#RealHappiness - Day 13 - Core Meditation, Hotel Style

Sunday was Day 12, and I had a great Sangha group that day which served my day of travel well. Following Sangha on Sunday, I drove to the ATL airport, hopped a flight for Ohio, landed and rented a car, then drove two hours to my hotel. I got to bed at 1:30am Monday! So, it was a very busy day, and while I did just manage to squeeze in meditation before bed, I did not get time to write about it!

So on Day 13 - Monday - I was running on on fumes. I was in the middle of America with the only coffee shop around was located in the local Hospital (That did not deter me from going). I taught class all day, struggled to find a vegetarian meal of a whole foods variety and made it to the cushion just before midnight again!

I did my core meditation practice and promptly fell asleep following that. I felt fortunate just to have been able to maintain my practice under the travel load I had.  I actually do really well maintaining my meditation practice on the road. I find creative ways to sit in my hotel room using pillows and couch cushions and such. It's always so quiet that I find it very easy. The hard part is finding the time when I'm on the road, but I always manage.  Sorry it's not more exciting than that!

I'm feeling a little out of touch though as I've not been active much on Twitter this week with my #OMCru family.

#RealHappiness - Day 12 - Forgiveness

Day 12 of the 2012 #RealHappiness 28 Day Meditation Challenge was Sangha day!  So my meditation was varied and wonderful.  A theme of Forgiveness seemed to rise from the week, so we enjoyed Gary Sanders' guided meditation on Forgiveness, followed by a 10 minute walking meditation.  When we finished that, we followed it up with a nice 20 minute silent sit. 

I gathered and shared a handful of quotes from Jack Kornfield, before we chatted for a bit.  Finally, before I carried the calm with me to the airport to fly out on business, we finished off with a poem by Hafiz. 

"Even after all this time, The sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.'
Look what happens with a Love like that.  It lights the whole sky!" ~ Hafiz of Persia

Sangha meditation is always nice and such a different thing than solo meditation.  Our location, which is currently in the home of one of our members, is so perfect for our needs and she makes it so with tea, incense and her lovely home garden.  It's a nice place to practice, to be sure!

I was able to take that calm away with me as I headed for the airport.  It served me well to have meditated prior to driving through Atlanta traffic!  I hit a traffic jam and lost about an hour, but I didn't mind.  I was still in a meditative state for the drive.  I make it a habit, when traveling, to allow tons of time at the airport so that I'm not rushed.  I've even written about it before.  Often I even visit the Interfaith Chapel in the airport and meditate before or after a trip.  On Sunday, once I finally made it to the airport, I enjoyed skipping the train as usual, and walked all the way to the gate.  There's some really cool artwork and such you can enjoy in the ATL airport if you're willing to walk!

See you next time!
_/\_


[note: while I've been meditating daily as part of the challenge still, I've not managed to write regularly the last few days with traveling, so I hope you're still hanging in there.  If you don't see my posts daily, don't give up on the challenge…I'll get caught up ASAP!]

#RealHappiness - Day 11 - Body Sensation Meditation

After a great day spent with my little girl, I finally made it to the mat around 11pm.  I had forgone the Body Sensation meditation the night before because I didn't trust myself to stay awake in a lying position.  On Day 11, I didn't find it to be an issue since I had just finished a Grande cup of Pikes from Starbucks!

With the Body Sensation Meditation, we are instructed to take note of each sensation in the body by using mindfulness to observe and simply note the state of the sensation as being either pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. 

The *normal* human condition is that we all cruise through our days on auto-pilot in a mindless state while experiencing all of these sensations.  Whether it's driving to work, feeding the dog, listening to music or even conversing with someone. With all of these things we tend to cling to the pleasant ones, hide or resist the unpleasant and not notice the neutral ones. 

I settled in, followed my breath and began acknowledging the sensations.  For someone like myself, who used to eat mindlessly all the time, and had a lifetime of weight issues as a result there is tremendous difficulty and tremendous benefit in this type of practice. 

I leave you with this quote from Sharon Salzberg:

"When we can’t let the moment in front of us be what it is (because we’re afraid that if it’s good, it will end too soon; if it’s bad, it’ll go on forever; and if it’s neutral, it’ll bore us to tears) , we’re out of balance. Mindfulness restores that balance; we catch our habitual reactions of clinging, condemning, and zoning out, and let them go." ~ Sharon Salzberg Real Happiness

#RealHappiness - Day 10 - Stayed Out Too Late #MeditationChallenge

I barely snuck my Day 10 #RealHappiness #MeditationChallenge sit in before it was Day 11! Actually, I started it on the 10th and finished on the 11th! ;)

There's nothing exciting to describe as I ended up doing my core meditation, rather than the one I had planned. Having had a very long day and not starting sit until late at night, I didn't trust myself to meditate while lying down even with my timer!

