Support for meditators - and elephant joy!
Dear Readers,
I’d like to share a couple of short articles that I hope you find useful and encouraging!
The first article is for meditators, including those of you who decided to take up the Six Week Meditation Challenge which, incidentally, isn’t time-sensitive. There is never a bad time to start or resume it!
When I suggested the six week challenge, I mentioned meditation apps as being useful to get us started before ‘going solo’ on our meditation journeys. In so doing, I was reflecting my own experience and that of my Tibetan lamas, who have little or no exposure to meditation apps.
A reader and very engaged member of our online community, the wonderful Deborah Jane Wells, emailed to point out that apps have value well beyond this. I was happy to be corrected, and asked Deborah if she’d mind writing a few words to share with everyone else, given that she has much more experience of apps than I do.
I am pleased to be sharing Deborah’s very helpful contribution directly below.
Further down the page, you’ll also find an update from Roxy Danckwerts of Wild is Life/Zimbabwe Nursery, one of the charities you support by subscribing to this newsletter.
HOW MEDITATION APPS STRENGTHEN MY MEDITATION PRACTICE
by Deborah Jane Wells
Although I meditate in silence for extended periods on my own or with my sangha, for me, meditation apps are also invaluable partners in helping me foster bodhicitta and live my bodhisattva intention.
When I practiced professionally as a board-certified empowerment coach for individuals and teams, I taught my clients a variety of stress management, self-awareness and unblocking techniques such as meditation and EFT/tapping. I often found that when clients most needed extra support, they instead dropped their chosen practice(s) because they lost hope due to the magnitude of the challenges they were facing. Even the most committed and experienced practitioners can give up when overwhelmed and discouraged by the challenges of modern living.
Having a trusted guided meditation or tapping app at hand often helped them overcome that resistance by remembering they were not alone. With the support of the app, they restored hope, calmed the negative mind chatter, reclaimed their power and recaptured their zest for living, moving themselves forward into the compassionate, impactful lives they loved.
In addition, apps such as Headspace, Ten Percent Happier and others offer meditations with very brief introductory guidance which segue into extended silent meditation, offering the user the benefit of getting started with a trusted guide and then meditating solo in silence for an extended time. For many of its meditations, Headspace even offers the ability to vary the overall length of the meditation and choose whose voice guides the session. I wonder if starting with a guide helps anchor a sense of sangha (I am not alone) which allows the practitioner to overcome resistance and relax more deeply into the meditation.
I also find listening to guided meditations with eyes open helpful when going about my life—scooping cat litter, feeding cats, cooking, doing laundry and dishes, sewing, knitting, running errands, waiting in line, etc. Doing so helps me reinforce awareness and compassion as a way of living, not just something I do on the cushion or chair.
For more information about the Headspace and Ten Percent Happier apps, click the links below:
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WHO IS DEBORAH JANE WELLS?
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. I shared hope, possibilities and empowerment by serving as a board-certified coach, organization consultant, author, radio host, mixed media artist, Reiki master teacher and EFT/tapping practitioner. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities. For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cats who run our life, Maisy Jane and Idris Bodhi Elba.
HAPPY NEWS OF A NEW ARRIVAL! A baby is born from Annabel - one of our rescued and rehabilitated elephants....
Late on Saturday evening, the Carers at the WildisLife ifaw release site at Panda Masuie were alerted to a problem, when the elephants became very restless and noisy. As is normal procedure, the team went outside to check what was going on and were totally astonished by what was evolving in front of them. Unfortunately, there was a power cut, so using their phone torches, they were able to witness, in minor detail, the birth of SUMMER, daughter to ANNABEL!!!
There was absolute disbelief! Some had suspected that Annabel may be pregnant, but were not at all prepared to see this birth happen so soon! We think that Annabel is around 14 years old. Many of you may remember Annabel as coming in to Wild is Life in the very early days. She was a frightened and disfigured young animal, missing about a third of her trunk and her entire tail. She has had to make some serious adjustments to her lifestyle, in order to cope with drinking water, pulling grass and picking up items off the ground. She is an absolute legend within the WIL herd. And not one to cross!!
