Meditation Variation
One of my favorite analogies for the human mind is that it is like a train platform, and every thought is a train pulling into and out of the station. Each one racing down its own set of tracks to a destination, a rabbit-hole if you will, inside your head. I don’t know how it feels for everyone, and can only speak for myself, but I know that sometimes I am unexpectedly swept up into a thought and taken for a ride down that track. This can be a great thing, an inspiration for what turns into a beautiful idea, or sometimes it can be heavier place, and I am not sure that I am ever quite that vigilant about where my untrained mind wanders at times.
Even this blog post, I'll admit, is coming from a place of inspiration rather than intentional action. There are a lot of other things that I have been planning on writing down into the endless abyss of the interwebs, but I’ve been pushing them all to the backburner, not even bothering with an excuse really, just that I didn’t feel like writing a blog.
I think that if your thoughts are mostly benign, full of light and positivity, then taking a ride along whatever flight of fancy breezes through the station isn’t really a problem. But when that isn’t the case, obviously therein lies the issue. If you were to ask me how I’d like to spend my time, mentally, I’d say happy, all the time. This is not to say that I am unhappy, this is just me acknowledging the fact that I don’t always pay attention to where my thoughts are going, although it would behoove me to do so.
If you only consider one angle for why, efficiency, think about how much time and energy you could direct at other things if you gathered up every moment that you spent this month thinking about something that ultimately didn’t really matter. That could be anything really, social media is one of the more obvious draws of my attention, but I’m sure there are others. Every time I think about an interaction that I had at home, at work, in life, how long do I linger there, and should I have?
I’m all for self-reflection, I think it’s one of the keys to growth. I think that part of that self-reflection should be this, considering where my mind subconsciously goes at times, and can I control it when it does. At this point, I have definitely reached a stage in life where I am more than willing to forgo my ego for the sake of happiness. I don’t have to win all the time, it doesn’t have to be my way all the time, not if the price is my sanity.
Recently I met a wonderful woman who reminded me of mindfulness, and shared with me a method that I had never considered before. We were discussing all the different kinds of interactions that can occur in a day, and she explained that one way she has learned to deal has been a planned meditation. At first, I assumed she meant the type of meditation that I always think of, in which one tries to think of nothing at all. That’s hard for me to do, my mind likes to move, much like the rest of me. But that’s not what she went on to describe. She explained that she pictures a situation in her life, and imagines how she’d like to go, in the most loving and positive light possible. She then continues to focus on that during her entire planned meditation, ultimately carrying that focus with her throughout her day and manifesting the polished, meditated upon, attitude and interactions into existence. It’s a beautiful and elegant process that I had truly never considered before in that way. An athlete or competitor’s way of visualizing success is something I’ve thought about, but not before have I considered it to be useful for my day to day interactions like this.
I’ve been trying to place this idea into practice in my everyday life and, like any skill or habit, I can tell it’s going to take some time to become second-nature. The hope is that someday it’s ingrained into every train of thought passing through my mental hub.
