Some More Mindful Practices

Disrupting Patterns and Expanding Vision

Explore Ripplty’s meditative practices, each designed to deepen self-awareness, connection, and inner balance. These practices, including guided reflections, mindfulness exercises, and visualisation, offer tools for personal growth and collective harmony. Use them individually or in groups to cultivate presence, openness, and a grounded sense of well-being as you journey through Ripplty’s rituals and beyond.

Metta for Share Just Cause

Type: Metta-bhavana Meditation
Aim: Be Kind, Connect

Overview

This brief Metta-bhavana (loving-kindness) meditation practice is intended as a grounding and connecting ritual to begin workshops. Its purpose is to cultivate kindness, presence, and gratitude by focusing on progressively wider circles of connection — from oneself, to small groups, to the larger community, and, finally, to the world. Through each stage, this meditation reinforces the intention to inspire, support, and contribute to a more beautiful and creative world.

Using This Practice

  • For Individual Use: Can be used as a self-guided meditation to foster compassion and connection.
  • For Group Workshops: Begin a workshop or gathering with this Metta meditation to set a collective tone of kindness and purpose. In group settings, repeat the affirmation together, led by one person.

Guidance

1. Arrive as Individuals

  • Reflection: Acknowledge your journey here and the various responsibilities you’ve paused to be present.
  • Spoken Affirmation (together chanting): “May you be happy. May you be well. May you be kind.”

2. Connect with the Group

  • Reflection: Shift attention to those sitting with you, recognising the support and encouragement you bring to each other.
  • Spoken Affirmation (together chanting): “May you be happy. May you be well. May you be kind.”

3. Expand to the Community

  • Reflection: Acknowledge those who have supported you along your path — mentors, friends, family, and others who have encouraged your journey.
  • Spoken Affirmation (together chanting): “May you be happy. May you be well. May you be kind.”

4. Embrace the Whole World

  • Spoken Affirmation (together chanting): “May you be happy. May you be well. May you be kind.”
  • Reflection: Consider those you aspire to inspire and challenge — the wider world you hope to touch with creativity and beauty.

Ritual for Deep Connectedness

Type: Mantra, Mindfulness, Visualisation
Aim: Connect with self, nature, and others

Overview

This ritual is a mindful practice for grounding, connection, and presence. Set in a natural environment, the ritual encourages participants to tune into themselves, the natural world, and each other through focused breathing, reflective prompts, and symbolic actions. The ritual uses natural elements and shared mantras to deepen the sense of interconnectedness across self, community, and the larger world.

Using This Practice

  • For Solo Practice: Individuals can adapt this as a solo meditation using their own chosen object from nature.
  • For Groups: This practice is most powerful in groups, building unity through shared breathing, symbolic connection, and the OHM chant as a collective closing.

Guidance

1. Find a Natural Spot

  • Preparation: Stop at a summit or beauty spot in nature.
  • Collect a Grounding Element: Find an object from nature (stone, branch) to keep with you as a grounding element throughout the practice.

2. Connection to Self

  • Form a group: Stand in a circle, facing each other.
  • Settle: Stand still and affirm: “You are here. You have arrived. Let go.”
  • Inner Reflection: Inwardly ask yourself: “How do I feel? What do I need?” (Visualise and acknowledge these feelings as they arise).
  • Reflective Quote: Recite silently or aloud: “We live from moment to moment in a vast ocean of experience. In every instant, countless phenomena are arising and passing away — light, colour, sound, flashes of thought, memory, and energy, flickers and shimmers, and sparkles of sensation and feeling, along with a host of other experiential phenomena for which there is no language.”

3. Group Breathing

  • Practice the 4-7-8 Breath: Breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 7, and exhale for 8, focusing on the rhythm to enhance inner calm.

4. Connection with Nature

  • Root into the Earth: Stand still and feel the ground beneath you, the air on your skin, and the light of the sun. Consider the qualities of the current season.
  • Listen to Nature: For one minute, listen actively to the sounds around you, both distant and close, sensing the aliveness of the environment.
  • Gratitude and Grounding: Hold your natural object and feel gratitude for the earth and its ecology. Reflect on the interconnectedness of all life.

5. Connection with Each Other

  • Shift Attention to the Group: Recognise that each person is on their unique journey, yet here together as a group.
  • Form a Physical Connection: Link arms, hold hands, or connect objects. Spend one minute feeling the energy of support and connection.
  • Unified Connection: Together, unify the energies of self, nature, and group. Draw strength from each connection.