Annabel laboured to push the calf out for about 40 minutes. She was closely accompanied by Norah, who was digging her holes and uplifting soft sand for the landing of the calf. She was rumbling and moving constantly around Annabel, giving her reassurance and immense empathy. She kept the more curious members of the herd away from Annabel, whilst she laboured.
Suddenly, with a loud whoosh and a bump, the calf was born. The jubilation amongst the elephants and the Carers was palpable and the excitement almost impossible to contain. Much trumpeting and rumbling was going on, whilst Norah helped Annabel see to her calf.
Summer is a beautiful, perfectly formed healthy little female! Annabel was still somewhat shocked by what had happened but her instincts towards the calf were healthy and correct. The only problem was, how to feed the calf? She had no clue. Neither did the calf. Elephant are renowned for needing to learn skills from their elders and their family. No one in the herd had ever had a calf before.
The Carers were becoming more and more anxious as the day wore on, and the calf had still not latched on. They were able to milk some colostrum from Mum and feed the calf by hand. This had to be done every one or two hours. Not an easy task with a confused mother and an Auntie (Norah) who had taken charge.
I jumped on a plane and raced up there to help the Carers. I had phoned Angela Sheldrick who gave me some critical and deeply valuable advice. We just had to keep milking the Mum, for however long it took, and keep feeding the calf as much as we could get. We also needed to encourage the calf to suckle in the right place.
This continued for some days and our anxiety level was reaching a fever pitch. I felt that the calf was not getting enough liquids, despite the richness of elephant colostrum. However, the calf remained strong and bouncy, on minimal intake. That being said, she was getting more and more frustrated by each passing hour and with her crushing hunger.
Elephant are notoriously difficult to milk by hand. They switch their milk off, as soon as the tugging begins. The perseverance shown by the Carers, lead by January Gweshe and Paradzai Mutize, was extraordinary. None of us was going to lose this battle.
Finally, late on day 3, after a particularly stressful time of maneuvering the calf, Summer decided to latch on!! We all sang and danced with relief and pure joy! Milk was spraying out of the nipples and Summer drank and drank … and drank! Annabel stood quietly, with a sense of resolve and relief. Norah calmed down and nuzzled the calf affectionately.
So today, we have a happy trio … Mum, Auntie and Baby, all as one, doing what elephants do.
We suspect a wild bull is the father of this calf, as Annabel has spent many nights out in the wild during the past few years. We consider this to be a great achievement. Although Annabel has not fully wilded yet, she is living her best life and maybe one day, when she is ready, she will lead her herd and her calf out into to wild forever. Time will tell.
Much love
Rox xx
Roxy Danckwerts
Founder of Wild is Life/Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery
About half the money readers help me raise through subscriptions goes to the following four charities. Feel free to click on the underlined links to read more about them:
Wild is Life - home to endangered wildlife and the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery; Twala Trust Animal Sanctuary - supporting indigenous animals as well as pets in extremely disadvantaged communities; Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery - supporting Buddhist nuns from the Himalaya regions; Gaden Relief - supporting Buddhist communities in Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal and India.
This coming weekend, I look forward to sharing a new installment of my Africa Buddha novel. Look out for it on Saturday!
Thank you so much, David, for sharing our story of Summer and Annabelle! I am pleased to report that both are doing incredibly well and it is so lovely to watch and learn from a healthy, bouncy baby, for a change. Normally, our hearts are in our mouths, with the anxiety of a sick and traumatised calf. Marsie has also joined the ranks of "Nanny" and she is proving to be excellent! The calf is loving swimming time and is keeping everyone entertained with her hilarious antics! Much love xxx
What an uplifting start to my day - may Annabel and Summer continue to strengthen their bond and enjoy the support of all the ‘aunties’ especially Norah. I was amazed to read of Norah’s midwifery intuitions 💕💕💕