meditation

Practicing mindful meditation on a regular basis is a necessary part of transforming your life through mindfulness. It provides the necessary training to remain present during times of stillness and silence. Stillness and silence are the two great teachers and connecting with them in the present moment will yield lifelong benefits that will energize and inform the rest of your life. People have discovered this over thousands of years of experience and now science is providing us with the answers as to why.

I’ve noticed over many years that there can be a tendency to overdo meditation. It’s an interesting phenomenon because the first impulse is to think that this is something that can’t be overdone, the more the better. I’ve discovered that this is not true and this remains as one of the major misconceptions about meditation. It’s true that after some practice we feel really good during meditation but I’ve noticed that this good feeling can actually become addictive at which time meditation, even mindfulness meditation, becomes an escape, a way to disconnect from what might be an unhappy life. So how do we avoid this situation?

The key to avoiding over meditating is to balance it with bringing the mindfulness practice into all activity. It is very important to build a bridge between the formal mindfulness meditation practice and everyday activity. I like to end each meditation with two or three minutes of meditating with my eyes open so as to give me a feeling for bringing this level of attention into the rest of my day. I find that it allows for a seamless transition. Next, I like to bring that present moment attention into all my activities especially, eating, walking communicating, exercising all five senses and exercising the body. Everything is fair game including the “small” stuff like brushing the teeth. This approach will guard against over emphasis on meditating and bring balance into your practice.

Meditation is a practice which creates a change in one’s consciousness/awareness. It is accomplished by focusing ones attention on a choice of things which are known to create the shift in consciousness desired. There is a long tradition of meditation and a vast body of knowledge which is designed to guide us in the kind of consciousness experience we want to have. Some of the more popular experiences we look to cultivate from meditation include, relaxation, energy, sense of well being, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, sense of connection and understanding of reality, sense of spirituality or just an exploration of the nature of consciousness.

Some of the tools available to us in creating these changes in consciousness are mantras, sounds, visualization, imagery, prayer or simply our own bodies, breath, emotions or thoughts. Attention is the key skill to develop in meditation. It’s the engine which allows us to experience the different kinds of meditation. Attention to the present moment, or mindfulness, is the best foundation to build before exploring the other kinds of meditation. Many people make mindfulness their main form of meditation. Mindfulness is also the most scientifically researched approach to meditation.

By tapping into the vast knowledge base of meditation we can predict and choose the kind of experience we want to have based on the experience that others have mapped out for us over the centuries. It is indeed a road well traveled and it is to our benefit to travel this well known road.

Meditation takes practice. It is a skill that when developed feels natural but until developed can feel awkward and elusive. I compare it to the feeling of trying to ride a wild horse versus a horse that has been trained. All of that energy needs to be channeled in a constructive, disciplined way so that when we are riding we can trust the horse to go in the direction we want. Once we are motivated and willing to practice discipline there is the likelihood of the full meditative experience.

Here are some suggestions to help us sustain our meditation practice:

1. Set up a regular schedule. We are creatures of habit so it is important especially in the beginning to set up a schedule that is the same everyday. I recommend picking a time in the morning that allows you to practice before your daily activity. It’s a great way to start the day and the effects of the meditation will continue with you throughout the day. This will have a very positive influence on how each day unfolds for you. Studies show that habits take about eight weeks to establish so be patient with yourself as you begin.

2. Create a meditation space. Set up a space where you can be comfortable meditating. Creating comfort is important to motivation and sustaining practice. Start with setting up a comfortable place to sit. Whether it is a cushion or a chair pick out something that will enhance comfort. Also, if possible make this space an expression of your meditation practice in that it should express silence, stillness and focus. In so doing it would be good to remove anything that can cause distractions such as phones, televisions and computers. Also keep the room at a moderate temperature.

3.  Tend to your stomach. Get into the habit of meditating while your stomach is at ease. This is important and needs to be emphasized. Our stomachs have way more influence over us that we care to admit. If we are full then the stomach uses our energy for digestion. If we are too hungry then our stomach tries to get our attention to eat. Either way is a distraction. We want to be in the middle. Not too hungry and not too full. This will make meditation easier and is an important habit to create.

4. Be gentle with yourself. Some days meditation will be easy and some days not so much. Although there is a lot to be said for the discipline of sticking to a certain number of minutes regardless of difficulty there is also a lot to be said for being gentle with yourself particularly in the beginning. If you set aside thirty minutes for meditation and find that you are struggling, then it is fine to shorten the  meditation to accommodate the resistance. Meditation is a journey, not a destination so we have no need to rush for results. Your practice will flourish in time and there is a natural rhythm that you will find that will allow you to be gentle with yourself as well as able to develop and sustain the habit.

5. Make a list of why your are meditating. Once you make your list of why you are meditating get into the habit of reviewing the list a least once a week. During times of resistance this list will remind you why you are practicing. The list can be revised when necessary and can be used to bolster motivation. The list can be long or short and can contain such things as reducing stress, communicating more clearly with yourself and others, having less fear, experiencing life with more joy, having more compassion, deepening understanding and creating more peace. Write down what is most meaningful for you and revisit your list on a regular basis.

