Category Archives: meditation

Meditation At Sunset Cove

Below is a guided meditation transcript that I’ve been working on during my time at Trizio lake. I’m currently looking for a new platform to record my meditations for others to enjoy.

My name is Shay and today I’ll be guiding you through a meditation that can be beneficial if you are currently struggling with stress, anxiety or worry and I am grateful that you decided to spend your precious time with me.

Before we begin I’d like to invite you to find a quiet space where you’ll be able to sit or lay for 15 minutes or so, so that you are giving yourself the best opportunity possible to find that moment of peace.

And as you settle into a comfortable position it’s important to remind yourself that, with or without the aid of a guided meditation, just to be able to find this quiet space now and again is crucial to your health and wellbeing. This can be your time to think, rest, plan and recover from the demands of the outside world.

This moment is for you to quiet down the noise that has pursued you throughout the day and allow yourself time to recover, recharge and to find a place of stillness in your mind. Negative thoughts serve no purpose to you right now. Let them go. If, at any time during this meditation, you find your mind wandering then know that this is absolutely fine. It is normal. Just refocus your energy back onto my words when you are able to.

Now you can realize your breathing pattern as you begin to surrender to your environment and the floor, chair or whatever it is that supports you right now. Take one deep breath in and feel the positive energy that you are creating fill your body. Slowly release. And once again you can continue with your usual breathing pattern. If you haven’t done so already, close your eyes and become witness the way your eyelids feel heavy and how your shoulders begin to lower as if they are melting away the stresses placed upon them.

Using your third eye now, in front of you, you can see every colour imaginable swirling and spiralling creating vivid shapes and dances. You watch intently as slowly they begin to create a pathway. A multi coloured pathway leading far into the distance.

Barefoot, you step onto the beginning of the path. It feels warm underneath your feet and radiates to you a great sense of comfort and happiness from this. You begin to walk along its path.

Although you don’t know where this path leads, you don’t feel the need to know right now. It just feels right. The warmth of the path reaches the tips of your fingers and all the way to your forehead as you realise that you are no longer walking on the path, but floating above it.

As you glide above the glowing coloured pathway you see a gate. The gate is a field gate made of pine. You descend towards it and gently land by its opening. You raise your hand to push the gate open but before you enter you turn to thank the wonderful vibrant colours that have brought you to this point. You then begin to smell the meadow that lays beyond the gate. As you walk through the gate you feel the grass on your feet making direct contact with the Earth’s energy. The crinkling sound of the grass as you continue walking reminds you of a care free childhood summer.

You look around and see flowers that bask in the sunshine and butterflies, bees and birds flutter and hop through the meadow. Beyond the fern and aurora a watery trickling sound catches your attention, to which you feel drawn to. Slowly you make your way towards a small cove which presents a vast lake. Deepen your connection to this place by realising the colour of the water as it trickles towards your feet. Notice how the radiation of the sun interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere and creates the bluest of skies. Feel the gentle breeze touch your face and feel the warm sandy ground between your toes.

You sit cross legged by the edge of the lake. You can see hilltops in the distance across from the lake with different shades of green foliage covering them. A bright orange glow appears into the sky line as the sun slowly descends behind the hilltops.

As the sun sets further behind the hilltops. This is the perfect moment for you to repeat this mantra, and please, if you have your own mantra then you are welcome to repeat your own words.

I am calm

I am in control

And I am always able to find solutions.

Repeat your mantra as you gaze at the sun disappearing behind the hilltops.

I am calm

I am in control

And I am always able to find solutions.

Continue to repeat.

It’s time to thank your visualization now. The gate, the meadow, the cove and the lake, the hilltops and the sun. Thank them for allowing you to see such tranquil beauty at this important time to you.

And now it’s time to meet your conscious self once again, in your quiet space. Take a deep breath now and repeat your mantra once more.

I am calm

I am in control

And I am always able to find solutions.

When you are ready to, open your eyes. Make yourself aware of your surroundings and, just for a few moments, reflect on your experience from the past 20 minutes or so.

When you are fully happy to leave your quiet space then you are able to continue your day with optimism, love and calm in your heart and mind.

Goodbye for now friend.

I’m Just A Beginner

I will never truly know the forest, but I get the feeling as I walk through it, that it knows me already.

I aim to wander through this dream every morning. I call it a dream because it reminds me of a quote by Turkish novelist Memet Murat Ildan when he stated that “You can walk in a dream while you are awake. Just walk in the misty morning of a forest.”

And also before I have two cups of coffee I am hardly classed as awake, so one could argue that I am still slumbering through my morning walk.

