I’ve dabbled in meditation over the past few years. While I feel embarrassed to admit it, I enjoy meditating. I started by reading a book called Mindfulness by Mark Williams that I’m still using. Recently, I’ve also enjoying using an app called Balance.
I get the sense that meditation can be very complex topic, however the essence of it is to try to sit still and keep your brain quiet. I don’t think the goal is to actually have your brain be quiet (“woohoo, my brain is quiet, I just qualified for the meditation Olympics!”) I see the goal of meditation as the never ending process of noticing that your brain is not being quiet, and acknowledging your current thought, and go back to just noticing… your breath, or the tingling in your foot, or the gurgling in your stomach, or… (“oh, I need to buy apples today. I wonder if I can get the car in for an oil change this week.”) And so it goes…
I think most people’s brains are very persistent in this regard. They can offer up all kinds of tempting things for you to think about. The trick is to not get mad or frustrated, but instead, just recognize it all as thoughts, and go back to noticing your breath.
To that point, there are a number of techniques you help you focus on your breath. A common technique is to count your breaths. Some people suggest noticing where in your body you feel your breath. Others suggest labelling your breath with something like “Breath coming in”, “Breath going out.” I enjoy hopping around among these techniques.
Recently, while I was labelling my breath ‘in’ and ‘out’ I tried switching the labels, so as my lungs filled up, I was thinking ‘out’. As the air was being pushed out of my lungs, I was thinking ‘in.’
I started doing this, as a silly game. I’m not entirely sure the serious mindfulness crowd would approve of this, but I was enjoying it. I have reached a point where it feels natural to be thinking ‘in’ as I breathe out, and vice versa.
At one point while I was doing this reverse labelling, I started imagining (sorry, this even sounds flaky to me!) I could turn myself inside out. Instead of my consciousness occupying my body, it was instead occupying everything outside my body. From this perspective when air was leaving the universe and going into my body, it was as if the universe was breathing out. When air was being pushed out of my body, it was actually being received by the universe. In.
What started as a playful game in my monkey mind ended up showing me a different way to visualize my breath and my place in the universe.
It all reminds me of a great (and recent) xkcd comic.