There are many meditation traditions that involve establishing almost ritualistic approaches to starting and stopping the experience. There are a number of reasons this is done but the primary is probably to prepare oneself to shift into whatever state of consciousness is being aimed for. These small rituals are designed to set the tone for the shift and can be as simple as wearing symbolic clothing, entering a prepared place, ringing a bell or adhering to a specific time.

This is an excellent way to condition oneself into shifting gears and going into the meditative experience. Dare I say it is much like Pavlov’s dog when at the hint of food it begins to salivate. These kinds of meditations are generally used to explore “altered states” and can be a rich and educating experience.

Mindfulness meditation on the other hand is used to create “unaltered states”. Before exploring “altered states” it is my strong recommendation to be grounded in the body in the present moment. Since altered states generally involve “going elsewhere” it is important to have a road map back to the here and now. It is possible to combine the two but that will be the subject of a future blog. With mindfulness meditation we actually want to blur the lines between meditation and not meditation.

I’ve known many people who are excellent meditators but lose the benefit of meditation when not meditating. With mindfulness meditation it is important to immediately build the bridge between meditation and every day activity. One of the ways of doing this is to break habits associated with going into and coming out of meditation. No bells, no traditional garb etc. just complete fluidity of the meditation practice into daily activity. Perhaps start and end with eyes open and a little movement helping to bridge the experience. Be mindful in daily activity and combined with meditation you will have a 24×7 experience of mindfulness.

I’ve been asked many times if there is an ideal place to practice formal mindfulness meditation. Like so many of my answers I tend to say “it depends”. If we are just beginning our meditation practice I would recommend a comfortable place with as few distractions as possible. That would translate to a place that is quiet, has a neutral or no smell to it and a comfortable place to sit whether it is on a cushion, chair or whatever your preference. With mindfulness meditation the emphasis is on connecting to the body, thoughts, emotions and breath so the fewer distractions from those four things the better. There are other kinds of meditation where we connect to other things such as mantras, images (internal and external) and other things seemingly outside of ourselves where meditation environment can be modified using incense and other aids to stimulate various reactions and experiences. All of that is very interesting but can result in the focus being “elsewhere”.

There is the argument that there is no elsewhere and everything stems from the self but that is a discussion that could take up many books and still would only be conjecture as these things are difficult to prove. For now we will agree that we live in a relative world where we need to adhere to the definitions of the relative world such as there being an inside and outside of ourselves. Perhaps to further complicate matters I will also say that once a degree of mindfulness is experienced, those different kinds of meditation can be explored with more balanced results.

Once we have established our mindfulness meditation practice it is not as necessary to create the ideal environment although I always try to set things up that way. If I can’t create that ideal environment for meditation then I just go with the flow. In fact, there is perhaps something to be said for learning how to adapt our meditation practice to fit any kind of environment. That’s not to say that my preference would be to meditate in a noisy, smelly place but it would be good to be able to adapt to something like that when necessary. It’s a good practice for life to be able to adapt our meditation practice that way. There should be a continuum between our formal mindfulness meditation and mindfulness in daily activity. Having the flexibility of being able to meditate under any conditions helps to create that continuum so that the experiences of meditation are able to spill over into everyday life and everyday life spills over into meditation resulting in a 24×7 experience of being present.

Mindfulness and meditation are two words that are seen together often. Mindfulness can be found in most spiritual traditions and in fact can be found when we look at the basis of our experience. Mindfulness is seen as the basic way we experience life and has been call the “ground of being” by many. About 2500 years ago the Buddha brought mindfulness to the center of his teachings thereby bringing new emphasis to a practice that was perhaps taken for granted by many for so long. A central practice to the Buddha’s routine was meditation and it became associated with mindfulness over the centuries following his death. Mindfulness meditation is in fact a very important and effective way of engaging the present moment. It really does serve as the well of resource for being in the present moment. However, like anything else too much of anything can distort original intent. I’ve seen and worked with many people who have become expert at meditation but have not been able to connect that expertise to everyday life. It’s almost like they have become addicted to meditation and are using it as an escape. It can be a very effective escape as the ability to retreat inward is particularly tempting especially in today’s age of high stress. The really knowledgeable meditators know how important it is to balance the inward intensity of meditation with a fully engaged “outward” life. My experience of too much meditation produces a feeling of spaciness which is actually pleasant in a way but results in a disconnection from everyday life.

The antidote to too much mindfulness meditation is to bring those same qualities of the present moment into our everyday activities. It is a way of “grounding” the energy that is produced during meditation and is the natural complement to mindfulness meditation practice. Without that natural complement, the meditation practice becomes unbalanced and has a spill over effect into our lives. What better way to enjoy the fruits of our meditation practice than to bring that energetic present moment quality to everything we do. It’s really about being fully engaged and deeply experiencing every aspect of our every day lives. There are many meditative traditions that have a goal of disconnecting from this life, breaking the wheel of karma so to speak and breaking the repetition of having to be reborn over and over again. To me this kind of thinking is pure escapism and denial of the life we live in the present moment. If those other things exist in the way it is thought by most then the the best way to deal with it would be to fully accept and experience the present moment in every aspect of our lives. Meditation is a great way to keep the engine well oiled but we must run the machinery in order to circulate the oil throughout the machine.