Meditation: a Must in My Bag of Tricks
21 May 2008 ~ Categories: blog • mind • wellness
At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, meditation changed my life in less than a week. And, the benefits in 6 months have been enormous.
I’ve been going out to Spirit Rock in Marin County for Monday night Dharma Talks with Jack Kornfield and friends for almost a decade, but it wasn’t until last November that I began my own daily meditation practice. It started with a commitment to meditate for 15 minutes every morning for one month. Then 15 minutes turned into half an hour and a month turned into six months. And here I am, still meditating everyday.
In combination with yoga, meditation is one of my most important balancing practices. It helps make living in the turbo pace of Western society more elegant. It slows me down to look inside, check in with what my own needs are day to day so that I can be present with myself in order to be my best for the rest of the world.
When it comes to meditation, a me-first attitude actually proves to be a good thing. Amazingly, it took me less that a week to see why. Even in that first week as I made space in my life to meditate for a few minutes every morning, the rest of my life began to feel easier. I am able to be better at my job by solving problems more creatively and openly. I am now able to be more present in my relationships. Decision making is also easier since I am clearer on my own stance and still flexible to new perspectives. When I make meditation a priority, my whole universe benefits from it.
In my life in the Bay Area with cell phone buzzing, emails pinging, a business to run with a team of 60 and the mounting pressure to keep up with the Jones, I am happy to have found a life-saver in meditation. It’s now a permanent resident in my own bag of tricks.
Tips on learning to meditate:
- Set aside 5 to 15 minutes daily (mornings work best for me) to sit upright on a pillow on the floor or in a chair with your feet planted on the earth.
- Focus on your breath. It’s your home in meditation. Keep coming back to the breath as a way to focus.
- Perhaps commit to meditating every morning for a week. After a week access how you are doing/feeling. If it’s helping then set another goal for yourself.
- Empower yourself by telling those that you live with what you are trying out and why. If they know about it then they will support your process. If they make fun of you then consider finding someone else to live with. ;)
- Go easy on yourself. Even people who are very seasoned in meditation have thoughts come up when they are practicing, as well as bodily aches and pains. It’s all part of it. That’s why it’s a practice. Keep trying.
This type of meditation practice is over 2,500 years old, but it’s making more sense than ever today. The pressure we put on ourselves, as Americans to live the dream, be the best and have more, more, more makes meditation some of the best medicine money CAN’T buy. I know… it’s so simple that it actually seems hard to do. You don’t need to pay for this ‘medicine’; you just need to make a little time for it in your life.
While on my recent travels in Southern Asia, meditation every morning continued and deepened as I had the opportunity to practice in amazing places like on the edge of the holy lake at the Gandhi Ghat in Pushkar, India and my two days spent with the Buddhist nuns at Dong Thien Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam.
Of course, now I want to dig deeper so I am taking a six week Intro to Insight Meditation & Buddhism class at the First Unitarian Universalist Church that’s nearby the spa.
Why not give meditation a try? Create a little more space for YOU.
Peace,
Amy