First, a disclaimer: I am not a guru of enlightenment.
I cannot speak in that super-cool cryptic language that yogis speak in. You know the people I’m talking about. The ones that always have the right quote up their sleeve, but with just enough mystery that it leaves you scratching your head a bit.
I am also not a regular participant in the fine art of meditation. Instead, what I am is a personal trainer who loves constant change and movement, but recognizes that I have monkey brain (a mind that jumps from thought to thought like a monkey jumps from tree to tree), and I need to learn how to be still and slow down these monkey thoughts.
I am not alone in my quest to stillness either. In the last 40 years, meditation has entered the mainstream big time, with the practice exploding worldwide in the last five years. (Just Google “meditation.” At time of writing, I got 135,000,000 hits.)
Why is meditation so popular? Well, probably because it’s so damn good for you emotionally, spiritually and physically, little grasshopper.
Study after study has concluded that regular meditation can reduce stress, help promote a healthier life, slow down aging, increase our happiness and help beat anxiety and depression.
So, how can you find stillness in this fast-paced world?
I asked a friend of mine who is way better at this sort of stuff than I am, yoga teacher and owner of Open Space Yoga in Ladner, Michael Rudd.
First, I asked Rudd why people have such a hard time sitting still. He replied that he feels people today have a problem with stillness and quietness because we have been hard wired by society to fill every gap in our day. We’re always rushing to the next appointment, person, place and/or experience. His sentiments also popped up from other experts as I researched for this article.
Apparently all this rushing around and haste to do things and get things done makes us lose sight of the moment that we are presently in. We never fully, or even slightly for some of us, appreciate what is happening right now. This disconnection with the moment leads to discontent, which eventually leads to unhappiness and anger.
Not cool for a healthy, happy life.
The good news is, with a little practice, we can all learn to be still and present. Training yourself to meditate is exactly like training for fitness. You have to train on a regular basis, adding small increments of load weekly, and slowly you will start to increase your strength and endurance.
In other words, start with 30 seconds of meditation a day and add a minute each week. Soon enough you will be able to build your meditation muscle and quiet your monkey brain.
Some tips to help you quiet your monkey brain: First, relax your body. Find somewhere quiet to sit and adjust your posture so you are comfortable. While one thinks of lying down to relax, mediation isn’t about snoozing or power naps. So, sit and sit tall. (I like to sit on a pillow, cross-legged against a wall.)
Second, breathe. The awesome news is if you can breathe, you can meditate. Focus on taking deep breaths all the way into the belly, and then slowly exhaling all the air out of the lungs. Keep your mind on this breathing pattern. If it wanders, and it will have already a few hundred times by now, just go back to focusing on your breathing again.
Third, chant. After focusing on the breath, start repeating a word or a phrase, either out loud or internally — that’s what I do (I find speaking out loud, by myself a little weird for me). Whichever way you decide to repeat your word or phrase, make it powerful and make it one that connects and resonates with you.
And finally, if all else fails, try technology to help you relax. I know, it seems counter intuitive to what you are trying to achieve, but this is the 21st century. My personal favourite app is Headspace.
PJ Wren is a local personal trainer and writer in the Delta area who has mastered five minutes of sitting still and quieting her monkey brain. Connect with her via www.fitnesswithpj.com.
