1. Meditation – the Practice of Presence

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We live in times of distress, where we value productivity more than anything else, where we are constantly under stress and movement, in an endless cycle that sometimes feels like it will never end.

Meditation is the number one instrument in tackling this stress – that I chose to talk about and will dwell a bit in a general sense but also as a personal experience.

I know you might have mixed feelings about having to sit still when you are with all guns blazing, wild and crabby. But think about it as a practice, as a gentle action you can take in order to lower your spirits and dealing with such situations in a wiser way. When done with regularity, will help you return to your inner space in those particular critical moments.

Again, keeping a meditation practice, being disciplined and introducing it in our routine, be it morning, evening or even in our lunch break, has proven to improve immunity, relax our body, decrease stress, improve focus and brain activity as well as lower blood pressure.

To get over those complicated definitions, to overcome the great variety of meditation techniques, I am not here to help you choose which one fits you best, however I think it is important to know that, as Pema Chodron beautifully defines it – meditation should be first about – ‘ befriending who we already are.’

I believe that this statement offers a common ground to all meditation techniques – it is a touch base to take an interest in who we are, to be inquisitive about ourselves, to investigate and allowing ourselves to be open and let go. To stop here ad be curious about what the present moment has to offer.

‘The aim is to be fully awake, fully alive, fully human.’

What is important to keep in mind is that we meditate in order to lighten up, to become more aware, awake about who we are. We are not aiming to change or get rid of what we think we should change, but connect and accept our light as well as our dark side. One cannot be without the other.

A consequence of this friendship is a constant observation – is being in the now, as it is only in this nowness that you can let go and open up to that space – that space you can always access.

To be vigilant about what your senses Tell you, to Look, to Listen, to Touch, to Talk from that sacred space. That is the ultimate purpose of the practice – to be in that presence at all times – and live in the eternal now.

PS. For more about my meditation practice, please see below my posts on Vipassana Meditation. http://alexandrah.org/spiritual-india-vipassana-and-the-art-of-living/

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