Routine meditation
Sep 22nd, 2008 by katesaltfleet
Photo credit: jurvetson
During the last month or so, my head has been a bit of a crazy place to be. I have been tempted to give up meditating, because when I do, some days it feels as if my head is going to explode. That twenty minutes each morning is the one place where I can’t escape from myself. I see my thoughts go past, like carnival floats, and try not to get caught up in them. I just watch them pass, making an effort not to get involved in the drama, but this is not easy. On other days, I will have a sublime experience, I will see the purple light and feel my consciousness beginning to shift. Sometimes you need to work through stuff to come out on the other side.
When my thoughts about what is going on in my life are overwhelming me, I have thought about giving up. Deep down, though, I know that it is exactly at times like these that a ritual like meditation is especially valuable. It has helped me get into a new routine, a new normal, for the time being at least.
At the moment, this routine is working for me:
6:20 - Alarm goes off, get up, go to bathroom, clean teeth. Then I will have my 20 minutes meditation, sitting on the bedroom floor. It’s nice not being banished downstairs to meditate anymore!
After meditating I will have a shower, breakfast and leave the house about 8am. I like a nice leisurely morning routine and would rather get up early so I can wake up nice and gradually. I am the sort of person who likes a nice routine in the morning. Other times of day I am more flexible, but in the morning I get a lot of comfort from doing things nice and just so.
I have read that it can be beneficial to have a second meditation session in the afternoon, for example after returning from work. My afternoons tend not to be so structured as my mornings, so I will stick with the morning routine, and maybe fit in a couple of afternoon sessions. I think that you benefit more from doing these meditations on a regular basis, around the same time of day, every day.
What do you think? Do you find a routine helps you in a morning? Or do you hate the very idea?
