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 ………
