meditation is the most powerful tool we have for settling our mind
there is no true mastery of meditation as there is no mastery of our own minds. each and every time we meditate we are practicing our techniques
over time our techniques tend to get easier, but that doesn’t mean each meditation is guaranteed to succeed. even experienced meditators have troubled days
however, the bar for win is very low. as one old adage says:
“even one mindful breath means the meditation was a success”
or another:
“finding our seat is the meditation”
a meditative activity is not the same as meditation
meditative activities are things people do and call meditation. usually this is some form of exercise. sometimes going for a long drive, or repetition-practicing a new skill
perhaps a better super-category for all of these, plus meditation, might be cathartic activities
but meditation is a skill-practice in its own right. if we’re practicing something else at the same time, we’re not practicing meditation
meditation is the practice of seeking an empty mind
the most common technique for this is breath meditation
we begin by taking a relaxed position in a place where we feel safest
for us personally, this is our comfy bed. we also enjoy lots of pillows and will often bury ourself deep within them
however, a soft bed is not the only way to meditate. seated meditation is common. as well, even a hard jail bed can do in a pinch
the point is to seek the most relaxing place available to us at the moment
closing eyes is optional, but recommended
in times of stress, sometimes we don’t feel safe enough to close our eyes. if so, try to pick a spot on the floor or wall where nothing is, and let our vision go dull
but again, if we can, close our eyes
the idea is our conscious mind must be conscious of something. thus we choose as focus the absolute most simple part of our self that we can: our own breath
we focus on the feel of the act of breathing. we let our body’s senses tell us about the air moving in and out of our nose or lips. we feel the rise and fall of our chest, and the rustle of fabric against us
meditation is a grounding exercise, in that we’re letting realtime physical sensations come to the forefront of our awareness
our mind will wander
when we recognize our mind has wandered, we forgive ourself
perhaps our mind is on something of our physical senses. perhaps we have an ache in a joint, and can shift position to be a little more relaxed? this is terrific! we adjust our position and resume
or perhaps our mind wandered onto a worry, or a story, or something random. this is fine too. we let the thought we’re on play out to a natural pausing point, then gently guide our attention back to our breath
this is why it is a practice
there is sometimes an urge to count our breaths
the risk with counting is it can make us goal oriented. we may end up focusing on achieving a high score rather than on letting go
done well, counting can be fun. the trick is to always start at one, and reset the count every time we recognize our mind has wandered. it’s said meditation masters occasionally manage to count to two
if we take this idea even farther, counting as a technique converges with mantra meditation, where the mantra we’ve chosen is the word “one”
we’ve noticed when our mind is drifting, our eyes often dart around behind their lids
lately we’ve been working on keeping our eyes still, as a way to keep our thoughts from flying off
a powerful aid is to use slow, droning sounds or music
this adds in two ways
first, by choosing sound that itself has no focus, we add to our sensory cushion
second, by choosing the same track each time, we can establish ritual, which helps chain our meditation sessions together, which makes them more effective over time
some meditation practitioners like natural sounds, like wind or surf. personally, we made our own music for the purpose
some programs offer guides who have recorded the slow, droning sound of themself speaking on how to meditate, or talking about the art of meditation in general
these can be a useful stepping stone. early in our practice we used these. later though, once we better understood our practice, guided talks came to seem more of a distraction
perhaps one day we’ll record ourself narrating this written page
perhaps we find we’re falling asleep whenever we meditate?
this is fine
this probably means we needed the sleep in the first place. only when we settled our mind could we observe our body enough to let it happen
we now have a powerful sleep aid, for whenever we need it
good night