Meditation is a scary word to some people. Even in this day and age, it’s sometimes considered satanic and often overwhelming. Many envision a man with a bald head in a saffron robe sitting in a cave when they think about meditation, well I’m here to tell you with very, very few exceptions, that ain’t it.
The truth is, meditation is simpler than we make it. It is an exercise, no different than an exercise we do in the gym. We work out in the gym to look better and feel better. Meditation is an exercise that we do in order to have a better outlook and to feel better. That’s it. No big woo woo, just you feeling better. And yes, if you feel better you’ll look better as well.
It is important to realize there are as many ways to meditate as your creativity can conjure up. I had a client a while ago that was a triathlete, she could not sit still to meditate if her life depended on it.
Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb
I took her to a safe environment, the swimming pool where she trained. I threw her in the pool and instructed to swim laps solely focusing on two things and only those two things, breath and form. She did it and her entire demeanor shifted immediately. That is a meditation.
Most of our time both awake and asleep we have this monkey brain. We have all of these wild animals with a running commentary, criticism and just all around chaos. Meditation is specifically designed to help us be completely present in this moment.
When we pull off that magical feat, we find the voices quiet and often are completely muted and just as if we finally put down a fifty-pound sack. We realize a lot of things immediately. We realize how heavy that load was and how much energy that took. We realize how much more available we have become to have the things we want, the things that bring our lives passion, happiness and love now that we are burden free.
In Everything Was Given by Helios
I had another client whose task was to draw for five minutes. She was to choose a topic set a timer for five minutes and not to go beyond those five minutes no matter what. Five minutes focused only on what the pen and paper were doing nothing else, no inner or outer commentary. Five minute, who couldn’t enjoy both the activity and the results of taking five minutes a day to draw. Think of the quiet, the freedom and peace we can provide for ourselves by quieting all the noise.
John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans” and Eckhart Tolle said very succinctly, “Be here now”. They were each, attempting to entice us into celebrating the present moment without the burdensome noise we inflict upon ourselves.
The peace and freedom that we find in nature can also be found within ourselves and very effective pathway is meditation. I promise, if we meditate we would find a lot less need to medicate.
