Returning to a daily meditation has been the best move I’ve made in a while. For a few months in late summer through fall my daily practice dwindled to a weekly, if that, routine. From the last day of the last year until now, I’ve maintained a daily meditation for 15 to 17 minutes and the difference is already being felt. What had previously taken me a few months to experience has returned much quicker than anticipated, and the practice of meditation seems to be one of those things that is akin to muscle memory of a mental sort – it inhabits the mind and the return to form is easier the more you do it.
That illuminates the main point of meditation for me. It has never been about some transcendent moment of utter peace and serenity – those may be attainable and they do happen from time to time, but that’s never been the goal. The beauty of meditation, and the reason why I have incorporated it into my life, is that it makes the baseline of my existence more peaceful and calm. That doesn’t mean I operate on some enlightened monk-like plane – it simply means my days begin, and progress, from a place of deeper peace and acceptance, so the times of stress and worry don’t rise to the peaks of agitation that they would otherwise do. Some days that means I don’t get as close to breaking as it once felt like I did. There’s a huge difference in overall happiness that results from that. When you start from a level of calm, there’s more room for acceptance of errors and disasters. When you begin from a place of stress, there’s very little wiggle room before reaching a point of crisis.
That’s the unsold secret of meditation, and it doesn’t get shared enough because most people don’t want to take the weeks and months and years of practice to see that difference. We are too demanding of instant-gratification and results, and we live in a world where no one has any sort of attention span. Unfortunately, the greatest gifts sometimes require the greatest investment of time and focus – two things most people just don’t want to give anymore. That doesn’t concern me. This meditation practice has changed my life for the better.
When I find myself in situations that feel stressful, I go into my deep breathing – which can be done anywhere and at any time – and it recalls those hours of meditation – the body recognizing the slowing of breath and placing the mind back in that place of calm. It’s not an instant stroke of magic and profound revelation – its quieter and softer than that, more of a blunting of the usual reactions to stress, lessening the tendency to lash out or lose my temper or simply get annoyed. It makes for a much more peaceful day.
When you make meditation a regular part of your life, when it becomes a habit and a comfortable place of respite, you can conjure that space wherever you may find yourself. That part does feel a little magical, and I’m grateful for the practice.
