In this episode I explore the idea that meditation can take many different forms.

You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.uk

Transcript

Vicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga.

Vicky (00:00:11) - Today we're going to think about meditation. Now, what exactly is meditation is a question I've been asked many times and meditation has a sort of mystical, almost magical connotation to a lot of people who only really see people practicing it by sitting for hours in a cross leg position, in perfect stillness and allegedly reaching different planes of consciousness From the outside, it appears inaccessible and only for people who are truly dedicated. Now the truth is that meditation is focus. It's not empty in your mind or thinking of nothing. Because as a psychologist, I can assure you that the brain isn't designed to reside in complete stillness or have no thoughts. I tend to describe meditation as focusing on one thing, such as the breath. When we take our focus to just one object or sensation, we may find that the volume is turned down on all the other thoughts and stuff that rattles round our heads. That mental noise is referred to in yoga as chitter gritty, a wonderfully onomatopoeic Sanskrit term. Now, while the traditional form of meditation we think of involves sitting crosslegged on the floor, we may choose to meditate in any position that we feel comfortable. Be aware that laying down does often lead to napping rather than meditating, though. Now the focus of our meditation can be the natural rhythm of our breath. We can use a mantra such as a sayin or a sound. So we may choose two words, like just be.

Vicky (00:01:52) - We might visualize an object like a candle flame in our minds. The other thing that we could do is we could just focus on a sound. Now, if you find that sitting still isn't for you, perhaps you could try something like a barefoot walking meditation with your focus being on the sensation of the ground below your feet. With each step, we can even use food to meditate, closing our eyes and slowly and mindfully bringing our attention to the smell, the taste, and the texture of whatever we choose. Perhaps try chocolate as it changes, as it warms up in your mouth, giving you more to focus on. It may be that you are already practicing a form of meditation, but don't realize it. I have friends who find that running is the place where they find their chitter gritty volume decreases, and that's so far from sitting still, but it has similar effects for them in the mind. Gardening, crochet, or knitting, cooking, drawing or painting, DIYing, tinkering with vehicles, there are so many ways in which people do find their headspace.

Vicky (00:03:09) - All of the activities where you become completely consumed by your focus, where time seems to fly and you realize when you finish that you haven't thought about anything else except that thing that you were engaged in can be seen as forms of meditation. Yoga is sometimes referred to as a move in meditation too, as focusing on the movements, poses and balances can help dial down the activity of the other thoughts. The key to meditation isn't any big magical secret. You don't have to sit in silence for hours. Sometimes it's just a case of recognizing what meditation means to us. Please remember to hit subscribe, and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website, eqyoga.co.uk. Thank you so much for listening.