by Nina
“Thus, a combination of breathing practices, meditation, and asanas is sufficient to shift the brainwave pattern to a physical and mental state involving reduction in stress, anxiety, mood disturbances, and depression and improvements in mood, focus, alertness, and an over-all sense of well-being.”—Ram Rao
A little over two years ago I decided to get serious about meditating regularly. You can read My Meditation Project if you want more complete information about why, but basically it had to do with an article that Ram wrote about Brain Waves and Yoga, and how the combination of meditation, asanas, and breath practices could change your brain waves, which could help counteract depression along with stress!
I also wanted to have meditation in my pocket so to speak for those times when asana or even pranayama wasn’t possible. Being skilled at meditation seemed like a good ability to develop for healthy aging because you can always do it, even if you’re sick or physically incapacitated.
I made my commitment to getting serious about meditating public because I thought it would help me stay on track—I wanted to meditate 6 days a week for 15 minutes a day—and you know what? That worked. During my sabbatical from Yoga for Healthy Aging, I reported weekly on my project on my blog delusiastic, and knowing that I had to report on what I’d done each day helped me make a huge breakthrough.
The reason I originally had so many problems with practicing regularly was because I actually didn’t like meditating. I found it boring and aggravating and sometimes I even felt a bit panicky and claustrophobic (I think being alone with my thoughts reminded me of an insomnia attack). And I had never really observed any particular rewards from practicing, whether immediately after or in my daily life.
But this time around, six months into my practice I’d worked through a lot of roadblocks (getting an interval timer really helped, for example, and practicing with a mantra instead of breath awareness also helped),and I was feeling secure enough in my practice to want to stop writing about it in my diary and to stop reporting on it publicly. From then on, although I didn’t always do 6 days a week, I kept on meditating regularly and increased my time to 20 minutes per day until mid-March of 2020.
When it was clear that the pandemic was serious and we moved into our first lockdown in the San Francisco Bay Area, I decided that I would commit to meditating seven days week. I figured that things were going to get very stressful and I wanted to fortify myself with stress reducing practices (I also practiced Legs Up the Wall for 20 minutes a day).
Since then I didn’t miss a single day, and as of today I’ve meditated for 363 consecutive days. And because I noticed that after about 20 minutes of practicing my feeling of quietness went to another level, I gradually extended my practice to 30 minutes per day.
Lately I’ve been noticing such a huge difference in my meditation experience after this year of practicing for 30 minutes every day that I decided I should tell you all about it in case in inspires any of you to take up a similar challenge.
Here’s what I’ve observed:
- I actually like meditating now! I look forward to practicing and feeling the deep quietness I now experience on a regular basis. It’s actually interesting to me to observe myself gradually quiet down, step by step, no matter what state I start in and no matter what kind of noise is going on in the house (my husband has a lot of video meetings and a loud voice!). So practicing regularly did “improve” my ability to quiet my mind.
- I discovered I prefer practicing yogic concentration meditation (as opposed to mindfulness meditation), with a mantra that I coordinate with my breathing. This engages my mind more effectively than just focusing on my breath alone. I don’t think of myself as a mantra kind of person, but there you go….
- Sitting for 30 minutes started to be very hard for me physically. I felt some pain no matter what props I used and I constantly had to readjust my posture. So I decided to meditate in a Supported Savasana position instead. Now I’m physically comfortable and that makes the experience more enjoyable.
- Lately during that phase that happens after 20 minutes or so, I’ve started to feel like I’m floating and sometimes even have that fabled feeling of my boundaries dissolving. One of these days I’m going to practice for a hour to see what happens. Sally Kempton, author of Meditation for the Love of It (which I found intriguing and inspiring) says it takes that long for you to stop thinking and I’m curious to see if I can experience that.
- During this challenging year, I’ve felt pretty steady overall. I like to think my daily meditation practice has helped make that possible.
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