I have taken myself to a spa for a few days before starting my new job.
There is, already, a theme emerging. It is around the fact that our bodies hold all the answers, if we are able to tune in.
I am terrible at this. All my awareness is above shoulder level and I am accustomed to tuning my body out.
Meditation, as I discovered yesterday, is as much about listening to your body as it is about calming your mind. It is about focusing on the present and using your physical self to ground you there. This is another thing that I suck at.
It turns out that 30 minutes in a dimmed room under the control of a monotone voice can, at least, start nudging me in the right direction; and, even though I kept having to yank my mind back to the starting point – here, now, not tomorrow or what we’re having for dinner – I’m certainly becoming more conscious of the importance of this grounding.
It’s how to maintain the sentiment in the ‘real world’ that will be the real challenge!
P.s. In the absence of a photo, here’s the (calming) view from my room.
In the second half of the meditation, we were asked to imagine ourselves as a mountain. This didn’t really work for me (possibly the height thing), but I did have a strong image of the sea and water. For me, grounding is about knowing that you’ll be okay in the middle of change. That you can stay afloat and sail happily along, whatever comes along. Guess that was my learning….
Meditation is magic. I get so much out of switching off, grounding myself and just focusing on breathing and letting go that I wish I could get/arrange the time and space to do it more often.
There’s so much beauty in just ‘being’, here in the now and afloat on the moment clear from all other external and inner confusion. As you say though. maintaining it in the real world is the challenge but the more you do it, the less difficult it gets…
(Plus, I’ve always found group meditation to be more effective at clearing out the personal blockages. You’ve got an atmosphere and a shared calm that helps generate the right vibes, as it were.)
Thanks for sharing this – I think I might need to try meditation properly. 5 days later and I don’t think it had even re-crossed my mind. I went to see my Granny yesterday who asked when the last time I’d slowed down was….guess it’s even more important to create space when things move so incredibly fast.