Ostara _ rituals, recipes, & lore for the spring equinox ( PDFDrive )

If you don’t already meditate, Ostara—being a time of new beginnings—is the
perfect time to start. There are different forms of meditation. There are the
Eastern traditions of silent meditation where you basically clear your mind,
focus on your breathing, and turn your thoughts inward to whatever your body or
mind needs to tell you. There is also guided meditation. While some
practitioners of Eastern traditions might tell you that guided meditations are not
really meditating, for those who practice guided meditations they most certainly
are!
In a guided meditation, someone literally talks you through the meditation.
This may be a person or a recorded track. You can read guided meditations
before practicing and then try to remember the meditation as you go, but this is
difficult and makes it hard to concentrate. If you have a guided meditation
written out, such as those listed here, you should either enlist the help of a friend
or a family member and have them read it to you when you are ready to actually
practice, or you can make a recording of it as you read it yourself.
Remember this is a meditation, and you will want it to be read as such. You
should lower and soften your voice, turn down your own personal volume, and
reduce the speed accordingly. Read over the meditation several times silently
and aloud before actually recording. You will want to make sure you leave
enough time for any breaks for silent time you may need. Make sure you pay
attention to pronunciation and basic grammar. Don’t read it monotone or as one
giant, run-on sentence. Put some time into making sure you get it right. Begin by
recording just a small part. Play it back and see how it sounds to you before you
record the entire meditation. Some people prefer to record on a computer and
burn it to a CD or add it to an MP3 player. You can also use a small digital
recorder. Whichever technology works best for you is fine.
For those new to meditating, there are a few other things you need to keep in
mind.
When choosing a location to perform your meditations remember: • Outside
gives you a chance to connect with nature more, if it’s not too cold. If you are
too cold it will just make you miserable and distract from the meditation.
• Look for a location free of noise and other people.