Salima Pirani :: Reiki & Meditation: stress

Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts

How to Retreat at Home

At the start of "social distancing", which is now being referred to as "lockdown", I joked on social media against a jaunty yellow background: "Let's Call it a Retreat!". Secretly, I wished it were. While I had a couple of days off due to postponing courses, I've since been flooded with clients presenting with all kinds of distress and problems.

My own ensuing problem quickly became overwork.

Let's take today for example. My first order of business was a 2-hour lesson at 8:30am. Then a 30-minute birthday call. I wolfed down some oatmeal and fruit just in time to teach a Psychic Course session at 11am. This course is taught with 1-hour breaks in between sessions. Online funeral at 11:30am. I returned a few emails and led the next Psychic Course session at 12:30pm. Following this was a tri-continental family zoom reunion at 1pm. Another Psychic Course session at 2pm. Yoga at 3pm (10 minutes for a snack right before, tsk tsk!). Psychic Course session at 4:30pm.

I'm now at my dinner break (I'd originally booked a client during this break but her appointment was moved) and I'm grateful for a home cooked meal. I've got about 15 minutes to write before hopping back on for today's last Psychic Course session at 5:45pm. Then my niece, nephew and their parents are coming later for an impromptu physically-distanced backyard fireworks (probably handheld sparklers) birthday party and homemade cake for my brother-in-law. Fortunately I'd taken the rest of the evening off.

Normally, I try to pace myself. Today's funeral, family zoom meeting and backyard party weren't part of my original day at all. But this is how it goes in the pandemic, isn't it? I'm sure you have your version of chaos too.

With the next few days looking almost as impossible, I've decided to revisit my retreat idea in earnest. No retreat centres happening now. I'm having my retreat at home.

How, you ask? Well, here's my plan.

Focus

First, what's this retreat about? You might want to focus on writing, nutrition or even building a business. Those sound like deep-dives, not retreats. What I'm talking about is a proper silent retreat, dedicated to my meditation, mindfulness and insight practice. It's about being alone with this body and this mind and knowing their realities. Know what your focus is for the retreat and know what kinds of activities you'll be including to support your focus. In my case, there will be sitting and walking mindfulness practice, mindfulness while eating, perhaps mindfulness while gardening and cleaning and a few supplementary teachings. After all, if you're setting aside real estate in your calendar, it had better be worth the investment of your time.

Dates

A retreat could be a day, a week up to 40 or even 60 days or more. The dates must be consecutive, with no interruptions. No sneaking in work! No socializing! And no devices! Length is also important. Long ago, I attended a 10-day silent Vipassana retreat in Illinois. Most of the participants were newbies. By day four, half the meditation hall, including my ride back to Chicago O'Hare, had defected. So, you want your retreat to be long enough to challenge you and boost your practice, but short enough that it's actually do-able.

Eyeing a course postponement in the calendar and a space between weekly mindfulness teaching, I decide on four days at the end of the month. Yippie! Having four days to do nothing sounds divine, but it won't be nothing. I'm investing my time, so I want it to be worth it. I need to set up a routine.

Schedule

Once you block off time, structure each day of the retreat.

At every retreat I've attended and led, there's a rhythm that one follows day after day. Consider alternating sitting and walking practice. Pre-set your waking and sleeping hours and meal times.

Look at how your activities work together. Although mindfulness during mealtimes is part of my practice, I know a walking or active practice after eating prevents the inevitable post-food sluggishness.

Don't pile the toughest challenges ("I'm going to sit still and meditate for two hours straight!") on the first day. Ease in. Last summer, I took my little niece and nephew to Montreal for five wild days of fun to kick off summer holidays (during the Montreal Jazz Festival and long weekend). I then plunged head-first into a 5-day Buddhist insight retreat in silence in the country. Mistake! It took two of the five days just to settle in. Winding down a bit before heading to the retreat is also a great idea, to help you make the most of your silent time. Since I grocery shop for my parents, I'll make sure that's done prior to my retreat, taper off work leading up to my start date and refer folks elsewhere for help.

