Meditation-It's not What you Think!

Why meditate?  It is an excellent tool to aid physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental issues.  How does it do that?  By balancing the body, mind, and spirit.  When we experience massive amounts of stress, anxiety, and depression in our lives it starts to take a toll on the mind, body, and spirit.  After a while, these systems start to break down.  You may find that you get more physical ailments, illness in the body.  You may find that you can no longer sleep and/or you are worrying more daily.  You may also find that you no longer can find relief from any beliefs outside of yourself of a spiritual nature.  This is where meditation can be helpful.  By calming the mind you calm the body which calms the spirit.

 If you have ever tried meditation and thought it doesn’t work for you there are probably some good reasons why. 

1.       Don’t people sit silently for hours doing this stuff?

v  Meditation isn’t always people sitting around in a room being silent for hours.  If you are particularly stressed this may not be a way to begin your practice.  Did you know you can meditate while you are walking, doing yoga, or other physical activities (as long as you don’t have to have your attention on your safety!)  Walking meditations are great for distressing.  Get your favorite tunes, ones that make you happy, and get out there and just listen to the music.  The point of this walking meditation is to change your feelings.  Listening to music that makes you happy, mellow, relaxed, etc. is a good tool to tell your brain to take a break.  It is a great start to a practice that works for you and is healthy as well.

2.       If you are going to sit and meditate do what you can.

v  If all you can do the first time you meditate is sit for 5 minutes then hurray!  Good job!  Because we are so stressed in our lives, we treat meditation as yet another thing that we have to do instead of wanting to do it for our own benefit.  And so we distract ourselves by saying we don’t have time or it’s too hard to sit still or “I’m bored”.  This process starts with a willingness to try something new.  Then you just may have that random thought that says, you know what I have a moment let me sit in this chair and try it.  Then it starts to work for you and you try some more.

3.       I fall asleep when I try to meditate

v  Well good.  You probably needed the sleep anyway.  Your body is going to make a choice when you sleep.  It’s going to decide what to do with this sudden downtime you have taken for the good of the system.  So, if you fall asleep then let’s work on getting more sleep.  You can meditate yourself to sleep at night.  It’s a great way to wind down at the end of the day and make the transition into sleep.  After you start sleeping better you may find you have more energy.  More energy leads to better decision making and choices which leads to a more balanced life.

4.       I just don’t want to; I think it’s stupid!

v  OK, well meditation can still be for you.  You can call it something else like chill time or whatever clever thing you can come up with.  So you take a moment for yourself (parents I know this may have to happen after the kids go to bed!)  A bath with aromatic fragrances is a wonderful way to get in a meditative state.  Just putting aromatic fragrances that are relaxing in the house (for example lavender) can reduce the stress.  While you are cooking putting on the happy music and really focusing your attention on the process of cooking.  The everyday things you do can become meditative in nature.  I put my IPOD in my ears when I do housework.  I can then totally zone out while I’m vacuuming.

Now these are just a few suggestions and reasoning around the act of meditation that may be helpful to you.  What can you expect when you come to my class?  In my class I spend some time dealing with life issues that my class members bring which could be relevant to everyone in the class.  I give some tips and tools on how to handle everyday issues and then I talk about how you can use meditation to help alleviate these issues in your life.  Then I walk you through a meditation by guiding you.  You are constantly listening to the sound of my voice and the music to help you mediate.  Whether you are a first timer or an experienced meditator these classes are worthwhile and beneficial to your health.

 

Classes are every Tuesday at noon.  Let me know if you have a preference for another day or time.  I am currently working on more dates and would love some suggestions.