JUNE FOCUS OF THE MONTH: MEDITATION
My daughter received two butterfly garden kits this spring, so we’ve had quite the time witnessing the magical caterpillar to butterfly journey and transformation.
Right before they become beautiful, bouncy butterflies, caterpillars spend a lot of time in stillness. Yet it’s amazing how so much change and transformation is going on within the stillness and darkness of their chrysalis. The caterpillar begins it’s journey to butterfly very focused as it seeks out a safe home- be it the underside of a leaf or the top of a temporary butterfly habitat (a cage or terrarium) that is available like in our case. With this focused determination and so much patience they find their safe place to build their temporary home, a chrysalis. They then spend approximately 7-14 days (depending on what kind of butterfly) in their chrysalis transforming.
Butterflies have short life-spans. Mayfly butterflies only live for 24 hours, while other species live up to one year. That doesn’t seem like long either, but for a butterfly that’s the longest-lived adult butterfly life span. Can you imagine, sitting in dark stillness for two weeks just to then have only one day to fly around and live one's life? What would you do if you only had one day to live?
The first day of summer is Tuesday, June 21st… yeah I know, with the recent above average high temps it sure has felt like summer already. Summer has come to represent optimism, positivity, joy, and hope for the future. Likewise, butterflies are a symbol of hope and joy. Winter is a period of self- reflection and ‘preparing for new beginnings ahead’, then spring is all about new beginnings and transformations, and summer represents the time for growth and adventure…. it’s the time for LIVING. Thus summer is about being present.
Caterpillars transform and emerge as butterflies in late May/June, during the season of spring and early summer. As the heat of the summer begins, so does the period of growth and adventure for butterflies. They are ready for their new beginning as a butterfly, ready to live and flutter about joyfully.
FOCUS OF THE MONTH: MEDITATION
“In stillness lives wisdom. In quiet you’ll find peace. In solitude you’ll remember yourself.” ~ Robin Sharma
Dhyāna is the Sanskrit word referring to the 7th limb of yoga- meditation or contemplation. It is derived from the root words, dhi meaning “receptacle” or “the mind” and yana meaning “moving” or “going.”
Nicolai Bachman says that, “Dhyāna occurs when only a single idea is present in the heart-mind.” So an idea, a thought, is present and it’s not really about pushing it away and ignoring it, but rather being able to sit with it. Meditating challenges us to resist the urge to follow the thought(s) that disrupt our concentration so that we can connect to a sense of calm, peace and balance. It gives us the opportunity to experience a deeper awareness of our consciousness. Just like the butterfly represents transformation, meditation is also a transformative process and journey within.
“Meditation is about neither cultivating nor rejecting but rather about learning how to be present in the face of whatever rises in our mind. We just need to get used to being present: aware of- yet undistracted by- whatever sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, and emotions appear. Through meditation practice we can train our mind in such a way that our attention remains wherever we place it.” (Solomon/Rinpoche- Radically Happy)
It takes time and practice getting used to being present because it involves training our mind which is not an easy task. It’s hard enough moving through a yoga asana practice and keeping our mind from wandering, so sitting still in meditation can be really hard. Similar to the caterpillar’s journey, it takes patience to get used to being still and to adjust to the changes we might experience along the way. It’s helpful to start slow (i.e short 1-2 minute meditation practices) when trying to train our mind from fluttering off like a butterfly with our thoughts and other distractions.
If you already have one, or have had a regular meditation practice in the past at some point in time, you know the feeling that comes after the practice. You can immediately feel the calm, peace, joy, and hope even, when needed. It’s amazing how just a few minutes of meditation can make such a huge difference. While it takes a lot of time, patience and effort to learn how to practice meditation, there are so many benefits that make it worth it aside from the immediate post-practice sensations.
Meditation teaches us how to be more tolerable and patient (with ourselves and others), helps us to build skills to manage stress (i.e. gaining new perspectives), increases imagination and creativity, and reduces negative emotions. Research also suggests that meditation can help manage symptoms of more serious health conditions like sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, asthma, and even cancer.
Furthermore, it can help to increase our self-awareness- to better connect to our inner light and wholeness, the beautiful parts and the more painful/dark parts that make us whole and still beautiful like a butterfly.
*To learn more about meditation, like its benefits and different types of meditations check out this Mayo Clinic resource- CLICK HERE.
We can learn so much from nature and butterflies- their patience, how hard they work to grow and transform, and their resilience in the face of all the changes they have to endure in order to grow into something so beautiful. Butterflies also symbolize freedom, inspiring us to let our truest self fly freely.
We may also find a lot of ourselves in butterflies. Butterflies never get the opportunity to see how beautiful they are, just like some of us. They fly around sharing their beauty with us, just like we share our beauty with others, yet some of us still never truly see it for ourself. However, Meditation is a way in. IF you can learn to patiently sit still long enough with yourself to take the journey inward, you will find that beauty that’s been there all along… you will remember yourself and then can let your truest self fly freely.
Namaste
Painted Lady butterfly from our butterfly garden on the day we set it free.