Location

Set up your space so that it's conducive to practice. If your home environment is cluttered, it could take away from your ability to be at ease. Of course, you should absolutely make any cleaning or tidying up part of your mindfulness in daily life practice. Take a look at the weather before your retreat begins and plan some time outdoors. A change of scenery can really boost awareness and mindfulness. I'll be heading to my local park the first day or two, as a walk by the river will be an ideal place to help ease into deeper awareness in my practice later on.

Materials

Think about what you'll need to make your retreat successful. Writing and journaling aren't part of a silent retreat so notebooks are out, but you may want to supplement your practice with reading and listening to lessons or teachings. And although these are wonderful complements to your retreat, they aren't required. If you do go this route, pick out a book or two in advance, not twenty. The idea is to supplement the awareness practice, not get lost in reading. Downloading audio or putting it on CD in advance will avoid temptation to go online.

I've recorded Love in the Time of Corona, a 1-hour guided healing meditation specifically to help with stress and anxiety around this time. I've also created Seven Days of Guided Meditation, a series of short 12-20 minute "guided lessons", which is a great start for beginners. I've downloaded some audio from my teacher's teacher in Thailand that I'll use to supplement my practice for up to an hour each day.

You might be used to using a timer app for your meditation or mindfulness practice. Instead of this, keep your device off wifi and on airplane mode and use an alarm clock and regular watch. If you're off schedule a few minutes, it's ok.

Provisions

This includes making sure you have enough groceries (and toilet paper), planning out your meals, getting a babysitter or handing off work if you need to. Cancel appointments and remember, this is a digital detox as well as a mental detox. Avoid relying on devices.

Silence

This is perhaps the most daunting aspect for many. How will I manage to stay off my phone, device, TV, and stay quiet for a day? A week? A month? And what if I live with others who aren't retreating? Again, ease in and make sure you set some ground rules for yourself and those around you before you begin. Tell your family or house-mates about your retreat, and share your schedule so they're less likely to disturb you when you're in common areas. If you think they'll forget and try to engage with you (even eye contact counts as engagement), you can pre-plan to wear something as a signal to them that you're remaining silent. I'll wear my Silence t-shirt, but you may opt for a simple hat or scarf as a visual cue.

Notify

Tell everyone you're heading on retreat! It will help you be accountable to yourself and it will help others know to resist contacting you until after your retreat is completed. Set your out-of-office notices. Post something up on social media. Stick a note on your door for any deliveries. Set your phone to Do Not Disturb with a custom message. Send out an email and tell folks that might contact you (I sent out a note to my email list, and linked this post!).

Be Kind

Lastly, remember that this retreat has a purpose: it's to give you an opportunity to invest in yourself and your own development. Take it easy and be kind to yourself. If you can't fall asleep one evening and oversleep the next day, just know you overslept. If you become impatient with yourself, just know the impatience arose. If you feel fearful that you're missing out on something happening in the world, just know the fear. The whole point is to know what's arising in within your heart, mind and body, one moment at a time, with patience and attention.

So, full disclosure, I didn't finish writing this in 15 minutes. And that's okay.

I'll put all of these tips into action in a couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. ❤

Further Learning

If you enjoy the workshop you may also want to explore:

About Salima

A leading Reiki Master Teacher, Intuitive Guide, Healer & Vice-Chair of the Mindfulness Society of Canada, Salima offers private healing & readings, & teaches Reiki, intuition & mindfulness to students in person and around the world.

Reiki Healing During a Pandemic (COVID-19)

If you're a Reiki Healer, please stop giving Reiki immediately.

I never thought I'd say that, but I said it. Let me explain.

As I write this, people all over the world are getting sick but don't know it. There are germs flying about, landing and lingering on all kinds of surfaces -- and staying active for longer than we think.

Public health experts all over the world are telling us to stay home, wash our hands, keep a safe distance from others if we absolutely must go out and physically distance ourselves -- avoid all physical contact. So, I'm telling all my students (and all hands-on-healers of all kinds) to stop giving Reiki or other healing sessions in person. Teachers: stop giving attunements. For now. It's a disheartening message, but the good news is that we don't need to get stuck or feel useless. There's a lot we can still do. Read on!

