Meditation is something that gets mentioned a lot to me as a psychotherapist. Mostly in terms of how a person has tried to meditate but can't. Or that they meditate in the morning but still feel stressed and so it isnt 'working.'
To me, what IS meditation is actually not fully understood. Typically we think of the person crosslegged on the floor, eyes closed, incense burning, chanting a mantra etc. Yes, that is certainly a WAY to meditate but it isnt exactly WHAT meditation is or the only way to get in that state.
You see a brain scientist views Meditation as a 'state' that 'state' is then measurable and observable for a scientist. They use MRI machine, ECG machine etc. to measure and observe what happens to a persons brain when in a meditative state. Below I have included some links about this if you are interested in learning more about this fascinating subject.
You have heard of Mindfulness? It is a very popular concept these days. I completed a course in Mindfulness with Leiden University in conjunction with Oxford University and found what I learned to be very revealing and helpful as a therapist.
MBSR you may not have heard of? It simply stands for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. It is a therapeutic tool used by practitioners to bring about a calm and aware state. When a therapist like me uses Mindfulness based practices with their clients what they are referring to is that 'MBSR' simply put.
So as you can see, Meditation is indeed a lot more than sitting in a yoga pose and chanting. It is to do with a mental and physical state that is controllable and measurable. It is what happens to the breath, the brainwaves and your body's muscles when you are in a meditative state. The breath slows, the heartrate slows, muscles are not tense where they dont need to be and the brain waves change significantly.
So, meditation has less in fact to do with activity or ritual than it does with your state of mind and body. What is the key point being made here? The key point we are getting to is that you dont need the eyes closed, chanting, incense or special clothing to get into a meditative state. You can choose to trigger it when you need to summon that state.
This is where mindfulness steps in you see? Are you seeing the link and what it is that mindfulness practitioners are encouraging? They are encouraging and teaching you how to enter into that meditative flow state of calm and awareness without the yoga type ritual. The intention being that the meditative mindfulness state can be part of your daily life and something you can summon at will.
This is why you can have what is called a 'walking meditation' or even a 'sweeping meditation.' You actually in fact can have a 'washing the dishes' meditation if you wanted to!
It is not what you are wearing or how you are sitting that brings on a meditative state of mind. It is your thinking and your focus that does that.
Your thinking is entirely connected with the movement or action and it is a blissful state. Terms such as 'in the zone' 'being at one' 'flourish' and 'flow' are terms used to describe this state. Terms used by people in sports, martial arts, yoga even those engaged in fishing will use terms like this.
So, Meditation need not be so difficult and can be part of your daily life moment to moment switching your mental state when you choose to. You do have the power to do this, we change our mental and emotional and physical states all of the time. Mostly we are not choosing to however, but the thing is, we can when we learn how and practice so it becomes a habit.
I completed a course in MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction) with Leiden University and lecturers from the Mindfulness Centre in Oxford University earlier this year as mentioned earlier. I enjoy passing on what I learned to my clients in Clarity Therapy Spain
Clarity Therapy Facebook page has a corresponding video to go with this article.
http://oxfordmindfulness.org/about-us/courses/ - Oxford University Mindfulness Centre
- interesting discussions on this topic
Walking Meditation tips from Deepak Chopra