Ohm, Ohm, Ohm

The other day I caught a few minutes of Dr. Oz.  One of his guests was Deepak Chopra and was discussing meditation techniques and the benefits of this process.  I’ve never meditated before, but feel it’s worth a try, if nothing else, but for the experience alone and a personal challenge to see if I can really block out the outside world and just “be”.  (I know my boys probably think I meditate all the time, since I block out their squabbles and their pleas for resolution frequently.)

So hold on…I’m going to try it for ten minutes.  I’ll come back and tell you what the experience was like…just wait, ok?

TEN MINUTES LATER

Okay, I was really gone for almost 30 minutes.  The dryer buzzer went off and didn’t want to be interrupted by the sound (which I am supposed to just block out, but didn’t want to take any chances on my first try), so unloaded it and put the basket of towels on the bed, then realized I had to go to the bathroom, so did that before I started.  And, since it was lunchtime, I made myself a sandwich before I sat back down with you here, now.

I would say that it was a pleasant experience and found the first few minutes to be difficult.  I closed my eyes and kept saying to myself, “Relax. Relax.” Only to find myself completely aware that I was indeed not relaxing, but focusing on my eyes moving around underneath my eyelids.  I tried to switch my focus to my breathing and that did the trick.  As I listened to my breath, my shoulders softened and could feel my spine settle into my spot on the floor and I no longer could feel my individual fingers resting on my lap, but rather felt a solid blob of hand on my lap.  

The hard part was staying aware and not crossing over into the land of nod, but after 11 minutes, I did feel calmer than when I started and could feel that my heart rate had slowed down.  Overall, it was a good thing.   I may try it again another day and go for 15 minutes.   All that was missing was someone ringing the gong to let me know I was done. May need to search for that on e-bay.  (The gong, not the person ringing the gong!)