“Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.”
– Chinese Inscription (cited by Henry David Thoreau in Walden)
Welcome to the Mountain!
Let’s get back to the basics. Today we’re gonna learn how to meditate.
You may be thinking, “This is the 79th episode of MZD and you’re just now telling us how to meditate?!
Too often people make a really big deal about meditation, complaining that it’s just way too hard, or discouraging, or that they don’t have enough time to meditate. So we’re going to take a few minutes to squash those objections and then…we’re gonna meditate.
So what is Meditation…really?
Broken down to its simplest form for our purposes, Meditation is an intentional pause in your day to stop all doing and enjoy Being. We do this by simply breathing. “But wait you,” say, “Isn’t that what I do all the time? I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t breathing!”
Yes, but are you AWARE of your breathing? Can you slow that busy brain of yours (sometimes called “monkey mind”), down enough to separate yourself from the constant barrage of thoughts long enough to just observe them and allow them to go by without being attached to them?
Reminder here – You are NOT your thoughts. “Thank goodness”, I hear you say, “’cause if I was, I’d be in big, BIG trouble!” Me too!
No, meditation is a good tool and reminder for us that we are not our thoughts. In fact, mindful meditation gives us the opportunity to simply “Observe” our thoughts, ruminations and busy brain activities, long enough for us to get a much needed reprieve from them and to be able to look at them objectively.
In fact, when meditating, the goal is for you and I to acknowledge them without judgment and simply say, “Hmmm, that’s interesting…”
There are also numerous health benefits to meditation, such as lowered heart rate, blood pressure and clearer thinking, but the end result is always a higher quality of life.
It’s about “Self-Awareness” – Your body, your thoughts and motives, and your energy and state of being.
And finally, to those of us who feel that we don’t have enough time in our day to meditate, Relax. You can meditate for any reasonable length of time. In fact, you can even do one- minute meditations throughout the day, or even once a day, in order to help lower your stress, restore your balance and clear your thinking.
Bottom line – You can’t afford NOT to meditate, simply due to all the benefits, and the jump in productivity you will receive as a result of your time spent meditating.
So come on in and let’s begin…
Photos by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash and Brett Wilson for Mountain Zen Den
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