Several months ago I wrote about my experience with an assignment from my coach. The assignment was to ask for a dollar from 3 different strangers and then give the dollars that I collected to yet three more strangers. I completed the assignment successfully and learned that money is just energy that flows through our hands, much like the Reiki energy I channel for my clients during healings.
The exercise also reinforced something that I’ve noticed and wondered about. I often “get a feeling” about people or a situation… this has been happening for years, and possibly explains much of the success I experienced during my sales career. As I “worked” the play area at the mall (my “target group” for my project) I noticed that I would intuitively feel drawn to certain people. If I would just relax, feel and most importantly TRUST, I more often than not made a successful connection. The key is to not second guess one’s self, to stay out of the head.
In Western Society we place far too much emphasis and trust in “brain power.” We tend to lead with our heads, not our hearts or guts. Most of us are never still enough to even get past that voice in our heads. That is what meditation is all about. It is important to get past that voice. In case you haven’t noticed the voice is not always “nice.” I’ve heard the voice also called monkey mind, radio San Juan, and Auth Bertha. Your inner critic resides in your mind and masquerades as your friend through the voice, making it all the more insidious.
The popular Landmark Forum’s main objective is to still the voice. It does so through three long days of intense Socratic Questioning. It works – temporarily. More than anything it creates awareness; awareness that there is another way to “be”… awareness that the voice can be stilled.
But the Landmark Forum method is like giving a man a fish. Teaching meditation and supporting someone in establishing a meditation practice, on the other hand, is like teaching a man to fish. I do see value in powerful questioning; I am after all a coach. However for lasting change, meditation, I think is the preferred route to take.
The word meditation seems to conjure up all kinds of ideas and misconceptions for some people. Don’t be intimidated by it. All you are really doing is relaxing your mind and allowing yourself to escape your head and “be” in your body. There is no one “right” way of meditating and whenever I deal with a client who tells me they can’t meditate I find that person has “baggage” attached to the concept of meditation. I find myself waiting to hear their “rules” of meditation and with out fail a complicated list follows.
I am so grateful to my own meditation teacher for his patience and laid back attitude. His message and mine as well is this: You don’t need any elaborate preparation to meditate. Silence is not necessary or even desirable. With apologies to Nike for stealing their tag line… when it comes to meditating I say “Just do it!” and do it like the quality of your life depends upon it… because ultimately it does.
Briefly here are some of my favorite types of meditation:
Moving meditations – these include labyrinth walking as well as Qigong.
Sitting Meditations – to sit and follow one’s breath or heart beat
Chanting Mantra – to meditate while chanting or saying a mantra can be a very elevating experience.
One of the many nature trails
