MEDITATION: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE CUSHION

Last week I shared some tips and shortcuts that I use while making some form of meditative practice a part of my daily life. Meditation 101 I get it; there are innumerable demands on everyone’s time, from job, to family, to pets, to life.  But I have done that life without meditation, and with it, and I like the person I am with some form of meditative practice.  Turning inwards for the answers you seek in life, and the peace that you yearn for, is always found by turning inward.  The whole point of a meditative practice is achieving an inner state that is calm and confident rather than fearful.  It’s a state where mind chatter and the proverbial monkey brain, hopping mindlessly from one activating topic to another, is calmed. But let’s talk about starting on that meditative journey.   The gateway to meditation is through the breath.

The breath is the easiest, most intuitive thing we humans do.  We actually don’t think about our breath most of the time.  Yet delving into how we breathe and observing it can be the start of our journey within.  I will bore you with a little physiology.  While the skin is our largest organ, the lungs are the interface between our inner and outer world.   It’s like the skin of the inner body since through the vital surface of the lungs and alveoli we get the oxygen that we need to live.  There is a book about breathing that was a required part of my yoga teacher training (The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi.)  Yes, there is a book just about breathing; that’s how impactful it can be on our overall well-being.  Through the book, a variety of breathing techniques are explored which,  if employed, have the potential to improve both our physical and mental health.  To understand how this could be, let’s examine some facts about our modern life.

• Many of us live in a state of permanent flight or fright, adrenaline and caffeine fueled automatons. What that does to the breath practically, is make us all upper part of the chest breathers.  This shallow breathing, which is also usually more rapid, only serves to increase our anxiety and generate even more stress

• To see how we should breathe, just look at babies.  Babies are belly breathers, with the diaphragm doing most of the work.  Chest wall contribution to breathing is negligible in babies. It’s a natural pattern for them that starts to transition to a more adult pattern as their rib cage begins to contribute more to the normal respiratory pattern. Somewhere in there, our societal programming starts to kick in with body consciousness with regards to having a less prominent belly.  One of the first things I learned in yoga was the importance of allowing full breaths to expand into the belly.  It is both relaxing and grounding to breathe this way, and physiologically normal.

• Most of the initial focus on meditation involves simply paying attention to the path of the breath in and out of our body, and the sensation of air moving in and out of the nostrils, the sensation of the chest rising and falling, and the belly expanding.  

So, the first step in entering into any meditative practice is to pay attention to your breath. It is the commonality I have found in both of the meditation apps I use (Calm and SlowDive), as well as all of the longer form mediations from innumerable energy workers and teachers I have studied. The focus on the breath also allows us to calm down and allows time for the brain and the thoughts that normally ping-pong in your head to settle down, and for you to focus on sensations within the body.

Another key point is that for me, meditation does not only involve sitting still, focusing on my breath and going within.  I have done some of my best mediation while swimming and doing flat level hiking. I can still focus within and on my breath doing those activities.  There are also people who swear by walking labyrinths as a means to get into a meditative state while being in motion. You obviously can’t do complex physical activity that could be dangerous as you strive for the calm of a meditative state but any activity that allows you to focus on breath or steps can be used to enter a calm mental state that approaches a meditative state. 

When I do sit for meditation, I really try to optimize the conditions.  As I write this, my wonderful dog is doing his nightly jam session with his squeaky ball.  I can write with that chaos, but he will be in his crate and tucked in for bed when I do my meditation practice, which does require at least that you not be disturbed or distracted and that you aren’t too cold or warm. I sit with my spine straight and both feet flat on the floor, on a chair, an ottoman or my couch.  Sometimes I use incense as an olfactory clue to my mind about what my focus is, and sometimes I use a candle, with or without the incense.  My goal is to cue both body and brain that it is time to journey within.  When not using guided meditations with a preset time, I put my timer on.  Currently, my meditative focus is on heart coherence, both as a way to deepen my meditative practice while also providing enhance health benefits.

Heart Coherence

My meditative journey is like a winding road.  Sometimes its straightforward and relatively easy to do with consistency.  Sometimes I struggle to squeeze it in with the demands of life and my days, especially workdays and busy weekend days; a meditative state seems like a mountain top that will be impossible to achieve that day.  I still try to devote at least ten minutes to some form of meditative practice because I feel better, calmer, and clearer in my decision-making process when I do.  I also know that the days when I am most frazzled and think I don’t have time to meditate are the days when I could most benefit from some meditation time.  Like anything else, a meditation practice is a habit that is built over time.  It’s also a practice, meaning that perfection is not the goal, but connection to your inner self.  Right now, I am using my meditation practice as a tool to connect with my chakras, or energy centers. It’s both challenging and satisfying!

Whether you grow to love meditation, or merely recognize the benefits for your health, and desire the inner calm and focus you get after meditation, it is the best way I know to achieve a calm inner state and make decisions from that point of stillness and peace. The point is to make the outer world fade away, and get to know yourself from the inside out. Meditation is a nice place to land after a busy day, or a peaceful way to center yourself to start a day. I have employed both at different times of my life, depending on my demands of work and life.   In addition to the apps (fees for these), there are tons of free guided meditations on YouTube.  Check them out and see if you can make a meditation practice part of your peaceful life and enhance your inner world and outer experience.