FREEZE! Take a pause! Don’t read this!
At least, not just yet. Take a few deep breaths first. Notice how you feel. Take a moment to enjoy the world as it is for a couple of seconds.
It is an opportunity to meditate without having to sit down or learn any special techniques. You don’t have to focus on your breathing, chant, stretch out your chakras or anything. Simply pause and relax.
This might seem normal and not at all special, but I assure you that it is very special.
We almost never do nothing. Once we are done with one thing, we almost always put our attention on the next thing, whether it is a cell phone, computer, meal, snack, conversation or the next project. A special meditation technique involves simply pausing, noticing what is going on around you, within you, and just not doing anything about it for a little while.
One of the first things people notice when they do sit down to meditate is that there are little itches or discomforts that invite them to scratch or adjust their positions. Some schools of meditation insist that we do not scratch the itches. Feel the itch, scratch the itch is a pattern that people run all day long. When we take a break from our constant patterns, we can truly rest.
My favorite are the mental and emotional itches. People feel uncertainty and they choose to do something to get some assurance. There is nothing wrong with that, apart from the fact that true assurance does not exist. Do not worry that things fall apart. You can only be assured that they will. Instead, enjoy being at peace with the uncertainty.
Even more fun is a special sensation that I truly appreciate. Usually, it follows a period of being quite immersed in a project. The project concludes and all of a sudden I have free time that I don’t know what to do with. I feel an itch to go do something. In the past, when I have successfully allowed myself to relax and enjoy not responding to that itch, I have noticed some real opening up in my life.
What are the default actions that occupy your attention during your “free time.” Enjoy a higher sense of freedom by slowing down during these times and instead of obeying the impulse to do something, simply notice the impulse, and appreciate that it is nothing but a feeling.
