Before
I just returned from the Boy Scout ski camp out. I am tired, but I feel good. A lot has been happening with my Boy Scout career that has been jumbling my brain, but it is not a necessarily bad thing.
During
The meditation occurred from 5:19 to 5:34 PM. I sat on my bedroom floor in an upright lotus position. However, as the meditation progressed, I relaxed my position so that I was not sitting up straight, but instead partially supported by my hands/forearms resting on my legs. It was very relaxing. I chose to participate in mindfulness meditation, allowing my thoughts to pop into my head on their own. I eventually was not having concrete thoughts, but instead abstract, unimpressive thoughts. I did not try to control breathing. I had many moments when I stopped noticing my senses. I remember actually realizing that I no longer noticed what my hands felt (they were clasped together). However, after I realized this, I soon felt them clasped together again. This taught me that it is important to simply let the meditation happen and that even small thoughts can interrupt the experience. Additionally, I almost fell backward or forward several time. I enjoyed leaving my senses. An interesting part of my meditation is when I come to my senses again; this time, much like my meditation on 1-24-14, I came to my senses right around when the 15 minutes were up. This time I opened my eyes to stop meditating about 2 to 5 seconds before the timer went off. Now that this great timing has happened twice, I think I should start varying the amount of time I devote to meditating at one time. That way, my mind will not become used to the practice and I will continue to experience meditation in a new way each time.
After
While the experience was "enjoyable", I do not believe it achieved what I was aiming for. I wanted a constructive meditation that would improve my mental functioning and open my mind to new experiences. However, this meditation felt lazy, like I was simply going through a motion. It offered little more than the feeling that I had received some rest. Overall, I enjoyed the experience, but I am not impressed, nor am I satisfied with the experience.
I have meditated with a timer, and I got rid of this aspect because then it became too much about doing it for a certain amount of time. It is amazing, though, how well our minds keep time even when we cannot see clocks.
ReplyDeleteI find that meditation is not like taking an aspirin. If I take the aspirin, I know it "worked" when my headache goes away. Meditation is like repetitively practicing a particular skill, like controlling a lacrosse ball in the stick netting. You have to do it over and over again until the ball feels natural in the netting. It is almost as though the stick becomes a physical extension of your arms.
With meditation, you may not notice the benefits until you become mindful of the different stress levels and increased focus. To me, the real point is that I cannot imagine a situation in which repeated meditation (or similar mindfulness practice) does not increase mindfulness.