{"id":2207,"date":"2015-01-11T18:44:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T23:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2015-01-11T18:44:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T23:44:15","slug":"me-meditate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/2015\/01\/11\/me-meditate\/","title":{"rendered":"Me Meditate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NJ<\/a><\/p>\n

Ordinary Legacy Mantra: Thank you for this day and everything in it. <\/strong><\/p>\n

They tell me that meditation can be practiced by anyone, anywhere, and that you can focus your attention, produce a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind.\u00a0 Do you know me?\u00a0 During meditation your attention is focused and your ricochet rabbit thoughts can be eliminated\u2026really?\u00a0 You can achieve calm, peace and balance that are beneficial to both your emotional and overall health.\u00a0 And even when your meditation session ends your benefits just keep on keepin on.<\/p>\n

The Mayo Clinic gives the following emotional benefits from meditation:\u00a0 Gaining new perspective, stress management, increased self-awareness, reducing negative emotions and focusing on the present.\u00a0 Ok, I\u2019m listening, I could use a little of this and a little of that.<\/p>\n

They go on to inform us that certain medical conditions that can be worsened by stress might find meditation useful.\u00a0 Of course the jury is still out as their disclaimer clearly states (meditation isn\u2019t a replacement for traditional medical treatment) but perhaps anxiety disorders, asthma, depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, pain and sleep problems could be eased by integrating meditation into one\u2019s life. \u00a0\u00a0I happen to have a few of those\u2026<\/p>\n

The numerous ways to meditate range from guided to mantra to mindfulness to transcendental meditation and can include some physical practices like Qi Gong, Tai chi, and Yoga.\u00a0 There are any number of Gurus, both on line and in the community, willing to impart their wisdom\u2026seriously?\u00a0 It\u2019s a business?\u00a0 Honey everything is a business\u2026<\/p>\n

Several years ago I took up the practice of daily affirmations and this seemed to me the next logical step.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned so far:<\/p>\n

With all the talk of deep breathing and letting all those invasive thoughts float by like clouds I thought my head would blow off and I would hyperventilate.\u00a0 First of all it is nearly impossible to stop your thoughts, if they stop you stop.\u00a0 And deep breathing when forced becomes the hardest thing ever and really loud in your head.<\/p>\n

Repeat a mantra\u2026seriously the mantras that are most often associated with meditation are in a completely different language.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, nor do I wish to know Sanskrit, or whatever.<\/p>\n

Make sure you\u2019re not disturbed.\u00a0 Use a candle at the beginning if it is too uncomfortable to keep your eyes closed. Meditate first thing in the morning before anything else when your mind is at its most quiet.\u00a0 I have dogs, the first thing that happens in my house is a dash for the door with all the accoutrements of the morning walk to relieve\u2026it all.\u00a0 Not disturbed\u2026with dogs?\u00a0\u00a0One eye is always opening to see what those two are up to especially now that Lina is in treatment.\u00a0 Where exactly does one put a candle with two dogs roaming around you as you\u2019re cross legged on the floor, which in itself is a bit of a thing, to say nothing of the smooches on the face because you are after all at eye level. And you know they\u2019re watching you even if they\u2019re not right in your face\u2026<\/p>\n

\"082\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Notice small adjustments and do NOT stress.\u00a0 Meditation is what it is, they say, and\u00a0 just do the best you can at the time. Ok, it may be what it is to you but my epiphany came when I realized the single only thing in your life that is always in the moment is your body.\u00a0 So I put my body where it\u2019s comfortable, in my chair.\u00a0 They say it\u2019s ok to sit in a chair but your feet should be on the floor, eh not so much. I do a body scan, which they actually recommend, to see how everything feels and make small adjustments so nothing is falling asleep or twitching or numb.\u00a0 Just so you know, your nose will itch as soon as you close your eyes.<\/p>\n

I tune in to Pandora calm meditation channel, set a meditation timer (there\u2019s an app for that) pick up my coffee, and shut my eyes.\u00a0 I know, the coffee isn\u2019t really a step in any guru\u2019s teachings but I love the feel of the warmth through the cup and when my mind wanders I can either bring it back to my body (which is always in the moment remember) or take a sip and feel that velvety hot liquid going down my throat and warming me all over.\u00a0 I am now practiced at the art of finding my lips with my eyes closed and not spilling a drop.\u00a0 I catch on quick\u2026just sayin.<\/p>\n

\"626fab373a503eb9a4350318062d4eab\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If one of the dogs puts a paw up on the chair, they now recognize that the slight opening of one eye means get the hell off and somehow they do\u2026energy is indeed powerful.<\/p>\n

The moral of this story is that it seems to be working.\u00a0 Not in any formal sense that the meditating community would recognize but I find myself coming back to my body and closing my eyes during the day too.\u00a0 I find my mind is a bit slower, when I ask it to be, and that my shoulders have somehow found their way down my neck. \u00a0When I\u2019m in a stressful situation I tend to breathe differently. \u00a0My breathing regulates and I don\u2019t need to think about it anymore.<\/p>\n

Liz Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame talks in these terms about meditation, \u201cIt’s not necessarily discipline. Discipline can become a prison. When your spiritual practices become another thing for you to be anxious about, they’ve lost their usefulness. I try to be limber with it and soft with it\u201d.\u00a0 Amen Sister.\u00a0 I too am being soft with it but I think I might actually be doing this meditation thing, kinda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ordinary Legacy Mantra: Thank you for this day and everything in it. They tell me that meditation can be practiced by anyone, anywhere, and that you can focus your attention, produce a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[466,6],"tags":[548,559,558,390,557,556],"class_list":["post-2207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-its-a-legacy-thing","category-pause-points","tag-legacyinthemaking","tag-breathe","tag-eat-pray-love","tag-gratitude","tag-liz-gilbert","tag-meditation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27hQ5-zB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2210,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions\/2210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}