Meditation....oh boy what a subject! Have you noticed meditation has become 'trendy'? Chances are you're seeing something about meditation in your social media feeds at least once a week if not everyday. There's good reason for this. Because it works.
What is meditation?
Let's face it, the popular consensus of meditation is sitting in silence with your eyes closed and your fingers doing something that makes you want to laugh. Is that all meditation is? Sure it could be that simple....or that complex...but meditation is many things. This is by no means a comprehensive look into my thoughts on meditation as that would fill a whole book. However, since I am not publishing my book as of yet, I would like to share an excerpt.
I would like to consider meditation as anything that helps you learn to look on the inside. When sitting in silence, your mind might race. That is normal! That is what our brains are designed to do. By taking the time to sit down and focus on nothing...you find your brain focuses on everything except nothing. That's perfect. That means it's working. The trick is to notice those thoughts. Notice them but don't judge them. When you catch yourself and your thoughts running, bring awareness to that. Let the thoughts exit without further judgement and re-center your focus on your breath. Focus on breathing. It could be deep and slow breaths. It could be a breathing pattern such as inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts. You could make it any pattern you want. There's lots of resources online that can give specific purposes to specific breathing patterns, but if you're starting out, it doesn't matter. Just starting is what matters. It's not about doing it perfect because there is no perfect way to meditate.
Meditation could be more than sitting in silence. It could be running for some. Or gardening. Or creating artwork. Anything that takes your mind away from the endless chatter of thoughts.
The sitting in silence aspect allows you to focus on your body. Yoga is also good for this. Sometimes when I meditate, I find that my body has excess energy and will twitch or sway. When I allow my self to soak into the silence, I also just let my body move how it wants. Sometimes it starts crying for no apparent reason. When that happens, sometimes I am able to pinpoint the thoughts associated to the emotion; other times there's nothing there. Instead of cursing myself for crying for no stupid reason, I honor it. I allow the tears and sobs to flow. Without thinking. Without trying to play detective. This has happened a few times.
There was one special time that I had started sobbing uncontrollably. You would have thought I had just lost a loved one. I let it take it's course. I didn't know why it was happening but I knew it had to happen. It lasted about 15 minutes and then it was over. When it was over, it was a "what in the world just happened" kind of moment. Within a couple minutes, my partner walked in and I had no evidence of a crying fest. My eyes were not all red and puffy. My voice wasn't cracking. My emotions were completely stable. I had this airy lightness about me. I felt great! I knew had I not taken that time to meditate, that release would not have happened. Other times it's the swaying and twitching that feels so foreign. I let it happen. And it feels great. My head will get a fuzzy feeling. Almost like it is rearranging itself.
Why is it important to take the time to meditate?
You may think it unnecessary to take extra time out of your day to listen to the thoughts that you hear all day long. Those thoughts will be there whether you're sitting in silence or not so why bother? If you take the time to give notice to the thoughts, you may be able to determine why they are there. Some people believe dreams are just your brain processing all the information that gets jumbled up throughout the day. Meditation is kind of like that. It allows the thoughts to come and to go. Sometimes you can notice that there's a thought stuck on repeat that actually does need your attention. Sometimes you'll notice thoughts that are meaningless chatter and have no business taking up your time. When you can start to notice the difference in these thoughts, it transfers over into your daily life. You learn to catch your thoughts and decide to either do something with them or say good bye to them.
A specific method of meditation that has helped me is called guided meditation. There is a vast amount of these available for free on YouTube. These videos will typically have music and a person speaking. The good videos don't just have music, but binaural beat music or specific frequencies that help to trigger certain aspects of the human mind, body, and soul. That last part about music is a completely different discussion as it goes deep into a realm that many are not familiar with. The speaking can cover many different situations depending on what you want to focus on. Do you want to focus on anxiety and depression? There's a video for that. Do you want to focus on productivity or creativity? There's a video for that. Do you want to focus on deeper sleep or healing the body? There's a video for that.
I started off with guided meditations. They help walk you through the breathing. They will remind you to allow thoughts to pass and come back to your focus. They offer words towards your situation that you would not otherwise come across. Different wording and mantras can unlock certain 'ah ha' moments inside of you. Certain phrases will resonate and help you progress with becoming your best self.
There are tips across the internet on how to get started. There's so many and you'll find many are complete opposite to others! That goes to show there is no right or wrong way. You show up and do what you can with the intention of loving your thoughts, your body, and knowing that you are worth the time.
One last thing before I offer a list of tips. Meditation can be done anywhere or anytime. If I'm waiting somewhere (you're never standing in line, right) ...I will meditate. If I'm sitting, I'll close my eyes and just breath. If I'm in a line, I'll pick a focal point and zone out. Other times, and maybe this isn't a meditation thing but it fits the story, if I'm in line and find myself judging everyone around me, I will take those thoughts and turn them around into compassion.
Maybe someone is wearing something less than 'my terms of in public appropriateness'....I will switch that thought and ponder the possibilities of their story I am not aware of. Maybe they had spilled something on their clothes and this is what they had available to borrow. Maybe they just pulled all nighter at a hospital with a sick loved one and fashion (or laundry) is the last thing on their mind.
There are infinite possibilities for why people do things but it's usually always a person doing the best they can. Have you ever told yourself, I'm going to wear this because it is awful and I want people to judge me...no of course not....and neither have other people. Everyone is doing the best they can with what they have been given. I contribute this progression of compassion based thinking to my experience with meditation.
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