highly recommend (well, I do if and when Dragon Rising's server comes back up anyway) for those who like unstructured visualisation and journeying when they meditate; as well as those who just want some wonderfully evocative music to relax, breathe and dream to.

If you do try the piece out, I'd love to hear your reactions to it.

Blessings




Starfire