Infusing Reiki

Even at Level One, before we've learned distance healing, we have a remarkable capacity for healing. The first step is always to practice self-healing with Reiki. If you're physically distancing (I don't like to call it "socially distancing" because you can still be social, just not in person), chances are you've freed up a bit of time spent commuting and running around (a lot of which seems unnecessary now, doesn't it?). Use this time to commit or re-commit to a daily self-healing practice. If you haven't practiced in a while, get your manual out and start again. Make sure your hands are freshly washed before you start. If you still can't find an hour a day, do less than an hour. Some Reiki is better than no Reiki.

I won't lie: A full or longer session is better than a shorter session because you attend to all areas and work through congestion and blockages. Imagine how you'd feel after a half hour massage versus a one-hour massage? Exactly. While you're giving yourself Reiki you may find that worries, fears, anxieties, your concern or compulsion to fix things or save others or your own feelings of helplessness when you can't help them, magically soften. Put on a little light healing music and allow yourself to feel the healing as you go. Allow it to be an exploration rather than a fixing session.

Then, once your self-healing is done, your energy field and your aura are charged up! You're filled with light. Give yourself some time then to practice any of the following:

prayers
phone calls
offering of words of support
laughter
crying and allowing others to cry
making good on promises
check-ins with others
manifesting visualizations (see the outcome or reality you want)
go into your psychic workshop (if you've taken that course)
sending love and light

All of these will be infused with Reiki already because you've just come from giving yourself Reiki! When I first learned Level One, I'd wake up with my hands buzzing and felt that the Reiki energy was being wasted if I didn't immediately give myself a healing. In hindsight I know it was part of my path to practice and I noticed that from the moment I began my daily self-practice, my whole life was filled with awareness, attentiveness, signs, miracles and spontaneous doors opening for me.

Distance Reiki

For those who are at Reiki Level Two, you've learned some very valuable and magical skills. In addition to learning how to become sensitive to emotions and facilitate emotional releases and healing, you've also learned how to use the technology of symbols. These are very powerful tools. They give you the ability to open up a portal to transmit healing beyond space and time.

Amazing, right?

Are you nervous? You've already done it. You had practice during your course and after your very fist distance healing in our course, you shared what you sensed and what you felt was being worked on. That's all you need to share. You just need to practice doing it. Communicating what we sense is even more important now. Here are the ways in which this is achieved, from the most impactful, to the least:

The most powerful is face to face practice and communication, but we can't do that right now.

The second most powerful way to practice and communicate is over the phone (or a video call, with Skype, LINE, WhatsApp, Zoom, or others). This means a live Reiki session in real time while the recipient on the other end of the call is lying down and receiving the distance Reiki. So while they don't see you, they do hear you. During the session, you can share with them what you sense, facilitate an emotional release and healing, practise sound healing and /or play healing music.

The image above shows the next best way is a hand-written letter. Quaint, but not happening.

Finally, you can email (or at the least, text) a written report with notes after the session is complete. I do this sometimes. When I do, my notes are extensive because I'm typing in real time (with one finger on my phone) as I do the distance healing.

Any of these forms of communication will be immensely helpful to the recipient.

But you might be nervous.

"What if I misinterpret something I feel?". Yes, you might. And it's okay. Reiki healing is perfect and works on what's needed at the time. We may not know what that is. The person receiving the healing for a skin condition may get a distance healing from you and sleep better than they had in months because their anxiety was eased. So if you give Reiki by distance and feel anxiety instead of a skin condition that's okay. That skin condition may improve given the benefits of better rest or after a few distance Reiki healings.

"What if there's an awkward silence on the phone?". We really have trouble with silence, don't we? One thing I hope COVID-19 helps us with is overcoming boredom. When you're giving Reiki, let yourself and the other person be bored. Rest and let them rest. Trust the Reiki and let the recipient trust you. Let it be quiet and sense what you sense. Let them be quiet and see if they can sense anything happening. They just might.

If you feel you need to check in and see if they're "still there", you can gently ask, "If you need anything or have questions, just ask, okay?", and that will give them a chance to let you know if they do.

