29/09/2025
Breathe & Be – The Calm Series with Marie 🌱
6 day meditation invitation 🧘🏽♀️
So, Im up for a 6 day meditation intensive and you are welcome to join me and have an experience of meditation - donation only.
This series is also for those who are experienced and would like to join to polish up their practice.
What ever calls you, this is always beautiful when done alongside others.
My personal story of meditation began in 2001, a wee while ago I guess – everyone has there own story and often a preferred style of meditation and teacher. There is no right or wrong way.
I began with mantra – repetition of sanskrit, and anapanasati, - mindfulness of breath, both I fell in love with. At the time I was ready to try anything. I was ‘rock-bottom’ and had nothing to lose.
Even so, for me visualization and trataka meditation (staring at a point or object) was too tricky - I often had trouble keeping up with the teacher, or I didn’t like where they were taking me, or I didn’t like their voice or tone. But as I said, there is no right or wrong way.
The practices of repeating beautiful Sanskrit phrases, and being present with every moment of the breath was incredibly restful to me and changed the course of my life.
Shortly after I went on to learn and practice yoga, the traditional 8-fold path and all her arts. I had many beautiful teachers for whom I will forever be grateful, and to this day I am still practicing and teaching mindfulness of movement alongside the breath. Im just not a traditionalist or devotee.
Upon beginning my first yoga teacher training in 2003, with Louisa Sear of Yoga Arts (whom I went on to apprentice with from 2005 onward) I began practicing Vipassana Meditation and Pranayama (yogic breathing techniques that bring about focus, balance, grounding, purification, calming) every morning for an hour.
Vipassana is the intimate observation of present moment sensing, bodily sensations, thoughts and emotions. This is where you develop the capacity to sit ‘above it all’ wearing a wee pōtae (a hat) of curiosity and acceptance, about what you witness, and the multitude of ways the mind and body responds to happenings and sensations. The practice is to be non-reactive, non-judgemental and calm in the presence of all these ‘going’s on’.
You really ‘meet yourself’ here and you begin to achieve self-knowledge and deeper understanding, self compassion and a ‘peeling away’ of all the layers built up around your spirit – around your purity and truth.
This 6 Day Calm Series is a warm invitation into a comfortable, non traditional, non-strict, easy-going, trauma sensitive space.
When I say trauma sensitive I mean, this is your body, your mind, your heart and your spirit and you have the first and final say over what you do. If you are willing to ‘sit with yourself’ and gradually explore the practice of watching the breath and the all the goings on of body, mind and heart, then you are most warmly welcome. Yes, there is bravery involved.
This is not about stopping thoughts or changing thoughts.
We will do some gentle movement, stretching and breathing to begin and then we will work up to a 30 minute sit, 5 minutes at a time. You decide the boundaries you are willing to explore, listen with love to your intuition, and honour your needs as you progress. You are welcome to take rest, join back in as you are ready or even leave, at any time.
At the end of each practice we will lay down to rest and before leaving, we will take a silent pause, to notice how we feel, to acknowledge effort and express gratitude for the experience we have given ourselves – no matter its nature.
This will be a silent space, so before the day we start, please talk to me with all your questions, your injuries and conditions.
I will pass you more information about the practice before you arrive and with that information I will prompt you to be clear on the reasons you want to do this, just as a safety check for you, for me and for all others joining us.
As well, I will invite you to write an affirmation to bring to each practice. Not to be read out loud, but to read or recite silently to yourself before we begin – affirming your why and fueling your momentum.
Finally, I will be there to listen and to ping-pong with you about your reflections, via messaging, during the and after the 6 days, when my im not with my whanau.
Note:
I intend to begin on Sunday 12 October and finish on Friday 18 October – go look at your calendar.
I am opening it to Moerewa and surrounds – I reckon you’re ready.
Lemme know if you want to do AM or PM????
5:30 – 6:30AM or 7:00 – 8:00PM
We will roll with whatever time the community votes most popular.
