What Is Meditation Anyway, And Why (should you) Meditate?

Published: Thu, 08/09/12

Information on How to Meditate, Compassion and Meditation Research

Minding The Bedside

2012-08-09 11:00:58-04
What is meditation anyway? (Do you get tired of me asking this?) Do people even know what meditation is? What I hear when I talk with people in my day-to-day life are things like, “Learning to meditate takes too long,” and, “I tried but couldn’t stop thinking,” and, “I’m not religious.” Yikes! People don’t know what the hell meditation is! Here are a few things meditation isn’t. If any of them are familiar to you, welcome to the club. If some of these seem obvious, read on. Most people get hung up on what they believe meditation is and never even get around to doing it. Meditation isn’t about: Stopping your thoughts. Stopping our feelings. Visualizing more love, money or power. Trying to change who we are….really? If I say that meditation is more about how your mind is than what you’re doing, what do you think? And if I say that meditation is about coming to know your mind, what do you think? Do you roll your eyes and say, “Well of course!” Or, do you roll your eyes and say, “What the hell?!” Sitting formally and practicing meditation provides you with the stability that you need within your mind to be present in your day-to-day life. And a formal meditation practice really is one of the only ways to begin to become familiar with our mind. However one of the primary benefits of learning to meditate is to become familiar with your true nature within your ordinary daily life, integrating it into whatever you do. In fact, the “deeper” nature of your mind, what you could call the meditative mind, is always with you and available to you at anytime, like the sky behind the clouds. Recognizing this is the one fact that can help you to gain the greatest benefit from a meditation practice. Why should you meditate? Learning to meditate is about two things: First, it’s about…learning how to meditate. No brainer, right? It’s about learning a method and sticking to it. But in that method, I hope that you’ll find that it’s not about trying to get rid of your thoughts, that’s not meditation. I also hope that you’ll find that it’s not about sitting on a cushion, clenching your jaw, tightening up your butt, and trying to power your way through your session. That’s not meditation. Learning to meditate is about learning to “simply be” with all that arises, without trying to change a thing. It’s actually about just being and not so much about doing. Except, you have to practice in order to get there. Secondly, learning to meditate is about gaining the stability in your practice to then bring your meditative mind and meditative awareness into your daily life. You can call this integration. Integration is what makes meditation make sense. It’s what provides the motivation to persist in your practice, realizing that learning to bring your meditative awareness and meditative mind into your daily life is what brings life to your meditation practice. So what you need to do is to begin where you are, find a method of meditating, stick with it and practice. Whether or not you’re a “good meditator” really doesn’t matter. Resist the temptation to give in to the disruptive mind that judges you, says that you’re not doing it right, wants to run away and get back to your distracted mind. Meditation isn’t about success, it’s not about becoming something. Actually, meditation is truly about finding out who you already are, it’s about discovering the essence of your mind – already present within your mind – that is undisturbed and faultless despite your most neurotic or annoying habits. That’s what meditation is! Daily opportunities to practice meditation: The following is a very short list of some of the opportunities that we can use to check-in with our mind during the day. This list has been shared previously on this site and I received a lot of positive feedback on its use. While far from extensive, this list can act as a reminder to us that there are unlimited moments within our day when we can take a “time out” from our distraction and attend to our mind. (To download this list as a PDF, click this link: 17 Ways to Practice Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life). 1. While taking a shower 2. While brushing your teeth 3. While eating 4. While eating…did I say this twice? Right, how many of us rush through our meals without even remembering what it was that we ate? Eating is one of the best times to practice being mindful and aware. It’s amazing how our food intake, what we take into our body, how much we eat, and—surprise!—how much we gain weight can be due to not being present with what we’re eating. Try it! You have three times a day to work with this one. 5. While driving to: work, school, play, shop, run errands, vacations, distraction. 6. While surfing the web or being otherwise involved on the computer. Who knows, you may be less inclined to impulse-buy on the Internet. 7. While exercising. This is a great one. I used to run a lot—marathons, 10k, etc. I also still like to bicycle quite a bit. But how to find the time to practice when I want to bike? Exactly; practice while biking. This means seeing my surroundings, feeling the road, smelling the smells, feeling my heart pounding, noticing the patterns of my breathing. Zen and the art of biking! 8. While at work. Right, this is why we’re learning about this, isn’t it? What about when you’re taking care of someone who is being difficult? Or who’s dying? Or who’s unconscious on a ventilator? Or who’s giving birth? What about when your boss is telling you that you need to work harder? Or less hard? Or maybe you’re the boss? Right. Work. 9. Stuck at a traffic light? Meditate. But don’t forget to be aware of the light. [...] Related posts:

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Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind

is a book about mindfulness, meditation and compassion practices, written specifically for nurses. However, it can be read and bring benefit to anyone who would like to learn to work with their mind and heart in being more present in their daily life.

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