Like many people, I used to think “what is meditation, and why should I care?” Now, as I complete my Master’s of Wisdom Teacher’s Training with Davidji, I can confidently say that I am ready to help others answer their own questions about meditation.
In the past, I saw meditation as something hard, something scary and something I couldn’t do. But then in 2012, I learned that a family friend was prescribed meditation by his doctor following a pretty intense surgery, in order to help him manage the stress associated with his chronic illness. When I heard that, something just clicked and I thought “well, maybe there are some real benefits to this.” I had my own stressful situations in life, and knew I needed to build a better stress-busting tool kit. For the first time, I considered that maybe meditation could have a place in that.
At that time, I went to a friend of mine Lisa, who teaches yoga here in Dawson Creek. I asked her if she could please start teaching a class on meditation, and so she did. That was the start of my meditation practice. Since then, I’ve been exploring meditation in its many forms and meeting with teachers from all around the world.
They say if you want to learn how to do something well, you should teach it. I wanted to keep meditation as a consistent part of my life, and also help others to do the same. At the be.real retreat, we’ve proven to ourselves that we can change our journey, our lives and our wellness through the practice of meditation.
I knew it was very important for me to continue to grow in my meditation practice, and also to get a certification from a renown world-class teacher so I could gain more knowledge and expertise. I’m always learning from meditation teachers, but I’m not allowed to use their pieces of training as a teacher myself. It’s for a good reason, but I also wanted to be certified so that I could rightfully build those principals into my own teachings.
All of these things came together last year, when I started working towards my Master’s of Wisdom Teacher Training offered by Davidji in California.
It began with a 1-on-1 session with Davidji to really dig out what I need to work on as a human being and as a teacher. Since then, I’ve been completing weekly study assignments in meditation practices, and meeting with a group of my peers online each Sunday to go over the work. We also record ourselves teaching mediation and submit weekly practicum reports. On October 13th, I’ll be heading down to California to complete the last step in this training- a one-week meditation intensive at Davidji’s school in California.
We will start meditating before sunrise and won’t stop until after sunset. In other words, we start at about 5 am and go until 10 pm or so. I’m really looking forward to sharing space with others who are on the same journey, continuing to grow in my practice, and coming out with new tools and philosophies to teach my own clients. There are some things I think will be challenging too. When people are healing and growing, they can often have some resistance to this process. I expect there will be some deeper emotional barriers that I have that I don’t currently recognize.
But overall, I’m excited to share what I’ve learned during this intensive Master’s program in my weekly meditation courses here in Dawson Creek, and also to reconnect with the be.real retreat community when I return to make plans for our next event.
To find out more about Davidji and his teachings, please visit his website here.