Painting by Alex Grey. You can check out his mind-expanding work at https://shop.cosm.org/collections/artwork (no affiliate stuff here, just love his work).
Own It Economics is about having your best life. I've found meditation to be a big life uptick. It's great for brain health and mood, and It's the greenest activity you can do, pretty much. If you've never given it a go, I strongly encourage it.
Meditation is one of my five go-to tools for keeping inspired and grounded so I can keep on being my best. Meditation is a very personal thing, but my nephew asked about my methods this morning, and I thought maybe others would benefit from them, too. So here's a page on the meditation techniques I know about. Though we are all different, uniquely beautiful people, I, personally, feel that meditation is as important as food and sleep for a truly nourished life. As I told my nephew, when starting—do it for at least five minutes a day—could be five one-minute sessions. Just start. If you really want to feel the shift deeper, though, go for more when you can, like a half-hour or hour. A longer time-frame takes you to levels that you simply cannot get to in a minute.
My Favorite Meditation — Breath and More
The most important thing to get ahold of at the start of my day is that I drive my life and I have all the time I need to make it happen.
My favorite type of meditation gets me back to that state of knowing that I am bigger than my thoughts, my creativity, my worries, my heartbeat. I am consciousness. That simple identity is underneath everything I do. I've found I am happiest, most efficient, and most productive when I align with that regularly. I find if I go to less than two hours of meditation of week, I lose that connection. Sometimes I need more. As the Dalai Lama is supposed to have said, "If it's a busy day, I meditate two hours instead of one." I love that line. If I don't fill up with feeling abundant and held and alive at the start of my day, then the day is a grind and I end up redoing everything I did tomorrow because the spirit of who I am is not as strong in my work.
It can be used on-the-go, too. I think of meditation as a portable vacation. It's a tool I can use to restore myself fully anytime, anywhere. Standing in line? Yes. Driving my car? Yes. Cooking dinner? Ya.
To start, I sit or lay down and sometimes it vacillates between the two. I often start out cross-legged. With my mouth closed, I breathe in through my nose and feel the cold air from outside my body come into my body. It's so cool. I feel it glide across nose hairs (ew! but I can feel it go across) and then I feel my lungs expand and then it's time for an exhale. Mouth closed, I exhale through my nose and notice the warm air that leaves my body. I marvel at how amazing it is that I change the air so perceptibly. I am alive, and that feels great.
First step up: Once I do that, I deepen my awareness to how it feels to sit or lay down — like where my body touches the surface upon which I rest. About here my body wants to shift. It's also about here that thoughts start to fly in. This meditation is a brain muscle builder. The strength created is not necessarily how long I can stay without thought, it's how adeptly I can return to my breath. I find it much more fun to get back there quickly because it's my vacation. So I keep a piece of scratch paper and mechanical pencil (so I create as little waste as possible) at hand and scribble down whatever seems important enough. Then my mind relaxes because I will get to what I put down later, after meditation.
Studies have shown that people who meditate have stronger minds as they age. I have certainly found a perceptible difference in my ability to think when I meditate as opposed to when I have let it slide.
Second step up: I bring my attention to my tongue. If it's at the roof of my mouth, I see if it will drop. I wait a moment and let it be if it wants to remain there. Then I deepen in my holding and feel it through my neck, to my shoulders, perhaps beyond, and sit with that, too, as I breathe.
Either before or after the tongue check, I see if I can relax my eyes behind the lids. Then I internally focus between them and about an inch up on my forehead, center brow. I see an eye when I focus there if I'm dropped in completely. Sitting with that vision and my breath is ecstasy.
Tip: A lot of newbies complain that they "can't" meditate because their minds race, too much. Welcome to the club! What I do if I know my thoughts are especially turbulent and I want a break is I set paper and pen next to me and write down whatever comes up so my "better get it done" self can relax (eventually) because nothing will be forgotten. Then when the thing is on the paper, I go back to zeroing out my mind. The "to do" list created is a great tool for my day.
Journey Meditation
This is more focused on an issue I have that will not let go, like grief, or anger. I take that feeling and go sit or lay down. I feel where it is in my body, my mind's images and stories, and I let myself have it. To me emotional pain is a wound. I want to pay attention to where I am hurting and see what I need to nourish that place that hurts. I rely on the breathing and feeling my body techniques above, but I am not focused on clearing my mind and having no thought. I want to have these thoughts and deepen my experience in what they have to say. Where the above meditation is like a vacation, this is more like a workout. It's gratifying and calming eventually.
This meditation allows me to know my pain and own it so I don't barf it all over everyone. This type of self-care builds my relationship with myself more so I can be a stronger friend and member of the community. With this tool, I can say in my relationships things like, "I get triggered around this kind of stuff and find I go to anger, so sorry about the charge in my voice." When things get tense, I have found people feel safer staying with whatever topic is at hand, because they know I'm staying present. It's a work in progress, and I can still get triggered and launch into bitch-mode before I know it, but this helps me do it way less often. A special thanks to all my friends who put up with those times!
