Luckily for me my girlfriend was a Buddhist. I was only 18 years old. And she took me down to the Zen meditation center in Helena on Sundays. A few other people were there sometimes. Like this old man who I could hear breathing like an elephant next to me. “Is this a technique?” I wondered. “The elephant through the nose technique?”
Then I started getting up at 5 in the morning every day. Sometimes I would light some incense and stare at a candle. These were experiments to discover which technique resonated and worked with me! And other times I would “poof my pillows”.
I would “poof my pillows”.
This was kind of like a homemade Tai Chi – wherein I would my move my hands toward my body like I was playing the harp. Strangely enough, I learned this technique from a psychic who visited my history class when I was a senior in high school. (What a class, right?) Normally I don’t do what psychics tell me to do.
Besides telling us how she was hired by police detectives to find missing persons, she said she would “poof her pillows” – again, this harp like motion toward her body – and the technique kind of stuck with me.
The point being – there is no one way to meditate. And it can be a spiritual thing where you go to connect. “Yeah you should probably start with the psychics,” I thought, smiling to myself. “If we’re going to do this.”
The point being – there is no one way to meditate.
The most common way is to simply focus on your breath. This means, as an example, to find where you can feel the breath when you are breathing – for example, a spot in your nose. Where you can feel the air sort of going in and out. That cold spot where the air hits. Or maybe it’s just a sensation. And when your mind wanders off, you come back to this spot in your nose.
Just focus everything on that one spot. When a thought comes up come back to the spot. And you sit in your spot for, as an example, 10 minutes.
Another way to meditate is to simply focus on the present moment. I like to do this, too. The nice thing about simply focusing on the present moment is that you can become very mindful of your thoughts. You can let yourself think the thoughts and become “the watcher” and then come back to the present moment.
And isn’t the present moment magical? There is no greater experience than being in the here and now. The past almost may as well have never existed, from a certain perspective. Meditation is one way to learn how to get in touch with being more connected to what is happening right now.
Focus on the present moment.
You’re simply training the mind. The root of the word meditate is to think or devise or to ponder. So how to meditate: You want to find a quiet spot. I actually use earplugs and these thick headphones that I picked up down at the hardware store. I like it quiet. There’s something magical about silence. I don’t want to hear any cars outside.
Schedule a time.
And then you pick a time. I like to schedule my time so that way it’s not just a meditation, it’s a meditation practice. Where we come back. Because that’s what it’s partially about. So your mind drifts and you come back, it drifts and you come back.
It’s nice to have a system in place, too. For example, after I wake up, I meditate for 20 minutes. Or right after doing my breathing exercises, then I meditate for 10 minutes. It doesn’t have to be a long time. But it’s nice when it can be a long time. Because then it’s not just a meditation – it’s a vacation. It really is like going somewhere and coming back!
With that said – my favorite is when I can get in a good solid hour to start the day.
Meditation and writing.
As a writer, I tend to incorporate more meditation into my life when I am writing or creating music. Meaning, if I have something creative going on in my life, then I know I will need to tap into my deeper self. And so it helps to get the practice going right before I know I’m going to be going through a creative period. Sometimes this means hitting the sauna and just sitting and meditating in there before I will have a song coming up that I gotta write.
Long walks.
Other times it means I will be going for long walks. This is a meditation, too! Looking out at the trees, the grass, and the mountains. And then coming back to your thoughts. Sometimes it is nice to do one’s writing during these walks.
I love to do this! Sometimes I carry pocket journals. And other times just using the “note” function on my cell phone does the trick!
A lot of great writers did this. Charles Dickens would walk for 12 miles a day. He would walk, write, walk again. Stop and think. It’s a great way to get your writing in. But sometimes, it’s sort of hard here in Montana during the many months of cold winter.
The big a-ha moment that comes in meditation for many people, is when they watch the “words” form in their mind. And when they simply stop thinking “words”. You know – when they shut off their internal voice.
The internal voice constructs sentences all by itself. Where do the words come from? The ones that say “I need to pay those bills” or “What did that guy say to me again?” types of language.
How nice it to not think in words! And to calm the waves! Yes, to think of them as waves, is a meditation unto itself. Notice when you first sit down those waves are pretty rocky. And by the end, it’s a calm lake.
Getting in touch with your body and your mind.
Once you get really good at this you can meditate on your body. Find a spot of tension or “energy” and focus on it. And then feel your body throughout the day. Because it has its own language doesn’t it? A sore stomach means that your body is talking to you. Have you ever had your doctor say that? “Listen to your body. Don’t push yourself too hard!”
Oh, your body is telling you it feels tired? Let’s take a power nap. Let’s go for a walk. Let’s go to the gym!
Meditation lets you think about who you are.
Here’s another thought: you’ll never be alone again. That is, if you learn how to notice your thoughts. Here’s why: “You are not your mind,” says Eckart Tolle. So through meditation you can communicate to the other parts of yourselves. This part that plays these “mental movies” over and over again. This human creature, this meat body.
In some ways it’s even like a toy. Because your mind is this incredible super computer. And one way to get to know it is to start meditating and make it a practice.
Akira Kurosawa said “we are geniuses in our dreams.” So meditation is for all intents and purposes, lucid dreaming. Our mind is always dreaming. And by becoming the watcher, actively, we can discover who we really are.
“We are geniuses when we dream”. -Akira Kurosawa
This just opens up a lot. Meditation is more than just the practice. Your music, writing, your journaling, your singing, drawing, yes doing the dishes, even – all of this can be a meditation.