On April 8, the Localife Edmonton crew (and our cats) assembled from the comfort of our own homes to be treated to a crash course in meditation! We decided to use a video chat to help us all feel connected in a time when we couldn’t be together physically, and it was so nice to see all of our friends smile, laughing, and have a peek into each other’s lives during this time of social distancing.
Since we are all feeling the stress of a global pandemic, Mandy and Morgan decided this event would focus on relaxing everyone using various meditation techniques. We kicked things off with a little conversation about what meditation is, and how we have incorporated it into our lives.
Morgan began with a guided meditation designed to relax every part of our bodies — a technique she learned from restorative yoga. This practice gave us all a chance to connect with our bodies and allow our breath to release tension wherever it might be camping out. As this meditation came to a close, there were lots of yawns, stretches, sighs, and some of us even had the benefit of a micro snooze.
Following this, our lovely friend and guest of honour, Kat Hawn, shared her experiences in learning meditation while climbing a mountain in Thailand with a Thai Monk. Kat reflected on that time with us, and explained the basics of doing a silent meditation. We all sunk into that silent meditation, and realized how we could choose to empty our minds, but also how difficult that task may be. Being able to meditate is certainly a skill, and we all realized how much practice goes into focusing on only one thing.
Mandy also shared her favourite mantras with the group and showed us her meditation corner where she begins every day.
We talked about ideas for the next Localife event via video chat, and we have some really exciting content coming your way!
A massive thanks to Kat Hawn for joining our group and sharing her wisdom with us. We look forward to seeing your faces (and your cats) at our next event.
If you have any feedback, skills or ideas you’d like to share, hit us up at [email protected]!
With lots of love, peace, and relaxation in a difficult time,
Morgan and Mandy
