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| Courtesy of Forest Farming Community |
Recently, I revisited the practice of
mindful meditation. For those who aren't aware, it’s simply the ability the
focus on the moment.
Now think about it? How many of us can focus on one thing; for example, a job to be done
without distraction; multitasking, listening to headsets
while cooking, watching television while texting, or thinking about a multitude
of things while walking to work.
How many of us can concentrate on a single, isolated thought for, say, one minute, 60 seconds?
When we think about mediation, we
see ourselves sitting cross legged on the floor with incense burning and
Tibetian Bowls ringing. Some can to do this in various yoga positions, or
like me, through Tai Chi or Qigong.
But is this mindful?
I’m not a true expert, but I’ve been
able to summarize mindfulness with these following words.
“Normal, nonjudgmental awareness of
experiencing now.”
First word: Normal.
In my many years of martial arts
training I meditated and attempted balance. It was not inconceivable, a notion, where we all, at one point of our life, sought balance. Television shows, social media and traditional sources reminded us of it.
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| Courtesy of The Cracker Door |
Just recently I had a conversation with
a student who asked me to provide a simple explanation of balance. I gave
verbal examples; pushed him off center; showed him
pictures of stones placed in perfect position so that they would remain in a perfect
line without falling. Still confused, he asked if there was something else I could use to help him understand. Then I told him to think of the word “normal” and pointed to a tree outside and asked him if it required instructions on how to grow.
He looked at me and then said. “yes I
now understand.”
We live in the world where we are pushed
and pulled, sometimes knowing the causes, where, how and when...from different sources, many our fault, internally rooted. A lot of it are self-imposed. When he struggled with the word
balance, he could not understand how to adjust.
Each day, his life is based upon achieving goals and what contributes, competes and interchanges with his life. When I mentioned the word normal, as innocuous it sounds, it finally resonated that being normal in a very complicated world was difficult.
Each day, his life is based upon achieving goals and what contributes, competes and interchanges with his life. When I mentioned the word normal, as innocuous it sounds, it finally resonated that being normal in a very complicated world was difficult.
He asked how can a person start to
become normal? I told him it starts by learning how to breathe normally, which means to breath correctly.
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| Courtesy of The Creative Post |
So as an instructor and he the student,
we both embarked on a journey of discovery.
What we did as part of our Tai Chi and Qigong training was to
incorporate visualizing, feeling and thinking. In a small way, we were attempting to balance our basic, emotional and intellectual needs and make them "normal."
This became a new frontier for me as an
instructor whose goal is to help people grow.
And so, I’ll be posting my thoughts in
future blogs to help bring an understanding to “mindfulness.” As simple as it seems, it is not easy, and I
will find “normal” solutions to help anyone understand and make changes in
his/her lives for personal edification and development.
