Last Tuesday, I led the weekly meditation at the POC for the first time. Well, that's not entirely true. I was the de facto leader back on 11 July, the first night we ever held the weekly meditation group. However, I "cheated" that night and just played a CD of soft music, allowing everyone to meditate on their own. Last week was the first time that I actually took a more active role and led the group through a guided meditation. I found a written out meditation online that a group had posted after using it as a part of their Lammas ritual in a previous year, and printed it out to use.
I have to admit that it was somewhat of a frightening experience. While I have had a decent amount of experience meditating on my own and have even participated in a guided meditation, I had never acted as the leader in such a setting. To be honest, earlier that Tuesday, I sat at my desk asking myself why I let Michele and Belinda ever talk me into doing this.
But I rose to the challenge, set aside my own worries about my lack of experience and did what needed to be done. And the meditation turned out pretty good that night. I wouldn't say I did a perfect job, but I managed to perform well enough that everyone seemed to appreciate the experience. Two of those attending even commenting that it was the perfect meditation for them to go through due to the things they were dealing with in their own lives.
What a relief! It's comforting to know that I will be okay with this. I feel more confident that I will do okay when my turn to lead the group rolls around again. I know that things will go fine. I know that I'm ready to take on this and other responsibilities, despite my insecurities.
All the same, I'm glad that Æthon is in charge of tomorrow night's meditation.
I wonder if your guided meditations are anything like the guided visualization that my youth leader did with us back when I was in Youth Group.
It was of course, Christ centered, and I remember it being a powerful experience...but I also did some thinking/praying about it, and I'm not sure that particular exercise was necessarily a spiritual practice that Christians should be involved in. It's definitely an experience that opens one to the realm of the spirit...but who's to say what spirit?
Meditation however, is a very beneficial experience, Christian or not I would think. What was this guided meditation like exactly? I'm curious.
This particular guided meditation was designed to help people tap into and live out their full potential. It involved imagining oneself starting out as a seed, buried in the cool moist earth. The meditation then proceeded from that point with the shell softening, beginning to sprout, all the way through growing strong and tall, with one's potential buzzing and swirling within oneself. Finally, that potential is released, imagining it flowing outward and expanding into the world like a wave of energy.