Play a little light healing music in the background, just as you would if they were with you. Nothing dramatic or emotionally tugging. No violins! Chances are, if they've had Reiki with you before, they'll feel immediately more relaxed hearing the familiar healing sounds in the background and feel at ease knowing that you're with them throughout the call.

I do a lot of healing work over the phone and can share with you that as awkward as it might be for you your first few times, it's more awkward for them. You might have practice doing this several times, but for them, they may be going out on a limb and this may be their first time. Just remember that Reiki can do no harm. The intent is always pure and healing, so you're safe and so is the recipient.

If all else fails, contact your teacher. At their heart, a Reiki Master/Teacher is bound and responsible to their students. Just like a parent to a child, a spiritual healing teacher is responsible to their students for as long as the student has something to learn from them. So practice and explore, but if something isn't making sense, get in touch. Keep up your practice.

Remember you have a very magical gift and we all need as much light as we can get right now!

Further Learning

If you enjoy the workshop you may also want to explore:

About Salima

3 Things I Learned from Giving Reiki in a Hospital Ward

My mom (a 3-time kidney transplant recipient) has been admitted to the hospital three times in two months, nauseous, vomiting, reeling and barely able to walk or hold up a fork. Hardly a walk in the park for her or the family. Nonetheless, somehow each time she was admitted she seemed to be getting happier. It confirmed something that I had sensed before. Giving someone Reiki in the hospital is one of the best things for them. I'll tell you why.

1. Sleep Kicks In

Search the internet for "sleep" and the results will turn up thousands of articles about how to sleep better. If we are a culture of people obsessed with a health issue, it's sleep. Why is this? Perhaps because we realize how tired we are, yet can't seem to rest.

Once someone ends up in a hospital bed they're in a state of trauma and total exhaustion. Then there are all these smells, and noises from machines, from the ward, from stranger room-mates who could simply be breathing too loudly for our taste. Half the time I give Reiki, the recipient's body will tend to fall asleep for at least a few minutes at a time. It's a good thing.

During Reiki, the body switches from operating in waking life, managing physical issues while operating in the sympathetic nervous system, to the parasympathetic nervous system, when it rests, digests and conserves energy. When we fall asleep, the body releases most of its growth hormone, which doesn't just make you taller; it stimulates your immune system.

2. Heart Rate Goes Down

Heart rate variability (the range at which the heart beats) is an indicator of health. The larger this range the better off we are. Why? Because an increased heart rate indicates the heart's ability to react quickly and appropriately in the face of imminent danger, and a lower heart rate indicates its ability to return to a restful, repairing and more healing state once out of danger. All too often, our heart rate increases through management of daily stresses, and because we don't "shut off", it stays up there.

Over a year ago, a family friend suffered a heart attack. After her emergency catheterization she was in the Cardiac ICU, hooked up to heart monitors, unable to sleep or relax in the ward. While I gave her Reiki, her son was sitting in the corner of the room. Not only did he thank me afterward for helping her finally fall asleep during the session, but he remarked that he was watching the monitors, which showed her heart rate had decreased ten points while Reiki was in progress. This ability to recover from an unnaturally high heart rate means our systems can more readily heal from truama, shock, and stress.

3. Side Effects - and Tumours - can Vanish

For those undergoing cancer treatments, the physical side effects of therapies like chemotherapy can be debilitating. Added to this, there are many emotions under the surface that have played a part in the illness and that will surface during the illness, diagnosis and treatment. Fear, anxiety, anger and dread can prevent the body's immune system from detecting and eliminate toxins.

I've worked with many people who have and have had cancers. By receiving Reiki before going for chemo, they sense real changes in the mind and body. Even getting Reiki after chemo can obliterate its side effects. It can also enhance mood. Fear and anxiety can subside, giving way to a more supported feeling and healing. And yes, I've seen cases where tumours were proliferating and the person was told they had a few months to live, and yet the tumours all disappeared after receiving regular Reiki sessions. Much to their doctor's surprise, the person went on to live a healthy, cancer-free life for years.

