Inside Yoga 171 (27/6/2106)
We often hear that we are living in challenging times and so forth, and most of us trundle along not really bothered or perhaps hoping someone else will deal with it, but over the last few days many of us have been left shocked and reeling (and some overjoyed). For many it all feels like someone has trashed our house and left with our cleaning equipment.
Suddenly we a faced with a massive change in our lives (or perhaps not depending on who is speaking) and it is this sense of change that is unsettling – or more specifically it is the uncertainty ahead of us. Let’s face it, we don’t really like change, or do we?
This is not an article about the politics of the last few days (so fear not, and read on) but this is about the ways in which meditation and yoga are so important now in helping us to deal with this heightened levels of worry, anxiety and uncertainty.
The Buddha taught that everything is impermanent, in other words, that everything must change – however, even though it is a constant feature of life, it is change and the fear of change that upsets so many of us, and leads to worry and stress.
This is why the Buddha taught this lesson about change: he talked about what causes our suffering and then gave guidance on how to end our suffering, and the underlying message of all his lessons was that it all boils down to meditation as the support and solution.
The events since last Thursday have been so momentous it has been hard to not think about the list of “ifs, buts, what next, and so forth”, but this is where the advice is to reserve some time to meditate and quieten our minds at least for some minutes.
Through meditation we can find a greater sense of calm and balance and then evaluate and take action (or not), as the best decisions come from a place of stillness and calm, and the outside world at present certainly does not appear very calm.
When the mind is filled with thoughts making concentration on the breath much harder, one of the meditation techniques used to give greater stability to our meditation is this: when breathing in say to yourself (in your head without speaking) “breathing in” as you breath in and slowly as possible so the breath is slow and lengthened, and the repeat on the exhalation saying “breathing out” to yourself. This helps to anchor ourselves to the breath and keep the thoughts at bay. Repeat the words every breath or as often as possible during meditation.
There you are: a few words of advice from a meditator’s point of view and, hopefully, I left the politics out and never used the dreaded word “referendum” – oops, slipped up at the end.
Any comments use reply section below please
