Meditation Club in Santa Monica and Online

Every Monday at 5:30 PM PST I will be offering Meditation Classes both in person in Santa Monica and Online via Google Meet. The format will be about 25-30 minutes of meditation followed by an optional 25-30 minute chat/Q&A. The club is donation based on a sliding scale with a suggested donation of $10 to $20. To register please send me an email at Rachelcohen425@gmail.com or a Text Message to 516-902-2282.

About Meditation

In ancient times, meditation was the goal and asanas (aka what people think of when they think of Yoga today), were a means of enhancing the capacity of the body and mind so that a person could sit in meditation, comfortably, for a significant period of time. Asana was preparation for meditation.

A misconception of meditation is that the purpose of meditation is to get rid of your thoughts or feelings. Meditation is not about becoming a different person, a new person, or even a better person. It’s training in awareness and getting a healthy sense of perspective. It’s about learning to OBSERVE (not turn off) your thoughts or feelings without judgment. And eventually, you may start to better understand them as well.

Meditation is a skill that needs to be learned. It is like exercising a muscle (your brain is a huge muscle) that you’ve never really worked out before. It takes consistent practice to get comfortable. Consistency, Tapas, or Discipline is the name of the game in meditation. It will work it’s magic only if you are consistent, as in making it a daily ritual, habit, like brushing your teeth. And usually, it’s easier if you have a teacher. With our meditation classes in Santa Monica, CA we’ve got you covered there.

Meditation is a practice, it’s not about perfection. There is no such thing as a perfect meditation. Again, it’s about bringing awareness without judgment. The mind wanders, it’s just what it does. Sometimes you forget to follow your breath. Sometimes resistance and emotions pop up. All of that is OK. It’s part of the experience. What’s most important is to meditate consistently. In meditation, the journey is more important than the destination. There is no goal in meditation. No deadline. No meditation medals to receive. It’s more about learning to be with yourself. The key word is BE. We are human beings and we’ve evolved to be human doings and soon we may become more like cyber/technological humans. It’s about returning to a simpler time, without the gadgets, without the noise. It’s about returning to YOU.

I believe that true peace of mind is always there, but first we have to let go of everything that obscures such calm and clarity - our confusion, our ruminating, our expectations, our inner chatter. When you achieve calmness and peace of mind, you perspective changes.

The science is catching up to what meditators have known for years, that meditation works. Meditation actually appears to shrink the amygdala (which is our threat detection control tower of the brain) while thickening the prefrontal cortex of the brain (which is responsible for higher level thinking skills and behavior modification.). Exercising the brain in a way that strengthens your though process can provide support and groundwork you need to control how you react to situations throughout the day. With consistency, meditation becomes a powerful tool to supersede our more primal threat-based reactivity and replace it with more thoughtful responsiveness.

Meditation Techniques. There are so many and it can be overwhelming (it still is for me). I combine elements of insight (vipassana) and calming (samatha) meditations. The methodologies or traditions I follow are Burmese and Tibetan Buddhism, Yogic and Tantric systems. The intention of a calming meditation is to cultivate a quieter, more peaceful state of mind and improve concentration. This involves usually a body scan, focusing on your breath, a mantra, a visualization, a physical object or even a physical sensation within your body - and returning to that object whenever you get distracted or triggered. Alternatively, insight meditation is about transforming the mind by developing qualities such as wisdom and compassion. It involves focusing on the breath and being aware of and noting all the physical and mental sensations that arise. My Santa Monica Meditation Classes usually combine elements of both, insight and calming in guiding my students.