Meditation: Finding the calm already within.
Meditation in a Minute
Believe it or not, I can teach you how to meditate, and understand the basic structure and process of meditation is about a minute. The reason is this: while the benefits are many and the experience can be deep and complex; the process is actually quite simple.
I don’t know about you, but I love to complicate things more than they are and have worked to quiet this impulse. In EMS and the military there seems to be a compulsion to make things more complicated than they are. When, the secret to high performance is often to simplify. So it is with meditation. When just starting out in EMS, my EMT instructor used to joke that what we do is simple: air goes in and out and blood goes round and round; any disruption or deviation should be fixed. While funny, at its heart there is actually a physiological truth to it. With meditation I found that distilling to this simple structure is also a good basis or starting place:
Ground, breathe, return.
By the way, I didn’t invent this. Meditation has been performed this way for thousands of years and will be for a thousands more. So here it is:
Meditate in a Minute:
Ground: Sit, lie or even stand comfortably. Keep your spine comfortable but straight and your head and chin neutral. Feel wherever your body is touching the ground, cushion, bed or seat. Really feel it, imagine being rooted to the earth.
Breathe: Take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale. Followed by the deepest breath you’ve take all day also on through the nose. Slowly exhale through the mouth or nose. Feel present and begin to breath normally. Observe your breath, don’t worry about controlling or changing it, just breath naturally. Preferably, breathe just through your nose. If it’s comfortable close your eyes or just soften the gaze. Don’t worry about thoughts or feeling darting in an and out of your awareness just note or name them. “Ah thought” or “that’s a feeling” and return to feeling and observing your normal uncontrolled breath. Keep focusing on your breath as long as you’d like; 30 seconds, 30 minutes, 3 hours….it’s your practice and it’s up to you.
Return: When ready, return to the world. Start by hearing what’s around you. If your eyes were closed, gently open and bring the surroundings back into focus. Take another deep cleansing breath and note how you feel. Here’s another secret: You may feel better, lighter, happier, calmer. You may also feel heavier, more emotional, sad, angry, frustrated. It actually doesn’t matter, it’s just where you are. The importance is noting how you feel now, in the present and acknowledging that this moment is in reality all we have.
Congratulations! You now know how to meditate. Namaste.
“I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.”
– Pema Chödrön
Meditation Basics
In layman’s terms, one way to sum up meditation is deep listening to our current self. Not distracting memories of past or rumination on the future but a grounded feeling of this present moment.
When we start meditating we often feel like we have to be moving towards something, accomplishing something. What I’ve found most surprising and paradoxical is the path in meditations isn’t about arriving at a destination, it’s actually about revealing what we already have. In reading and being exposed to the ancient texts that provide the foundation for all meditation and in the Eastern Philosophical space this idea is the path to enlightenment.
In response to mentioning either my meditation practice or that I’m a certified teacher. The response is often “I’ve tried it but I can’t clear mind,” or “I can’t do it my mind just races.” The answer is, those experiences are actually all a part of meditation, especially in the beginning.
Using these meditation techniques coupled with other healing methods and practices I was not crippled by past trauma and events but instead thrived in the EMS world. Developed an excellent reputation in the community and with the hospital staff I interacted with.
We are not what we do or even what we think. Our essence is much deeper. Part of the path of meditation or even spirituality if you’d like, is uncovering that essence. Note I didn’t say find it, I believe that it’s already there, in all of us. That unique, pure core of our consciousness.
Basic Meditation
The simple 3 part structure of meditation is:
1) grounding to present
2) breath
3) return to the world.
