With Meditation, you sit down crossed legged, back straight, hands rested on your knees, with your thumb and middle finger touching relaxed. You go on and take deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling and chant, ahh hummmmm…..
I have added meditation to my routine for the last 3 years on and off, currently on my 162nd day straight and I have never done what I detailed above, hahaha.
Well, that’s the idea people have about meditation. I find it helps me with how I navigate through the day and manage (well, try to manage…) my thoughts.
Before I was introduced to meditation. I don’t know how I managed my thoughts. Well, I didn’t. When I was going through a tough time, I used just used the self-talk of “Don’t be weak!”, “Don’t be a bitch!”, “Toughen up”, “Be a man!”. Just those “greats”, that would take more energy out of you. You are already wasting energy worrying about what is bothering you at the time.
It might be a hard day at work, fighting with the Missus, feeling lonely, feeling left out, being hurt physically or emotionally by someone. Life is tough, and to have to manage your thoughts and emotions along with your responsibilities as a Parent, Partner, Colleague, Friend, Family member. It’s all a juggling act and it is not surprising that we have people that hit a boiling point bottling up their feelings while trying to continue playing their roles in society.
The problem is, those moments cause you to make decisions that you regret, that you end up apologising for and also the reaction may cause destruction to property or even worse harm to others or yourself. Those are the situations that are hard to come back from. I absolutely know the feeling, and that is why I chose to admit that mentally I was not able to handle situations when my mind is working overtime trying to make myself fell “normal” that I started numbing myself with alcohol which made myself even more vulnerable. Before making drastic changes to my life from my decisions made from a cluttered mind and blaming everyone else from my behaviours and feelings. I decided unwillingly to go to my local Doctor and spoke honestly about my feelings and thoughts. I started seeing a Psychologist and he introduced meditation to me.
My Psychologist told me to try meditation, he said the Headspace App is a good app to use for guided meditation (Download it, there are free sessions also). I downloaded and added meditation to my morning routine. The sessions range from 1min to 30mins. And all you have to do is sit on a comfortable chair or any place where you won’t dose off to sleep. Guided meditation is when someone will lead it, you can do the timed ones where you put aside time in the day again 1min-30min (some people go for 2 hours…Wow, I’m good.), same thing sit in a comfortable position and you are just breathing or do a mindful chant or verbal chant.
The Headspace one, you just sit there and listen and it takes your mind towards being aware of body and your breathing, sometimes they set intentions on the purpose of the days meditation practice. But from what I understand meditation is a ‘mindful practice’ so you are thinking about now, the present. So, in meditation you would be mindful or aware of your breath, not thinking about it but your attention is in the present moment not thinking about your working day coming or an argument with your Missus you had last night you are just being aware of your breath. Like, as I write now, I can be present pressing the keys of the laptop but my mind can be off thinking about my piece I am writing and anything that is related to it, or maybe thinking of dinner. Practicing being present.
From podcasts I listen to they say it is a practicing catching your mind from drifting off in thought or trying to manage your feelings, when you catch yourself drifting off you acknowledge you are thinking and then you bring your awareness back to your breathing. There are meditation practices where you can do whilst waiting at stop lights as it is only 3 breaths. Just bringing you back to now, to the present.
“Just bringing you back to now, to the present.”
Meditation doesn’t get rid of your bad thoughts or the busyness, I tell people it gives you more space in your mind so you can pick out the bullshit and gives you time to make a decision on whether those thoughts or feelings are worth wasting time and energy on. Also bringing awareness to your daily life, helps you to be present while playing with your kids. talking with your wife, enjoying an activity. Even when I drive now, I am aware of trees and houses in streets I have driven down over a thousand times that I never noticed before. Mix presence with Gratitude and GOODNIGHT! This is allows you to notice what is here and now so you can be grateful, but I’ll talk about that another time.
Presence in prayer is awesome also.
Have a crack at it or find out more about meditation. The most successful people in history have some sort of meditation added to their daily lives. That’s not why I do it. I do it because it makes me a better version for myself, which is a better version for the people I truly love.
Thank you Lord!