For me, the term “meditation” conjures images of attending yoga classes with my mom. In particular, I associate meditating with the restorative Shavasana pose found at the end of most yoga practices, in which the practitioner lies on his/her back with eyes closed, seeking to shift focus to one’s inner self. Given its outward resemblance to napping, this pose may seem intuitively easy to master. However, in practice, entering into peace with one’s thoughts requires a more extensive training of the mind, a notion that was reaffirmed for me by the contents of this guide for meditation.
As the guide produced by the editors of Mindful emphasizes from the outset, meditation is not simply about learning to silence the worries, anxieties, and fears that plague our day-to-day lives. Rather, proper meditation forces us to confront and come to terms with these vaguely uncomfortable thoughts, ultimately endowing them with less power over our emotional state. The meditation guide goes on to explain that the more time we devote to becoming familiar with our thought processes, the greater our ability to understand and overcome the negative thoughts that will inevitably pervade our minds at times.
Having long been acquainted with regular feelings of anxiety and worry, I’ve gradually found effective methods of distracting myself from the often-overwhelming noise that occupies my mind. Television shows, books, exercise – all have become a means to an end for me, the end being preoccupation with something other than my own thoughts. Of course, honest reflection yields the realization that these acts of avoidance only make me more likely to harbor stress. However, as I suppose my own experiences taught me even before the Mindful meditation guide did, sincerely engaging with one’s uncomfortable thoughts is no easy feat. For most of us, such an act does not come naturally – in fact, quite the opposite.
A single line of the meditation guide resonated with me in particular, contextualizing as it did the underlying purpose behind practicing meditation and mindfulness. The “Compassion” section of the guide states the following:
…if we learn to pay attention in a different, more open way – seeing the good within ourselves instead of fixating on what we don’t like, noticing those we usually ignore or look right through, letting go of categories and assumptions when we relate to others – we are creating the conditions for kindness and compassion to flow. (pg. 20)
How we view ourselves undoubtedly affects how we treat all those we come into contact with. While developing a healthier, more loving relationship with oneself certainly possesses intrinsic value, it also allows us to more easily practice empathy towards others. Really, while meditation may appear to be such a deeply personal exercise, the benefits reaped serve to further the interests of humanity as a collective whole.