I'll tell you, however, that a sitting meditation (or likely any sort of relaxing meditation) is a wonderful way to end a long day. I'm certain that I sleep much better having meditated!

I've a busy day today, and then tomorrow is Sangha day! Woot! I'll see you here after my meditation tonight!

And since I stated that I had nothing exciting to describe about my meditation, I leave you with the following Quote by Thich Nhat Hanh.

“Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power

#RealHappiness - Day 9 - Body Scan Meditation

I've had a daily meditation practice for close to two years now, so I was a little surprised by how helpful the #RealHappiness book, and indeed the #MeditationChallenge itself, were to me in the first week.  While I am already sitting, it is extremely helpful to practice these different methods and writing about it here has helped me consider the practice more as well.  So, going in to Week Two, I'm looking forward to the other various practices I'll be trying.

With that in mind, I worked around the Body Scan Meditation last night.  I knew going in to this one that I would face a challenge.  A while back, I went through a period where I switched from a sitting practice to a lying down method.  This created two issues for me.  First, when I went back to the cushion I found it extremely difficult to sit for very long at all without back pain.  It was as though I had started over.  I've worked through that, and I'm back to my normal 30 minutes of sitting per day now.  The other issue was that I would fall asleep at times.  Because I now sit in the evenings I am, of course, more sleepy.  It's far too easy when lying comfortably, to let the mind drift and then fall asleep. 

Knowing that I was very likely going to fall asleep, I made plans for that.  I used my Insight Timer App on the iPhone (one of the benefits I referred to yesterday of using technology to compliment practice) to keep me from falling asleep, or at least falling asleep for long.  I set up interval bells to alert me every five minutes.  I figured may not prevent sleep, but would at least allow me to "start over" as Sharon hammers home to us!

I was alert and scanned from the top of my head down.  My eyes, my face where I found a lot of tension and was able to release it.  And this is perhaps the true power of this kind of practice, or certainly a major benefit.  One thing I've learned with all meditation is that simply by observing or bringing your attention to a feeling, it will often simply dissipate.  If you have a painful feeling, sometimes just observing the feeling and acknowledging it makes it recede.  If you have tension in a particular area, often if you observe it, and maybe - as Thich Nhat Hanh teaches - view your pain the way a mother greets her crying baby.  The baby needs attention and she does not hate the child for crying, she cradles it and gives it attention and it immediately feels better.

I made it through without falling asleep, though I certainly drifted at times, but I just caught myself drifting, re-focused on the breath and began again.  It was a very interesting practice and I was happy to have done it.  I've only done a similar practice once before I think when I visited the Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Society in Los Angeles where Pablo Das led a sitting meditation in which we focused on one area and then another, cycling through the body that way. I found that one much easier as it was sitting.

By the way, please keep in mind that I am experimenting with the various methods Sharon Salzberg offers in her book Real Happiness.  There's no requirement to do them in the order I am doing them or even to do them all!  For the Day 10 meditation I will be doing the Body Sensation Meditation.  See you tomorrow!

_/\_

#RealHappiness - Day 8 - Reflecting On Week One

Since yesterday was the eighth day of the 2012 Real Happiness 28 Day Meditation Challenge, I decided to follow the books lead and reflect on the first week.

After starting the book with some great information such as what meditation IS and what it is NOT, the first week of instruction in "Real Happiness" provides a gold mine of extremely important, deep, simple and very - VERY - useful information. 

At the beginning of the week, we started by talking about concentration.  Sharon talks a little about how we can't change the past, and can't predict the future, and about being in the present moment.  She talked about choosing a place to meditate, what to wear and a time to practice.  She talks about the posture, and how it doesn't have to be perfect.  About how the back is the most important part and how over time better posture will aid your practice.  She gives an overview of what the week will look like. And, finally, she leads us with some guided meditations and offers some variations of practice for us to work with.

At a glance, this all sounds very basic.  And while it is the basics, it is anything but basic!  It is fundamental information, but it's also things that you will use and expand on every time you sit.  Forever.  So I can't overstate how useful the basic info provided in week one can be.

