Meditation Takes Many Forms
It can happen at any time and doesn’t always look like someone in lotus pose sitting on a cloud
“I can’t meditate because I can’t sit still” or “I don’t have time to meditate” or “I’m not zen enough to quiet my mind.”
We’re familiar with every excuse in the book because we’ve made them ourselves.
There’s an old meditation aphorism that goes like this:
“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.”
We’ve never liked that observation because it sounds like you’re being punished for your inexperience. And what a beginner needs is encouragement, not chastising.
We say: if you can’t sit in meditation for 20 minutes, then sit for 10, or five, or three. Is it more important to sit for a certain amount of time, or simply to sit without feeling judged?
Meditation can seem like an unattainable practice if you only think of it in rigid terms (like those fucking 20 minutes if you’re a “good” meditator, or that hour if you’ve been a naughty one!) And especially if you only think of meditation in ‘mind’ terms.
Wait. What do you mean by ‘mind’ terms?
Meditation doesn’t just use what’s above your neck; it involves your whole body. From closing your eyes, to focusing on your breath, to letting your body release into sensation, to feeling the air on your skin, to your chest moving in and out with each inhale and exhalation… meditation is physical. Ok, sure, so you don’t actively move around or strike poses, but your skin, muscles, bone and cells work in tandem with your mind to defuse tension, reorient and sharpen your focus, lower your blood pressure.
Meditate Anywhere and Whenever
This is why we believe that meditation can happen anywhere and whenever you bring your full mind and body awareness to “soft fascinations”: walking in nature, a bike ride, actually sitting in lotus pose on a cloud, time at the potter’s wheel, an afternoon gardening or a day at the museum communing with art. Activities that engage every part of you and that result in greater empathy, broader perspective, reduced stress, a feeling of calm and a sense of balance are ALL meditation.
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MORE MEDITATION INSPIRATION
Learn meditation at any age. Yes, even at the ripe old age of 60 😜 Ken Lunn was having a ‘hellish’ time juggling work and childcare after his wife died. Then he found a way to catch his breath. (The Guardian)
David Lynch finds his ideas in the ocean of his own consciousness. “Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.” (Open Culture)
“You gotta turn down sometimes,” according to Lil Jon. Here’s the King of Crunk on his new meditation album and finding a balance between the extreme ends of the volume knob… (NPR)
“When I get on my bike and spin the pedals around, I begin meditating.” Cycling affords an interesting way into creating a relationship with the breath. (Velo by Outside)
A garden is always a place of worship, even if it is a really crappy one. This is why you can’t really be a gardener without mindfulness. (The New York Times)