The Perfect Complement

In our 2-Day Level One Reiki Course, we talk about how Reiki is the perfect self-healing tool as well as the best complementary therapy to conventional medicine. It's highly portable (all you need is your own hands). It's always available when you need it. Most importantly, it is completely safe as it works from the highest of good.

If you've ever been hospitalized or have visited someone who's been in hospital, you know that it can be a boring and depressing experience. What better opportunity to practice Reiki? It may feel weird and awkward, and yes a hospital bed is very clunky to get around, but you can get creative, and:

Push the hospital bed away from the back wall, so you can stand behind it.
Use the mechanism to get the bed at the level you need.
Draw the privacy curtains if your loved one is sharing a room.
Put on relaxing "Reiki friendly" music to offset the PA system and other sounds.
Send distance Reiki even from a few feet away!

Interestingly, nurses and doctors love to see their patients receiving care from Reiki healers. While doctors may dismiss medical intuitives, preferring evidence-based diagnostics and conventional therapies, there are signs that the medical community is slowly coming around.

In fact many of the world's top hospitals and health care institutions now offer Reiki as a service for patients and clients. At the time of writing this, some of these currently include Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Harvard University in Boston, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in western Australia, University College London Hospitals NHS in London. Canadian hospitals offering Reiki as a complementary therapy include: Wellspring Westkirk House at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Mt. Sinai Hospital’s Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre in Toronto, Princess Margaret Hospital / University Health Network in Toronto, Bruce House AIDS hospice in Ottawa, Sandy Hill Community Health Centre in Ottawa, Tamara's House in Saskatoon and Wellspring with locations across Canada.

Beyond the Ward

So in the end, my first intuition (which was that one of my mom's medications was making her sick) was spot-on. Following several tests, she was taken out of isolation and then released with new medications that are vital and better tolerated by her system and her other medications.

And even though she's out of the hospital, she's still getting lots of Reiki.

Want to take a Siam Reiki Course? Find out when the next one is offered here.

Further Learning

If you enjoy the workshop you may also want to explore:
Metta At-Home Practice
Connecting with Guides Workshop
Energetic Clearing & Protection
Developing Psychic Awareness (Live)
Reiki & Healing Courses (Live)
Meditation & Mindfulness (Live)
Reiki Treatments (In-Person/Phone/Zoom)
Akashic Soul Path Readings (Phone/Zoom)
Home Clearing & Blessing Visit (Live)

About Salima

A leading Reiki Master Teacher, Intuitive Guide, Healer & Vice-Chair of the Mindfulness Society of Canada, Salima offers private healing & readings, & teaches Reiki, intuition & mindfulness to students in person and around the world.

Reiki for Weight Loss? Christina Aguilera Says Yes

Christina Aguilera: a healthy look

Pop star Christina Aguilera gives credit to Reiki treatments for losing 30-pounds and keeping it off. Aguilera, a celebrity coach on The Voice, has discovered two major ways in which Reiki helps towards weight loss. She says, “Reiki puts her mind in a good place and also gives her the discipline to eat healthy and maintain weight loss.”

She's not alone. Many Hollywood stars have reported having discovered the subtle and yet powerful effects of Reiki including Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Aguilera, a busy 32-year-old mom, receives Reiki treatment three times each week. Any new moms here wonder how she does it? Me too!

Aguilera with her 5-year old son, Max

Reiki and weight loss programs

Just like Aguilera, many people who have experienced Reiki report that it helps them:

feel calmer, more balanced
make better choices, including regarding what they eat
have fewer cravings for addictive substances, including emotional eating
better and more easily manage everyday stresses
sleep better (insomnia has been linked to obesity)
exercise and take better care of themselves.

While it's fantastic that Aguilera is focusing on her health and well-being, the truth is most of us can't go for Reiki treatments three times a week. Especially busy working moms.

This is why learning Reiki Level One for self-treatment is such a smart investment.

Transformation: Aguilera at American Music Awards 2012 (Left) and 2013 (Right)

Reiki self-treatment

A Level One Reiki Course is an easy 2-day course that anyone can take and costs about the same as three Reiki treatments. By learning Reiki, we can practice on ourselves as much as we like (ideally every day!) and share the amazing benefits of Reiki with others.

