In my life meditation has been a strong force.
It helps me reduce my stress. It helps me get to sleep. I have used it to empower and motivate. I sometimes work with guided meditation, but they don’t necessarily work for everybody, and there was a time long time ago when they didn’t work for me.
I would sit and listen to a guided meditation, shut away in a quiet room, no distractions, no noise, and still my mind would wander. I used to feel as though I wasn’t doing it right, so I would stop, or try another time.
Sometimes I'd tune into a guided meditation before bed and I would fall asleep before the meditation finished...again I would feel like I had done it wrong.
But I hadn’t. You can't really "do" meditation wrong...everybody meditates in different ways.
Nature meditation/walking meditation/forest breathing etc.
One of my favourite ways to meditate is to go into the woods and to meander, without purpose. I’m not listening for the noise of other things other than the words. I'm not concentrating really, even on where I’m going, I’m not thinking about what I need to do when I get home. I’m indulging in nature meditation or walking meditation.
As I walk, when I am indulging in walking meditation, I'm walking and breathing, feeling my body as each foot reconnects to the earth, how my body feels as it walks.
When I am indulging in a nature meditation, I may still be walking, but as I wander, I am listening to the trees and the wind and the sounds of nature. Sometimes I simply walk to a place I feel compelled by, and then I find a place to sit and just be with the woods, listening to the woods, feeling the ground beneath me, the air around me, experiencing the forest.
I’m deeply connected to nature, so a lot of the meditation I work with is nature-based. I go out and meditate in my garden as I listen to the breeze and let it calm me.
I recently undertook a certified course in forest breathing and the most compelling takeaway I experienced was that for all intents and purposes this is a practice I have intuitively indulged in most of my life without it having a label.
Another practice of meditation I have undertaken for years is fire meditation.
Maybe at some point when you have been near an open fire or a candle, you have stared into the flames. Maybe you're looking for the "dance" of the flames...maybe you enjoy the way the light flickers.
But something magical happens within us when we indulge in fire/candle gazing - it is a form of meditation, calming and relaxing our minds and bodies. It's a form of meditation I've always "gotten right" - even before I understood what meditation was. I was taught to fire gaze at a very early age, and take every opportunity I can do so so.
Whether it’s a single flame of a candle or a roaring bonfire, they mesmerise and calm me. I look for the shapes and the symbols, letting everything go but the fire itself.
When you sit in stillness, giving yourself moments of tranquility, that is meditation, and there’s no wrong way to do it.
If your mind wanders gently bring it back.
If you fall asleep, your body needed sleep.
There are sleep meditations designed to be an unwind session for you to help you sleep...so if you fall asleep in the middle, how is that wrong?
As you work on your meditative journey, the most important thing to remember is to be gentle with yourself, do not let meditation be an excuse for you to be self-critical....