How to Use Your QuietSelf Membership
Let’s take this one step
at a time
Let’s take this one step at a time
one step at a time
1. Begin at Any Beginning
When it comes to using your QuietSelf meditation subscription, there’s no right or wrong way to begin.
Some people like to choose one of the Intentions, and then from that category begin with either a single-session Experience, or a 7-Day program. Some jump into a 4-week course immediately. Others head straight for the Mind States, choosing to continue their solo practice with the benefit of the many timed non-guided music tracks as support. Still others browse the Experiences section and choose whatever strikes their fancy that day.
The essential thing is that you simply begin with a single step, and then another, and another.
Always remember that the most important step in any journey isn’t the first step, or even the last. Rather, it’s the decision to continue. All movement flows from that decision, and all development unfolds from it.
2. Wear Earbuds or Headphones
QuietSelf meditations are designed to be immersive, evocative Experiences. Headphones or earbuds will help you quickly escape from the chaos of the day and enter meditation quickly and easily. They’ll also allow you to receive the benefits of the brainwave technology we use in our audio tracks. You can read more about this technology here.
And, subtly, using something as simple as headphones or earbuds each time you engage a QuietSelf Experience will help support good habit development. Putting them on becomes a signal to yourself that you are devoting your focus to the Experience. It’s support for the ultimate exploration of “me time”.
3. Find Your Quiet Place
If you’re using the QuietSelf library to support seated meditation, it’s important that you’re able to keep your attention on the meditation you’re practicing.
Decide on a place where you feel safe and can relax, undisturbed, for the duration of the Experience. It doesn’t have to be a special meditation room, or even a corner of your home, complete with cushions, candles and incense. (It can be, but it doesn’t have to be.) Your meditation spot can even vary from day to day, if that’s what suits your lifestyle. It can be in your office, on a train or even in the park – anywhere that’s convenient, as long as you’re comfortable keeping your eyes closed and your ears attuned to the meditation audio. The important thing is that no one will be actively trying to get your attention during your session.
Also, be sure to turn off any notifications on your computer or mobile device. This way, your session won’t be interrupted with an email from work or a call from a friend.
Then, close your eyes, take a deep inhalation and exhalation, and enjoy yourself.
4. Even in a Crowd
Many subscribers find benefit using their QuietSelf subscription even outside of meditation or contemplation time. In fact, our Mind States are great as background support for many daily tasks. These can range from the sublime (prayer, for example) to the mundane (gardening, cooking, errands, etc). There is no human task that cannot be made more spiritually meaningful, and our Experiences, arranged for easy access on your mobile device, support this kind of on-the-go usage.
Just slip on your earbuds and let one of our music-only Experiences, or even one of our voice-guided meditation Experiences, accompany you on your day. It’ll take work tasks, errands, even nightly wind-down time to a whole new depth of centered awareness and insight.
NOTE: Due to the deeply relaxing nature of all QuietSelf audio, please do not use our any of our audio Experiences while driving or working with or near heavy machinery. And, of course, during the pandemic, be sure that you can maintain healthy social distancing if you plan to meditate in a park or other public place.
5. Repeat Often
All QuietSelf Experiences are designed to be repeated. In fact, the more you repeat them, the more benefit you receive.
You’ll find built-in repetition in many of our 7-day and 4-week courses. In this regard, QuietSelf Experiences have something in common with yoga poses. You don’t learn a yoga asana just once and then rush off to learn the next, and the next and the next. You work on the pose until you understand its basic mechanics. Then you practice it. A lot. Eventually, you find space to stop working on the asana, and you begin allowing the asana to work on you.
Think of how many downward facing dogs you’ll do in your lifetime. It’s the same pose, but it’s different each time. Even in the same yoga session!
That’s what QuietSelf meditation Experiences are like. So, revisit the Intentions and Mind States often. Repeat those Experiences that appeal most to you. Even return to Experiences that didn’t seem to do much for you the first time. And most definitely, if you find an Experience that you feel yourself resistant to, explore making friends with it to see what benefits you might be able to extract.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. And then repeat again. This is why it’s called practice :)))
6. Let Patience Guide You
Be as kind and patient with yourself as you would be with someone else. Whether you’re an experienced meditator, or just starting out, give yourself permission to enjoy your meditation time. Allow it to take root in your daily or weekly routine as a counterbalance to stress, duties, and all forms of problem-solving.
If you find that you have a tendency to fall asleep if you make yourself “too comfortable” when you meditate, try making yourself just slightly less comfortable.
If you find that your mind continues to race through shopping lists and memories of political tweets while you’re trying to focus on just the breath, give yourself permission to let the mind tire itself out. And then try again.
We structured QuietSelf around INTENTIONS, rather than goals, as a way to help you be kind to yourself. Treat yourself as you would treat your best friend. Because as Buddhists say, there’s no one more deserving of your love than yourself. You don’t have to be a Buddhist to see the deep value in that important perspective. You just have to be a human being.
And lastly, always be kind to others. Everyone is struggling and doing their best. Yes, even when their best seems not very good at all. The more compassion you can allow yourself to feel – and the more kindness you allow yourself to express – the easier it will be to sleep, to wake up, to work, to focus, to have fun, to navigate challenges, to weather sadness, and to be happy.
Meditation is a terrific road to patience and kindness. Travel far.
REMEMBER...
EXPERIENCES ARE BUILDING BLOCKS
INTENTIONS ARE JOURNEY MAPS
QuietSelf Intentions are conditions of being, rather than goals. They include both guided and music-only Experiences that help you maintain perspective as you chart your meditation journey.
MIND STATES ARE ACCOMPANIMENT
EXPERIENCES ARE BUILDING BLOCKS
INTENTIONS ARE JOURNEY MAPS
MIND STATES ARE ACCOMPANIMENT
And Always, Remember Yourself
Remember who and what you are. Remember why you are, and simply that you are.
Remember that you create the reality that seems to swirl around you. That you are unique. That you are soul and spirit. That you are divine expression in physical form.
Remember that there are no words to adequately express the magnificence of you.
And Always, Remember Yourself
Remember who and what you are. Remember why you are, and simply that you are.
Remember that you create the reality that seems to swirl around you. That you are unique. That you are soul and spirit. That you are divine expression in physical form.
Remember that there are no words to adequately express the magnificence of you.