Meditation

Mushrooms
Originally uploaded by Snak Shak

I sat in on a meditation group this morning. This was my first foray into organized meditation. Oh, sure, I've dabbled in contemplative prayer and attended some Quaker meetings for worship (who hasn't?), but I've never gone to a meditation class, per se.

It was interesting. I have long been aware that my brain skips around in dizzying non-sequiturs that can leave people I am hanging out with somewhat mystified (how did we get on that topic?), but I can also concentrate like nobody's business when I am in the right frame of mind and the subject interests me.

I figured I would be pretty good at meditation. after spending an hour doing nothing but, I think I am... um... not too bad.

What was most interesting about meditation was paying attention to concentration. For example, for awhile we focused on our our breathing. Pretty simple, really: in, out, in, out... and so it goes.

But like clockwork, other thoughts would creep in and pretty soon I was off in the cauliflower, thinking about whether it's worth it to swap tires on the Long Haul Trucker now or wondering how long the potato salad has been in the refrigerator.

Hopefully, I'll get a little better control over my brain through these classes. There were a lot of new people in the class today, and we were talking afterward about how unaware we are of the thoughts that go flitting through our minds. Yet those thoughts create moods and moods spawn personalities, so it's really something worth paying attention to.