Meditate, Shmeditate
Doesn’t meditation sound like a good idea? It does to me! I recently returned from a peaceful yoga retreat with my daughter where we engaged in activities with names like: An Introduction to Ayurveda, Gentle Pranayama, Vigorous Vinyasa, Yoga Nidra, Exploring the Third Chakra, and, of course, Meditation. Each of these promised to do something restorative or energizing or nourishing to my body. After each session, I felt 
calm and clean, healthy and happy.
My daughter remarked that each time she attends this yearly retreat, she “takes something home” with her. The first time it was being more attentive to her physical body. So she started running (she worked her way up from running nowhere to running half-marathons!) Or, like eating healthier. To that end, she started cooking with beans and using whole grains. So, this year I decided to take something home, something I could do all by myself, with little or no equipment within the confines of my home. I bought two CD’s on meditation. I started with “Meditation for Beginners,” found a quiet spot in a room, asked my husband to not disturb me for a half hour, placed the disk in the CD player and put on earphones.
A soothing male voice assured me that with meditation, I would obtain measurable benefits for physical and emotional health. He explained how meditation can help deepen compassion, find healing though forgiveness, and work with challenging emotions. He promised simple and effective strategies for dealing with distractions. All good things, and ones that I truly want to work on. I was excited to start!
I listened as he guided me into a meditative state. Wait, I think I need to adjust the volume a tad. A little more bass, less treble. Was that a tissue on the floor? I’ll just pick it up. Boy, this carpet needs a good cleaning. And look at how it bunches in the middle. Can that be fixed? I should take the chicken out of the freezer soon if it’s going to be fully defrosted by 5:00. Uh oh, one of the grandchildren left the silly putty container open; it must be like cement by now. I better close it. Is that the phone?
Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow. Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm ………
- Posted in: Miscellaneous ♦ Slowing Down
- Tagged: Alternative, Ayurveda, Health, humor, Meditation, peace, Practices, Religion and Spirituality, retreat, Yoga, Yoga Nidra
(A)Musings by Arlene 
Thanks for reading my blog. I will follow yours and invite you to follow mune! Best wishes, beebeesworld
Thank you! Looking forward to reading more….
Comment, schomment. One way to meditate is to yell at your spouse, write angry letters, and generally be pissey. While others get no benefit from it the meditater (schemitater) does. C.P. Snow wrote an essay on complaining, explaining how it does lots of good. I think I got my early views on m(s) from him. Also clean the carpet and you won’t have to m(s).
Dear Arlene. Thank you for visiting my retirement blog. I am pleased to discover your blog and I’m looking forward to following it. I see that one of your interests is punctuation. I promise I will try harder!
P.S. I know exactly what you mean about meditation. It’s a chance to do the shopping list in your head. Best wishes.
Thanks – looking forward to reading more from you….
There are three things I’ve found visually interesting enough to be fascinating to watch but which are “blank” enough to allow that “non-thought” stage:
A good campfire.
Ocean waves.
Birch or Aspen leaves in a large stand of trees.
There are others. Sometimes a river has that complex wave/water motion to be mesmerizing. Certain kinds of cloudy skies do. It has to do with random patterns that are sufficiently complex and changing. I can easily lose an hour staring at the three I mentioned above.
(That last, if you’ve never experienced it, is interesting. Birch leaves are largish and very flat. The reflect light well from certain angles, and the nature of their stems given them a kind of springy tension on the branch. Breezes cause the leaves to shimmer. The effect of a stand of trees in the distance is of “pixels” of various shades of green all randomly shimmering. Very hypnotic!)
Thanks for the hints; I basically stare at the carpet in the room where I’m listening to the meditation tapes. When I was pregnant over 40 years ago and practicing Lamaze, we had to find a point in the distance to stare at. I find that similar.
Whatever makes the voices stop! Voice! I mean voice! Heh, heh… Hearing voices, that would be crazy… Of course I meant voice!
As Firesign Theater says, “You must sit there until you obtain True Enlightenment.”!
Better yet, bring the CD and player to Wilton and go for a walk in the Town Forest. Listen to the CD once you find yourself in a location that you know to be right for that purpose. There are many such places. Good luck!
Ahhhhhhh, sounds tranquil.
That was so funny! it sounds exactly like me! I can’t seem to tune things out.
I’m working on it…..Not easy for me to tune out most things!
Meditation at home is nearly impossible for me. I have a constant “to do” list going in my head! I do find that some activities, like gardening or running are very meditative – meditation in motion works so much better sometimes.
Good comments and, yes, for me, swimming is meditative (except I can’t rid myself of the need to count laps!)
I was very curious to hear about that weekend. How was the food? 🙂
I had the same reaction that you did. There’s a Yoga saying “The mind is like a jumping monkey” You were funny, describing it!
Is the photo anybody we know?
Photo – no one we know; food– scrumptious. If I could have any domestic help I wanted, I’d hire a cook from that Yoga retreat! So many veggies, so many good sauces, so many good combinations, etc.