Deep Dive Into a Meditation Practice (and Margaritas!)
Most people are skeptical about practicing meditation. I know I was before I started too. The thought of sitting still for more than 5 minutes made my skin crawl. My monkey mind would throw out all kinds of meditation put downs:
“This suckkkkkssss”
“Is this really doing anything?”
“”What am I going to make for dinner tonight?”
ETC.
The problem I encountered with a lot of techniques is that it was all about not thinking and intentionally quieting the mind. And what happens when I say to you, don’t think? Well, you think! Just like if I say to you, don’t think about chocolate chip cookies. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? A fucking chocolate chip cookie.
Enter Vedic Meditation (same technique as Transcendental Meditation). It is a mantra based technique where you are given a mantra (a sound) specific to you, that you repeat over and over again softly, inwardly, with no effort and in doing so, it brings you to a place of non-thought and just being (transcendence).
When I first heard about it, I was like, ‘This is too good to be true. Nothing this deep can be this easy.’ But it is! The entire technique is based on ease and effortlessness (similar to the ease and effortlessness of nature) so there is no sense of ‘this is work, this is hard, FML, I don’t want to do this’.
In fact, and now I’m going to sound real cray, I “transcended” on my very first meditation (as in stopped thinking). And since then, that feeling of no thought and just being along with the awesome physical sensations I’ve experienced of not feeling my body and what I like to call gravity free mushy head is what I look forward to every day. About as much as landing a dream project or client (and that’s high up there on the list for me!)
Beyond the immediate sensation of wellbeing and peace I experience during and immediately after each meditation, the long term effects are just as amazing: more synchronicities, a more macro view of life with less “drama”, a sense of calm even when it’s crazy, being in flow, more creativity and spontaneous thoughts about what my next step should be or what I need to do. Scientifically it has been proven that meditation reduces stress and anxiety, leads to a more positive outlook on life, enhances self-awareness, preserves the aging brain and actually changes key areas of the brain over time. I don’t want to bore you, but the list goes on and on.
All of the science on meditation is great, but personally I reached a point in my life where I was like, there has to be more than what my five senses are telling me. And there has to be a better and easier way to deal with this crazy ass city and world. That desire for MORE, is what ultimately led me to take the plunge. And now my 20 minute morning and evening meditations are like crack. I can’t do without them as much as I can’t go without a margarita on a Friday night after a long week of work.
Totally unrelated (and probably not meditation approved), I make a killer margarita! It’s all natural and does wonders for my soul. It is my baptism into the weekend on Friday night’s during my wife and I’s longstanding Mexican night date. Recipe below:
Herradura Silver
Fresh Lime Juice
A couple of drops of Agave
Splash of club soda
Serve on the rocks with salt
#meditationandmargaritas-dassit! Enjoy ?
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