The M-Word
(Post Update) You’ve probably heard of the multiple benefits of meditation, such as stress relief, pain management, possible memory improvement, and others.
Are you thinking, “blah, blah, blah…”? Does learning how to meditate excite you about as much as organizing the garage, or clearing out your inbox? (My apologies if you enjoy those activities.)
If the very word “meditation” causes your eyes to glaze over, try calling it “Quiet Time.”
If you know about the benefits of regular quiet time, but you’re not doing it on a daily basis, you probably have a number of reasons.
Maybe you think it’s dry, boring, tedious, or difficult. But what if you could try out a variety of techniques, and find a few that you love?
The people on the rock in the photo had just walked a few kilometres through the woods up to Lake Helen Mackenzie. Full of fresh air and lunch, we were drinking in the deep peace of the mountains. We were in a state of contemplative stillness, in awe at the beauty surrounding us, with that humbling sense of witnessing something much grander than ourselves….just like in meditation.
You do not have to sit cross-legged for a certain length of time in order to meditate. You can reach meditative states through many different paths. What if these paths were juicy, varied, alive, surprising? What if there was chocolate involved? What if you simply couldn’t wait for an encounter with your inner world?
Can you imagine a place of great mystery and profound wellbeing, bordering on BLISS? One definition of bliss is:
a state of spiritual blessedness, typically that reached after death.
“…after death”? I’d rather taste that NOW.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?
And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven
and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower?
And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand?
Ah, what then?