Ruminations on Meditation REPEAT from 2/8/2018 by Cynthia Land, LMT, RYT

I think the first time I tried to meditate I was on a Metro bus in Seattle.  It was the 1990's, I was working at the ABC radio affiliate KOMO AM 1000 and was exhausted.  Rain outside caused heavy condensation on the inside of the bus windows.  I was warm and cozy in my seat but my mind was agitated by the stress of working in radio news.  Somewhere along the way I'd picked up that meditating would quiet my mind.  I closed my weary eyes and imagined I was sitting among fog enshrouded Douglas Fir trees.  I slowed my breath and visualized the limbs of trees, the individual needles and the smell they produced.  I was amazed at how quickly I calmed down. 

     That was just one experience in hundreds perhaps thousands of days of stress and spaziness where I would, instead of meditating, turn to overeating, over-drinking and eventually smoking cigarettes. Slowing down enough to meditate was not yet in my vocabulary.  It was something I aspired to but couldn't quite slow down enough to attain. I began a practice of yoga well before I was able to settle into meditation.  In the 90's, I lived in a world where self-care still wasn't part of my routine. The notion of self-care is still something I'm defining for myself.  

     Nearly a decade would have to go by before I came to a more steady meditation practice and even then I would have stretches where my A-D-D mind would take over with something way more “important”. Meditation takes a level of discipline many in our culture aren’t willing to settle into. The odd catch is that when you do commit and start to feel the effects of meditation, you can’t see your life without it. 

     There are many styles of meditation. I tried Zen, Insight, Kriya and probably several others I can't remember right now but finally settled on Transcendental Meditation.  I really just stumbled into it because my boyfriend did it and knew a teacher.  A group of us committed to go through the training which made it a lot easier.  Meditation alone is great but meditating with a group can be even more powerful, especially if there are experienced meditators with you. Now your mobile phone can be your meditation teacher.  Meditation apps abound.  They’re a great place to start and play around with different techniques. 

     What does it mean to meditate? For me it's how I get grounded, get centered, get focused and get in contact with my higher power. When I'm going through my day my mind comes across all kinds of negative emotions and thoughts from others, from myself and situations where I find myself. I can then become sidetracked into things that aren't important.  Meditation allows me to ask, "What is it I really need to be doing today? Where will I focus my energy?" Along my travels I've heard that, "Praying is asking God for what you want and meditating is listening for his/her answer." Just recently I've really started to adhere to this notion.  I get quiet so I can listen.  I then take note of what messages am I getting and how can I put them into play.  When I do this consistently my life just runs better.  

     What's happening while I'm "in there?"  Getting the mind to settle down takes time.  It never truly disengages. I believe we just learn to direct our awareness in other ways.  We pay more attention to our breath or how we're feeling in our bodies.  Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield has a seminal book on meditation (A Path with Heart) where he likens the mind to a puppy we're training to "go on the paper." We must constantly be vigilant to direct it back to where we want.  But be vigilant in a kind and not punishing way.  I watch my mind go astray dozens of times in a meditation session and gently bring my awareness back to my breath.  When I'm successful, I arrive at a sort of "no-place" neither here nor there, a place of no time passing.  My mind and body relax deeply but more impressively, my mind seemingly disengages from chasing thoughts hither and thither. 

     To be clear, this doesn't happen instantly for me.  I probably sit for a good ten minutes before my mind is finally able to release itself from spin mode.  This is probably why I have such a tough time meditating in the afternoons.  I am so fully engaged in the day that getting my mind to let go for 20 minutes seems insurmountable.  It's my next big hurdle.  

     I’ve meditated in; cars, airports and on airplanes, on ferries and on beaches. Today I often sit in a comfy living room chair, light a stick of incense and meditate while the sun is coming up. I focus on my breathing for a couple of minutes and then consciously make myself available to “hear” my higher power. My mind will attempt to hijack me into something momentarily fascinating and as soon as I notice it, I come back to my breath, maybe visualize one of my chakras, say my mantra and get quiet again.  This repeats and you kind of get used to it once you understand how the mind works. 

     Here’s what I know, meditation helps me slow down in a world that’s going ever faster with no intentions of slowing down.  I have no need to go that fast and when I do I inevitably hurt myself either physically or emotionally or both. When I slow down, I see the world more clearly and make better, more elegant decisions in alignment with my deeper desires and needs. 

Passion ~ by Cynthia Land LMT, RYT

One of the great things about starting a diet or projects/resolutions at the beginning of the year is that there is so much wonderful collective energy around them.  In yoga this determination or passion to persevere is called tapas. The yogic principle of tapas refers to three ideas simultaneously; heat, discipline as well as passion. Tapas comes from the second of the Eight Limbs of Yoga  .  When we discover something we’re passionate about we can say that it lights us on fire. Sometimes fire doesn’t carry us all the way and we have to have discipline to carry us through to achieve our goals. 

