Apart from the actual technique of how to meditate - breathing, sitting, focus etc, we were instructed that meditation is something which needs to be done as regularly as possible, every day is best. It's not like cramming for a test were you can pull an 'all-nighter' and get the same benefit. Even just 10 minutes everyday is better than 3 hours on the weekend.
So to do this you need a space. Set yourself up a space where you can get some quiet away from the family to meditate each day. Decide on a time, morning is common but anything during the day or before bed is also perfectly OK. I am lucky to live in a big house so I took one of the spare rooms as my meditation space. I set my alarm clock for an hour earlier and away I went. Every morning for weeks I meditated and I did eventually start to notice some changes.
The first change was that this meditation stuff was easy, very easy. I was able to stay focused for as long as I wanted, the colours we were told to visualise were very bright and sometimes even overpowering. I thought, wow - I'm good.
But after about 4 to 6 weeks after the course had finished, it all changed. My concentration went out the window, my legs were getting very stiff from sitting cross legged, my colours all seemed to disappear - what was going on? Getting in contact with the instructor I was told; "The honeymoon period is over!"
Like everything new, the first little while all seems great and exciting and sparkly and the mind is easily able to focus, but after the 'honeymoon' period, the new thing is not so new anymore and the mind starts to look for the next new thing. I was told to persist - this is the stage were many people give up and think that meditation doesn't work. Persistence is the key, and I guess a little bit of faith that the thousands of people who have meditated before me have actually gained something from it.
The few weeks to months which followed were tough. My mind struggled to do something else, jump to and cling onto all the thoughts that came my way during my meditation sessions. Once I remember that I even gave up and just let my mind follow the thought, like letting the dog have it's bone. I let my mind follow that thought and I just watched like a journalist waiting to see what would happen next. I didn't intervene or make my thought do anything in particular, just observed. At the end of the thought when I think that mind was ready to jump to something else, I then brought it back to the breath but asked myself, why did that thought have such a tight grip on me? I thought about it and had a small realisation about myself. So...I gained a little bit of insight or wisdom about myself; and afterall that is the ultimate point of meditation.
Our mind things of some very strange stuff sometimes. But everything we think of has some kind of meaning.
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So if you start something new, be gentle on yourself and give yourself some time to adjust and except the change. Be patient with yourself and the new thing you started, the shine you experience when that thing is new is only your perception because it is new. Don't let that shine fade away too quickly and when it does, try to remember how it felt and keep that thing fresh.
Thank you for reading and I wish you all the best with your new thing.
