Meditating is terribly good for you, as everyone knows. Meditation reduces stress and anxiety. It lowers your blood pressure. It helps relieve pain. It does everything except clean your kitchen for you. In fact, maybe if you’re good enough at meditating, it could even do that. There’s just no telling
For years I knew about the benefits of meditation, but I could never actually bring myself to meditate. The truth is that silence makes me sort of uncomfortable. But recently I went on a quest to take better care of myself, and I thought that I could try meditating just a little. I thought about my friend Marilyn who started with five minutes. Even the busiest person can find five minutes, right? I was resolved to give it a go to see what happened.
I’m happy to say that I’m finding sitting still to be far easier than I expected. Maybe it’s because life with kids is so noisy that the chance to be still and quiet is really quite welcome. I can easily meditate for 10 or 15 minutes at a stretch, and it doesn’t feel too long. However, I’m not all that good at quieting my mind. So today I’m sharing some of the things I think about when I’m supposed to be not thinking about anything at all.
So, I’m not that good at quieting my monkey mind, what of it?
Things I Think About When I’m Supposed to be Meditating
- Blog post topics
- The best opening sentence for my next blog post
- Where I’ll go on my next vacation
- What I’ll wear tomorrow
- What I’ll wear to a party two weeks from now
- How awesome I am for meditating
- Monkeys
- Shoes
- That guy who cut me off in traffic
- What I need to buy at the grocery store
- My next podcast
- The fact that my right knee is sort of itchy
- Knitting
- Game of Thrones
As you can see, quieting my mind is still a work in progress for me, and I’m not all that good at it yet. However, I’m choosing to believe that’s not the point. The point is that I’m trying. If I only did things I had already mastered, I wouldn’t do much at all. That’s not good, right? So I sit there anyway, and don’t beat myself up if Daenerys Targaryen keeps intruding on my meditation.
Will I see all those reported benefits of meditation? I don’t know. For now what I do know is that I do a whole lot of thinking, when I’m supposed to be not thinking. And monkeys are always a good thing to think about.
Do you meditate? Are you good at quieting your mind, or do you find yourself thinking about all sorts of other things? Tell me all about it!
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Twitter: RachaelNevins
says:
Meditation is still meditation, even when your mind isn’t quiet. Even when you get lost in your thoughts!
Or so I think. I recommend Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. He talks about weedy minds, and that the weeds are good. They enrich your practice, he explains. He also says that the worst horse is the best horse.
Now that the Gnome is 3.5 months old, I’m getting back to meditation again. Oh, my restless mind! Methinks I should reread Suzuki Roshi, too, now that I’ve recommended his book to you.
Rachael’s last post … Small Changes: June 2012
Twitter: Wendy_Irene
says:
When I have thoughts in my head during meditation I make peace with them. I allow them to be there and roll through freely but recognize they are thoughts and attempt not to focus too much on them or judge them. Making quiet time for yourself is such a gift!
Twitter: AlyMcF
says:
When my mind wanders when I’m meditating, I try to do what Pema Chodron recommends, just label it ‘thinking’ and move on. I don’t always succeed in catching myself very fast, though. Part of the exercise, I believe is having the patience to keep sitting there doing nothing, even when your mind is telling you that you need to defrost the chicken, take out the garbage, and dust the cobwebs off the ceiling.
This labels me a sad victim of the technological age, but I got this iPhone app called Insight Connect. It is a timer that plays a pretty singing bell sound at the beginning of end of your sessions. It also gives you stats on how long you meditated each day, a social media connection, and a little virtual badge every 100 sessions you meditation. I find it all oddly motivating.
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
You know what? I may be a victim of the digital age, too, but I think a meditation app sounds cool.
Twitter: kristalamb
says:
Um, me too. I’m checking the app store now. That sounds like such a great idea.
Krista’s last post … Juggling
Honestly, it took practicing yoga for 45 minutes to tire out my body to the point where my mind was too tired (and very primed to focus on my breath and be ‘in the moment’) so that I could meditate during savasana…. which I do seated due to back issues.
).
Some days are better than others, but interestingly, I realized that savasana (and yoga actually) was me practicing meditating when I took a special ‘meditation workshop’ last year and everything we did I thought ‘hm, I’m already doing that in my actual yoga practice’. We tried five different techniques over the hour, and the only one I liked was focusing on my breath to let go. I really am not a fan of guided meditation, or visualization of my thougts as a stream or words…. (although I do sometimes use visualization of my energy…. but I think that’s more to do with my spiritual pagan self than meditation
Definitely lovely that there are so many options and tools to help quiet the mind
I also have tinnitus (ringing in the ears caused by hearing loss), so sometimes during meditation it’s also work not to focus on the ringing in my ears (if the room is very quiet).
EcoYogini’s last post … Eating My Words: "Running is for Suckers"
Twitter: kristalamb
says:
I actually took a meditation class for awhile. I was really excited about it, but at the end we always discussed our experience. It seemed like all the women there were seeing colours and feeling transcendent while I was writing the grocery list in my head for 45 minutes. I think it’s just harder for some people to shut of their thoughts than others, but I’m still hoping I’ll get there one day. I gave up on the class, but not on the idea that I’d like to be better at meditating. Good luck!
Krista’s last post … Juggling