Meditation

One of the most successful forms of mental hygiene is meditation. There are courses on Mindfulness and many Buddhist temples give free courses. Some Christian organisations give courses for free too. There are downloads, tapes and books on all sorts of different types of meditation.

Some people like whales singing, others like the sound of their own breath. The main thing is that it helps clear the mind and gain focus in a useful way. Now the thing is, I had no idea what clearing my mind meant until I actually experienced little moments of clarity. So I had to have the experience to understand the action.

Many of us put off doing meditation till the time is ‘right’ which of course is always tomorrow. A friend booked me onto a course and with a great deal of cynicism, I turned up. I did as I was told without much enthusiasm. The course was one evening a week for two months and ever so slowly I started to find that my thinking was getting more linear, there was less criss-crossing of thoughts.

My thoughts slowed down. The meditation gave me a chance to sense the thoughts and consciously stop them or understand what they were actually about. Negative, self-punishing looser thoughts were the most dominant. These rather cruel and life draining thoughts underpinned everything.

This way of thinking was like a rather complicated game of chess. If I thought and planned all outcomes then surely I could win?

Trouble was in life, unlike chess, there really are an infinite amount of outcomes, leaving my mind in a constant state of burnout and failure as I tried harder and harder to think it out correctly.

Then there was another layer of my mind talking back to itself saying things like “If you weren’t so stupid” or “If only I tried a little harder”. It would be obvious to anyone that making a good decision with all these nasty little pixies flying around my mind was more than likely a lost cause.

Meditation acted like an anti Pixie spray. Bit by bit, I found my mind clearing. I could clearly hear what people were saying to me and I found real fun in small everyday things. I noticed what was going on and real, appropriate ideas came to me. I could make decisions that were worked out and forward moving instead of just to keep jumping out of the frying pan. I still meditate. It might not make me win at life's game of chess, but at least I can decide on the moves with more clarity.