A simple starting place, which can be a 30 second meditation or 30 minute one. Sit in a comfortable position, feel the ground, and feel rooted to it. Take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale. Followed by the deepest breath you’ve taken all day, also in through the nose. Slowly exhale. Feel present and begin to breath normally. Observe your breath, don’t worry about controlling or changing it. Just breath. If it’s comfortable, close your eyes or just soften the gaze. Don’t worry about thoughts or feelings darting in an and out of your awareness. Just note or name them. “Ah thought” or “that’s a feeling” and return to feeling and observing your normal uncontrolled breath. When you’re ready, begin to hear what’s around you. Feel the ground again and return to the world and the space you are in. That’s it!
Even more simplified or the Meditation in a Minute summary:
Ground, breath, return:
• Sit comfortably, feel the ground beneath, and just be in the now.
• Breath, feel, and observe the breath. Close your eyes or soften your gaze. Breathe. Continue to focus on your breath however long you choose
• Return to the world and your current space.
Meditation Guidance
The most important guidance I can give is just start! Our minds are wired where we get some satisfaction and feeling of progress by reading about a positive activity we want to start, thinking about the activity or talking about it rather than actually starting. I believe this feeling of satisfaction without action is one of the biggest barriers to beginning to make positive change. Throughout my years of being an athlete and adventurer, a great piece of instruction or guidance I picked up was related to running and starting. “I want to run, but just can’t get started.” Start with just getting your running shoes and putting them on and then taking some initial steps - even if you don’t even go out the door the first time. Acknowledge the action and who you are now, “I’m a runner putting on my shoes to start.” Action has been taken, the critical thing is next time put on the shoes and go out the door or get on the treadmill. Each time add a bit more. For meditation, do the meditation in a minute if that’s all you’ve got today. There! You’re a meditator! Don’t overthink or complicate. Especially in getting started, it's consistency and progressive progress that are most important. I’m going to run or meditate daily or every other day, whatever, just START! Don’t worry about being “any good” or even how long or far. Just start building the habit and where in your daily routine it will fit. Initially set a timer or sit for as long as is comfortable for you, whether that’s a a few minutes, 10, 20 or longer.
Some specifics. I’ve built a deep practice on predominantly relying on just a few techniques and you can as well. We’ve covered the structure of meditation in ground, breath, return. Now adding a couple techniques within that structure will deepen the experience. While sitting and focusing on the breath, two great techniques to build your practice on are noting and the body scan.
Noting: This technique is exactly as the name implies. As thoughts and feeling arise while sitting we acknowledge them by “noting” them. Not trying to change anything, just noting them and then letting them go. In my mind as a thought arises I say internally, “that’s a thought” or “ah thinking” and let it go. The same is for feelings or emotions. “That’s a feeling” and let it go. If many thoughts and/or feeling arise while sitting this is normal. It happens especially in the beginning because by sitting we’re now actually taking the time and space to recognize our busy mind and constant feelings. The important aspect of this technique is not trying to change or control either the thought or feeling, no matter how crazy or frequent they seem and are. The root of meditation and mindfulness is being present in the now. Those just are our thoughts and feelings arising naturally. Note and let go. If you’re being flooded with many thoughts and feeling, you’re not “doing it wrong”, it’s just your current experience. As our practice deepens, I’ve found the racing mind does smooth out and diminish. Here’s some art and poetry I did specifically on noting. It references a noting visualization I like to use to help let go. Thinking of the thoughts and feelings like leaves drifting by on a gentle river. As an aside, clouds drifting by in the sky is another visualization I’ve commonly heard referred to by practitioners as well.
Body scan: There are a variety of scanning techniques, for simplicity we’ll just start with one. Think of it as a check in on the status of our physical body. Noting acknowledges the mind and heart, the scan observes the rest. Starting at the head, scan slowly down the body through each part. Head, face, neck, back, chest, belly, etc. While scanning note any feeling, pain, tightness, suppleness, whatever. With the exception of needing to reposition because of significant joint pain for example, by and large acknowledge what we’re observing physically while not trying to change it. I’ve found this helpful in uncovering tension where I hadn’t noticed it being held. Chest and shoulders, typically for me. When the scan is done, return to focusing on the breath.