May 4, 2013

Meditation is not about stopping your thoughts, achieving perfection or even becoming ‘better’  (a euphemism for pretending to be someone you’re not!).  And it’s most definitely not about adding one more burdensome chore to your already way too short day!

It’s about becoming familiar with who you are.  It’s about, for a few minutes each day, slowing down and greeting yourself with openness, willingness and curiosity.  It’s about lovingly giving yourself permission to stop striving and be enough, in this moment, just as you are.

Give yourself approximately three minutes, right now.  I know, you didn’t expect to have to do anything here!  Bear with me—I think you’ll find it’s worth it.

Please sit up straight, erect but not rigid.  (Think slightly regal, but with relaxed shoulders and a soft belly).  Feet flat on the floor or legs crossed loosely in front of you.  Chin tucked down a bit.  Let your arms hang at your sides and lift them up from your elbows and let them drop on to the top of your thighs.  Where they fall is where they stay.  No big deal.  Gently close your eyes or keep them at half mast with your gaze lowered and soft at a spot around 5 feet in front of you.

Now exhale and let all the air out.  Inhale gently through your nose.  Notice your in breath and out breath.  Don’t do anything special with it, just let it do its thing—it doesn’t need anything from you but your attention.

Now take four or five complete breaths.  If your attention wanders to a thought or a sensation or a visual just notice and bring your attention back to your breath.

Done?  You just meditated!!  It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.  I got the idea to encourage you to do a short meditation from the book “8 Minute Meditation” by Victor Davich.  It’s a great resource for getting started.  If you didn’t try this out in the middle of the post, I hope you’ll try it now–give yourself permission to lovingly greet yourself and see if even a couple minutes brings a richness to your day that might not have been there before.  Three minutes is a no-brainer!

P.S.  Partners in Mindful Living is now on Facebook!  Some folks wanted a Facebook page but for those who don’t use facebook much, no worries, Seedlings will still go out the same old way.

I hope you’ll visit the page and ‘like’ it.