When I discovered how wonderful yoga made me feel not just physically but also mentally and emotionally, it lit me on fire. I became passionate about learning how to teach it to others. And 17 years later I am still passionate about passing on its powers to others.  Tapas is why you see professional football players become coaches, it’s why are you see professional dancers become instructors, it’s certainly one of the reasons why you see people like Neil deGrasse Tyson pontificating about astrophysics, it’s a passion so strong it cannot be contained to one medium.

You don’t necessarily have to be great or gifted at the thing you do. I am probably the least flexible yoga teacher I know.  That is why I have the discipline to keep working on my yoga poses to maintain my flexibility. However I have such a passion for the philosophy of yoga and a desire to learn, that I continue to delve into the books and teachings, broadening and deepening my knowledge base. 

As you can see right here on Originality by Design there are many things keeping people passionate and on fire.  What keeps you passionate in life? 

Stuff, Stuff & Stuff ~ by Cynthia Land, LMT, RYT

I was recently surprised/not surprised to see Marie Kondo capitalizing on the fame of her decluttering books by selling items to, wait for it, clutter your house.  

Here's a recent article about it in The Atlantic. I get that she's pushing out her brand but it sure looks funny from my end.  

We in the West seem to be susceptible to all kinds of buying strategies.  If you tell us it's good for us or will help us to lose weight, we're likely to buy it.  Marie convinced us to buy her book to help us bring more joy into our lives.  The idea was to help us get rid off all the clutter in our homes, the things we were no longer using that had simply become a burden.  

In the practice of Yoga, with a capital "Y", we approach this idea of decluttering from the very first limb of the eight limbs of yoga.  The first limb has five parts and one of them is called Aparigraha, or non-possessiveness.  Sometimes it's translated from Sanskrit as non-attachment.  Many of us become attached to "things." "Don't take my Cuisinart, I can't live without it."

I confess to a deep desire for a Maserati Quattroporte.  I had this desire imprinted even deeper when my ex-brother-in-law bought one and I got to ride around in it.  That said, I realize this desire is unfounded and that my budget is no where near the reality of purchasing one, so I don't linger on this desire.  I just admire them.  Now you Tony Robbins types may say, "but Cynthia, anything is possible, you could start thinking big and saving for that car." And I will tell you that while I would love to have a Maserati, the owning of one, doesn't run my life.  I think of it in passing, occasionally.   I'd really rather think big on other things.  

On the other end of the spectrum, I see women blindly attached to the idea of relationship bliss that they destroy themselves to be with a man. Their notion of being single so abhorrent that they will attach themselves to men so deeply unhealthy just to prevent themselves from being single.  We are only starting to foster a woman's individuality and that she doesn't need a man/relationship to define or value herself.   Yes, I recognize I just compared my desire for a car and a woman's desire for a man but I wanted to show that one attachment can be manageable and one can be damaging.  So how do we get out of this mess?

Yoga suggests we practice letting go.  Let go of these attachments so strong they drive us to distraction, attachments so strong they cause us pain.  Obviously this is a practice, not something we just drop like a hot potato.  I too used to throw myself at men because I thought that's just what you did.  I felt so strongly that I HAD to be in a relationship or somehow I was less than my fellow woman.  My self esteem was lacking, that's for sure.  I sought counseling to put my mind in the proper perspective but I also meditated on letting go.  This is a process I have by no means perfected, but I keep meditating and my mind no longer holds on to things like it once did.  

The Four Yogic Virtues Part II ~ by Cynthia Land LMT RYT

Welcome to part two of our look at the yogic view on the virtues. The yogis of yore believed there are four things that can get in the way of our relationships with others. Last month we discussed getting caught up in others happiness and letting another’s suffering negatively effect us. This month we take a look at ambition and nefarious characters.

This is an excellent time to explore the arena of ambition.  Numerous political candidates have come onto the field to test their mettle and share their ideas about how they think they can make our country a better place.  Maybe we don't agree with them but we're in no way about to jump up onto the proverbial soap box to take their place.  Is it possible to look at our emotions and our motivations and understand why we might feel strongly against an ambitious person?  Are they doing something we couldn't possibly ever do and we're jealous about it?  Are they doing something we feel so strongly against that we want to jump up and down and shout them down?  Take a pause and look deeply.  Understand what's motivating your feelings around that person's ambitiousness.  Is it possible to simply have joy around their energy and cheer them on?  

Alternatively, there are those out there doing things we believe to be downright wrong or maybe even evil.  Be especially careful here.  We may want to run out and right the wrongs.  Is it our place to do so?  If an act is truly unlawful perhaps the best we can do is report it to the authorities and step away from the results.  Is there a possibility that what's happening has nothing to do with us?  Can we then merely be neutral and walk away from the drama?  Some of us are attracted to drama like a moth to the flame and look what happens to them.  If you truly want change in your life, then you must walk away from the drama.  

As I said in last month's entry, this may take practice.  Relationships take practice.  This is merely a guide.