As far as just being a member of society, this meditation allows me to be more sympathetic to people who are more likely to annoy. You know, strangers who refuse to signal and then cut you off, people who stand in the middle of a grocery store isle while texting on their phone, people who blah, blah, blah. Who knows what these people in the middle of in their life. I get caught in the "middle of" life, too, and am clueless plenty. When I'm at my best, I "middle" on my time, but life is surprising and you just never know what someone is working with. Compassion is a lovely by-product of this meditation.
Mantra Meditation
This is like a re-tuning for yourself. You repeat a line or series of lines over and over so that is all your mind is focused on. It can follow a spiritual practice or it can just be an affirmation. I've used this when I'm trying to incorporate a new idea.
Some belief systems have mantras that have been used through the ages by populations of people. For example, Buddhists use "Om Mani Padme Hum." Here's what the Dalai Lama has to say about it. I used to chant this 1000 times on a hike and found it invigorating. I used a mala to keep track of the mantra. A mala is a string of beads.
Many use tools are used to keep track of how many times you say a mantra and help you focus on staying with it, because the mind will want to wanter. Having a physical tool helps with focus. You can buy them in stores that have a spiritual bent, or make your own. I have a few choker-length malas I've made out of tiny 2mm gemstones on fishing line with about an inch gap before the end clasps. I called them "Office Malas" because I'd wear them to work. At lunch time I'd remove it and pass the beads through my fingers that rested in the gap of fishing line as I quietly repeated a chant when walking at lunch.
You could consider the Rosary a type of mala, though I've also seen key fobs with ten knobs as a type of Catholic meditation tool. You can go here to learn more about the rosary.
Some traditions have mantras that are individually given to someone to use as their personal tool, not to be shared, like in Transcendental Meditation (TM). Go here to find out about that system. Here's info about the how TM mantras are given and why.
As a personal aside: When I go deeper and get beyond daily concerns and goals in my meditation, I am currently listening for the sound of consciousness below and through all things, the "Om." I have not reached it yet. Incidentally, I just found out the TM system supports this level of listening, though I am not drawn to TM. I think I'll get there with my favorite meditation, but maybe it will be through another avenue. Or maybe I'll never be able to hear the sound. The real gift is the meditation practice.
Wrap Up
I often wonder if everyone meditated would there be as much pain in the world. Sure, we'd still have pain to some degree, but I don't think it would be so prevalent because we'd know how to work with it better.
Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments. I love meditating and would love to help you get started. I hope you give it a go if you never have.
Meditation is one of my five go-to tools for keeping inspired and grounded so I can keep on being my best. Meditation is a very personal thing, but my nephew asked about my methods this morning, and I thought maybe others would benefit from them, too. So here's a page on the meditation techniques I know about. Though we are all different, uniquely beautiful people, I, personally, feel that meditation is as important as food and sleep for a truly nourished life. As I told my nephew, when starting—do it for at least five minutes a day—could be five one-minute sessions. Just start. If you really want to feel the shift deeper, though, go for more when you can, like a half-hour or hour. A longer time-frame takes you to levels that you simply cannot get to in a minute.
My Favorite Meditation — Breath and More
The most important thing to get ahold of at the start of my day is that I drive my life and I have all the time I need to make it happen.
My favorite type of meditation gets me back to that state of knowing that I am bigger than my thoughts, my creativity, my worries, my heartbeat. I am consciousness. That simple identity is underneath everything I do. I've found I am happiest, most efficient, and most productive when I align with that regularly. I find if I go to less than two hours of meditation of week, I lose that connection. Sometimes I need more. As the Dalai Lama is supposed to have said, "If it's a busy day, I meditate two hours instead of one." I love that line. If I don't fill up with feeling abundant and held and alive at the start of my day, then the day is a grind and I end up redoing everything I did tomorrow because the spirit of who I am is not as strong in my work.
It can be used on-the-go, too. I think of meditation as a portable vacation. It's a tool I can use to restore myself fully anytime, anywhere. Standing in line? Yes. Driving my car? Yes. Cooking dinner? Ya.
To start, I sit or lay down and sometimes it vacillates between the two. I often start out cross-legged. With my mouth closed, I breathe in through my nose and feel the cold air from outside my body come into my body. It's so cool. I feel it glide across nose hairs (ew! but I can feel it go across) and then I feel my lungs expand and then it's time for an exhale. Mouth closed, I exhale through my nose and notice the warm air that leaves my body. I marvel at how amazing it is that I change the air so perceptibly. I am alive, and that feels great.
