Meditation for the Unquiet Mind

 

Meditating can be challenging for so many of us.  

We have been raised to crave success and pleasure.

Success in our Western culture is often defined by how much we can get done, how much we accomplish, how much we earn, how much we possess.   We go about our days rushing, being busy, feeling stressed and agitated - until we feel burnt out and exhausted.   

Or perhaps we find ourselves in painful circumstances.   We struggle with our health or the well-being of our loved ones.   Financial hardship takes its toll.  Physical and emotional pain hurts!     

We simply want to find a way to NOT feel that way.

When we don't want to feel the way we're feeling, we too often tend to eat inappropriately, consume alcohol or other mood altering agents, or collapse on the couch and escape by watching television or endlessly scrolling on our devices.

Yet we don't feel better. We come to realize that there's more to life than we're currently experiencing.  

As Bhante Gunaratana states in Mindfulness in Plain English, "You feel that there really is a whole other realm of depth and sensitivity available in life; somehow, you are just not seeing it. You wind up feeling cut off. You feel insulated from the sweetness of experience by some sort of sensory cotton."

Meditation offers us a way to quiet our minds and appreciate the subtle and exquisite joy inherent in being alive.  But it's not easy.   It takes some determination and plenty of practice.   This article is not a scholarly piece nor is it for advancing practitioners; it's a down-to-earth and basic approach that can help us become more mindful and less stressed and distracted using a few easy-to-understand techniques.  (Please realize, I am offering "easy-to-understand" techniques; they are not necessarily "easy to do."   It takes practice and patience.)

I am someone who does not "quiet down" easily. I need concrete strategies to help me. Here are my suggestions. 

• Start small.   Aim for 5-minute meditation sessions to start.  If you only last for 3 minutes or 2 minutes, that's fine, too.
• Get comfortable.   Sit on the floor, on cushions, or on a chair in such a way that your spine can be long and the crown of the head lifted.  (If your back is rounded and you are slumping, it will interfere with your breath.)  Relax the shoulders away from the ears.
• Set it up so that you're not likely to be disturbed.
• Create a space that is calming and soothing. Play soft music. Dim the lights. Light candles or use incense.
• Use the breath.  We have lost our connection with our breathing.   We don't notice that we breathe.   Our breath may have become shallow and rapid, perhaps irregular.  There are a lot of ways in which we might strengthen our focus on the breath. Don't try to integrate all of these techniques at once. Try them one at a time.
• Counting:  Inhale to the count of four, then exhale to the count of four.   Keep counting as you breathe.  Once you can do that comfortably, you can try variations.   Pause at the top of the inhale, and again at the bottom of the exhale.   Try inhaling to a count of four and exhaling to a count of six. 
• Color association:  Imagine that each inhale is a certain color and each exhale is a different color.   
• Associated bodily sensations:  Notice the sensations surrounding your inhales and exhales.  Take the time to notice the expansion and contraction of the belly; the lift and release of the chest; the cool air on the back of your throat as you inhale and the warm air as you exhale.
• Associated intentions:  Attach purpose to each inhale and exhale.   You might imagine yourself absorbing love and compassion with every inhale and letting go of all that no  longer serves you with each exhale. You might imagine taking in that which you most need with each inhale and sharing of yourself to others with each exhale.  Intentionally visualize that which you wish to take in and that which you wish to give away. You can repeat the same purpose throughout your breathing or you can allow the process to move the intention of each inbreath and outbreath naturally.  Trust your heart to reveal even the unexpected during this process.  
• Use visualization.  As you sit quietly, recall a time when you felt loved, or safe, or relaxed, or at peace.  As the memory surfaces, flesh out the details.  Where were you?  What was the season?  Who was with you?  How old were you?  Were you indoors or outdoors?  What was in the background?   What sounds were you hearing?   What was the temperature?  Were you standing, sitting, or moving?  What was happening?  How did you feel?  Imagine that the memory can swirl around in your awareness, becoming more vivid and real to you with every breath. 
• Practice yoga.  One of my favorite yoga teachers would tell us that yoga is meditation in motion. We never scroll through our devices or watch a screen while practicing yoga.  Yoga, by its very definition, is a mindfulness practice. We connect our breath, our bodies, and our hearts in both stillness and in motion. Other movement can be conducive to meditation as well.  We can take long walks, go for a solitary run, take a bike ride, go fishing, or garden. What movements help you quiet the mind? 
• Contemplate something inspirational.  Use a poem or a book passage or a quotation that inspires you as a focal point. (My favorite source of inspiration is The Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche.)  Read your quotation or passage a few times before you begin your meditation, then allow yourself to be carried by the inspiration of those words.  Notice that other thoughts may bubble to the surface as you do so.  If those thoughts resonate with your chosen inspiration, then enjoy the energy they bring you.   And if those thoughts don't have anything to do with your contemplation...
• Accept it when your thoughts intrude.  Realize that your thoughts will interrupt your processes.  You may be focusing intently on your breath then suddenly realize that you're thinking about what to have for dinner.  Don't get upset or resist your thoughts.  Carl Jung told us that "What we resist, persists."  When we try to suppress our thoughts, we grant them the power to push back.  When you notice a thought intruding on your meditation practice, simply acknowledge it.   Notice that it is there.  Then let it go.   If another thought surfaces, notice it and let it go.  And so on, and so on, and so on.  ☺

What is your experience with meditation?  Do you have some techniques to share?  Please leave a comment, share, and follow my blog to get notifications of new posts.   To follow this blog, click on the three lines in the upper right of the home screen, or click here.  

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