Meditation
I began meditating in earnest four years ago and not in the OM sense of the word necessarily although any form of silence is itself by practice a return to ourselves and all that connects us to each other. But, meditation is not prayer and prayer is not meditation.
Why bring it up in a coming out context?
Whether you are agnostic, Christian or Muslim - gay, straight or transgendered - silence is the balm of the ages. Silence heals from the inside out and it doesn't just occasionally work, it works 100% of the time. It has NEVER failed me.
Coming out can be extremely stressful. Thoughts of rejection, abandonment or abuse can make it daunting at the very least and threatening at its ugliest and that's before a word has even been spoken.
The anticipatory hamster wheel mind racing drama plays out in our own heads well before we utter a syllable to our parents and friends. The scary expectations are quite normal, but remember that we often get whatever we focus on. So wouldn't it be nice to banish the drama queen and her dire predictions to the closet?
"I don't have all day to meditate, Sue." No kidding?
All it takes is five minutes.
Five minutes of focusing on breath going in and breath going out. No chanting, no incense (unless you want it), no holy beads. When you start making a grocery list instead, simply label it 'thinking' and return to the breath going in and the breath going out. Easy peasy.
Do that for a year and come back and tell me your life sucks.
I double dog triple dare you.
Why bring it up in a coming out context?
Whether you are agnostic, Christian or Muslim - gay, straight or transgendered - silence is the balm of the ages. Silence heals from the inside out and it doesn't just occasionally work, it works 100% of the time. It has NEVER failed me.
Coming out can be extremely stressful. Thoughts of rejection, abandonment or abuse can make it daunting at the very least and threatening at its ugliest and that's before a word has even been spoken.
The anticipatory hamster wheel mind racing drama plays out in our own heads well before we utter a syllable to our parents and friends. The scary expectations are quite normal, but remember that we often get whatever we focus on. So wouldn't it be nice to banish the drama queen and her dire predictions to the closet?
"I don't have all day to meditate, Sue." No kidding?
All it takes is five minutes.
Five minutes of focusing on breath going in and breath going out. No chanting, no incense (unless you want it), no holy beads. When you start making a grocery list instead, simply label it 'thinking' and return to the breath going in and the breath going out. Easy peasy.
Do that for a year and come back and tell me your life sucks.
I double dog triple dare you.
I'm back to meditating about a half hour a day now. It feels much better when I do. The way I see it, when it comes to controlling any of our behaviors like diet, drink or otherwise, if you don't quell the storm of the mind first, how can you hope to control your actions? It works!
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It absolutely works - be it 5, 10, 20 minutes or whatever you can do. It sets the tone and erases the slate. It's a happy thing.
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