A Meditation Practice

Welcome to a new year which represents opportunity, a next step, or simply a much needed being still. But first, get it all out. Every last adjective your mind can conjure. This is good practice to see where you really are with any number of things in your life. It's a practice to find out what's underneath so many thoughts and feelings. And perhaps, it is a practice that can take you to the end of things. Resolution. Acceptance. Balance. Peace. Understanding. Love.

Sit quietly. Take a moment to connect with your breath. Place your attention on your exhalation as you relax your features, your shoulders, and lengthen your spine. Allow a few more breaths to move in and out of your lungs, guiding your awareness deeper into sensation and throughout your body. Use the connection of your mind and your breath to pinpoint where your greatest tension lies.

Using your breath to focus on that place of tension, listen to the wisdom of your breath and listen to the feedback from your body. Follow the tension, possibly from place to place, until you feel it leave your body and you begin to feel greater ease. Now listen more deeply to your thoughts. Give yourself a few moments to watch your thought stream, and then choose the thought that seems nagging, recurring, tenacious, or even, profound.

Take your chosen thought as far as you can go. See if you are able to take it to its end, moving through the layers to conclusion. You will know when you truly get to the end of things. In silence, use every adjective in your vocabulary to describe how you think and feel about your chosen thought. Don't stop until you have surrounded this thing you wrestle with, or that dogs you, or causes you pain or conflict, or even that you celebrate. Let the litany roll until you hit true silence.

Om Shanti