Meditation: Do That Shit

I got the opportunity to have a super cool experience the other day in my positive psychology class with a man talking about meditation and telling us about some of the neuroscience, breathing techniques, and benefits. He told his story about being an Iraqi war vet who had come home from 9 years of combat with a broken neck, PTSD, and major anxiety and depression that he was treating by self medicating with pills and alcohol.

Finally he went to a therapist and the therapist taught him meditation.

It changed his life.

It was so cool to see the peace in his face and hear the passion in his words as this super beefy guy who looked like a mob hitman talked about the inner tranquility he found and how his life had changed once he became a "peaceful warrior" (check out the movie The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. It can be streamed on Amazon Prime if you have an account or found at your local library).

I myself have had experiences with meditation. My shrink this summer taught me "mindfulness techniques" and I spent every morning this summer biking out into the woods and then sitting for 15 or 20 minutes and simply being quiet and mindful and accepting of the thoughts that came and went through my head.

A lot of people have this misconception about meditation that you have to wear an orange robe and sit cross-legged and go "Ohhhhmmmmm" and pray to Buddha or something like that. The truth is, if you simply want to have psychological benefits and meditate simply for peace and silence, it has nothing to do with religion. Do what I do and call it "mindfulness" if that makes you feel better. I promise it does wonders for relaxation and de-stressing.

Here's a link talking about the neuroscience of meditation if you don't believe me. http://www.mindfulnet.org/page25.htm

So let me share how I learned to meditate, in case you want to try it out yourself. Find a nice quiet spot (I prefer in the woods sitting with my back to a tree) and get in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and enivsion yourself at the bottom of a lake. Everytime a thought comes into your head, picture it as a bubble and just let it be. It can float around you for a while or it can float to the top of the lake and go away. You can have 0, 3, 5, or even 36 bubbles going if that's what your mind is doing. Don't judge, don't analyze, just let the thoughts come and go and accept them, positive negative or otherwise.

A LOT of time can pass while your doing this without even realizing it. My Aunt from California told me a really cool story where she was in the office with her therapist doing something similar (except he had told her to envision herself outside and the thoughts were birds. When she opened her eyes finally, she was totally relaxed and the therapist was gone on to the next client in another room. She had been sitting there simply being quiet and mindful for 45 minutes!

So yeah. Try it out. See what it can do for you. Have a great Friday guys =)