Starting a Meditation Practice
When I tell people that I’m a meditation guide, a common response I get is “I could never meditate! My mind is too busy.” This is a bit like asking which came first the chicken or the egg. If in order to meditate we need a still mind, but practicing meditation is what helps us to still our mind, then which one comes first? What if it didn’t matter? What if this was not the purpose of meditation?
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness Meditation is about being in your present moment experience no matter how you show up and no matter what turns up. The point is to show up, open your eyes (metaphorically or literally) and see what’s there in front of you – show up to your life.
The truth about minds is that they’re always busy. Research suggests that we have thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of thoughts a day, many of which are either negative or repetitive. Thinking is what minds do – it’s another activity in our complex system just like our hearts beating and our breath breathing. Meditation allows for all of this activity to be present without favouring one over the other and without getting caught up in any part of it. It allow for your body, heart and mind to be together in one place – here.
This speaks to the essence of a pure and simple meditation practice: one that can be done anywhere at anytime for as little or as long as is available to you. It can be as simple as closing our eyes, taking a few deep breaths and becoming aware of what we notice in the body, heart and mind. Noticing for example the sensations of touch as your feet contact the ground; the sensation of a breeze on your skin; the smell of a nearby flower or the sound of a distant bird. It can also be the busyness of your mind or the agitation in your heart. Feel into all of those sensations and include them all as being part of your experience. Observe the experience, be with it without judgment or commentary and let it go.
Taking it further
From these simple beginnings, you can progress to a more formal practice where you adopt a particular posture like sitting, standing, lying down or movement and spend a longer time in that posture exploring your inner landscape further. There are plenty of guidelines as to how long is the “ideal” time to meditate. My suggestion is to find, through trial and error, what’s the ideal time for you. Nobody is keeping scores; this is your practice. Once you have an idea of the length of time that feels right for you, then, as best as you can, carve it out of your day at the time of day that suits you best and begin to make this a daily routine.
“Repetition is what allows something brand new to happen. Repetition, like the lapping of ripples against a rock, gently shifts the ground on which we tread, and alters our relationship to the things we experience.”
Alone or in groups?
For some of us, our meditation practice becomes an essential “me time” practice and we are able to maintain a steady, individual practice on our own. For others, finding a group of like-minded practitioners is what is needed to maintain a consistent practice, perhaps as Christina Feldman, a senior teacher in the Insight Meditation community suggests:
“Meditation is a solitary practice best done in groups.”
Simple but not easy
Meditating is simple but not so easy. We can easily go back to old habits of thinking « I can’t do this » « I don’t have time » « I’ll just get that to-do list done first » and our practice can easily slip. The beauty of this practice is that we can always begin again.
To begin a meditation practice, simply begin a meditation practice. Don’t overthink it. Don’t complicate it. Simply take a few deep breaths, close your eyes if that’s helpful, steady yourself through feeling your feet on the floor and let the rest unfold.
