After The Week From Hell, which saw my stress levels catapulted into the stratosphere, I thought it was time to chill out, breathe deeply and relax.
A spot of meditation perhaps?
Call me a skeptic however, but both my ‘journeys’ into meditation have been unmitigated disasters.
The first time, I signed up for a class to impress a new partner. Big mistake.
The session was led by a wild-haired woman dressed in a flowing dress and beads, perched on a dais high above, beaming down upon us lesser mortals. A self-styled guru who had changed her name from Brenda to something vaguely spiritual-sounding.
She promised to share with us the mystical training she had received over the last hundred years and travels through several continents (by donkey). I left after three hours and split up with the partner not long after.
A few years later, I tried again, this time when I was living in Norway. At the introduction session I was told I would be given my very own meditation ‘word’ by another guru, a ruddy, wild-haired man dressed in a flowing silk shirt and beads. The word would be whispered to me and I would use it as a focus to help clear my mind. Unfortunately, the word imparted to me in Norwegian sounded very rude in English and I burst out laughing which was not particularly enlightened of me.
Would I be third time lucky? I already take time out each morning to mentally floss my brain, so how would I fare sitting still with a blank mind? Thanks to MS, that’s actually not particularly hard. My brain is frequently blank, tumbleweed blowing past and I sit down an awful lot anyway.
I read up on it, took ten minutes out and sat in a quiet place. My neighbour started drilling next door, the cat yelled for more food and I heard my post being delivered. But that was ok, I was supposed to listen to the noise, my mind would get bored and would naturally move on.
Then it was all about counting my breathing, so if my mind wandered, I could pull it back in and focus again. After ten minutes, I opened my eyes, glared at the cat and asked myself how I felt.
To be honest, not that bad at all. Will I continue the good work? I’ll try anything once three times…
I’ve heard good things about meditation and, you’re so right, the MS leaves us fairly witless, so that should help!
However, there’s the danger of closing your eyes for 10 minutes and opening them 2.5 hours later!
I was a wee bit worried about that! Any time I close my eyes, boom, I’m asleep. Like last night on the sofa, I thought, oh, I’ll just have a little shut eye. An HOUR later, I woke up. Meh.
x
Yeah I struggle with shutting my eyes too long as well. Mind you find my pilates class really really relaxing. Think it’s all that concentrating on my breathing malarkey. ( well in the mat class anyway – in the reformer machine class I’m concentrating on my feet not slipping of the bar and the springs propelling me off the end of the machine).
Bless! It’s another thing on my ‘must try’ list. Maybe in the New Year!
x