How many of you have a hard time
finding the time to meditate throughout your day? I know I do, even
though I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it makes me feel so
much better. Even before I had Fibromyalgia, I meditated to bring my
stress level back down to a “0” on the “StressoMeter”.
I'm not sure how other “Spoonies”
feel, but because it takes me forever to finish a task, no matter how
simple it may be, and because I have to stop and rest, not only my
body, but my mind, it takes up those precious “spoons” of time
and energy. So, I Do Not want to give up my precious time, and I try
to stretch it whenever possible, even though I know that the
mediation would help.
While discussing this with the
“infamous Mr. M”, he suggested that some time in the morning I
stop and mediate for ten minutes. I could choose any type of
meditation, mind picture, prayer, body scan, sound. Since we had
experimented with the Sound Meditation at our last session, and I
really liked how it gave me a mindful state of mind, that is what I
chose. He suggested I do it the same time, to develop the habit.
Now, in my mind, my Type A personality immediately went to “ok,
I'll do sound meditation every day at 9:30”. No sooner did I say
that in my mind, than he says “ start with two or three days a
week”. Humpff, ok. So I chose Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Last week was a blowout (or is that
bust?? FibroMind). I would remember when I was doing my afternoon
prayer meditation/nap, or when I was going to bed, OR it wasn't on a
Monday, Wednesday, or Friday...I remembered this week, and wrote it
in my planner.
Of course, being Type A, I decided to
do my morning Sound Meditation after I walked my granddaughter to
school, and continued on to the Post Office to mail a package
(multi-tasking? - mindful?...you decide...). Although we live on the
fringe of a Quaint New England Town, there is a lot of traffic,
especially on a Monday morning. The first thoughts that went through
my mind as I began to focus on the sounds around me was “how can
meditating on sound while you're around traffic be mindful?” As I
got away from the traffic, I began to hear the birds. There were
some birds chirping on the left of me, and it sounded like another
bird on the right of me chirped back; there were some other birds, I
think finches, just a jabbering away. It almost sounded as if they
were all scurrying to get on with their day, chirping to each other
in a rushed way, kinda like the sounds I hear while my kids are
getting ready for school, and we're all bustling around the house.
There was also the clanging of the pully on the flag pole. I was
really hoping for some different sounds that were barely noticeable,
unless you were meditating on sound, but I guess it was just too busy
around me.
On the way back, I continued to
meditate on the sounds around me. The same birds, flagpoles, and
traffic. I breathed in the crisp, fresh air and realized I was
walking slower, felt a peace throughout my body, and a relaxed state
of mind and body. Approaching the busy intersection, the noise of
the traffic became a little louder, so I used a tactic I use with my
kids when they say they don't like a person, a place, a thing,
whatever. “Choose to find something good, even just one thing, in
that person, place, or thing. As a truck pulled up to the stop
light, I listened to the sounds the truck made. The rumble of the
engine as it slowed down, the sound of the tires on the sandy road as
they came to a slow stop, and that noise a large diesel truck makes
when it stops, as if it is letting out a few sighs. When the light
turned green and the truck began to move, there were the sounds of
the engine revving up, the shifting of the gears, the power of the
diesel engine as it seemed to take in deep breaths to move the truck
forward, and the gears, I could hear the clicking of the gears as the
driver shifted. I smiled. Listening, really listening to the sounds
of the “noisy truck” put me in touch with that moment in time.
Isn't that what mindful living is about? Living in the moment of
time.
