Thank you Nikki. This was a wonderful learning experience. I really struggled to sit still in the beginning. But then I started to do the warm-up yoga poses you included with this series before every meditation and that really help to ground my body. As for my mind, this took a bit longer, but I found that chanting the mantras out loud really helped. Thanks once more for helping me establish a daily yoga and meditation practice.
My mind kept going to familiar mantras but once I grounded into the new one it was fine and like you said the mantra just took over and I could flow with it. I'd never used Mala beads before and found them to be very helpful. Great aid in establishing a meditation practice. Namaste