Richard Soehl
4. Meditation
4. Meditation
Oh meditation. Many who are new to meditation may have some preconceived thoughts of crossed legs, maybe some incense smoke wafting in the background, relaxingly soft music filling the environment, and many other similar visions come to your mind. For some this is their meditative practice and that is just fine. For others, who have been practicing meditation, it can be a few minutes of tranquil reflection or a simple breathing practice or a mix of meditative practices. No matter where you are on the meditation spectrum, please know that meditation is at the center of living in the middle and is the foundation of the middle way path. Additionally, meditation is cornerstone to cultivating mindfulness and is fun as well as an enjoyable way to live one’s life. There will be more on mindfulness later. Let’s look back at meditation.
Meditation is a great way to develop the mind through focus and concentration, clarity of mind, calmness, and insight. There are a variety of techniques and most are pretty easy to implement. I am not an expert on meditation at all and have used one technique, the breathing technique, which works well for me. I will describe that next. I will also cover some other meditative or mindfulness practices in the mindfulness section that you may want to try or add to your meditative practice. I find that meditation can be very personal. Therefore, you may have a preference in techniques that bring more meaning to your practice. So, just enjoy what works for you as you engage yourself in mindfulness.
My first introduction to a breathing technique was through a practice called Square Breathing. This is very simple and beneficial in bringing oxygen to the brain as well as provides a calming effect needed for relaxation. I actually, still use this as my primary meditative practice.
To perform square breathing you find a place that is quiet and relaxing (no relaxing music required but if you have it available – why not). Sit on the floor or in a chair or in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and relax your muscles. Take a deep breath (in through the nose and slowly out through the mouth) and repeat three more times for a total of four breaths. Repeat the series of four breaths four more times for a total of 16 breaths. Our goal while we breathe is to keep the mind clear. If a thought comes in simply acknowledge it and clear it away. Do this as much as you need to and do not worry if lots of thoughts come to you during this time. It happens. Especially, when starting out. You will notice that each successive breathe may become longer and slower. That is the goal. As we slow the breathing our body relaxes and our mind should slow down as we become more and more relaxed. In the beginning, you may want to count each breath and cycle to help keep a clear mind and focus on the breath. Over time this will not even be needed and our square breathing technique morphs into time spent in meditation vs. reaching the 16 breaths. Or our breathing technique develops further to a deeper mindfulness breathing practice.
The other meditative breathing technique I use is Mindfulness Breathing. We can develop mindfulness by drawing our attention to the breath. This technique is a natural transition from square breathing and is an easy mindfulness approach to learn.
Mindfulness Breathing:
Begin by focusing in on our ordinary breath. Follow the breath as it enters our nose filling our chest and abdomen. Now try focusing our attention on a single point like the diaphragm or on our chest. Keeping the breath steady and relaxed. Sitting in upright position helps with this. Feel how peaceful and soothing breathing can be. If the mind wanders, just calmly return your focus to your breath. Our focus or concentration does not need to block everything except the breath out. We are instead trying to appreciate how our mind is working through a sort of trance-like state as we allow clarity and peacefulness to enter the mind.
Mindfulness breathing technique looks like this:
· Focus the mind
· Notice the breath
· Notice if/when the mind wanders
· Patiently re-focus the mind onto the breath
· Breath
The breathing technique helps in developing mindfulness, insight, understanding, and patience. It brings a calming peace to our lives. If you feel that it is not working or you have “failed” – merely re-approach it and begin again because there is no such thing as failing in meditation. This approach will help the mind to eventually calm and you can enter deeper meditative states.
Just relax if you become restless or tensed. If you become sleepy, then concentrate on your posture or body. It is ok if you fall asleep. I couldn’t imagine a better way to enter a sleep state. Just remember, meditating when sleepy does not help us to refine our concentration or to develop mindfulness serenity. So, please keep that in mind when establishing times to meditate.
What we are trying to accomplish with meditation is to practice being at peace with ourselves. We begin to listen to the thoughts or voices of the mind that pop up during meditation. These thoughts or voices are reflections of the mind that do not require we believe them. They are just things to ponder as we become more mindful in our practice and more in-tune with ourselves and our bodies.
As mentioned, there are a variety of meditative techniques that I encourage you to explore. Add to your mindfulness tool box by adopting the techniques that work best for you in maintaining that balance in your life pendulum and mindfulness practice.