Meditating

So I’ve been meditating. I’ve tried it before, but never more than about three days in a row. I always tried doing it in the morning, but I’d either be too sleepy or too rushed. Soon I’d forget all about doing it. My Persistent Elephant get-healthy blog effort, however, has me looking at all the pieces that go into health and permanent weight loss. When I wrote a “weight loss autobiography,” it became clear to me that one of my big patterns is gaining during periods of stress. If I want to lose weight and keep it off, thoughtful stress management has got to be part of my life.

I did some poking around on the web and in bookstores about stress management. In the last few years, meditation has become quite mainstream in the Western world – at least in terms of recommendations by many doctors and other conventional health practitioners. What did I have to lose? I picked up The Quiet Mind: A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation. This book outlines six different mediation practices as described by six reputable Buddhist teachers. Editor Susan Piver is an author I know and trust from other books and articles. The small volume is easy to read, and a few weeks ago I started meditating for ten minutes a day while E is napping. It isn’t always easy. My ankle starts to itch and my back starts to ache a little. My mind is always wandering off. Yet there is something very peaceful and restorative about it. I feel better when I’m done. And sometimes it is eerie how fast those ten minutes fly by; fleeting thoughts about timing drift through my mind and I figure I’m maybe five minutes in, but then the kitchen timer starts beeping.

I decided I liked meditation well enough to stick with it. By the time E wakes up, I know I’ve had a solid ten minutes of pure peace, which makes me more patient. Then earlier this week I found myself in a temporarily stressful situation. It was close to E’s naptime and he was revved up from playing with two other little boys all morning. He was trying to talk to me, but another adult – a very longwinded one – was talking to me at the same time. All three boys were zipping around making noise. The house was a shambles from tot play and the adult I was talking to kept elaborating on a complex issue and asking my advice, yet she never stopped long enough to let me voice my ideas. I found myself trying to remember what I wanted to say while soothing my child and gathering E’s things. Normally in such a situation, I’d be trying to talk myself through it. I’d be reminding myself to stay cool and take it slow. This time, I didn’t hear my own voice scolding me to be patient. Instead, I felt myself pulling back a little emotionally. I realized I’d instinctively just stood up a little straighter and took a few deep breaths. I can’t quite articulate it, but it almost felt like the room got a tiny bit larger so that I could back up enough to see the whole situation. Instantly, I knew this came from practicing meditation. The feeling was the same as sitting cross-legged on the carpet while counting breaths.

It’s like this… Say you speedwalk regularly for fun and exercise. Then one day during your workday you find yourself needing to hurriedly catch a taxi. Even though you’re in dressy clothes on a busy city sidewalk, your body has the cardio strength for slipping into a faster pace plus your walking stride is already comfortable. Because of regular exercise, your heart and muscles are ready to help you. Earlier this week during that stressful moment, the equivalent happened in my brain. Because I’d been practicing being quiet and objective, I was able to fall into that “brain stride” in a very different setting and situation. Man, it was beautiful. I haven’t missed any days meditating since because now I get it. Now I see how meditation helps not just during or right after, bringing a momentary sense of peace and release from stress, but also brings far-reaching help!

I think I'm hooked. And that's a very good thing.