Every single self-help book that I’ve ever read recommends meditation. Oh, I guess mine doesn’t. Dammit.
But anyway, I finally took everyone’s advice a couple of months ago and started meditating daily for 24 minutes. Yeah, 24 minutes is an odd amount of time, but I read that suggestion in a book and the number spoke to me.
I’m starting to get it. Occasionally, I catch a glimpse of why everyone who does it regularly swears by it.
If you’re meditating daily, you’re rewiring your brain to think bigger. You’re reminding yourself that you are not your ego. You are not your thoughts. You are not your pinky toe. You’re more.
Life is made up of moments. If you do this daily, many of your moments are pleasant. You’re telling yourself a new story. Day by day. Moment by moment.
Probably Thailand
Logistics
When I’m ready, usually pretty soon after I wake up, I sit somewhere comfortable, set my phone timer, close my eyes, and try to show curiosity about what I find for the next 24 minutes.
Breath
First, I draw my attention to my breath. I name the in breath boo and the out breath dah. Focus. Hello, breath. I feel the air tingle the skin underneath my nose and above my lips. I fill my lungs up and empty them.
Boo
Dah
Body Scan
I check in with my body, scanning everything from my bicep to my brain, the top of my head to my pinky toe, and everything in between. I am not you, but I am you. How are we?
If I find an ache or something unusual during my body scan, I concentrate on it and feel into whatever it is. I try to name it and describe it and stay with it until it fades or changes. It always changes.
I go back to my breath.
Boo
Dah
Emotion scan
When I feel an emotion, I try to focus on it, to name it. I feel into it as much as I can and let it be as much as it needs to be. If the emotion changes, I try to name the new emotion, and feel it until it passes. It always passes.
I remind myself that this emotion is a human emotion, universally felt and not unique to me. It is nature trying to tell me something. Feelings and emotions are not facts. They are only something to consider.
I realize that I am not that emotion, just like I am not my pinky toe.
I go back to my breath.
Boo
Dah
What else is on?
When my mind gets bored — it always gets bored — it wanders off to find entertainment. As soon as I see that happening, I try to name it and recognize it.
Thought
Sometimes, I’ll go down a sublevel and name it even more specifically.
Memory
Memory is living in the past. It’s the story you tell yourself about your experiences. Memories aren’t facts and memory eventually fades.
Fantasy
Fantasy is living in the future. It’s a story you tell yourself about possibility. Fantasies aren’t facts either and fantasies eventually fade, too.
This quote is from a book on meditating I read recently and just realized I didn’t include in my book reports, which makes me wonder what other books I’ve forgotten to tell you about.
I draw attention back to my breath. Always back to the breath.
Boo
Dah
Perspective
I am the sky. All that passes through are clouds. I observe the thoughts and emotions and watch them float on by.
I remind myself that everyone has clouds in their sky. Everyone. Some people focus on the silver lining on the edge of a cloud and fill their head with light. Some people zoom in on the dark center of a cloud and fill their head with darkness.
Boo
Dah
My attention and my focus are the only things I have complete control over. Meditating reminds me that I’m the sky and I don’t have to focus on any particular cloud. I am not my thoughts and emotions just as I am not the clouds. I can pull back and watch the entire sky and not just that particular cloud. That is the only power I have, but it’s a pretty amazing power.
Perspective.
Impermanence
Meditation helps you observe from a distance. You continually place yourself outside the emotion, outside the thought, outside the happenings, and watch as they all eventually fade. You realize that nothing is permanent. The only constant is change.
Don’t get attached to anything and any particular idea or expectation of how life is supposed to go. There is no supposed to go and the only thing life is supposed to do is change. Pain recedes. Joy recedes. Everything recedes.
A good life is not the avoidance of all pain. A good life is mitigating pain, but also accepting that pain is inevitable.
Inevitable and transient. This too shall pass.
Don’t long for what you can’t have, but appreciate what you have while you have it because you won’t have it forever.
Giant sleeping Buddha in Thailand (I think)
There is no end goal for me in meditating. No expectations. No right or wrong. The only requirement is curiosity and to just be.
Meditation is the harder and better version of taking psychedelics to reset your ego. Meditating is a million times a lifetime trying to reset your ego. It’s nudging your mind one session at a time. You’re building up a life of tranquil moments by being tranquil in the moment.