I see something different with every walk. Most of the time I’m not even walking. I stop, listen, look up at the tallest pine trees and breath. The deeper into the forest I go I can lose my mind and find my soul.

But I am mindful that I am entering nature’s home. I bought the land but I am only a guest. I’ve already had snakes slither across my path with no harm to them or me. I’m sure I can come up with a similar understanding with the wild boars. It might seem naive, but I’m learning to become a part of my new environment.

I carry with me a long stick. I was advised by the locals in my Portuguese village that if I walk in the woods I should do so with a long stick. Apparently the wild boars, which come out at dusk and can charge if they feel threatened, make their dens in the forest. I don’t know what to do with the stick if I were to be confronted with a wild boar. Duolingo never taught me how to say “What the fuck do I do with this?” in Portuguese.

My aim is to wake up willing to be a beginner every single morning. Like I say, I will never truly know the forest. But if I enter it with the wide eyed care and attention that it deserves then I can make new discoveries each day.

I’m just a beginner at everything. Even stuff I’m qualified in. I’m a personal trainer but every visit to the gym is another chance to learn. I can’t possibly know it all.

At the moment the forest is my gym. Another day to grow, learn and become a part of something special.

‘I Am Strong’ Affirmation

My latest podcast deals with powerful affirmations to overcome difficult moments in your life and how you can unlock the code using your inner strength.

Just follow the link below!

Listen to the most recent episode of my podcast: ‘I Am Strong’ Affirmation https://anchor.fm/shay-durant-duckworth/episodes/I-Am-Strong-Affirmation-e269qof

Quantum Jump Manifestation

We tend to only see ourselves as part of this universe. Indeed, the word ‘universe’ indicates that there’s just one. And yet we know very little about what is beyond our own galaxy. As we learn more about quantum physics, we are also becoming more open to what else is out there.

What if we could actually discover what lies beyond our galaxy within these parallel realities? What if you could discover new layers to this world and make contact with alternate versions of yourself?

This week, that is where I’ve been. This souped up variation of a visualization meditation can take you on a journey of discovery and empowerment. I felt it and I learnt a great deal about me and my future. Just for a moment, I lived it.

Before I explain more about QJM, I first need to describe to you how the universe works for us. The universe is like a Google search bar. When you type in a search on Google, the algorithm will match what it is you’re looking for. So sophisticated is this engine, that it will also begin to create ads and suggestions based on what you input into it. Well, the universe works in exactly the same way.

A vibrational frequency from your thoughts and emotions is picked up by the universe where it will begin to match your frequency into matching algorithms.

So QJM allows us to get deep inside our subconscious mind and shape our inner beliefs and expectations. Through QJM we can access dormant areas of our minds and explore desired realities. Through these focussed techniques of QJM, we can create positive outcomes and allow the universe to process this through its matching algorithms.

Quite a lot of guided meditations that I use when I feel like I need it is by Jason Stephenson on YouTube. I really would recommend that you allow yourself some time to listen and focus on his version of a Quantum Jump Manifestation. They can be a lengthy hour or two though, so do make sure that you can have an evening to yourself (or with a partner) to take the jump. You might like some time to process your experience afterwards too.

Although I’m qualified in guided meditations I’m going to continue learning and hopefully find a way of qualifying me to conduct QJM for other people, so I won’t be sharing any of my versions just yet! But if you are interested in giving it a go, check out Jason Stephenson’s QJM and tell me how you got on.

For now, keep feeding those positive thoughts to the universe.

Finding Your Balance

Do I feel less anxious because I started to balance my energy flow using chakra energy, or did I begin to feel less anxious and therefore felt more open to chakra balancing?

I was always a skeptic when it came to meditation, chakra balancing and crystal healing. But perhaps I just never understood it before. Now, as a meditation guide, I am obviously fully on board with the powers of this method of calling upon ones own positive energy.

Truth be told I still don’t fully understand it. But sometimes we don’t need to understand something, we just need to trust that we’re going in the right direction. If it feels right, you probably are.

So giving myself a moment to think, meditate, get rid of any negative energy and find my chakra balance is as important to me now as my next meal. It is nourishing, satisfying and necessary in surviving the day.

The seven essential chakras that I focus on are the crown, to understand . The third eye, to see. The throat, to speak. The heart, to love. The solar plexus, to do. The sacral, to feel. And the root, to be grounded.

We often find the answers that we look for deep within us. These can be the most important questions that challenge you daily. Why am I doing this? What is my purpose? Am I worthy?

You have the answers, but you need to stop for a moment to find them. Just by closing your eyes in a quiet space can help you to come up with answers, but to truly find peace with these answers then I would recommend meditation or a form of energy balancing. This will really speak to our soul.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Do you ever give your soul a chance to provide any answers, or do you just keep asking the questions?

