Thittato

Yesterday: Singing mantras for 1,5 hour participating in a mantra-circle. So nice. Today: Cold shower.

Thursday: Cold shower Friday: Cold shower Saturday (today): Chanting Gayatri mantra for 20 min.

Also yesterday; 30 min of chanting Gayatri mantra and 15 min of sitting in silence. Today: No practice, except for realizing the fact that I have chanted Gayatri mantra enough for a while, and now is just time to return back to my guitar-learning process, and having a lot of fun with that. Approximately 2 weeks of chanting Gayatri mantra for 45 min almost daily is enough for now. It was very intense and good, and I think it has given me some really awesome things - both to my spiritual practice and to my guitar-playing, and also helping me realize they are both one.

Sunday: Chanting Gayatri mantra for 45 min. Yesterday: Chanting Gayatri mantra for 45 min, and then a cold shower. Today: Only a cold shower so far, but it was really good.

Chanting Gayatri mantra for 45 min this morning, and then I took a cold shower. So nice. Yesterday I also went to the spa and did 4 cold baths with a warm bath in between them. So relaxing.

45 min of chanting Gayatri mantra today as well. Pretty nice. This is the first time I've gotten restless and impatient while the meditation was lasting, but I was very tired today before I started, and when I was done I felt energized and clear.

26th winter-bath this season Monday: A really good winter-bath before going to the sauna and doing more cold-baths there. Yesterday: Chanting Gayatri mantra for 30 min. Today: Chanting Gayatri mantra for 45 min.

45 min of chanting the Gayatri mantra today as well. It was really nice. My voice felt very open and clear. I’m looking deeper into the physical vibrations the chanting it causing, and how that interacts with my breathing. When it comes to sitting meditation I’ve been doing a lot of vipassana and breath meditation before, and building a bridge between those two, and now it feels like I’m merging chanting mantras into that as well. It is all about tuning into the sense of flow and vibrations and letting reality become less solid and more flowing. Looking at things one normally consider more solid, like pain or identity, and seeing how at closer look there is much more movement within perceived solidity. I can make my whole feeling of the body tingle and vibrate by tuning into this flow, and now the chanting also helps to massage and stimulate this flow. It is all about continously releasing stuck material and letting experience sync up with itself.

25th winter-bath this season Hurra! So good. And now I'm done with my Wim Hof winter-project and I can fully concentrate on my new mantra-singing project :-) But I'll probably do some more winter-baths because both this one and the one before it was so damn good. But my main practice now is mantra singing. Much more about that later.

45 min of chanting Gayatri mantra today as well. Using it as support to process everything going on in the world right now, and to keep my heart open and strong. I read this beautiful translation of Gayatri mantra yesterday, by Deva Premal and Miten: "Meditating upon the adorable, enchanting and radiant source of all things, we awaken to the divine light of pure consciousness." Pretty awesome to chant this prayer in front of my altar where I have my Buddha and my other "altar effects" that are also symbols and reminders for awakening to the divine light of pure consciousness. I like this combination of visual and auditory effects as support for meditation. om bhur bhuvah svaha tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yonah prachodayat

45 min of chanting the Gayatri mantra today as well. I'm deeply disturbed by the situation in the world right now, but I'm just trying to embrace that the human condition is like this. Life is like this, Ajahn Sumedho, as western buddhist teacher, used to say. Not in a cynical way, but in a sobering way to just recognize it for what it is.

24th winter-bath this season Wow. So nice! :-) Only one more to go and then I'm finished with this winter-project.

45 min of chanting Gayatri mantra today as well. Wow. So nice. It is getting nicer and nicer. The sense of flow between my singing, guitar-playing, and my posture sitting on my meditation cushion is getting better and better. The feeling of rythm and being in the groove is also getting much better. When chanting I'm having it as my intention to use the chanting and the vibrations of the chant to calm myself down, burn away imbalances, and to become clear and present and I'm doing it with a sense of devotion to life and existence. My intention is also to just let go of myself and just surrender into the chant. To become one with the chant. And also to have fun, and just enjoy myself with the joyful activity of combining meditation, singing and guitar-playing into one thing.