First step up: Once I do that, I deepen my awareness to how it feels to sit or lay down — like where my body touches the surface upon which I rest. About here my body wants to shift. It's also about here that thoughts start to fly in. This meditation is a brain muscle builder. The strength created is not necessarily how long I can stay without thought, it's how adeptly I can return to my breath. I find it much more fun to get back there quickly because it's my vacation. So I keep a piece of scratch paper and mechanical pencil (so I create as little waste as possible) at hand and scribble down whatever seems important enough. Then my mind relaxes because I will get to what I put down later, after meditation.
Studies have shown that people who meditate have stronger minds as they age. I have certainly found a perceptible difference in my ability to think when I meditate as opposed to when I have let it slide.
Second step up: I bring my attention to my tongue. If it's at the roof of my mouth, I see if it will drop. I wait a moment and let it be if it wants to remain there. Then I deepen in my holding and feel it through my neck, to my shoulders, perhaps beyond, and sit with that, too, as I breathe.
Either before or after the tongue check, I see if I can relax my eyes behind the lids. Then I internally focus between them and about an inch up on my forehead, center brow. I see an eye when I focus there if I'm dropped in completely. Sitting with that vision and my breath is ecstasy.
Tip: A lot of newbies complain that they "can't" meditate because their minds race, too much. Welcome to the club! What I do if I know my thoughts are especially turbulent and I want a break is I set paper and pen next to me and write down whatever comes up so my "better get it done" self can relax (eventually) because nothing will be forgotten. Then when the thing is on the paper, I go back to zeroing out my mind. The "to do" list created is a great tool for my day.
Journey Meditation
This is more focused on an issue I have that will not let go, like grief, or anger. I take that feeling and go sit or lay down. I feel where it is in my body, my mind's images and stories, and I let myself have it. To me emotional pain is a wound. I want to pay attention to where I am hurting and see what I need to nourish that place that hurts. I rely on the breathing and feeling my body techniques above, but I am not focused on clearing my mind and having no thought. I want to have these thoughts and deepen my experience in what they have to say. Where the above meditation is like a vacation, this is more like a workout. It's gratifying and calming eventually.
This meditation allows me to know my pain and own it so I don't barf it all over everyone. This type of self-care builds my relationship with myself more so I can be a stronger friend and member of the community. With this tool, I can say in my relationships things like, "I get triggered around this kind of stuff and find I go to anger, so sorry about the charge in my voice." When things get tense, I have found people feel safer staying with whatever topic is at hand, because they know I'm staying present. It's a work in progress, and I can still get triggered and launch into bitch-mode before I know it, but this helps me do it way less often. A special thanks to all my friends who put up with those times!
As far as just being a member of society, this meditation allows me to be more sympathetic to people who are more likely to annoy. You know, strangers who refuse to signal and then cut you off, people who stand in the middle of a grocery store isle while texting on their phone, people who blah, blah, blah. Who knows what these people in the middle of in their life. I get caught in the "middle of" life, too, and am clueless plenty. When I'm at my best, I "middle" on my time, but life is surprising and you just never know what someone is working with. Compassion is a lovely by-product of this meditation.
Mantra Meditation
This is like a re-tuning for yourself. You repeat a line or series of lines over and over so that is all your mind is focused on. It can follow a spiritual practice or it can just be an affirmation. I've used this when I'm trying to incorporate a new idea.
Some belief systems have mantras that have been used through the ages by populations of people. For example, Buddhists use "Om Mani Padme Hum." Here's what the Dalai Lama has to say about it. I used to chant this 1000 times on a hike and found it invigorating. I used a mala to keep track of the mantra. A mala is a string of beads.
Many use tools are used to keep track of how many times you say a mantra and help you focus on staying with it, because the mind will want to wanter. Having a physical tool helps with focus. You can buy them in stores that have a spiritual bent, or make your own. I have a few choker-length malas I've made out of tiny 2mm gemstones on fishing line with about an inch gap before the end clasps. I called them "Office Malas" because I'd wear them to work. At lunch time I'd remove it and pass the beads through my fingers that rested in the gap of fishing line as I quietly repeated a chant when walking at lunch.
You could consider the Rosary a type of mala, though I've also seen key fobs with ten knobs as a type of Catholic meditation tool. You can go here to learn more about the rosary.
Some traditions have mantras that are individually given to someone to use as their personal tool, not to be shared, like in Transcendental Meditation (TM). Go here to find out about that system. Here's info about the how TM mantras are given and why.
As a personal aside: When I go deeper and get beyond daily concerns and goals in my meditation, I am currently listening for the sound of consciousness below and through all things, the "Om." I have not reached it yet. Incidentally, I just found out the TM system supports this level of listening, though I am not drawn to TM. I think I'll get there with my favorite meditation, but maybe it will be through another avenue. Or maybe I'll never be able to hear the sound. The real gift is the meditation practice.
Wrap Up
I often wonder if everyone meditated would there be as much pain in the world. Sure, we'd still have pain to some degree, but I don't think it would be so prevalent because we'd know how to work with it better.
Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments. I love meditating and would love to help you get started. I hope you give it a go if you never have.