Priscillaville, Virginia
September 22, 2020
You may ask yourself .... nah, that's the beginning of a Talking Heads' song.
Wondering what a sine wave has to do with meditation? The curve accurately describes my meditation practice - sometimes I am diligent about it and sometimes I am not.
I have practiced mediation for a number of years, but none as diligently as I have the past two or three years. Many people talk about how meditation "centers" them, and I think that is a good description. It brings me back in balance when events, or more likely my thoughts, have knocked me off balance. I'm still learning to live with the image of my mind as a thought generating machine, trying to make sense out of conscious and subconscious stimuli. And not doing that job very well, being lazy and using heuristics to try and explain my world.
An upward sloping sine wave would be an accurate representation of my learning to meditate. It is certainly not a linear progression. Wait, I am supposed to continue to have thoughts but just recognize them in a non-judgmental way? That is perhaps the hardest part for me. But I try to approach each meditation as a learning experience and come to it with a curious attitude. It's easier to not have a "reaction" to a thought when my response is "well that's interesting" (that kind of response is allowed in the way I meditate)..
I guess some get a similar benefit out of prayer. Prayers always made me feel guilty- I realize that is not how they are supposed to make you feel but that's what they do to me.
This video below is my favorite "guided" meditation. The gal covers the whole nine yards, from breathing to a body scan to non-judgmental response to thoughts. Plus she throws in some helpful ideas like "you are enough." Twenty minutes of this video and I usually feel better. I'll sneak in some other shorter meditations during the day - two or three minutes of focusing on my breathing or going from head to toe focusing of relaxing each area of my body. Those short sessions are a great way for me to "catch my breath" when my mind wants to race ahead of me.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....