2-  Meditation

Meditation is a wide-ranging concept. 

It is the experience of pondering and reflecting.  And at the same time, as the pundit says, "Meditation.  It's not what you think."

There are several different meditation techniques, but only one goal. 

The goal of meditation is always to connect us to our Center, to the quiet Center in each of us, which is always there.  Sometimes our Center is like the eye of the storm, surrounded by wild winds and turbulence.  Meditation is the boat that carries us over the choppy waters, through the hurricane, and into the stillness.

We have a still Center and it is in that place that all the solutions to all our problems lie. 

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, in her newest book, The Call, reminds us that there is nowhere we have to go to find what we need because it is right there at our Center. "Open the fist clenched in wanting and see what you already hold in your hand", she writes.

At times we may need someone to remind us to get into the boat, or to point the boat in the right direction for us, which is inward, where the answers are. 

But at our Center is all our natural resourcefulness; eons of untapped potential is there.  For every problem you have, your deep Center has an answer.  The world's major corporations know that meditation is a highly effective tool for accessing that deep Center and those answers.  That is why, on a regular basis, they sponsor "Retreat" weekends, management and staff included.

There are many ways to travel from outside ourselves where stress is battering us to inside ourselves where the stillness is. 

Anything you do which gets you there is meditation. 

Whatever you do to give yourself even a few moments of respite, of feeling good, of connecting to your true Self, is a meditation practice.

For one woman it is hanging out the clothes.  Yes, and easy to see why. 

"There I am", she says, "in the sunlight and fresh air, often in a soft breeze, doing clean work my hands love the feel of...".  And her unconscious response is to immediately connect to her inner retreat space.

For a man I know, it is going fishing in the quiet and stillness of his secret fishing retreat.
Give yourself a Retreat hour or afternoon or evening or even a whole day. 
Your meditation technique can be listening to music, having the house to yourself, puttering with a hobby, walking, writing in your journal, bringing something from nature indoors (one long winter I was feeling desperate for an indoor nature connection so I kept a snowball in the freezer), making love to yourself, having a massage, having a beautiful dinner for one, soaking in a bath, sitting in nature, practicing a formal meditation technique, and on.

Just when am I supposed to find time for this, you ask?

Well, there's the thing.  What we're talking about here is controlling stress.  It is vital to your health that you find the time so schedule yourself in.  Pencil yourself into your day planner at least once a week for whatever time frame you can. 

And bring no one with you.  Connecting to your inner Self is a job for one. 

Breathing

A simple but very effective way to loosen the tension and begin the shift to relaxation is by breathing.

Do this: (You can do it anywhere, and it takes only a few minutes).

-1- Drop your shoulders and tell your body to relax into whatever is supporting it, the chair, the bed, the floor, the earth.
-2- Breathe in from your abdomen for a count of four (you should be able to see your abdomen rise).
-3- Hold the breath for a count of four.
-4- Exhale for a count of eight.

Repeat this a few times. 

Notice how tension leaves your body and how your mind can focus again.  A breathing exercise is effective as a tool to slow you down in the middle of too-busy, or to escort you into meditation mode.

Morning Pages

I want to tell you about my current meditation practice.  It is my greatest find.  It is called the practice of morning pages. 

It is simply a matter of going aside every day and writing three pages.  Yes, three is the magic number, according  to  the creator of this technique, Julia Cameron in her book, The Artist's Way.

What do I write about? 

Nothing and everything.  That is the point.  It is a kind of stream of consciousness writing.  You just pick up the pen and start. 

It might look like this, "Gotta get the groceries before I go to pick up John.  Don't know how I'm going to fit everything in today.  Feeling overwhelmed and haven't even started yet.  So. What about this feeling of being overwhelmed.  Not a stranger these days....feel it most in the evening..." 

You just write.  Anything.  After a page or so there you are sailing along, and after a half hour or so you have filled three pages.

That's the first thing you notice. 

What you also begin to notice is that you no longer feel overwhelmed.  You feel put together and ready.  You feel stilled and refreshed.  Very gently your writing has taken you into your Center where your needs, even needs you weren't aware you had, were resolved without effort. 

The only effort you exert is to write.  Just pick up a pen and start writing, write anything that comes into your mind.


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