Have headphones, will meditate.

I know there’s some debate about whether needing headphones to meditate is a good thing and I don’t personally use headphones when I meditate at home even if I am using an app. This week however I have found headphones really useful in terms of allowing me to make sure that I am able to make meditation a priority no matter what I’m doing in my day.

I spoke last week about how I enjoyed being able to fit meditation in as part of my commute and I have been able to continue that this week. Sometimes it’s been hard not to be led away from what I’m doing by all the distractions that are around me and other times I found it reasonably easy to follow my breath. When this happens it definitely makes it easier to do the next practice and see meditation as something I want to do rather than simply something to tick off my to-do list.

I also went back to meditation class this Thursday and although I struggled with some of the ideas that were discussed as it was quite strongly religious this week, I always find the centre to have a really calming atmosphere which seems to make it an easy place to meditate.

By far my favourite meditation practise this week though happened on Friday lunchtime where I was able to grab my headphones and go outside for a short break and meditate for five minutes in the sun. It was really lovely and I found myself able to really appreciate the warmth and sunshine as we can all see that we heading into autumn and we might not be seeing the sun for much longer, at least in this part of the world.

All in all it’s been a great week for varied but consistent meditation and I hope it continues.

What about you? Have been meditating this week? Let me know in the comments

How meditation fits into my life

I’ve talked about the app Buddhify before and at the moment there travel meditations really help me fit meditation into my day. Meditating while travelling can take a little bit of getting used to, but if you manage it can actually turn a potentially stressful time into a focused chunk of time. Personally it gives me an extra boost knowing that I’ve used my commute well and it means that I’m heading into work in a positive headspace.

I try and do more formal meditations a  couple of times a week at least. I  haven’t been great at fitting these in, which is why I wanted to head back to meditation class so that I knew there would be one definite time in the week where I would getting a sitting practice in.

Over the last couple of years I have also been attending Quaker meetings and while I definitely don’t see this as part of my mindfulness practice it has definitely changed my relationship with silence completely This has meant that I was able to keep that skill of sitting with my thoughts even when I wasn’t finding time to regularly practice meditation.

How does meditation fit into your life? Let me know in the comments.

Back at Meditation Classes

Last week I went back to a meditation class. I probably have been back once since I stopped regularly updating this blog. So much going on in the world at the moment I felt like I needed reminding that the thing I have control over is my perspective,  Serendipitously that was exactly what the class focused on, beginning with a short breathing meditation and then moving onto a longer meditation. We focused on the idea that it is only our view of something that makes it good or bad. Which makes me want to quote Hamlet: there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so…

I realise that it’s been a ridiculously long time since I updated this, there are two things I would hope that this blog might do:

One is to demonstrate that whatever barriers you might face to meditation they can be removed by using a little creativity and perseverance.

You don’t have to sit in a specific posture to be a meditator and neither do you have to have a perfect meditation session in order to get something out of it. In fact, some people say the more turbulent sessions, that is the ones where you constantly get distracted and have to bring yourself back to the breath are the ones that end up being the most useful.

The second is the reason why am posting again after all this time and that is to try to get into regular practice again: so I will be talking more about what I do each week to make meditation and mindfulness a regular part of my day.

How do you fit meditation into your life? Let me know in the comments

On that note, I’m off to do a short practice.