Tiny playful moments of awareness throughout your days.
During my "dark night of the soul," I meditated every day for several years. A profound search began, exploring a variety of meditation tools—sitting, lying, auditory, visual, mantras—all tricks attempting to artificially control the complete surrender of "being" in meditation. The ambiguity is evident; seeking your form of meditation is a personal journey, and when we can't let go of control, it becomes confronting.
Comparing yourself to a monk on a remote mountain can ensure failure in expectation. Reading this, you're not on that serene mountain, cut off from society and Wi-Fi, and likely not a seasoned monk.
The "dark night of the soul" was a situational depression, that kickstarted when my dad got sick. It brought out all the darkness I tried to bury, but ultimately grew into a big black hole I couldn’t control anymore. Looking back on it, a depression is just a medical term for what I prefer to call an awakening, that we all must go through in our own time and personal ways. After a year of therapy, sessions proved successful in functional terms, but why did I still feel a lack of presence? My mind was better understood, yet my soul remained gloomy.
During a two-year self imposed sabbatical, I immersed myself in a soulful painting installation. Creating space for my intuition to speak through my creativity was on itself a form of healing therapy. Intuitively I connected my body in the process by practicing yoga on a daily base. Mind, body, and soul started aligning.
Treating only the mind during a depression is necessary, but a drop on an overheated thought plate. Depression resides in the body, just as all illnesses start with stress in our minds.
Approaching my mental issues through the Mind-Body-Soul model helped restore balance to my life. Meditation is a soul exercise with no fixed forms. After trial and error, I found multiple meditation forms tailored to my lifestyle, becoming automatic success stories.
Look at who you are and incorporate small meditation techniques into everyday life that suit your lifestyle. I've gathered meditation forms you might unconsciously already practice. The key is making the unconscious conscious, turning multiple moments in your day into meditation. It doesn't have to be static when we're having fun with it.
Tip #1 - Dancing: A personal and primal way of meditating. Dancing can instantly change your mood because stagnant energy can be released when we move freely. Children are such a beautiful example of free movement. Dance with your inner child and break free from your daily worries.
Tip #2 - Walking: A post-dinner walk with positive affirmations can positively reprogram your brain. It's also a great way to help our bodies digest and research shows it can benefit the night rest by unwinding before bedtime.
Tip #3 - Cooking: Turn cooking into a mindful moment of connection, infusing love into your food. Using food as my love language has turned this every day practice into a moment of meditation.
Tip #4 - Creating: Engage in painting or other creative activities to release your mind. When we create, we let go of our minds and make room for our intuition to speak freely. I like think of creativity as a way to connect with our spirit. We are all creators who should act on the urge to create.
Tip #5 - Cleaning: Despite skepticism, cleaning with intention and attention can be a meditative process, providing a sense of peace. This is a way to move materialistic stagnant energy to create a better flow of energy in the house. I personally love moving things around and tuning into how the energy changes.
If your aim is to become that aspirational monk, by all means follow your calling. For those who want to integrate awareness in their present day evolution, I hope you play with intentions as a form of meditation. Traditional meditation is a beautiful practice for everyone who devotes themselves to it. But teaching my son breath work in a playful way, was a great example for me how we as adults can find this play in the seriousness of meditation as well.
Images by Georgina Abreu & Novèmbre
Comments