So yesterday I got a real treat: people asked me what I did today, and I said,
“Oh, you know…work. Eating tea and cookies in a beautiful Tibetan art Gallery, and then going on a guided meditation with a famous meditation instructor.”
Even if I had been denied that thrill, I have to say having just about everyone in the room share a ‘meditation attracts animals’ story would have been awesome enough.
And of course, there was Sharon! I had seen pictures of Sharon before. I’d even heard her voice on the cd that comes with her book. So when I was actually able to meet her, and hear her speak and answer our questions about meditation, my brain was quickly erasing the image it had made up of her, and replacing it with this real, warm, powerfully present woman before me. What a powerful reminder of how much of what we think we know is just stories our brain has put together based on very little evidence!
I must have gone through about fifty different headspaces in that hour and a half meet-up with my fellow-bloggers!
“Oh, they’re judging my outfit; I should have changed afterward!”
“Yay, I’ve meditated every day so far!”
“GASP! How could she have done the challenge last year and then fallen off the bandwagon??”
I’m no fool. I wasn’t shocked at her struggle; I was terrified that since it had happened to her, it could happen to me…
Perhaps it’s evidence that this meditation stuff is starting to sink in, that I was able to observe with a certain (small) amount of distance, those various headspaces and un-useful thoughts…the meditation we did together was great! My mind wandered, of course, but I had some lovely moments of focusing on the breath, and when I found myself craving the hip-opening of a cross-legged position over my hard folding chair, I was able to observe this craving without getting into a tizzy over it, or giving into it.
I’ve got one more meditation sesh tonight to wrap up week one, but you know, I’m feeling pretty good!
I wish I had some way of encapsulating how I’m feeling now, and how I felt a week ago, so I could compare those feelings to next week, and the weeks to follow…obviously I’m writing about it, but I suspect I’m missing the subtleties just the same…
Ah well!
~em