Emotions aren’t good or bad. Thoughts aren’t good or bad. Fantasies and memories aren’t good or bad. All of these things are stories we tell ourselves to make sense of whatever this is.
This — We — are the universe observing itself.
I’m a creature thinking, a creature feeling, a creature being. And sometimes that’s enough. Life versus not life. It could have just as easily been not life.
Love it! Thank you for sharing insight, wisdom and tranquility.
I’m glad you like it. I should also mention that my life has a lot of moments of shallowness, idiocy, and agitation. It’s a constant battle.
Great post! And that is indeed the sleeping Buddah in Bangkok, or reclining Buddah, as they say.
Reclining Buddha. That does sound familiar. Thanks!
Great to hear that you are on the road for your inner journey. There is loads of science and tons of history that shows the benefits of meditation (for you and everyone you come in to contact with). The only problem I have found is keeping up the routine, which is ridiculous when the benefits are so clear. Bit like thinking you can eat loads of junk food when your diet starts working.
Anyway, thanks for the reminder to get back to it. Take care.
It’s like working out. It works while you do it, but if you stop doing it, you go back to mushy sadness. Showing up is the only requirement. Consistency matters more than anything.
Beautiful Thriftygal. “I’m the sky and I don’t have to focus on any particular cloud” I’m going to remember that one.
I like that one, too. 🙂
Great post.
I like “Sunshine makes shadows”. Accept it and concentrate on the sunshine. I remind myself of this on a regular basis.
Sunshine is probably my best friend. That’s a good saying. Sunshine makes shadows. I like it.
I continually fail on meditation. I’m carried away by thinking, constantly. I’ll probably keep trying because I’m stubborn.
Just remember that the only “fail” on meditation is if you’re not doing it. The goal is NOT to be not be carried away by thinking, but to recognize that you’re carried away by thinking.
Maybe there is a residential retreat in your future?, could combine your love of travel with inner exploration (and the basis of blog post!) They are usually very cheap, so thrifty too 🙂
I absolutely want to do a ten-day meditation/silent yoga retreat a bunch of people have told me about!
This might be one of the best writings about meditation I’ve ever read. Seriously. 🙂 Thank you for sharing this.
Awwwww 🙂
This is beautiful! I love the way your write. Thank you for sharing.
That’s nice of you to say!
Really like this post, especially the way you end it. “It could have just as easily been not life.” As a long-time meditator I can appreciate and relate to a lot of what you wrote. Seems like even though you just started you have a good understanding of what meditation is and that there is no goal or anything to judge.
Thanks! How long have you been meditating? (I’m just wondering when I can call myself a long-time meditator as well!). I went back and forth on that last sentence a few times. I still can’t decide if it should be “It could just as easily have been not life.” Where is the best place for the “have” in that sentence? I’m still not sure.
It’s been about 17 years. I loved it from the beginning and it’s one of the few things that has stayed with me over time. I’ve tried everything from focusing on the breath, to contemplation, to focusing on an object, to Transcendental Meditation. Each method is a slightly different experience and all are rewarding in their way. It’s fun to experiment!
As far as the sentence, I probably would have written it “It could just as easily have been not life,” but it’s those choices that give each writer their own voice. And there are quite a few people here who like yours, myself included 🙂
16 years and 10 months to go for me! I’m up for the challenge. Thanks for replying.
This is such a great way to explain meditation. Simple, but so meaningful and beautiful.
That’s a good way to describe meditation in general. Simple, meaningful and beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
There is no other blogger quite like you. You are the whole package, enjoyably intelligent, a skillful writer, and pretty to boot. I have been working on my meditation prowess and am thankful for this post on meditation.
Oh, you!
I really love this
Great post! I added a few things to my “meditation”…
Like what?
It is also point 34 of your big list. You will get to tick another one off! I, too am trying to find a way to get on a 10 day Vipassana retreat.
I think they’re everywhere
Finding the time is the issue. Family and work commitments don’t really allow most people to have 10 days available 🙂
Oh right, I forgot that most people have families and jobs that need them.
Read “Passage Meditation” by Ecknath Easwaren . You might enjoy it.
On the list, thanks!
Incredible post. Your writing is so beautiful. I will try meditating today!
Today and every day! 🙂
Wow ! Loved it!short,concise and so insightful
Which book suggested 24 minutes of meditation? Such a great number, 24.
It was called “Why Can’t I Meditate?“
Have you attended Vipassana? You are already there even before attending it
No, not yet