• Meditation is not glamorous.  
• Your thoughts will drift.  
• When they do, come back to the breath.  
• Don't beat yourself up.  
• Just start over.  
• This IS the practice! 
• Don't get discouraged. 
• Mix up your practice.  
• Try different approaches.  
• Keep a sitting journal.  

All of these things, are supremely valuable and essential.
So, with all of this in mind, my Day 8 sit was a mixed bag.  I did the core meditation.  I followed the breath for a while.  I let go of thoughts for a while.  I did "Hearing Meditation" for a while.  I did Cradling the breath meditation.  I enjoyed it all.  I didn't choose this, I just let it happen.

One thing I would like to add here, is the use of technology.  This might sound a little strange when you're maybe picturing sitting with pillows and candles and bells and such, but I bring it up because toward the end of this section of the book, Sharon talks about keeping a Meditation Journal.  While I have an actual bell, I have found it much more useful in my practice to rely on technology for this.  I've reviewed in the past some of the meditation bell options, and there's been progress on many of them.  So I'd like to reference a few options here for you to consider.  I'm not promoting any of them, but actually use them all.  I am sort of waiting for new versions before writing any more reviews of them, so for now I just suggest trying them out if you have a smartphone or tablet and see if you like them.  More importantly, see if they HELP your practice.  They should AID you, not distract from your practice!

~ Meditate - Meditation Timer by SimpleTouch
~ Insight Timer - by Spotlight Six
~ Equanimity - Meditation Timer & Tracker by Robin Barooah

All of these are functionally great for using as a timer and bell(s).  The latter two also act as meditation journals.  Insight Timer is the least attractive, in my opinion, but the most functionality offering all of the above as well as a rather limited social media functionality (which if you are part of an online Sangha such as the Online Meditation Crew, makes it the most handy option).  The most important thing is that they all work very well to aid in timing and tracking your practice.

When I prepare to sit, I tweet my check-in to the #OMCru, I set the iPhone to Airplane mode to prevent interruptions and then I start my timer.  A bell rings to start me.  Three bells signal the end of the sit.  A journal automatically pops up for my entry then I turn on the phone and tweet my check-out.  It's painless, seamless and very, very useful to me.  I hope you will find it so, as well.

I look forward to the second week!

#RealHappiness - Day 7 - Letting-Go-Of-Thought Meditation

I decided to utilize the "Letting Go Of Thought" practice described by Sharon in "Real Happiness".  This is something I already do, pretty much since I started, but it's always good to approach it like it's new. Plus it never hurts to get different guidance on these things.

As meditations go, there's not much to tell.  I sat, I settled and I waited.  In the book, Sharon says to return to the breath any time you do get distracted, and that is exactly what I did.  For this kind of meditation, you will often hear people use some variation on the "Mountain and Clouds" or the "Sky and Clouds".  One that I have used often, and to great effect for me personally, is:

"Breathing In, my mind is the great blue sky.
Breathing Out, my thoughts are the clouds that pass by."

I am pleased to say that I wasn't too often distracted (probably because I've practiced this considerably) but I still found myself pursuing a random thought now and then.  This is perfectly normal, and happens less with time. When I did, I simply took a moment and re-focused on the feeling of the breath entering my nose and exiting.  Sharon gives really good, very simple and clear instruction on this in the book.

"We release a thought or a feeling not because we are afraid of it or because we can't bear to acknowledge it as a part of our experience, but because in this context, it is unnecessary.  Right now we are practicing concentration, sustaining our attention on the breath." ~ Sharon Salzberg "Real Happiness"

I did this for 20 minutes and it was, as it usually is, very calming and peaceful.  The last 10 minutes of my 30 minute sit, I was more distracted.  Or, not distracted so much by stray thoughts I followed, but more deliberately I started pondering specific thoughts.  Intentionally, I guess.  For me, sometimes, this happens in meditation where I will suddenly start pondering some thing, usually a problem I've not solved, and my mind will decide that the time is right to solve it.

So, for the last 10 minutes of my sit, I pondered a couple of issues on my mind.  Rather than letting go of these, I decided to sort of let my mind do it's thing and work on these problems.  Not really letting go of the thoughts, but rather sort of observing the solution taking place without interfering. It's rather hard to describe, but there ya go. 

The bell rang, and I was somewhat energized from my sit.  I ended up staying up later than planned as a result.  Not a bad thing, just a thing.

How was your first week of the challenge?