The Five-Minute Getaway

Off in the distance you can hear birds chirping. It’s rhythmic.  You hear a few birds chirp in unison.  Then in response, you hear another set of birds chirping.  It is as if they are communicating with one another.  You start to imagine what they are saying...  “Good morning!”  “Good morning to you!”  “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” “Quite lovely!” As you are imaging this, a cool wind blows on your face.  But it does not make you cold because the warmth of the sun envelopes your body.  As you are enjoying the beauty of nature, you see a mosquito land on your leg.  You go to swat it but miss.  “SWAT!”  The sting of your slap is much harder than you expected that you close your eyes and yell, “yeouch!!”  Upon opening your eyes, you find yourself in the dark, tucked warmly in the comfort of your snug bed.    

What just happened?  I was just enjoying the stress-free, inviting beauty of nature, where life is calm and relaxing.  Is this what your current life has amounted to?  A five-minute getaway accessible only during the last five minutes of REM sleep?  Is there a way to enjoy this kind of tranquility outside of my dreams?  Have you tried meditation?

What Is Meditation?

Merriam- Webster defines meditation as follows:

1.   to engage in contemplation or reflection

2.   to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness

Misconceptions About Meditation

When I started considering meditation to start my day, to practice gratitude and to get in the right mindset, I must admit, I was a bit hesitant.  I remember thinking, “I have to sit for a half hour?”  “I am not limber anymore.  Do I have to sit on the floor with my legs crossed?”  “Do I really need to sit with my eyes closed…the entire time?”  And so on, and so on…  Before I even got the chance to practice meditation, I nixed the idea.  I did revisit the idea of meditation when I started reading Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning.  Meditating was one of the S.A.V.E.R.S. (silence, affirmation, visualization, exercise, read, scribe) Hal performed as part of his morning routine.  I decided to do some research on how to meditate.  In learning about some of the misconceptions about meditation, I was able to move past the reservations I had with meditating.

There is only one type of meditation.

Thank goodness this is a myth!  If I had to sit on the floor with my legs crossed, close my eyes and chat Om, I wouldn’t last. 

Healthline identifies nine popular types of meditation:

• mindfulness meditation

• spiritual meditation

• focused meditation

• movement meditation

• mantra meditation

• transcendental meditation

• progressive relaxation

• loving-kindness meditation

• visualization meditation

Each style requires different skills and mindsets.  There is no perfect or ideal meditation practice. The meditation style or styles that you put into practice should be ones that you feel comfortable with and ones that align with your personality.

 Meditation requires you to be still and quiet.  I did not struggle with keeping still for a period of time.  But for those of you who may struggle with idea of keeping still for an extended period, I thought I would include this misconception.  Though there are some meditation practices that require you to sit still, it is not a characteristic of all the meditation practices. In fact, practices such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi focus on a relaxed state of mind combined with slow movements and gentle breathing. Yet, there are other forms called deconstructive meditation that focus on developing a contemplative insight into the working and nature of our minds.  And still there are other practices that encourage bringing meditation into ordinary daily activities – such as mindful laundry folding which involves paying attention to the sensations of the clothing on your fingertips, the texture of the clothing, the articulation of your hand movements.   Interesting, huh?

Meditation requires you to remove all thoughts – empty your mind. 

I remember listening to a meditation session on YouTube where the instructor kept repeating, “Empty your mind.  If something starts to distract you, work to bring yourself back.”  Wait. What? How do I do that?  That made it even harder for me to empty my mind.  I came to believe that meditation is not for me because I cannot successfully empty my mind. 

While meditating does often involve quieting of the mind, it does not mean that your mind goes blank. Meditation involves developing the ability to observe one’s thoughts, emotions, and sensations with the quality of non-reactivity – that is being able to notice and pause rather than react – and develop a wider compassionate perspective. (The Conversation, March 2018)

 Meditation will put you at ease from day one.  Like anything you start to do for the first time, it takes practice, time, repetition, and discipline before you start to notice any improvements.  You don’t start lifting weights at your max rep and in perfect form on day 1.  When you take a martial arts class, you don’t know all forms, blocks, and grappling moves on day 1.  Meditation is no different.  It will seem strange at first.  If you decide to close your eyes, you might get an overwhelming feeling like someone is watching you. But as you continue to meditate, over time, that feeling will go away.  You will get comfortable.  You will start to enjoy this time, the quiet, the serenity.  The five-minute getaway! 

My Meditation Routine

Before I started meditating, I wanted to create a place where I could meditate, an inviting place where I would want to go every morning, a Shangri-La.  My back porch was the perfect place!  I furnished it with an area rug that has some warm and inviting colors.  I placed a papasan in one corner and a waterfall in the other and I had the hubby line the ceiling with warm, stringed lights. Perfect!  A word of caution. Resist the impulse to meditate from your bed.  Your bed is meant for sleeping.  If you try to meditate from your bed, as you close your eyes and practice intentional breathing, you just might fall asleep.  Ask me how I know!

When I started meditating, I decided to start with a five-minute meditation.  My routine looked something like this:

• Alarm goes off at 5:30am

• Drink 18oz of water

• Wash up

• Weigh myself

• Change

• Head downstairs

• Grab a cup of coffee

• Head to my Shangri-La

• Meditate

I did not meditate with my eyes closed.  That freaked me out.  I truly felt that when I opened my eyes, someone would be standing there. I would listen to sound waves from Binaural Beats or nature sounds from Sound Therapy.  As I listened to the sounds on my phone, I would also hear sounds of nature waking up.  I would notice how the air smelled.  Every now and then, I would close my eyes and I could feel an ever so gentle breeze on my neck. My favorite part was seeing the sun rise.  The beauty and awe of it.  The colors that kissed the sky.  Watching the world wake from its slumber as the sun touched a patch of grass and spread up the hill, revealing the morning dew.  This time was reserved for practicing gratitude, for being grateful for another day of life, for recognizing just how small I am compared to the rest of the universe. Very humbling. 

Call to Action

Hopefully, by now, any misconceptions you have had about meditating have been debunked.  If your day is so hectic, I challenge you to identify which meditation style best suits you and begin to put that into practice.  Remember to start out small.  Start with five minutes.  And as you gain experience (and time) increase the duration of your meditation. If you are so inclined, combine a few of the meditation types.  My hope for you is that you can experience the peace and serenity that meditation brings and that you too can truly experience and enjoy the five-minute getaway.