On Meditation
I meditate every day.
Now, this wasn’t always the case. As a matter of fact, I think the first time I proclaimed to the world that I was going to meditate everyday from here on out was about 10 years ago. This (among many other proclamations) lasted all but a day or two before the sexier aspects of life took over only to put meditation on the back burner once more. It’s not that I didn’t want to. When you hear about the efficacy of some ancient practice that has stood the test of time to such a degree that it has become synonymous with a peaceful state of being then, ya! You’d be wise to fit that into the day somewhere. You know, like vegetables.
It would be years until this weird practice of sitting in a quiet place, breathing deeply and watching my thoughts became somewhat of a mainstay in my life and even then, for years it was sporadic at best. And on and on it went, like anything you know you should do but haven’t truly dedicated yourself to, I never saw the result that I wanted and immediately quit. So it goes.
More often than not when you hear the word meditation you image a cross lagged yogi with a light beaming above his head floating on a lotus flower. I know that’s what I think of! But if you’re anything like me and you’ve spent most of your seated life on a chair like any level headed westerner, the first thing you find out is that sitting cross legged for the first time on 20 years is very uncomfortable and while trying to clear your mind and reach nirvana the only thing you can think of is how much your knees hurt. Not exactly the most efficient way to be in the now. So you squirm into a more comfortable position wondering whether or not this constitutes a proper meditative posture and spend the rest of your time doubting every other effort you’re making to calm your mind until mercifully your time is up and you walk away scratching your head wondering what the hell you just did. But hey, at least you can tell everyone that you meditated today. Crushin’ it!
This seems to be the most common example you’ll find when asking someone if they have tried to meditate. You’ll get a lot of “ya, I’ve tried but I don’t like it” or “I don’t think I did it right” or “I didn’t feel any different so I stopped”. You get the idea. So what is the intended result of meditation and how do you “do it properly”?
I will say first that since there are a lot of different kinds of meditation and I can’t speak for them all, I’ll tell you about the kind that I practice which is Mindfulness. Mindfulness Meditation is the practice of watching your thoughts, like a hitchhiker on the side of the road watching the cars go by, not trying to hop on any one of them but instead just seeing them for what they are independent of you. Simply put it’s the practice of getting in touch with the self; your true nature that lies beneath your monkey brain that’s always chattering away. And when done dutifully over time it can have a profound effect on the way we react to our thoughts, stresses, and all manner of emotion or resistance. Seeing your mind from a third party perspective and not reacting to every thought that shoots through your head can give you a tremendous sense of calm and put you in touch with this moment, removing the anxiety of the future or the difficulties of the past from view. Doesn’t that sound awesome?! Ok so how do you do it?
Well, as I am not yet a teacher of meditation I’ll give you a simple run down, ready? Here we go.
Sit upright, in a comfortable position (no leg crossing required) on a chair, the floor, whatever.
Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth before closing your eyes and continuing to keep your focus on your breath.
When your thoughts inevitably turn to something else simply watch for a moment, without judgment, before calmly turning your attention back to the breath.
Do that for a while.
You might be thinking, “that’s it? How can such a simple exercise have such a profound effect?”. Well like most things it’s in the practice. It’s not sexy and it may often seem tedious but the magic is in simply doing it day after day and reaping the benefits, unnoticeably, as time go on. You won’t float on lotus flower or reach nirvana and you’ll probably have more bad days then good at first which will make you question why the hell you’re doing this in the first place. That’s good. Watch how strongly your mind is resisting it and sit with it, without judgment before calmly bringing your attention back to the breath. And there you have it, you my friend are a meditator. And it turns out that it might very well be one of the most important things you’ll ever do as the world around us becomes more chaotic and we find ourselves over burdened with options and information like never before. All this nonsense can lead you away from your true nature and meditation remains one of the most powerful ways in which to bring you right back to where you belong.
Give it a go .Who knows, maybe in 10 years you might actually make it a regular thing.