Reiki helps our system more efficiently and easily manage stress, helps strengthen all of our natural healing systems and increases the flow of energy through our body.

What about emotional eating?

Another benefit of adding Reiki to any physical fitness regimen is that even just a few minutes of Reiki self-healing can balance our system and stop food cravings and emotional tendencies to eat.

Because Reiki is holistic, working subtly on physical, mental-emotional and spiritual levels, it has the ability to quickly calm emotions. The sense of wholeness and contentment balances our system, melting away emotionally-driven cravings and the heightened awareness motivates us to take better care of ourselves.

Healthy weight

Celebrities are judged by their appearance way more than us living in the real world. Fashion magazines are notorious for air-brushing or zooming in on faces when bodies don't "fit" society's idea of beauty. We don't need to look like a celebrity to feel good about ourselves but it's clear that Christina Aguilera has found Reiki helps her feel better -- and when we feel better will always look our best.

Get Reiki or learn Reiki self-care

If you would like more information about Reiki, you can look into receiving Reiki Treatments or Learning Reiki here.

Further Learning

If you enjoy the workshop you may also want to explore:

About Salima

7 Tips for Smoother, Smarter, more Soulful Travel

you can lose yourself, even when you know where you are

This past summer, for me, was four months of constantly moving around. Bay of Quinte. Toronto. Tampa. Toronto. San Francisco. Toronto. Montreal. Toronto. San Francisco. Toronto. San Francisco. Toronto. Bay of Quinte. Toronto. Beijing. Xi'an. Shanghai. Hong Kong. San Francisco and back to Toronto. I'm now grounded for the rest of the year.

I help professionals, entrepreneurs and busy parents manage their health, stress and energy through mindfulness, meditation, and self-healing; but you can imagine how so much moving around affects my own energy... and how that affects my work.

Travelling is a fun and mind-broadening activity but the joy of it quickly fades when you find yourself constantly packing and unpacking, going through endless security checks, living out of a bag while spending a great deal of time in airports, lounges, cabs and hotel rooms. It is also easy to forget your daily meditation or mindfulness practice and even easier to experience illness when you're constantly on the go.

Over the years I've come to understand seven simple ways to save time, keep my energy and spirits up, protect myself against burn-out and make the most of my travels. Here they are;

travel light - suitcases should be smaller than you

1. Pack what you know.

Packing has always been my least favourite activity. While running the communications department for an African organization a few years ago, I created a time-saving standard packing list. I still use this today, allowing for minor adjustments depending on destination. I used to roll everything but now I use the KonMari method. It's much neater than a big mass of rolled up clothes and everything goes directly from drawer to bag. My advice: take your favourite clothes with you. If you have something sitting in the closet that you never wear, keep it there or better yet, give it away. Making sure you are comfortable is the priority. When you're comfortable, people feel comfortable around you. Pretty simple right?

2. Coordinate and consolidate.

I like to travel for work but always find time for pleasure when I'm away. I recently spent two weeks hopping around China with family and proceeded directly to a workshop in California, carrying only a small roll-on and purse. So, I needed everything to do double or triple-duty. That meant packing wrinkle-resistant, colour-coordinated items that were easy to hand-wash, dried fast and could be layered. Must-take item: A couple of nice, big scarves to wrap around me on chilly flights, fold and use as neck or lower back supports, wear as beach cover ups or sarongs, and yes as a scarf or accessory.

keep these things safe!

3. Tech up and back up.

Remember Murphy's Law? Make sure you have back-up plans. Remember your power converters; take that extra cable, and the spare drive with a copy of your files. The last thing you want to do is arrive to a work destination and be unprepared. Keep a backup of your ID by scanning and emailing yourself a copy of your passport, visa, driver's licence, health insurance, other important documents, bank account numbers and corresponding emergency telephone numbers. While you're at it, backup your phone. Last time I travelled, my iPhone plummeted to the bottom of an elevator shaft the day before I was coming home. It's a hassle replacing these things when you're away, and once you’ve done this, you won’t need to again for a while.

