Everything can be used as an invitation to meditation
Meditation has become a very fashionable thing to do these days. Every person I meet is definately talking about it, either wanting to do it or wanting to know how to do it! So I figured I would pen down what meditation means to me. What is my personal experience of meditation? Being a yoga practitioner and teacher, I find myself being asked a lot about what meditation really is and how can one go about it. When will one know if they have meditated? Whether they are practicing it right and how long one should practice it for?
Event images
Pranayama & Meditation workshop
Everything can be used as an invitation to meditation
- Sogyal Rinpoche
This is one statement I really connect with and have been putting this into practice at every possible moment! I will share a small story from my life here. My passion for travel has taken me to many places across the world and there was a time when I was always on the move. My work took me to places; My leisure time took me to more new places and I was always left feeling on a high till one day I woke up in a hotel room disoriented about where I was! This brought me to the awareness that this was not the way I wanted to live the rest of my life. I really wanted to stay in a place, connect with the local people, interact with people and completely live life in that village, town or city or country.Most of all spend time with my family! My energies were scattered and I was feeling tired and exhausted. This was the time when I was not yet practicing yoga regularly and was yet to turn the corner "to make teaching yoga" my life.
But I definitely needed to change something. I didn't think I could meditate at all!
Awareness on my daily life activities served as a target for opening up the meditative mind. Beginning to live mindfully instead of mindlessly - I became aware of "being in awareness" very often. Mindful awareness of a smile, a flower, a fragrance, the sunlight on the lake, the food my mom cooked for me, the act of eating this food mindfully, everything became a subject for meditation.
Sitting in one place crossed legged for a few minutes seemed like a punishment! So how did this all change? I decided to take up a hobby, something that was fun and completely new to me. I started ballroom dancing! This became my meditation! Every minute I was dancing I was so involved in it, so fully into the dance that time just flew by so fast! It brought a sense of internal bliss and lasting joy!
Then I started motorbiking fully taking in and soaking in the moments on the bike that took me to different destinations in India and especially to Ladakh. Traversing the roads of Ladakh on my motorbike was my meditation. It made me fully alive to each moment, in total bliss. I went to monasteries and sat in silence, I went to Gurudwaras and sat in silence. I began to find tiny moments to sit in silence and watch my breath wherever I was. Every daily activity, every mundane activity became an opportunity to be in silence and watch my breath.
Awareness on my daily life activities served as a target for opening up the meditative mind. Beginning to live mindfully instead of mindlessly - I became aware of "being in awareness" very often. Mindful awareness of a smile, a flower, a fragrance, the sunlight on the lake, the food my mom cooked for me, the act of eating this food mindfully, everything became a subject for meditation.
Meditation initially, meant paying more attention to being mindful. Allowing the thoughts to come and go. And yes they will come and go! Yet consistent practice of mindfulness using anything and everything as an opportunity to meditate has been really an amazing experience! Over time I noticed my energies were more grounded, more together no matter the external circumstances. An increased sense of well being, joyfulness, clarity & awareness.
Change and a shift in mindset follows regular meditation as surely as night follows day. Opening myself up to allow everything to become an invitation to meditate has been my mantra for many years now. It's progress tiny step at a time and while living in this world wherever we may be, just taking that first step and the next and the next to allow everything to lead me to myself. That is meditation for me. It just happens as we prepare and keep at it each day. A few minutes a day of mindfulness can become the habit of a lifetime. It is about being more aware of the present moment and increasing the awareness with diligent and consistent practice. Start with mindfulness in each waking moment. Mindfulness is the preparation for meditation and the easiest to include in your life. Starting with becoming more mindful we can experience many different ways to meditate. This is a topic to write about in another blog!
Bottom line
For now its enough to know that you just got to begin! And you can use anything to help you become more mindful and slowly prepare yourself for meditation. As you become more steady, mindful & silent - suddenly just as the butterfly comes and sits silently on your shoulder when you stop trying to catch it, meditation will happen!.