Thinking, constant thinking. It’s like a radio constantly changing stations, looking for the next best program to listen to and focus on. This is how my mind works. Sometimes I have a hard time focusing on the current situation because I am always lost in my thoughts, which makes me wonder if this is the reason I sometimes feel lost with my life.
I’m not sure if lost is really the right word. That might be overly pessimistic. There is this feeling though that something is missing and I just can’t put my finger on what it is. Through my personal studies and reading, one thing has become abundantly clear. The feeling of what’s missing isn’t going to be filled by some outside source. It’s not going to be filled by a new job, more money, traveling to an exotic location or even reading more books.
Those are all ‘things’ and really just get in the way with my primary goal of getting in touch with my true essence and life itself. It can’t come from someone or something other than myself and in order to do that I need to learn to quiet my mind.
Implementing a Mindfulness Practice
I’ve been reading about mediation for years…I mean, really, a long time. Going back 10+ years when I was in college and read my first book on the subject and was fascinated by it, however, I never put it into practice. Well, that’s not entirely true. I briefly started a daily practice about 3-4 years ago, but it never stuck.
Think about your own life for a minute. If you’re like me, you probably read a lot of blog posts, magazines and books. I bet you read stuff every day and tell yourself, ‘wow, that’s a really great idea,’ or ‘yeah, that person is really onto something.’ Do you actually do something about it though?
Well, for too long I haven’t. Starting this blog is a small step in the right direction of doing something, but it certainly hasn’t quieted my mind. If anything, it’s increased the chatter. Now, I’m focused on what I should be doing next, who I should be talking to, what I should be writing about, etc, etc.
I’m convinced that this noise is not a good thing. For me, it creates added stress and takes me further away from being present.
Since I’m trying to make a conscious effort to experiment more, I have decided to implement a mindfulness practice to see where it will take me. In order to make this stick, I am going to commit to practicing meditation every single day.
What is Mindfulness?
Meditation doesn’t have to be relegated to some new age, eastern practice that only monks in flowing red robes partake in. It doesn’t mean sitting in the lotus position for hours on end and it certainly doesn’t mean you have to be a Buddhist to do it.
Mindfulness is all about being in touch with the present moment. It’s about awakening from the dream like existence many of us live in who are constantly trapped in our thoughts, and learning to live in true harmony with oneself.
It’s about being one with the moment and examining our thoughts with non-judgement and accepting what is. The thing is, when we’re constantly working towards something, whether it’s building a business, planning for a vacation, thinking about retirement, ad infinitum, we lose touch with reality, our true essence, our relationship to others and the world itself.
I often read that there shouldn’t be any outward goal with meditation. Some go into it with the expectation or hope to become enlightened. While I could care less about that, I do hope to get something out of it.
- I want to learn how to ‘turn off’ the constant chatter in my mind. This will obviously be a great challenge and in order to accomplish this goal, a steady practice of mindfulness meditation is required.
- I hope to get in touch with my true essence. I do feel that those who feel something is off in their life or feel lost, are trapped in their unconscious mind. It’s my hope, that with mindfulness practice I can slowly move towards living a more centered life.
- I want to practice what I preach. I’ve written a lot about being mindful and happy with the present moment, now I need to start practicing it in my own life.
Follow-Ups
This won’t be the last post on this subject. You’ll probably see more posts in the future about my progress with my meditation practice. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to capture some of my progress. I think that writing is definitely the first step. Writing in this blog has certainly helped me clarify some of my thoughts and I will probably continue to do so in the form of journaling.
There’s a lot of noise out there. I don’t want to say that as a bad thing, because there’s certainly a lot of good noise out there. My question to you is, how are you filtering through that noise? Are you taking any action based on what you read and if so, what? I’m truly interested to hear about your journey as well.
I’m Nate, a writer, mindfulness practitioner and student of the inner workings of the mind.
Hey Nate, I think this is a good way to take. For me, short meditation sessions in the morning and in the evening work really well, although I have to admit that I’m not implementing them every single day of my life. I will just sit in an upright position and concentrate on my breath… the thiughts will then slowly fade away, and quietness will enter my body. It’s really refreshing.
