On Meditating

By: Erin Rose Hennessy

I just got done with my evening meditation and was thinking of the numberous reasons why meditation is awesome and I would reccommend it to anyone dealing with stress, anxiety, and well, life. Let’s face it — life gives us many, many reasons why we need to relax more!
In talking with a friend today, I was struck by the realization that oftentimes people think of meditation as completely clearing your mind and relaxing to the point where one is almost asleep. Yes, I have had meditative sessions that have ended with the feeling of waking up from a catnap, but I have also had sessions that left me rejuvenated and full of ideas.

That happened tonight! I got two more ideas for future blog posts!

When I think of meditating, it is way more than just relaxing and letting go. It’s a time for your body to connect with your mind. It’s a time to be within yourself – even in a crowd or a room full of people. It’s not about blocking out the noise, either. I live in an apartment building – there is always some sort of noise. It’s about allowing the noises, the sensations, the smells to just happen. In the moment, you accept them.

I love meditation because it’s kind of like an end-of-day check-in with myself. I rarely check in with myself and see how I am really doing during the day. I’m too busy at work figuring out what needs to happen next. In my meditative session, all that matters is me and what I need to figure out in the moment. Sometimes, I need to take a nice walk in the sunshine. Sometimes I want to meditate to figure out a problem I’m stumped on. Sometimes, I’ll do healing meditations if a loved one is in need of well-wishes.

More than just “clearing you mind,” because let’s face it – at least for me, my mind is never clear.Ever. Always a constant stream of thoughts, ideas, creativity, daydreaming, conundrums, frustrations, observations…… So, trying to clear my mind in a meditation is just a ridiculous notion. So, I think of it as more of a guided thought process. Negative thoughts are allowed, but then they are packaged into a big trunk, locked away, and I can move on.

Do any of you meditate or have any other rituals for stress relief? Tell us about them!