After the past two years of a global pandemic, taking time to look after your mind, body and soul has been more important than ever.
'Time to Breathe' is a nurturing meditation group led by Adam Thomas (pictured with his wife Sabina) of Kalyan Yoga who has been offering weekly Time to Breathe sessions since June 2021.
Each session offers simple and effective techniques for quieting the mind and opening the heart. We explore these through movement, breathing exercises and meditation. Everyone is welcome to join us at the Totnes Natural Health Centre on Mondays from 12.30 - 1.30pm.
Adam shares his hopes for Time to Breathe in 2022. He says;
Time to Breathe is an invitation to connect to the source of love and wisdom originating from within the hearts of all people. I hope the practices introduced during these sessions connect the community to their hearts and inspire them to live from their hearts, with a heart wide open. When I refer to an open heart, I simply mean a heart open to both joy and sorrow, a heart open to life, rooted in love and wisdom. I hope Time to Breathe can inspire people to meditate on a regular basis. Meditation can reveal a place of interconnectedness and steadiness within us from which we can all act courageously and compassionately. This is my hope for Time to Breathe.
Nisargadatta Maharaj — 'Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.'
Having spent the vast majority of our first year living in Totnes in and out of lockdown, my wife and I feel incredibly joyful after the second half of 2021. We now offer three hatha yoga classes each week and in November we were finally able to offer a meditation workshop to a group of 16 unique and beautiful human beings. In 2022 we shall continue with weekly hatha yoga classes. We also hope to offer some residential meditation retreats and meditation workshops throughout the year.
It has been roughly six months since I took over Time to Breathe from Hilary Bee and I'd like to thank Hilary for her continued support and friendship. I feel very grateful to be able to offer these sessions and they fulfil a need to serve.
Over the past 6 months a small group of us have gathered Monday lunchtimes for one hour to breathe, relax and meditate. Although I wouldn't consider the sessions to be social, the connections formed when meditating with a group of people is very powerful. I feel a deep connection to the group and as a result of this, more integrated and connected to the community.
I continue to introduce and guide a number of different breathing and meditation techniques from a variety of spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism. I feel inspired to introduce a technique from the Christian tradition in the new year. However, our openness to Christian practices can be limited due to our conditioning.
There is a very beautiful metaphor from the Zen Buddhist tradition, 'The finger that points to the moon,' which describes the relationship between meditation techniques and that which they point towards. The finger or meditation technique doesn't have any value in itself unless it is used to reveal the moon or the depth of our being. We can try to avoid attachment to or having a preference over one technique or another. The most important part is looking in the direction the finger points and revealing the moon!
Happy New Year and I hope you can join us one Monday lunchtime at the Totnes Natural Health Centre.
Namaste.
Time to Breathe is a community meditation and mindfulness class in the heart of Totnes. We offer a space for the Totnes community to come together and attend to the inner world.
Transition Town Totnes 