6. Chant OHM

  • Final Chant: chant “OHM” together, reflecting on its meaning as the syllable of completeness, symbolising the past, present, and future.

Ritual for Shared Creativity

Type: Hypnosis, Meditation, Visualisation
Aim: Arrive, Connect, Settle

Overview

This guided practice is designed to help participants fully arrive, connect with themselves and their environment, and establish a sense of unity and purpose with others. Set outdoors, this ritual encourages relaxation and clarity through a series of reflective moments — individually, with the natural surroundings, and together as a group. The practice aims to build contentment, focus, and willpower, fostering a space where individuals can support and inspire one another.

Using This Practice

  • For Individuals: Can be adapted to solo meditation for connection with self and nature.
  • For Groups: Use this format as a guided prompt in a small group to foster mutual support and shared purpose.

Guidance

1. Create a Calm Space

  • Preparation: Find a spot in sunlight, seated comfortably in a small group.
  • Quieten the Mind: Begin by centering yourself in the space.

2. Arrival and Settling

  • Individual Arrival: Take a moment to arrive in the space, taking a “physiological sigh” to signal relaxation.
  • Micro-Hypnosis: Bring your mind to a state of contentment and focus. Imagine a strong sense of will building within.

3. Connection with Self and Surroundings

  • Self-Connection: Start with your body — focus on breathing, then do a body scan. Relax any tension, notice thoughts and feelings. Ask: “What do I need? Is anything unresolved?” Allow it to settle, acknowledging that it’s okay.
  • Environment Connection: Feel the sunlight, sense the air around you, and imagine waves of light passing through you, reinforcing the sense that “we are here.”

4. Shared Intention and Support

  • Acknowledge the Group Purpose: Reflect that you’ve chosen to be here to support and challenge one another, to live freely and creatively, and to inspire others.
  • Visualise Each Person at Their Best: Envision each member of the group basking in sunlight, alive and content, with smiles on their faces.
  • Well-Wishing Chant: Inwardly chant, “May we be well. May we be happy. May we be kind.”, wishing positivity for one another.

Ritual for Sacrament Initiation

Type: Intention, Meditation
Aim: Acceptance, Embrace, Settle

Overview

The Sacrament Initiation is a meditative ritual that helps participants enter a state of openness, acceptance, and connection before embarking on a mind-altering experience. This practice builds on previously established feelings of connection and settles participants through mindfulness, intention-setting, and meditation. Using the RAIN technique, individuals learn to recognise and allow their emotions, investigate them, and nurture themselves, ultimately embracing the unknown with a spirit of curiosity.

Using This Practice

  • For Personal Use: This ritual can be used individually to centre oneself before exploring new mental states or life experiences.
  • For Group Ceremonies: When done with others, this ritual can foster shared intentions and establish a collective sense of openness and acceptance.

Guidance

1. Arrive and Amplify Connection

  • Preparation: Begin by bringing back the sense of connection you felt in prior practices or shared moments. Amplify this feeling mentally as you settle into the present moment.

2. Enter Brief Meditation Using RAIN

The RAIN technique (Recognise, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) guides you through stages of self-acceptance and emotional openness.

  • Recognise: Observe your current emotional and physical state — how does your body feel, and what is your mental state?
  • Allow: Accept your feelings as they are, acknowledging even difficult emotions without resistance. Silently affirm: “I see you”. By allowing, you create space for both physical and emotional sensations to exist without conflict.
  • Investigate: Look closer at these feelings, noticing how they shift or change, and realise their impermanent nature.
  • Nurture: Offer yourself compassion, silently affirming: “I’m here for you”.

3. Embrace the Unknown

  • Reflection: Recognise that the path ahead may be unfamiliar and embrace this novelty. Release expectations and commit to experiencing whatever unfolds, welcoming the adventure.
  • Reflective Quotes
    • Sri Nisargadatta: “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two, my life flows.”
    • Albert Camus: “A man’s life is nothing but an extended trek through the detours of art to recapture those one or two moments when his heart first opened.”

4. Intention Setting

  • Inspect Intentions: Entering this experience with an open mind, consider any specific intentions you might have. Ask yourself:
    • “Is there anything you want to work on or inspect?”
    • “What would you like to embrace?”
  • Example Intentions: “I’m inspecting anxiety and commitment, embracing love and play.”