4. Spread those wings before you fly.

don't try this in the airport - they may give away your ticket

Airports and planes are designed to get the most people to a destination using the least amount of space, resources and tools. Some airports have begun to make a shift, though. San Francisco International Airport has a yoga room in the domestic departures lounge. It's small but does the trick - get a few stretches in if you can, especially if you're waiting for a long-haul flight. Some airports have quiet rooms or meditation rooms too. Even without these, you can usually find space for stretching, taking some revitalizing deep breaths or closing and sunning your eyes and face by those big windows at your gate. Instead of shopping, tweeting or firing up your tablet, waiting in the lounge or at your gate is a great time to meditate or practice mindfulness before take-off. There's enough noise and movement to observe your body and mind, and the stiff benches at gates are perfect for sitting up a little straighter, just uncomfortable enough to help ward off sleepiness.

wouldn't this be so nice?

5. Make space in the sky.

Your movements are limited on the flight, so take care of yourself in the air. There's usually space near the kitchen or washrooms to go for a stretch. I've found that rather than getting stares from people, they were more likely to come by for a stretch too. Flying with recycled air is drying, so bring an empty travel bottle, fill it with hot or cold drinking water and a lemon wedge from a restaurant at your gate to keep hydrated throughout the flight.

In your purse or travel bag, keep a set of ear buds, clean underwear and a t-shirt, a small notebook and pen, healthy snacks like carrots and fruit, and at least a one night’s stay worth of currency for each country you're travelling to. Who knows, you might be struck by a brilliant idea to jot down, run into delays, be stuck somewhere for hours or perhaps even overnight. If the in-flight movie selection disappoints, you will thank yourself if you took the time to prepare a playlist of your favourite relaxing music, guided meditations or audiobooks to listen to, or brought along a timeless, inspirational read.

I've even noticed the flight goes by faster when I practice mindfulness or close my eyes and meditate while in the plane. If I end up talking to the person sitting next to me, my interactions are so much more pleasant and sweet. Which brings me to...

6. Talk to people.

Just a friendly hello to the person sitting next to you at the gate, on your flight or on the train can enrich your travel experience. I can't say how many times a stranger has made my day or given me amazing insights into life.

Once on a Chennai-Mumbai flight I teared up with an excruciating earache while flying with a cold. The guy sitting next to me somehow fashioned a finger puppet out of his croissant in efforts to cheer me up. On a rather uncomfortable Paris-New York flight, the guy sitting next to me and I snuck away from our noisy section to the back of the plane and played charades and laughed for hours.

On my way home from Amsterdam once, I sat next to a woman who was leaving her whole world behind to make a fresh start in Toronto. Additionally, she had a fear of flying and was clenching the armrest in panic. I read her A Meditation for the Jet-Set during our take off. We still keep in touch today.

no lie. i sat next to her on a red eye home.
she slept faceplant style on her seat the entire flight

7. Sleep.

If you are crossing time zones and need to sleep in order to stay fresh and alert on landing, do what you need to do. I set my internal clock to destination time when I board a plane. You can also bring a good bedtime tea with you. I love Clipper's organic Sleep Easy tea. You can check your local health food store for one containing valerian root.

For mid-afternoon jet lag after arriving at your destination, I set an alarm for a 12-minute nap or practice intense deep breathing for 30 seconds, enough to freshen up for a few hours. Other things you can use are eye masks, smartphone "white noise" apps (crashing waves work wonders for me), earplugs and travel pillows.

Practice the "shutdown" meditation: move your awareness from your feet up to your head, relaxing and releasing each part of the body as you go.

Take it easy...

view from my virgin atlantic flight
to delhi. relax and take it all in

The last thing I can say is this: pace yourself. Don't travel to twelve places in four months and try and keep your regular workload. It's just too much to keep anyone healthy, grounded and mindful. This summer was an experiment on myself I won't need to repeat. By the end of it, I was exhausted, had a bad cold and came home needing a cocoon and silence, when I usually feel brighter, recharged and revitalized.

As Marcel Proust said: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but seeing with new eyes.” So make your journey comfortable with less of the stress. No matter where you find yourself, if your body, mind and spirit are comfortable, you will soak up more richness from your travel experiences than you had imagined.