A simple approach to meditation

Start where you are

It would be too easy to just tell you to go some where and sit down anywhere you want for 10 minutes. When you get down to basics, it really is that simple. But I can’t just leave it there if you are just starting meditation. Or looking to overcome a block if you are trying to jumpstart a blocked mediation practice.

Let me talk about a place to start for those of you just beginning a meditation practice. The key word is practice. In the beginning I started with a group that met at 7:00pm everyday. I had no clue what I was doing. They pointed me to a pillow where I sat and closed my eyes until they rang the bell at the end. They didn’t give much instruction and I didn’t know what I should expect which for some reason made it exciting for me. I just went, sat down, and I felt way calmer by the end of it. This was enough for me at the time and a great place to start.

So this is my simple approach to share with you at any stage of your journey. Block out 10 to 20 minutes to sit down in the same place and time every day. Eyes open or closed. During your lunch break, before bed, on the bus, or in the forest. It really doesn’t matter where or when. In the beginning you’re just getting into the practice of it, so just see what happens with no expectations. As you practice, you will start to notice the more nuanced movements of breath, or the texture of your thoughts. That’s natural. So in the beginning, just watch your body and mind like a wild animal in the woods as you sit quietly behind a bush. Before you try to trap it, you want to study and understand the behavior and habits of the animal you’re tracking. Just sit and observe.

This part is for long time meditator’s who have blocks, or are reviving a meditation practice. But it is good guidance for beginners as well. I have, like a lot of you, gone through periods where I felt seriously blocked. Or have had my mind spinning in overdrive to such a degree that it’s makes sitting still ‘seem’ almost impossible. But I assure you, it’s easier than you ‘think’ to get started, or overcome such obstacles. After an exceptionally long period of not meditating, I realized I was making excuses, and created a thought pattern I had to break. I knew this was the ‘thinking mind’ that’s creating all of the reasons not to meditate. I decided I had to find a way around the mind.

the strategy I came up with was to create a new thought pattern through my body as a way to circumvent my mind’s clever ways of sabotaging my efforts. I started to seriously do yoga on a regular, dedicated schedule. I had very casually done yoga several times in the past, but never committed to it really. I knew you got to lay down for 10 minutes at the end. That did really help get my mind out of the way. After going to class 3 times a week for about month, I started showing up 15 minutes early to do a sitting mediation before class started. This was the part that was training myself to be able to mediate anywhere and anytime outside of class. You never knew who was going to be talking or making any other noise. Every class could offer up a new, unexpected distraction to sit through. It got me back to having no expectations for what my meditation should be. One other thing that yoga showed me was the most important things about it was showing up. One class isn’t what makes you strong or flexible. It’s doing it at least somewhat consistently, over time, where the rewards will be found. It took a year to become truly aware of my breathing. After years of practice, I don’t even care any more if my mind is busy, or I fidget, or if I open and close my eyes 10 times. It’s not a wasted effort. All I care is that I’m there. I will have great days of pure being-ness, and I will have other days where the mind and ego are hanging on for dear life. It’s all part of the greater unfolding. The important thing is that at least I will be there on those amazing days when the universe comes to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Hey Ben, I want to show you a part of yourself you never knew existed. A part of you so infinite and vast that you will be amazed that this is who you really are’. So just show up. Then that way you too can be shown something beautifully profound that lies deep within yourself.