MEDITATION: Are You Doing It Right? It’s Not as Hard as You Think

I is meditating good... Photo by Zack Dowdy on Unsplash

Meditation; it's something that a lot of people are doing.

(Or thinking about doing but feeling like "I just don't have time to sit on a pillow and huff incense.")

Because of the buzz around it, questions like "How do I do it right?" might come up. And wondering about "getting it right" might actually be one of the barriers stopping you from giving meditation a shot.

I've pondered the rightness and wrongness of it because I don't meditate, officially.

That is to say, I don't sit on a pillow with my legs crossed, candles and incense burning, observing my thoughts.

Is that the only "right way" to meditate though?

I'm going to say that it isn't - GASP - and I'm going to use the argument of end result to prove it. (Aka - the end justifies the means.)

Some things in life are about process; life itself is about process because the point of life isn't the finish line (a.k.a. death) it's about the process of living and everything we get to experience along the way.

But there are some things where we can only judge the success of the process based on the end result; the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

What does that mean with regards to meditation?

If - as I understand it - the "goal" of meditation is to feel more calm and centred, with the ability to observe your thoughts without identifying with them, and to develop the ability to be fully present to the moment, then ANYTHING that helps you do that counts as meditation.

Huzzah!!!

You might be meditating on a daily basis without even knowing it. 

Say whaaat....???

You mean I don't hafta sit on da pillows...? Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

PERSONAL EXAMPLES:

I 'mediate' when I go for long walks by myself. I live near a forest and walk among trees almost daily. I usually walk in silence; not listening to music or podcasts. Just the sound of the wind saying hello to the leaves.

I feel profound peace in those moments, and am most definitely observing my thoughts as they float on by.

I 'mediate' when I cook or bake. Sometimes I listen to an audio book when I'm in the kitchen, but at other times, I simply, chop, mix, and stir in total silence. 

My mind goes blank as I focus on the task at hand; peeling a potato, chopping a carrot, washing lettuce, whipping butter and sugar together.

I am totally present to the task at hand.

(I think that's why sometimes, during times of stress, I feel intensely drawn to the kitchen; not because I absolutely need to make chocolate-chip walnut cookies in that moment, but because I need to quiet my mind.)

I 'mediate' sometimes during a workout, where my only focus is taking deep breaths as I concentrate on a series of repetitive movements.

When I worked as a scuba diver, being underwater with only the sound of my own breath in and out of the regulator was meditative.

So here's what I'm trying to say, in a nutshell...

THE NUTSHELL: Meditation isn't about pillow-sitting, OM-chanting, or incense-huffing; it's about helping you observe the chattering of your mind so you become conscious of that chatter in a way that you can see it without identifying with it. It's about helping you be more present in the here and now.

Determining if you're doing something 'right' can only be judged based on the desired end result, and not necessarily the specific way that a thing is done, because often there's more than one way to do something.

Yes, there are certain things in life where the process is the point; but when it comes to meditation, knowing if we're doing it right can only be judged based on the outcome.

If you're feeling more peaceful, calm and centred, then it's WORKING, regardless of the activity that brings you there.

You don't need to sit on a pillow in a dimly lit room in order to meditate, is what I'm saying.

Unless you want to of course.

I don't wanna... Photo by Mike Burke on Unsplash

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You might be asking yourself "How does this topic relate to recovery from binge-eating?" What I found is that - for me - finding new ways of thinking about life and its challenges helped me to stop stress-eating, and has been a very big part of my ability to stop binge-eating.

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