Meditation: Your First Lesson

I’m not at all an expert on the topic of meditation, but I do believe I have a rich personal experience of meditation, and a process that works beautifully which was passed down to me from a true master. And I enjoy sharing it with others when I have the chance. For me, meditation is a pause during the day to sync body and mind, check in on how I’m feeling, discover what adjustments I may need to make, and bring myself into the present moment so I’m in the ideal place to ask, “What’s next?”

There is a long list of benefits to meditation – it’s a powerful practice with many applications for calm and empowered living. But I want to tell you from the get-go, after having practiced and taught it for years, I don’t believe it’s a mystical cure-all. It’s one effective method to help you understand what is happening in your body, process emotions, and lead you to insights, but it’s not the only method to accomplish these wonders. Your path to enlightenment will be as unique as you are. I'd like to learn from you the skills and practices that you've found most helpful on your path.

Ready to give meditation a try?

First, let’s talk about posture and setting. I love the serene look of someone sitting cross-legged with their hands gently placed palms up on their knees. And I can imagine using this posture, say, if I were on the beach with some white fabric gently flapping in the breeze around me. But for my daily practice, the best posture for meditation is lying flat on my back on the bed or on the floor. Certainly you can meditate in any posture – even while commuting on a bike or in the middle of a conversation – and it’s an important skill to learn how to bring your practice of meditation into any moment of the day no matter what you’re doing. But to learn, and for the deep experience you’ll want to return to when you’re able, I think you need to be able to relax all of your muscles completely. How about sitting in a comfortable chair? You may be able to relax all your muscles, but I’d like your body to be straight because I think this feels most natural as you check on how your entire body feels head to toe. And you may be able to lie flat on a sofa, but one side of you will feel the back of the sofa against your body and the other will not, and at least for me, this asymmetrical feeling is a distraction.

I don’t want to belabor the point, but allow me to share some of the resistance I often hear surrounding lying down to meditate in case you’re second guessing it yourself. Several of my first-time students have told me, “If I lie flat on my bed I’m going to fall asleep.” And I have several things to say about this. First, consider lying on the floor or on a yoga mat. If you can do so conveniently and comfortably, I think lying on a firm surface is ideal. Second, maybe you need the rest. I often find that one of the most direct outcomes of a session of meditation is being led to the most meaningful thing I should do next. If you’re too exhausted to meditate, the universe may be telling you your next best step is to get some sleep. Third, meditation is a mini-vacation for your whole being. If you’re not understanding meditation as the most interesting and exciting thing you’ve done so far today, of course you may become bored and fall asleep.

Let’s move on. Next step, close your eyes. For me, this limits sensation so I can focus on body feeling, and transports me immediately to the infinite and rich "deep space” of my mind and body. It perhaps goes without saying that you should be in a quiet place for meditation, but it doesn’t need to be completely silent. Like body feeling, I often use sound to synchronize myself with the present moment. In my session just previous to writing this post I could hear the light rail train passing by, a plane passing far overhead, two trainees chatting downstairs, and the hum of the kitchen fan.

A few of my pupils have told me they prefer not to close their eyes because they get dizzy while journeying through their body, or for some other reason. I hope you try learning with your eyes closed, but I can imagine you could possibly use your visual field to bring yourself into the Now like I sometimes use sound. I can imagine it being a wonderful experience with a mandala or labyrinth printed on the ceiling (or better yet, the sky above), but for me, simply closing my eyes gives me the perfect view from wherever I am. And to be clear, your body feeling is where you want to focus your senses – sounds or sights can be gently observed along the way, and these sensations should be minimized.

What happens next? Let the journey begin! I’ve already given you a few tantalizing hints in this article you can bat around during your first few sessions. And this playful spirit – exploratory learning – will form the basis of your next lesson, and will always remain part of your practice. There is no right or wrong way to meditate as long as your habit reliably produces a positive experience for you – relaxation, clarity of thought, and the poise to take on the meaningful challenges you face in life may be the things you notice first. Find your space and give it a try – don’t force any particular length of time. A short session may be just a few minutes, a long session may be ten or more.

One final note, to deepen your experience of meditation from here, I recommend reading on the topic, or talking with someone that meditates about your experience. I love the use of technology for empowered and enlightened living, and I hope to write on this topic in this space soon, but I personally haven’t found an app that effectively teaches meditation yet. Your body and mind know instinctively how to transport you to eternity. There’s no app for that.