Ever tried to learn how?
I have three good friends who are strongly into meditation. One friend is going to AA Mediation meetings; another is practicing "Mindful Meditation;" the third is browsing online trying to decide which course to take.
I browsed and listened to some wise-sounding, impressively credited meditation teachers. On most of the websites, there was mesmerizing background music -- sort of celestial outer-space music that suggested what the picture at the top of this blog suggests. The courses were 2 to 6 weeks, 6 months, to a full year of study. Each explained, somewhat similarly, how meditation would help you feel better, be relaxed, sleep better, and function better.
Hey -- the word meditate means "thinking, pondering, focusing one's thoughts." The dictionary definition refers to "engage in mental exercise such as concentrating on your breathing, or repeating a mantra (a word or sound) for the purpose of reaching a heightened state of awareness."
Mmm.
I think the study courses that my friends are taking help them. If you join a gym, it's a big help if you start with a trainer showing you how to use the machines. But sooner or later, if you want to exercise to maintain your body, you need to decide to go to the gym and use the machines.by yourself. And when you are paying for it, you continue doing it so you won't be wasting money. Similarly, enrolling in a meditation course is a decision that may help you learn to mediate.
I don't need to study meditation. For me, a task or routine that I like to do -- have done before, know how to do -- gets me focused, thinking, pondering. And yes, gives me a heightened awareness -- pleasure -- that good feeling you get when you are doing something that you enjoy doing. I go into my studio, turn on the tape recorder, do three minutes of a dance that I've been doing just about every day for fifteen years. It works. (Even if I'm restless, bored, or stuck, it works -- I feel better, I'm functioning again.)
I wasn't enjoying writing this, so I got up and danced a three minute section-- easy steps, not strenuous. My dance has a story -- I enter the room -- gradually discover the floor, wall, mirrors, chairs -- a Mom chair, Daddy chair, and a kitchen chair. The dance ends after one last pat/touch of what I've discovered, and I exit, backing out of the room into the hallway.
This sort of ritual could work for you: Pick a poem, a passage from the bible, or verses from a favorite song, and create a few gestures for it. Next time you say your poem, do the same positions You don't need music, a studio or props. It could take a minute, or five minutes -- it's like a prayer or fingering a rosary.
I know that people who mediate believe in it, and are selling you a study course. Here's the link to the video my wise friend liked. She enrolled in a course.
Click -- MINDFUL MEDITATION. Take a quick look -- I find it overly pedantic, but you can return and watch this 20 minute video later.
Try this link -- it's a fast-talking woman who reminds me a little of me. who explains how MEDITATION CAN RESHAPE OUR BRAINS. She says mediation helped her run the marathon. (It's an 8 minute video).
While you are "mediating" about this subject, here's the video I found most helpful about how to mediate.
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