Mediation Anytime
by What is meditation and how do you do it?
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When someone hears terms like “yoga” or “meditation” or “mantra”, they are apt to bring up images of naive people who prostrate themselves on the floor wearing leotards in order to be one with their Qi. In some uniquely American way, the business of selling relaxation has become a dynamic enterprise designed to get consumers to pay through the nose for something they cannot do on their own. You can get perfectly anxious all by yourself, but you can’t seem to calm yourself down without a guru or recent bestseller. So, can you buy a book or DVD that will train you to relax in 20 minutes a day? Who the hell has 20 minutes a day? And if you did have 20 minutes, can’t you think of an alternative to practicing “relaxation” that you would rather be doing (or not doing)? I can, and it does not involve Tibetan chant music or incense candles.
The paradox is: Try to relax and you won’t. Try and not relax, you can’t help but wish you could.
The solution is: Accept that you will relax in time and you may relax sooner than later.
Can you use mediation to relax? Before we ask this, we must ask what meditation is (or is not).
What Mediation Is
To become entirely aware of your inside and outside is a meditative state. Although this definition is a sweeping generalization, I don’t think it’s an unfair one. Meditation is a state in which you watch and listen to your mind/outside world in a detached (but not disinterested) state, much the same way you would watch a movie or TV show. You simply watch and listen, that’s all meditation is. You can meditate when your thoughts are racing or your mind is calm, when you are happy or sad, when you are wide awake or sluggish, anxious or calm, talking to someone or alone. The length of time one spends in meditation does not matter; you can meditate for 5 seconds or 5 hours. The best time to meditate is when you do it.
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