50 min of chanting Gayatri mantra, and then 10 min sitting in silence, today. Last winter-month is getting close to its end, and I'm thinking about wrapping up my Wim Hof practice for this time. But I will do two more ice-baths so that I'll reach the number 25 before I'm done. Seems like my practice is floating into a more mantra-based practice, and nothing is better than being able to meditate and play guitar at the same time for me right now, so this will be an interesting new chapter to explore. In all my various spiritual pursuit, and being part of so many different communities, chanting has always been a part of that, sometimes in the foreground, other times more in the background or as a supplement, but always there, so it will be interesting to study it much more in depth this time.

Chanting Gayatri mantra for 45 min this morning, then 15 min sitting in silence, and then 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing. Pretty sweet :-)

30 min meditation now in the evening as well. First 10 min of singing one mantra, then 5 min in silence, then 10 min of singing another mantra, and then 5 min in silence. Wow. It was so nice. I've been so determined to get a break-through in my guitar-playing this year, and it is strange I have never made any attempt to incorporate mantra-singing accompanied with guitar-playing more seriously into my practice. Mantra-playing is what got me into playing guitar in the first place, and it is what has kept it alive for all these years, but I never actually sat down and decided I was going to sing and play for a certain amount of time. It was more like just whatever I felt like in a very random way - sometimes for long periods only a little bit here and there - just the bare minimum so that my guitar-playing wouldn't die out. But now that I'm dead set on getting better on guitar I should of course start to use mantra-singing more seriously as a part of my meditation-practice. I mean. Gosh. I love to sing! It was so nice today. Both Gayatri-mantra earlier in the day, and the session I just had. Haha.... I can already see what my practice is probably going to become devoted to for this spring. Seems like I have some practice-cycles related to the seasons sometimes. It was a Ganja yoga fall, then a Wim Hof winter, and now it is probably turning into a mantra-singing spring.

3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today, then sauna and cold-bath. When I came home from that I chanted Gayatri Mantra for 45 min while I was playing guitar, and then I sat in silence for 15 min. That was a pretty interesting and nice experience. I'll probably experiment more with longer sessions of chanting and playing since I've been on the music vibe so much lately. I usually go to a bhajan every sunday, but the woman leading it is sick today, so I did a solo-session at home instead.

Thank you! :-D

3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today. Very nice. I'm staying away from cold-exposure today.

3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, 10 min weight-lifting, sauna and cold-bath, today. So nice!

3 more rounds of Wim Hof breathing today, and then I went to the bath-house just right around the corner and did sauna and cold-exposure in the cold-bath. Felt like time now. First cold-exposure since February the 9th when I got sick. Seems like I was shaking off the last few rests of this flu with the Wim Hof breathing today. Gosh. It was so nice to be back at the bath-house, and with the cold-exposure, again.

3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today as well. No cold-exposure, I'm still sick, but I'm getting better. Anyways, the breathing was so good. Really cleared up the fog in my head.

3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today. First day of doing some practice since last post here 6 days ago. I was catching a strong cold / possible the flu on the same day I last wrote here. I checked for corona but it wasn't. I'm wondering if I was exaggerating with the cold-exposure, or maybe I was just brewing on something regardless. So no practice for this period, except quite a lot of mantra-singing and guitar-playing even though I was sick. I needed to have something to do. Fortunately I had this week off work, so I could just relax. But it was so nice to do some Wim Hof breathing again. I'm not well enough to start with the cold-exposure again yet, but now it feels right to start with the breathing again. I think it will also strengthen me while I continue to heal. Anyways, it was nice with some down-time. It usually feels like I'm getting some emotional cleansing as a bonus for being sick. The fever is also burning emotional stuff out of the system.

23rd winter-bath this season 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, then a bath down at the beach, and then I went to the bath-house with my friend and did sauna and another cold bath. Both the breathing and the two baths I did today were really profound. So grateful for this method. It is very interesting to observe my friend who has PTSD fall in love with ice-bathing. He has gained a lot of hope for how this can soothe his PTSD symptoms, so it is very inspiring talking with him and reflecting on all the ways this has benefited me and seems to benefit him as well. Basically I just feel so much more grounded, robust and stable.

22nd winter-bath this season Wow. Haha. So I went and did a bath together with my buddy, and then we went to the local bath-house, which is right next to the beach where we do our winter-baths. Did a lot of sauna there, and had three more session in a pool of cold water they have right next to the sauna. Also did a lot of relaxation just floating around in the warm baths. Pretty nice day. Been working night-shifts the whole weekend, and my sleep has been screwed up, but now I feel well-rested and at the same time ready to sleep at normal time again. So in total 5 sessions of cold-exposure today. Didn't feel like over-kill, just really nice.