Narelle Hunter RURAL LIFESTYLE

I have an inner critic. It tells me sometimes, I am not good enough to be a writer. That it is unlikely my book will ever be complete. It tells me to be careful who I talk to about my novel. I can't imagine writing full time is ever going to sound as impressive as whatever 'they' are doing. I can't imagine it is not going to sound contrite even 35ooo words in.  It doesn't remind me about the people who love to talk about writing, who are interested in what my novel is about and who love the idea of me finally doing something I wanted to do since, forever. It doesn't remind me that I have to pinch myself some days that life feels peaceful and simple, that I have never been so interested in the landscape and the details big or small. It forgets to remind me, I feel more at home and content on the farm than ever before and yet connected to others who also love writing, that I have found a group of friends who also love to write and how they feel like soul mates. Th

10.11.23    Discovering Meditation   If I can define meditation in the simplest way, I would say meditation is ‘ being in the space in between our thoughts .’    Meditation is no ‘easy’ task when we have over 70 000 thoughts a day.  This is why I stepped todays class through a 3-stage process, in preparation for a brief meditation experience. Below is an explanation of each of these stages I taught and why these techniques are great preparation for potent stillness.    Stage 1.   It is more challenging to meditate with lots of tension in the body, so the first step is to let go of the extra holding that we may not even be aware of. This is done by noticing the body and slightly moving each area, or tensing and releasing each body part. (Starting at the feet, legs, spine and then the belly as we breathe. Open and close the hands, stretch the arms, lift and drop the shoulders, carefully stretch the neck and face.)   Stage 2.   Secondly, we can begin to be more aware of our breathing patt