It really annoys me (not very mindful - I know, I know!) that Mindfulness and meditation seems surrounded by such competitiveness and snobbery.
This is meant to be a reachable and achievable route to happiness and contentment for everyone, yet it seems that unless you are at one with the planet, spiritually awakened and a master yoga practitioner then you aren’t really allowed to claim you are mindful or that you meditate.
Why the hell do I need to meditate for an hour a day to achieve a mindful state?
Now don’t get me wrong, I have studied at length the mind and Neuroplasticity (the capacity of the nervous system to develop new neuronal connections) and I get that the mind is a muscle and the more you work it the better shape it gets into; think of squats and your butt for an analogy:
MORE SQUATS = FIRM ASS, MORE MEDITATION = FIT MIND…
….but what gets on my wick is that for beginners to Mindfulness, the idea of sitting on a mat, legs crossed (lotus position anybody?) with your hands held in a certain way (Mudra) can make you feel a bit silly. I know for me it certainly did and still does to a certain extent….Why does my hand position matter? Why do I have to cross my legs? Can I not be mindful or meditate whilst sitting on the sofa?
I have read that Mudras help with energy transmission through the body, palms down makes energy flow through the body, palms up makes it flow out to the world – but really all I want to do is chill out, give my mind a rest from its chatter, achieve a little perspective, work the brain muscle so it can focus better when needed and notice the lure of negative spiral thinking when it comes along.
I am not in any way against spiritual connections, awakenings or enlightenment, bring it on I say, but I am against putting off the layman meditator with a list of rules and regulations. I have always been a bit of a rebel so to me, feck the meditation snobs and the Mindfulness gurus and just get stuck in!
My straight up, no nonsense simple hints for Mindfulness:
Slow down
Take it in
Treat others well
Treat yourself as you would treat others
Thoughts are just thoughts. Is it a useful thought? If not, move on.
My straight up, no nonsense simple hints for meditation:
Sit however you damn like. Do bear in mind if you love sleeping in the foetal position and curl up in bed to meditate the chances are you will fall asleep, so sitting somewhere at least where you can be fully awake is a good starting point. If you do fall asleep then you obviously needed the rest. Enjoy!
Put your hands where you feel comfortable. End of.
Start small and put no pressure on yourself to build up further in the first few weeks (or months if that’s what it takes). One minute. Two minutes. It’s all good!
Your way is fine.
Keep doing it.
Ten minutes a day is meant to be the basic target to reach for as a beginner, but if you can’t manage that who cares! Just do what you can. Some weeks I am full of zen and as mindful as Yoda, other weeks I can barely sit still for 15 seconds.
Do I feel less mindful because of this? The answer is quite simply NO!
I will be running some Mindfulness and mediation challenges in the group on a regular basis but they are in no way going to put pressure on you, it’s going to be a fun exercise where we do what we can and discuss the wins, fails and everything in-between in a safe group of likeminded, non-snobby peeps who wouldn’t mind having a go at learning something new, that may just take them a step closer to their version of an awesome life.