With three gentle taps on the singing bowl, meditation leader Eileen Shaw invited the roughly dozen people gathered in the small but open room to close their eyes or lower their gaze downward.

For the next half hour, Shaw invited the participants to be aware of their breath and focus on regaining a sense of balance and equanimity and to becoming grounded in spirit, mind, and body.

Acknowledge what a great gift it would be to bring a peaceful heart into your own life and into the world around you, she said. Let yourself feel this inner sense of balance and ease. Invite the quality of a peaceful and balanced heart to be here with you. Let it fill your body and mind.

The next steps in the group meditation class that Shaw teaches at Healing Tree Yoga in Quincy were an invitation to be silent for 20 minutes and then an invitation to join in a community time.

Shaw, who radiates calm, has been practicing daily meditation for more than 50 years and leading group classes in it for about 35 years.

Meditation is all experiential. Its all about the practice, she said.

Shaw made it clear that she gives participants the guidance they need to still their minds and bodies but only through practice can this become most effective.

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Meditation with Eileen Shaw: becoming calmer | Local News - Milton Times