Meditation: An Introduction

Don’t give me that look.

I know the one. When you hear the word ‘meditation’ and straight away images of dreadlocked, baggy-pantsed, incense-burning hippies singing ‘Kumbaya’ come to mind. While the idea of meditation or mindfulness seems very new and trendy (especially to the Irish), it has been around for thousands of years, playing a huge part in Eastern religions. Having said that, you don’t need to be a Buddhist monk on a mountaintop to be able to meditate; cultivating your own mindfulness practice is actually easier and more accessible now than ever before.


I would like to preface this post by informing the reader that this here is merely an introduction to meditation (my understanding of it anyway), and will not address its every facet. I felt I needed to do a series of blog posts around the concept of meditation and mindfulness because to try to condense it all into one would be like trying to put the ocean in a glass.


The Cambridge dictionary definition of meditation forms a fruitful jumping-off point: “the act of giving your attention to only one thing... as a way of becoming calm and relaxed” (MEDITATION | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, 2020). In my earlier blog post about thoughts, I stated that our minds are racing constantly, and we have thoughts we are not even fully aware of, because we never take a moment to pause and sit. This whirring sensation in our brains is perpetuated by phone use, by growing to-do lists, and by other responsibilities of adult life. I remember in the evenings after coming home from school my mind felt like a beehive, and it may have been like this for an hour or so before my even noticing. I would have only vague memories of attending to whatever task was at hand - be it preparing my dinner, hoovering the floor, or going for a walk - because my mind was otherwise engaged in replaying conversations I had with colleagues and parents, fretting over whether or not my materials were ready for class the next day, mulling over what other jobs needed to be done, be they work-related or not. Since practicing meditation, this is not the case anymore. My mind does not feel like a circus - at least, not all of the time. Because I am training myself in the practice of focusing on one thing at a time, which is a lot easier said than done, I can tell you, but infinitely rewarding nonetheless.


Since December of last year, I have tried to meditate every day. I am not always successful, but that’s okay. Meditation is not a stick you should use to beat yourself with. It is judgment-free. What this daily meditation practice looks like, for me, is sitting in the moment for a brief period and listening to my breath, coupled with some other attention task (like feeling your weight on the chair, noticing the sounds around you, or scanning down through your body). The vast majority of mindfulness practices, however, involve a focus of some sort on the breath, since it is the one true constant, the one true giver of life. Listening to your breath without worrying about other interfering variables is incredibly peaceful, and easier than you might think. We are not being asked to cure cancer, or to rescue people from a burning building. Yet why are we so afraid of being in our own company in the silence for a few minutes? Why don’t we give ourselves the time? Surely we can set the phones down and put off whatever task is at hand in order to listen to our breath, for a minute. Are you willing to set aside 60 seconds every day for yourself? Do you believe you are worthy of this time out? It baffles me that so many people rule out the need in their life for meditation, their minds flooded with ideas of sitting cross-legged in the garden wrapped in a large orange cloth burning incense - but meditation doesn’t need to look like that, at all. Buddhist monk attire is strictly optional.




References

Dictionary.cambridge.org. 2020. MEDITATION | Meaning In The Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/meditation> [Accessed 25 October 2020].

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