All this health stuff the last couple of posts reminded me that one thing I really want to do is learn to meditate. They say (you know…they…the ones who aren’t me) that meditation has a lot of health and welfare benefits. I especially like the list that includes lowering stress, improving focus, promoting better sleep, boosting immunity, and increasing our self-awareness. I don’t quite understand the benefit touted as understanding your pain. I don’t dwell on pain so I don’t give a rip if I understand it. The single most appealing benefit of meditation to me is quieting my mind. For the life of me, I’ve never been successful at doing that, and can’t even conceive of how I can make that happen. My mind never stops!
When your mind never stops, it seems that should be called mind-full-ness. But mindfulness, the opposite of mind-full-ness, calls to me in an expansive way. I understand mindfulness and have even written about it occasionally. I can do mindfulness and find it adds significant value to my life. But it doesn’t help me “get” how to meditate at all.
My sister (-in-law) and best friend, Lynn, and I are discussing finding a retreat where we can go to try to learn to meditate. So far I haven’t had any luck finding somewhere that isn’t too kooky or far out. Have any of you heard of any such place?
Do any of you meditate? Please share your story in the comments below.
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