Ruth Cherry, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in San Luis Obispo, CA. Her specialty is midlife when psychological and spiritual dynamics merge. The power of the unconscious at midlife to heal and to transform is tapped in meditation. Besides writing about meditation, Ruth leads guided meditation groups weekly.
_______________ When we meditate, we remember ourselves. We focus our attention on the in-breath and the out-breath. We concentrate on the process of inhaling and exhaling, not on a thing or on our mind’s activity. We simply observe. We allow the in-breath to carry us deeper into ourselves and we watch. We focus our attention on this second and we watch. We notice the mind’s activity, the feelings in our hearts, the breath, whatever is. We breathe and we be. Then we allow the in-breath to carry us even deeper, into that space in the very center of who we are. That place that is deeper than our personality and far beyond our feelings. We breathe and we be and we keep our attention focused on this second. All healing arises from the experience of oneness in our essence. When we move into the core of our being and we pay attention, we invite healing. We breathe and we be and we stay present to this second. ______________________________________________ Skeptics trust their experience more than they trust an authority’s words. Skeptics say, “I want to know for myself.” A perfect starting point for meditation. _______________ When we meditate, we close our eyes and move out of our normal logical thought pattern and into our inner worlds. The rules are different here; in our inner worlds, we experience what it is to be us this second. No one can tell us how to be ourselves. If we want to know ourselves more deeply than we ever have and more deeply than anyone else knows us, we move inside, we practice stillness, and we listen. We invite the parts of us we can’t see and don’t know intellectually to present themselves and we allow. We stay present to the moment and we say “Yes” to whatever is. In our humility and attention and acceptance we grow into a world larger than our minds could ever imagine. We practice availability—experience. Whatever life shows us about ourselves, we accept. We experience a partnership with Life that is specific to us. We are nourished and led when we trust. All this magic is here for every one of us. All we need do is be open to it in meditation. A good Skeptic wants that . |
Over the years we grow and learn as we experience life. We adjust, we refine our attitudes, we experience more, we make mid-course corrections, we try something new, we reconsider our options, noticing some we hadn’t previously acknowledged, and we keep going. Challenges bombard us. We re-evaluate our choices and our behavior and we decide anew. We live through crises and disappointments and surprises and losses and we keep going. We grow and we plunge into depths we hadn’t imagined. Life shocks us and, still, we persist. Understandably, with this growth and openness we change in ways we couldn’t predict when we were 21 and new adults. We learn that Life is for expanding, not for just tolerating what is and always has been. No box holds us. We learn that our intellects aren’t in charge. No matter what we said when we were 21, Life has opened possibilities to us. And we want to explore them. Sometimes we feel compelled to follow the inexplicable tugs that won’t let us be satisfied. We don’t choose this restlessness but we must honor it. Somehow we know that our discontent is sacred. It emerges from a depth we haven’t known but we trust it. For if we don’t, we’re sure we’ll lose our soul. And that would be the greatest crime we could commit—foreclosing on our chance to be the individual we were born to be. We watch and we notice and we observe Life working with us to heal and to grow and to express. So, we do. We join in this divine dance and celebrate ourselves as we evolve. We are as surprised as everyone else. In some ways our Life is not our own but we wouldn’t change anything. We’ve discovered magic by allowing. The magic lives in our center and we allow it to emerge by listening and attending to the tugs and honoring our divine discontent. It’s the only way we heal and grow into ourselves. Over more than thirty years practicing individual psychotherapy and studying healing, I’ve found meditation to be the most powerful healing tool available. Simply by focusing our attention, we shift our consciousness and make ourselves available for a healing which our minds can’t understand. We move into a realm in which we are unlimited and in there we allow ourselves to be carried. By aligning with the divinity which lives in our deepest core, we heal. In private practice in San Luis Obispo, CA, I practice healing in individual psychotherapy and in guided meditation groups. The essays which follow reflect what I have learned through paying attention to my experience. Contact us at: meditationcustomerservice@gmail.com |
Chronic pain torments millions of Americans. Medication is often ineffective or may be addictive and usually has side-effects. Meditation offers these patients an alternative : ____________ "My doctor had prescribed every kind of narcotic available. They don't eliminate the pain but they do leave me unable to think. My head gets fuzzy and I can't recall what I know. Not only does medication not solve my problem with chronic pain, it renders me incapable of living a decent life. When I meditate with Ruth's CD, I feel less pain than then any other time-I can drive, bend, and walk (things I can't do otherwise).Meditation has given me back my life." Nancy W * “I’ve had muscle pain in my back for over twenty years. I’ve consulted doctors and tried pills but nothing works very well for very long. When I meditate with Ruth’s CD, I experience relief from the pain that I don’t get any other way. In meditation, I can focus on the pain and and I don't have to take any medication." Don T.
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