Maybe it’s time to find your balance.

Mount Sleepmore

Sometimes the little wins create huge, long term success. And so that is what I’m hoping is happening in the case of my oldest boys sleeping behaviour. A little win here and there.

The other night I meditated with him just before he went to sleep. Following the similar pattern which we have now done for a couple of weeks, we created a number of positive visualizations together to bring about a comforting night sleep.

The theme of this visualization was to imagine traveling along a big, white fluffy cloud with all of his friends and family which would take him to a mountain where he could peacefully dream. This mountain I called Mount Sleepmore.

As I guided him through his journey to this mountain, I too closed my eyes and imagined the forests, seas, rivers and sand below. Above me I could see the twinkling of the stars. It was calm and serene as this great big cloud chugged along the night sky taking us to our peaceful mountain.

Usually, if the visualisation is working for me as the guide, I feel that it is being effective for the listener. The steady breathing and the stillness of the environment certainly indicated to me that it was working.

As we arrived at Mount Sleepmore, I left my son to continue his visualisations by reassuring him that, although the meditation was ending, his imagination could keep him in his happy place.

The next morning, he told us that he had had a bad dream through the night and thought about coming into our bedroom to sleep with us for comfort. But instead he tried to get back to sleep on his own, which he managed. I’m hoping that the techniques that he is acquiring are enabling him to comfort himself in these situations. If he can get back to Mount Sleepmore on his own, this is a big deal in his sleeping development.

However, it also proves that meditation doesn’t get rid of negative thoughts, bad dreams or worries. We cannot forget our daily tasks, the grind or our fears. These feel very real to us that can affect our lives greatly.

But it can help us to know how to respond to them. Through repetition and consistency, I believe that the power of the mind and positive mantras, visualisations and meditation can enable us to approach our difficulties in a much healthier way. It can alter the way we perceive ourselves and our environment. It can create a mindset that is able to deal with whatever curve ball is thrown at us.

I started by saying that it is the little wins that are vital. And each positive thought that you can express is the little wins. Finding a moment in your day to encourage these thoughts through meditation is a very useful way of doing it.

You can find your own Mount Sleepmore anywhere in your own imagination if you allow yourself the time to do it.

I wonder if he’s at Mount Sleepmore yet.

Imagine You Could Be Anything Or Be Anywhere In The Universe

A very interesting piece of information struck me the other night. Sometimes, actually getting 10 minutes peace and allowing our mind to focus on something other than the daily grind is extremely difficult. Meditating or visualising positive outcomes is not always an easy thing to do especially with a busy lifestyle or a generally anxious mind.

When somebody approaches me and tells me about their anxieties I will often recommend meditation, but their response is mixed. It appeals to many people but there are also those who will say to me that they have tried but find it very difficult, even with a meditation guide such as myself.

And recently I have noticed my eldest son wanting to choose his own theme when it comes to meditation. For those of you who have read my blogs for some time you might remember me telling you that he has suffered with anxieties in the past which could have been caused by previous lockdowns. And I think this might be fairly common for many other children too. For our children, we decided to try short meditations with them during their night time routine which went really well.

However, just in the past couple of nights he has been requesting his own different scenarios in which he can enter during his meditations. This made me think. A beach setting, walking through a meadow, floating on a cloud or just visualising sitting in a favourite quiet place might seem like the perfect destination for a meditation, but if it isn’t where you want to be in that moment, then it won’t be as effective. Why can’t we become a superhero for the night? Why can’t we play the part of the pebble as the waves of the sea ebb in and out? Why can’t we be the rain drop that descends through the atmosphere? You can be.

For many of us, it’s a stretch of the imagination, but with a guided meditation together we might be able to unlock the potential in your mind and, as I have recently discovered, if the meditation guide knows exactly what a person would like to discover then it becomes a much more personalized experience. A kind of bespoke meditation designed specifically for that one person. Nobody else’s. It’s just their experience.

So, although completely in the early stages of development, I aim to provide this new service to those who wish to try it out.

And if it’s anything like the past two evenings for my children then this bespoke approach to meditation might be the key to releasing other children’s anxieties too. It’s like choosing your own adventure where only good things happen in your own safe space, being the character that you want to be, being satisfied with the ending and waiting for the next episode with imagination, enthusiasm, excitement and calm.

The channel on YouTube will be called Tranquil Youth Meditation. Click the link to discover more about it!

https://www.youtube.com/@TranquilYouthMeditation

If you have any questions about your meditation or how you might be able to help your child through meditation, don’t hesitate to ask!