I teach meditation & Here are what the people come to my classes have taught me

I have been teaching meditation full time in Auckland Central since 2022, mainly at my own practice The Grounded Circle. In 2023, I teach weekly Wednesday meditation sessions at Manzana, a co-working space for feminine businesses. I have to say the most beneficial things I have got from teaching meditation is what the people come to my classes have taught me. Here are some of them:

- The art of letting go: At the beginning of winter, a lovely young girl at our meditation nights shared how the weather always effected her mood. Not being able to change the weather, she was looking at trying out ways to enjoy changes of seasons. The moment she started to change how she could response to this situation, she has let go of the need to control. What meditation practically offers us is the ability to step back and be aware of our thoughts and feelings instead of being led by them. If someone tells me meditation is not for them, what I want to ask is that "what is it that you can’t let go of?" It is definitely easier to focus on doing something rather than doing nothing. But what sets meditation different from any other meditative acts (sports, dancing, art, etc) is that you can really practice to be with yourself with no distractions and learn to let go of your personal judgments on how things should or shouldn't be.

- It is the daily practice that counts: there is surely a thing about wanting to be activated spiritually (get "high" spiritually or be "healed" completely one and for all) by going to retreats, festivals, wellness workshops, etc. The thing is these experiences also follow the law of nature that change is constant. At the end of the day, sooner or later we still have to come "down". Some ladies at our classes don't know what cacao, tea "ceremony", or sound bath are. The only thing they want to learn is meditation and to be able to sit just 5 mins every morning.

- Accessing the divine in everyday life: Not every class was filled with transformative, life-changing moments. However, each class was ultimately a practice, a collection of moments, in which everyone learn to carry on their practice to daily life situation so that they have more options than reacting from place of hurt, fear or doubt. I particularly love to hear all the sharing on everyone's mundane day to day moments and how meditation has contributing little by little to their life. As Pema Chodron says, “Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality."

- When our presences alone is enough: my background was in architecture and interior design so I have a tendency of wanting to creating a “beautiful” physical space for my events. I could stress myself out for small little details until I realised that my presence alone is the most important and it is enough. These people come here to sit with me, to share their stories and to go on this little self-exploration journey together. It doesn’t matter what we do, how much we earn, or how do we look. We come together to listen to each other, to share insights and most of the times just sit in silence together- as when our presences alone is enough, we don’t need to prove anything to the outside world.

Photos from some of our classes with The Grounded Circle at Manzana.