Concerning your question, I recently updated the organization of my RSS reader. Instead of having the feeds ordered after their topics, I made a list based on priorities, i.e. “essential”, “maybe”, “on review”, “inspiration only” and “news”. This works well for me, as I will only pay attention to the essential ones and read the others only if I find the time.
.-= Fabian´s last blog ..Artist’s Consistency versus Kicking Ass: On Avoiding a Consistent Body of Work =-.
Fabian – Good idea on the RSS reader organization. I don’t know about you, but my RSS reader can overwhelm me at times. Kind of like e-mail. There’s so much there unread that I have to figure out the best way to start and it just keeps building and building up. Like you, I also have some essential reading with others that I just skim, which I suppose begs the question of whether or not I should just just delete those.
Yes, deletion of stuff in the “review” folder will be the next step for me, too. Having no probs with e-mail though… I just don’t write up to subscriptions by mail.
.-= Fabian´s last blog ..Happy New Year 2009! =-.
Hey Nate. Similar to Fabian, I try to do as many short meditation sessions as I can per week, usually upon waking up in the morning. I did a meditation retreat about 7 years ago and enjoyed a major decrease in ‘noise’ and ‘chatter’ as a result. This has motivated me to continue meditating.
Another method that I am in the midst of experimenting with is having one full day per week without any internet. At first it was difficult as my mind kept thinking about what I might be missing, but eventually I stopped thinking so much and am now able to enjoy my free day.
And I also am trying to follow the ‘stop what you’re doing’ principle where I stop doing anything that doesn’t interest me. If I’m reading a blog post and after two paragraphs find myself losing interest, I stop reading it.
I’m definitely interested in reading more about your foray into mediation…
Earl – I think it’s wonderful that you take a day off from the internet. It’s something I’d like to do too. I think you point out one of the problems with the internet. Too many people are so wrapped up in missing something….the next twitter message, a blog post, etc. It can get quite crazy. The internet can, at times, be a ‘life sucker’ in my opinion. It lulls you into this unconscious state and many times we are doing things on the internet just to do them. Taking a break one day a week and tuning out the noise is definitely a good practice to have.
Noises are caused by the trepidations of our minds. Although it is natural for all of us, it does not mean that we should abide by it. There are many thing we can perceived if we can master to shut our minds. It may take some to practice, but it is worth the effort.
Walter – thanks so much for stopping by. What I’m beginning to learn is that it may not be about shutting off the mind per se, or even quieting the mind (at least the initial goal). What I’m really trying to focus on now is just being with the present moment with no illusions or expectations of what it will bring (peace, quite, or otherwise). Just listening, just being.
Do what has value to you. Let go of all the twitter and emails that are do not bring you value. Your generation is overcome by too much information. Know where to get the information you want and need to fulfill what has value to you.
It might be helpful to find a meditation class or teacher who can give you a more directed meditation that will take you to that quiet place faster and more consistantly. I do find when I do this type of meditation (very directed – grounding myself, releasing energy I don’t need in my body and mind, bringing in the earth energy up your feet and into your legs, bringing in the universal energy from your crown chakra and mixing the two energies at your root chakra and then flowing them up and out to your auric field. Finally, bring in your own wisdom and let it fill all those empty places within you. Be with those feelings. Play with those steps to find what feels right for you. Eventually you sit to meditate and it is all there, almost immediately and you are at that calm place where the static is gone. If you are like me, you will find you have more time and energy for doing the things that have value to you even though you spent some of that time in meditation. It doesn’t take long to “clear” yourself. One only needs to devote as much time as it takes – removing the need to make it a 10 minute or a 30 minute production. It is about what you are calling: mindfulness.
Hi Rebecca. Thank you for stopping by and commenting. Since writing this post I have implemented a daily meditation practice and I am planning on taking a class in mindfulness meditation that starts at the end of the month. It’s an eight week course.
If you see my most recent post (Jan 10, 2010), you’ll see that I comment on information overload. It’s something that has been bothering me lately and something that I’m working on. I think that taking in too much information can create more confusion in people’s lives…..and more stress because there’s this feeling that you have to keep up with everyone else. That’s not a good thing, in my opinion.
[...] effective stress management strategies that I have implemented in my life. I recently started doing mindfulness based meditation on a daily basis. While I initially started with a goal of quieting my mind, I have quickly found [...]