In these stressful modern times, it is simply necessary to meditate.
My husband Stefan Árni and I started practicing Modern-Day Meditation in the year 2000. We loved this type of meditation involving music and movement. Sitting still and quieting the mind seems impossible, so meditating with movement worked infinitely better.
Our lives call for it. We juggle so much: family, relationships, work, finances, home, health, diet, exercise, and constantly in action, making countless decisions each day. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the worries of the mind or the emotions that run around in us looking for an outlet. Mediation can release that stress, but we sometimes avoid it when we need it most. Sometimes the pressure gets too much and comes out as irritation or anger towards the ones we love, or in negative thoughts towards ourselves and others. In these moments, it is more important to meditate than ever.
Two thousand years ago, at the time of Buddha, it must have been easier to quiet the mind and focus within. There were no internet, cell phones, cars, credit cards, advertising, TV, pollution, junk foods or weapons of mass destruction. We need a different kind of medicine now, a meditation that can take us deeper and beyond the ceaseless, sometimes relentless, thoughts, feelings and experiences of the mind. Meditation has that calming influence. Modern-Day Meditation has a special power to take you beyond your mind and open you up to your very life force, which has the healing effect of making you whole again.
I have been leading weekly Modern-Day Meditations and workshops at Baðhúsið Women’s Spa and Stefán and I led a yoga and meditation workshop at Sólheimar with world-renowned yoga teacher Peter Sterios. Stefán and I hold weekly meditations at Dansverkstæðið next to the KEX Hostel, which starts back up in August. At the end of August we are helping facilitate another workshop at Sólheimar Eco Village called Love’s Awakening.
This summer we have a weekly Dance Meditation at KEX Hostel on Monday nights. We play the best of Icelandic music, from Sigur Rós, Ásgeir Trausti, Retro Stefson, Ólöf Arnalds and GusGus to Trabant, Björk and Ólafur Arnalds.
Dance Meditation is a powerful way to experience a profound shift in consciousness, allowing you to connect to your innate nature and the energy from within and without you. It’s a simple practice of trusting yourself, your breath and how your body wants to move, as you let go of stress and open up to the positive and powerfully healing energy of Icelandic nature, of the divine.
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Dance Meditation is at KEX on Monday nights from 18:00–20:00—you may be surprised at how much can happen in your body, mind, soul and spirit. For more information on KEX’s Dance Meditation and other meditation events check out Modern-Day Meditation Iceland on Facebook.
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