I meditate every day. Often, it’s a designated time set aside at my meditation station in my apartment. Sometimes it’s an extra long savasana. And some days it’s a walking meditation, simply appreciating the beauty around me as I walk through the park, appreciating just being alive.
Whatever the method, it’s a part of who I am, and what keeps me grounded each day. When I’m sitting at my meditation station, I have several methods I use to meditate. First off, I like background noise. Many may disagree with me on this, and that’s ok. But for me, some nature sounds help me tune out the sounds of the street outside and tune in to myself. I have an app with various sounds to choose from, I usually go for the ocean, or falling rain, depending on my mood on the day.
And then always, ALWAYS, focus on the breath. It is the starting point for every meditation, and often that’s all you need. If I’m feeling a bit more restless, I’ll often do a full body scan, concentrating on one part of my body at a time, from the top of my head to my toes, breathing into each area and helping it to relax. When I’m feeling a bit more emotionally charged, I’ll focus on chakras, breathing deep into my root chakra, breathing out through my crown chakra, reciting a mantra for each. Usually through this practice I can identify where I’m feeling stuck, and focus on that area, breathing into it until it opens, even if it’s just a little bit.
I’m also a big fan of visualizations. Sometimes I focus on my 3rd eye and imagine the walls inside my head. An open room, full of space and light. If a thought appears, it’s like writing on the wall, I just wipe it away, not judging the thought at good or bad, not dwelling on my inability to keep the thoughts from my head (trust me, it’s impossible), and returning to my clean bright space. My entire being takes on this feeling, expanding from my head through my torso and the rest of my body.
Sometimes I imagine I’m a mountain. As I sit cross-legged on my cushion, I visually form the shape of a mountain, my head as it’s peak, my shoulders and arms the slopes, my base the base of the mountain. This visualization makes me feel very grounded. I’m a part of the earth, the slopes of my mountain the very fabric of the planet, reaching deep beneath the sea (for my mountain is always on an island). I cannot be separate from this earth, because I am this earth.
If I’m having a particularly bad day, feeling extra stressed about something going on in my life, I look to the sky. Find a bird flying high above me and watch it. Notice how small he looks, flying so high above. And I imagine how small I look from that vantage point. How all my worries are so small, that I’m just one small person on this big planet. And then taking that image further, outside our atmosphere, how we are all but specks of dust on a spinning rock in the infinite universe. With this perspective, all my concerns don’t seem so insurmountable. The idea of being small, of being inconsequential, makes me realize that whatever I’m dealing with isn’t such a big deal, and will in fact resolve over time, one way or another.
Do you have a meditation habit that you’d care to share? Or if you try out one of my methods, I’d love to hear how it went for you.
Namaste.
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