TED

TED Meditation

Yesterday on my TED downloads this lecture on meditation popped up. In summary it describes trying to find time to think about nothing in a chaotic world constantly vying for our attention.

A year and a chocolate

So, first session of the year. For some reason I am a little nervous as I enter the meditation hall thinking back on a year of meditation classes. I go through the motions of taking off my coat, shutting off my cell phone and positioning myself on the meditation chair. I scan the room looking for the regulars (now called core by the teacher) and pick out a few. "This is my year anniversary of meditating," I chatter away. No special kudos from anyone, maybe a smile and a nod. Like the past year, we start with stretches and then the  introduction of people new to the group. Unfortunately, there was no magical transition into a better meditation after the year marker, but all in all, not bad. As we put our chairs away, I again chatted about passing the year milestone. "Wait," said the leader's new husband, "I bestow this gold coin token upon you at this momentous occasion." He pulled a large gold coin out and handed it to me. "And best of all," he continued, "you can eat it because it is chocolate!" I had to laugh. This was the best response.

2013

After a little hiatus from the blog, I am back. Its New Years day, and in a few days it will have been a year since I started the meditation journey. Hard to believe I have kept at it this long. I really thought I might last 3 months at the most, but no, its been a year. What have I learned in the past year? Besides my surprise that I have kept at it, and will continue into the next year, that some things were easy and some were harder than I imagined. What I found easy, was the immediate benefit I felt after every meditation session. On the hard side, was getting that same feeling when meditating at home. I also had the belief, that once I had a good meditation experience, I would be able to get to that feeling every session and improve upon it. Big mistake and lots of frustration! So, in 2013, I will continue the journey, focus on the humor,  and try to improve myself to the next level (whatever that is). Onward!