We all meditate
I stumbled on meditation at a relatively young age, but a structure came into my practise only after I was introduced to Vipassana. During my initial days, I would just close my eyes, and would do whatever fancied me that day. Either I would count backwards from 100 or may be I would just fixate on my breath, and see what happens. There are days when I would simply focus my attention on an idea, and let my mind take the driver’s seat. Obviously, I wasn’t meditating properly. At least if I had followed the same pattern every day, there would have naturally been some progress.
So, I guess, I should change my first sentence. I stumbled on the incorrect way of meditation at a relatively young age.
Then, very recently, I fully understood the meaning of the term mindfulness.
If I had to throw in a quick definition, it would simply be- The process of being aware of one’s present moment, and having complete acceptance to one’s state of being.
Then, despite having practised meditation for so many years, I went on a quest to find out the actual meaning of what it meant. I realized one is said to be in a meditative state, when there is focused attention for a period of time.
Yes, I understand, there is a huge chance of mixing up both meditation and mindfulness. I am not sure if I am making the right attempt of trying to link meditation and mindfulness, but I am going to take a shot in the dark.
If mindfulness, which is the process of being aware of one’s present moment, is practised for any duration of time, by staying focused, it qualifies as meditation.
Understanding this definition was a huge turning point in my life. The imagery that was built in my head about meditation broke. It was broken, but I realized I could build a new image that wasn’t restricted by the norms of having to sit down cross-legged, eyes closed, and only focusing on the breath. Yes, this is an ideal condition, and following the above said norms can be really helpful.
But, I have realized, since people have a preconceived notion about how meditation is supposed to be, they end up not practicing the conventional mode of meditation, as it demands effort, and more importantly, they are being completely ignorant of the short bursts of meditation that they are all engaged in, every single day.
To give an example, I haven’t baked that many times in my life, but when I am in the process of mixing the dough with all the ingredients, I am automatically mindful, and I tend to be in meditation.
I used to cycle a lot during my childhood, and in hindsight, I feel I was in a meditative state at least during 40% of the time.
Nowadays, I am trying to write consistently, and in the process of achieving it, I insulate myself from all distractions beforehand, I just focus on the words that are coming out of my head, and try to stay rooted in the thought process. Yes, you guessed right. I am meditative when I am writing.
This way, I started noticing how there are multifarious occasions in my daily life when I was going into a state of meditation. Just being aware of this helped in reducing the guilt of not meditating in the ideal condition format, and to some extent, it became the fuel for actually practicing the ideal condition format because I felt that I was making progress in meditation.
Similarly, if you make an attempt to take a closer look at how your routine unwinds in a day, I am certain you would be able to figure out those small bursts of meditation slots that are actually happening.
You just haven’t given it the tag of meditation.
We always tend to set high expectations in our head about the progress we make in a new task, and when we fail to match up to our mental image, we lose the motivation for consistently pursuing it. Same goes for meditation.
We are all doing it at some level, and it is just a matter of acknowledging, and taking baby steps towards progressing in those formats, and with that progress taking place in one side, if you convince yourself to go for the ideal condition format, there is no doubt, you would make huge strides!
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