I have been asked to lead a meditation for a group of people who are training in Mental Health. I thought it might be of help to someone reading here too if I try to pull some thoughts together here.
- Meditation isn't about following a set of rules. Just as in a yoga class, you are likely to be told to follow your own instincts and to make the class your own, so it is with a meditation session, either in a group or alone. If you don't feel comfortable at any time following your breath, put your attention on something else - the sounds outside the room, the parts of your body connecting with the seat or meditation cushion; whatever will allow you to be present.
- We need to feel grounded in a meditation, we need to be in our bodies. As much as we might use visualization, or manifesting, or any other sort of mind state in a meditation, we also need to be aware of our feet on the ground, so to speak. Should thoughts or internal mind states overwhelm, it's right to return to the body sitting in meditation. What parts of the body are in connection with the meditation seat or cushion? Where are the hands and what are they feeling? How do the feet feel? What feels comfortable in the body and what feels uncomfortable, and can I float between the two states? Do I feel light or heavy, and can I feel both light and heavy at the same time? Whatever the questions you use, be curious about the body's experience and you will start to re-ground yourself.
- Be aware that as much as you can experience relaxation in the body, the more likely it is your mind will begin to relax and be restored. Put plenty of time into relaxing your body. Take some long deep breaths, perhaps holding the breath for a second or two before letting all the breath go. Repeat a few times before you return to your natural state of breathing; what feels right for you. Place your attention on various parts of your body, a body scan. It's wonderful when you can be guided through this, but you can guide yourself when alone too.
-Curiosity and kindness towards oneself are key. Whether one has been meditating for decades or whether this is the first time, there will be meditations where difficult material comes up in the mind. It may be a racing mind, or thoughts may spill over one another, or there's a nasty memory, or doubt about a decision, or an argument plays itself out all over again. The possibilities are endless.
Thoughts can be troubling. Yet, if one can get curious about the material being generated by the mind in stillness, it becomes more like watching a movie. We feel some distance from the material, making the material, however that goes, far more tolerable. We can channel and train our thoughts to some extent of course, but we can't really make the mind think only wonderful and beautiful thoughts and not unpleasant and disturbing thoughts. So, knowing this, that we don't have a well thought out perfectly written script for the mind to follow, we can simply get curious. What's going on for you today, mind? You may find you let out a little giggle at times at how warped the mind can be. So be it. We're human.
Whatever the material going on, always be kind to yourself. Nothing is more important than this. Congratulate yourself, over and over, if necessary, for showing up for yourself in this way and in having the courage to do so. Be patient with yourself, too. If the meditation last three minutes only, well done you. Maybe next time you will be comfortable for sitting still and meditating for four minutes. This isn't a race. This is, purely and simply, time with yourself.
About being kind to yourself, take any instructions you are given by a meditation guide or teacher with a grain of salt. If someone requests that you keep your eyes closed, and at some point you desperately want to open them, then open them. Maybe look about the room, until you desire to close them again, or to focus on a point in the room. We are all different and especially those who are currently not experiencing good mental health, we need to honour where we at today.
- It's very important to understand that, as much as it might be good to have our minds focus on the breath, our minds are meant for variety, so I think it's inevitable that our minds are going to wander. If that wandering leads to a happy memory, or the love of another person, or what we are thinking of having for dinner, then it's all good. Who is to say thinking about lunch choices is a bad thing? When ready, feel back into the breath, or the sounds outside the room, or the feel of your tongue sitting on the roof of your mouth; whatever. Come back home.
Keep returning back home as often as you can. No judgment. Start again as often as necessary. There's nothing wrong with that.
- According to the Internal Family Systems model there are 8 Cs and 5 Ps that make up the Self; your happy and healthy you.
They are: compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage and connectedness. Presence, patience, perspective, persistence and playfulness. It is notable that meditation can both foster and reinforce all these qualities.
- Finally, while there are many styles of meditation to be explored, I think the one to really experience is a meditation based on the work of people like Joe Dispenza. This sort of meditation will take you to a place of nothingness, where you are surrounded by deep space all around you. You're nothing; you don't have roles to fulfil, and no one expects anything of you. You remove all the troubled thoughts, all the dis-ease, even disease. My personal feeling is that time spent in this mind state is transformative.
- And to end, meditation will not cure mental illness on its own. Maybe somewhere someone was healed by meditation alone, but the suffering of the mind requires a skilled therapist to assist that person. Meditation does however allow an openness of mind over time, an ability to be with the mind, and to explore the content of the mind. It's a wonderful adjunct to those in the field assisting those looking to overcome troubling mind states.
