si dawson

Med­i­ta­tion typ­i­cally brings to mind images of sit­ting in full lotus on a moun­tain top some­where, head in the clouds, a slight lev­i­ta­tion visible.

Ever meet any­one that's done that?

pic by pureen­ergy

No, me either.

For­tu­nately, if you step back & look at med­i­ta­tion as a con­cept, it's really just aim­ing to do two things:

1. Empty your brain of thoughts (you remem­ber those, they're the things that are not-you)
2. Bring you into a deeper state of relax­ation or awareness

This is pretty much the descrip­tion of flow. Any ath­lete in peak per­for­mance has that. In fact, any peak per­former, in any area, is in that state.

No thoughts, no noise, just pure beingness.

If you're any­thing like me, you've heard great things about med­i­tat­ing. Sat down, tried it, & given up due to dis­trac­tion. Or, you know, found some­thing more impor­tant that urgently needed doing.

So what's the trick?

Well, to start with, yep, it can be hard. Thoughts swirl around us like dust in a tor­nado. We're assailed from every direc­tion. It can seem damn near impossible.

Here's a trick though. Who said you have to be sit­ting still to med­i­tate? Try going for a walk, or a run — or just sit & jig­gle your leg if you're feel­ing lazy. That's fine too.

Sec­ond, who said you have to be quiet? It's your mind that you're try­ing to get to shut up.

So, how about this. Get some music you really like. Prefer­ably stuff with­out words — you don't want to be putting new thoughts into your mind. Prefer­ably rea­son­ably fast — oth­er­wise your brain may (will!) start wan­der­ing in the gaps.

For me, I'm a fan of high bpm (beats-per-minute) dub, drum & bass, and other elec­tron­ica. It has a reg­u­lar rhythm, which means you can kind of tune it out, but it's fast enough that it drowns out most of what's going on upstairs.

Crank it up loud & start walk­ing, run­ning, or jiggling.

You'll find the music & move­ment will swamp most of your thoughts. This is a great start. It just makes it eas­ier to see any remain­ing thoughts that peep out from above the noise.

Now, what to do when you do catch your­self drift­ing off? Well here's the trick.

Just pay atten­tion. When you see thoughts aris­ing, bring your focus back to the music (or the exer­cise). Let the thought go. You can always worry about it later, turn it into a haiku or scrib­ble it on a bal­loon & fling it to the wind.

Each time your brain starts bur­bling away, get back into the music. You did choose loud music you absolutely adore, right? Well, that'll make it easier.

(be sure to stretch before attempt­ing this super-advanced med­i­ta­tional asana)
pic by juljo

As an added ben­e­fit? It'll make you hap­pier. Less crap going on upstairs, lis­ten­ing to music that makes your heart beat that lit­tle bit faster, endor­phins pour­ing through your body…

Besides, you can always sit still & just breathe when you reach the top of the hill.

ps. If you're keen to try some other non-standard tech­niques for still­ing the mind, my good friend Dhru­mil has an excel­lent 15min audio on "Falling Still" (or if you pre­fer, a 20 min video). Then there's always those old saw-horses EFT & releas­ing, of course — to get rid of spe­cific thought pat­terns. Or, you know, just try all of it & see what works for you.