The Perspective of Meditation
I started practicing meditation some years ago. It felt like something that I needed. I felt an agitation.
Meditation is indeed a practice. You try to meditate every day. I have had spells when I don’t meditate. So it goes. I understand that meditation helps me, and I get back to it.
Studies have shown that as you continue the practice, the brain actually changes. The brain learns to work differently. Meditation affects several parts of the brain. It actually lessens anxiety by helping your brain react to stimuli with more circumspection. Instead of over-reacting to a pain, for instance, you are able to see the pain as it is rather than what it might be.
The simplicity of meditation contains a challenge. To quiet yourself, to turn off the worry machine, just to sit still for however long the sitting takes. You will find meditation both difficult and easy. You sit and breathe, what’s simpler than that? Breath becomes the stabilizing constant. When your mind wanders, and you start thinking of things: go back to your breath. Feel the breath as it enters and leaves. When future and past intrude, return to your breath. Thoughts bubble up, return to your breath. You are not avoiding these distractions, you simply are not holding on to them.
Your breath makes a good focus for your meditation because you will probably be breathing the whole time that you meditate. You can also focus on an object before you, or a mental image, or a word (mantra). When your mind drifts to other things, which it will, gently return to your focus.
To meditate, sit in a secure, alert way. If you can manage it, sit on a cushion and cross your legs. Keep your spine erect. Avoid slumping or laying down, your meditation will soon become sleep. If you cannot sit cross-legged, try kneeling or use a chair. You can also do walking meditation, if you have a quiet, safe place where you can walk slowly without interruption.
The active mind keeps wanting to make movies of your world. Go back to the breath.
Discomfort attends meditation. It just does. An itch, perhaps, or the complaint of joints from sitting so long.
Observe that discomfort. What is the nature of that itch or pain? Relax and just observe the itch or pain, it falls away.
I have observed the process. I offer these thoughts as an invitation for you to investigate meditation.
Links
Article in Psychology Today about how meditation changes the brain’s structure:
Excellent beginner’s guide to meditation practice by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana: