Meditation and Staying in the Moment
This morning I was ready to edit photos of my work and put the items up on my website. When I began looking for the images, they weren’t there. I realized that one day last week I had taken a whack of photos and had all of them on my camera thinking that I had already uploaded them, so I deleted them off my camera in error. My heart sunk when I realized what I had done.
When this happens, I don’t freak out. There is nothing that I can do except begin this process again and move forward. I usually find some time to be quiet each day and focus inward. It definitely makes a difference in my mental state especially when things like this happen. If you don’t already, try to meditate. I don’t want to be too obnoxious about this. I understand what a privileged thing it can be to take a moment, focus on the present, and breathe. I also think that if we are privileged enough to be humans, landing on this planet with some consciousness, then we get to mediate if we want to, no matter what our circumstances are.
I came to do this in an usual way. Almost 30 years, I was going through the end of difficult relationship. On the advice of my brother, I signed up for something called The Silva Method. It’s a method of putting yourself into a relaxed frame of mind, and then using that relaxation for useful purposes like improving your self-image, finding solutions to problems, increasing your ability to accomplish goals, improving your relationships with others, and getting better grades at school.
Finding this skill at that time did not fix the problems that I had but it gave me enough self-awareness to realize when I was freaking out about something out of my control, and that it was time to step back emotionally and get some distance so I could calm down.
Since then many things have changed. I will often just sit quiet, focus within and regroup which would be my own form of meditation. Having this tool in my pocket proved to be very useful at the time and I still use the skills that I gained everyday to function mentally.
What I will say is that meditation is not for special people who have exclusive access to inner peace. Meditation is for everyday people who struggle with life and want another tool to deal with it. Especially in this particular time, which is all uncertain and not even the people who are supposed to know things know what is next, staying in the moment is a good way to stay sane.
Do you have a practice that you follow? I would love to hear about it.
