elemental meditations

Meditation is an age-old discipline. It evolved as a way to quiet the mind for the purpose of self-realization: to experience the essence of your being.

The technique of meditation is to bring your mind to focus on one thing only, what the yogis called ekagrata. Visualization, breath and sound are the primary tools used to focus your mind.

The elemental meditations in jana’s circle are a unique approach to meditative practice. They evolved for the purpose of helping people meet the day-to-day challenge of living with cancer. In these meditations, the one thing only upon which you focus is the reality of your innermost core of energy, of calm, of strength.

Hi, I’m Jana Titus. And to tell you about the meditations in jana’s circle, I have to tell you a little about myself because these meditations grew out of my personal and professional experience of living with cancer.

When I was first diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Disease almost 30 years ago, I already had an established meditation practice. Yet, to my amazement, I found that just when I needed it the most, I was unable to meditate. I was exhausted, in pain, stressed out, unable to concentrate, unable to sit, unable to find time or energy to practice. None of the approaches, none of the rules I’d studied seemed to relate to my circumstances. Was meditation only for people who were fit and healthy and living within a normal range of daily stress???? That’s how it seemed.

So began what has been a lifelong study and practice of meditation as a practical, user-friendly tool of self support—a means of connecting to your own deepest strength.

In the years since my first Hodgkin’s Disease, meditation has become an accepted support and wellness modality. Yet, when I talk with people who come to my meditation classes and seminars, the issues I hear about are the same issues I dealt with years ago, and the same issues that have troubled everyone with whom I’ve ever shared. "I’d like to meditate but I can’t concentrate." "I can’t find the time." "I’m too stressed out." "I can’t sit." "I’m not doing it right." "Nothing happens."

Elemental meditation answers these issues and questions with a completely different approach to practice.

You can’t concentrate?
No one can. Meditation is the process of learning to concentrate. You don’t concentrate to meditate; you meditate to practice concentrating.

You can’t find the time?
You don’t need to find a special time to meditate. Nor do you have to meditate for a specific amount of time. Meditation is a focus and a process: you can meditate whenever you feel the need, wherever you are.

You're too stressed out?
Don’t fight the stress, just see and breathe through it. In fact, when you’re most stressed out and least able to concentrate is when meditation is most helpful.

You can’t sit?
You don’t have to sit. You can meditate standing up, lying down, walking, doing the dishes—whatever and however. These meditations are meant to be incorporated into your life as an organic part of your daily routine.

I'm not doing it right.
There is no right or wrong way to meditation. There is only the process and practice of doing it.

Nothing happens.
Something always happens when you meditate—even if you can’t feel it—because any effort to focus, any moment of inner calm, is profoundly beneficial. Trust the process. Trust your core.

The most effective way to begin your practice of meditation is to have guidance in the focus. I have made a CD of elemental meditation as part of a series of guided meditations, each presenting a different way to connect to your core. I know it’s hard to read about meditation and then meditate, but I’d like to give you a sense of what it means to focus on your core—and why it’s so beneficial to do so. Read through the explanation, and then take a moment to see into, feel into and breathe into your core.

Elemental meditations are visceral meditations. That means you build the visualizations in your body: you meditate on your core. Once you understand what comprises your core, it is easy to set the image.

Your center of gravity: The foundation of your core is your center of gravity, where your torso finds its balance on your legs. Your center of gravity is located in the center of your pelvic girdle, the center of your abdomen. Visualize your center of gravity as a circle the size of a baseball.

Gravity is the force that holds the universe together. To be in balance with this force is to be in harmony with elemental power, and to connect that power to the foundation of your core.

Your vertical core: Your spinal column is your vertical core. Visualize your spine as a strong but flexible tube, or building column, growing upwards from your center of gravity through the center of your body.

Your spinal column is the structural core of your body. It contains your spinal chord, which is the core of your central nervous system. Your spinal column and spinal chord form the structural and neural reality of your core. To connect to your core is an act of self-empowerment.

Your brain: Your brain is the control center of your nervous system, your consciousness and your body. The visualization of your core is completed by seeing the full length of your spine, from your center of gravity through to the center of your brain, thus connecting your center of gravity, your spine and your mind in one image.

To visualize your core in its entirety is to bring yourself into mind/body balance, and experience the innate power and harmony at your center.

Your breath: Breathing animates the visualization of your core: Draw each inhalation from your center of gravity upward through the column to the center of your brain. Release each exhalation from the center of your brain back down through your spinal column to your center of gravity.

The rhythm of your breathing connects you to the powerful flow of energy at your center: the continual input and output of information carried by your central nervous system. On the deepest level of focus your breath connects you to what yogis call prana, your life force, as it flows through your being.

The elements in elemental meditation: The final step in completing your meditation is to bring into your focus the power of the energies around you—water, earth, fire and air. These elements relate to the images that are used to pictorialize your core. The elements evoke associations that bolster and enhance your meditative focus.

Remember—at your most vulnerable, when you’re under the greatest stress, this is the time you need connection to your core the most. And it is a time when you have the greatest chance of learning how to connect, to trust, to draw upon your deepest innate strength.

This is what these meditations are about.

Enjoy your practice. Use it as a source of strength to get through your days.

You will learn that you are stronger than you ever dreamed.