Meditation Moment
A Meditation on Meditation for Beginners
There are 1440 minutes in every day. You can easily schedule 5 of them for yourself, right?
Did you find yourself thinking about how many things you are going to change in 2012 over the holidays? Have you made resolutions, or set goals, to start on January 1st?
Are you looking forward to starting a new year, or do you find yourself feeling down or anxious?
Meditation as a daily practice has been scientifically (medically and psychologically) shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves the function of every cell, organ, and system in your body, and is apparently the best thing since sliced bread. Sliced gluten-free bread, even.
Can you afford to give yourself five minutes a day? Would you be willing to give up a single press of the snooze button, a cigarette break if you suffer that particular addiction, or five whole minutes of Facebook time?
Meditation doesn’t have to occur in a void. You don’t have to be alone, in a quiet dark comfortable place with burning candle and incense. You can meditate while you brush your teeth, or walk the dog. You can meditate while working out, dancing, coloring, painting, or even mowing the lawn or cleaning dishes.
Meditation is a state of mind. It’s not something you do, it’s something you be.
Many people fail at incorporating meditation as a daily practice because we are so used to thinking about our lengthy to do list, and it’s super difficult to make that inner ticker shut the heck up. How can you relax and just be if every cell in your body seems to be demanding you do something “productive?”
It is much easier to meditate while satisfying your left brain with action. Some people have little labyrinths they trace with their fingers while they let their minds quietly lead them to solutions to a problem. Some people have full size labyrinths they can walk for the same purpose. Some people meditate while coloring mandalas or beating a drum.
You don’t have to invest in anything special to give meditation a try. If you decide to make daily meditation a goal for 2012, here’s one effective way to start:
ñ Set an alarm if you need a time limit, before you start your task.
ñ Choose a task you would be doing anyway, that you could do backwards in your sleep with one arm tied behind your back. For this example, I arbitrarily choose the task of a morning shower.
– While you do your task, the first day focus one sense on what you are doing. Being hyper-aware of how the water feels on your skin, for example.
– The next day, hyper-focus on a different sense, and every day after until you’ve covered the five senses. What do you smell, taste, see, hear?
– On the sixth day, let go and see what your sixth sense might be trying to tell you. Allow yourself to receive messages from the Divine, from your guides, or your Higher Self.
ñ On the seventh day, just breath. Count your breaths while you do your task of choice, or just allow your body to move while your mind enjoys are few moments of blessed peace.
Tune in next month for a guided meditation on Imbolc. <3