Moods and Meditations: Lessons 2 - The Environment of TIme

The Environment of Time

Moods and Meditations: Lesson 2

Introduction
The best way to meditate is your way for your reasons and your goals. This also applies to the location and time; your place and time are the best. When I am re-engaging my meditation process, I don't look for the perfect place or the best time. The perfect place is where you are and the best time is now. Anything else is a wild goose chase or a exercise in intentional failure. The better place will be where interruptions and distractions are minimized. The better time is when you have the time available, 2 to 5 minutes the first few times you try it.

Location
Where you choose to meditate is up to you. There are some places that are distinctly better than others. Driving someplace is an obvious poor choice. The middle of a meeting that you are leading. Poor choice. It can be in your bed or a favorite chair. It can be on the floor or in your yard. You want to be some place where physical discomforts are unlikely to intrude. No bright sun unless you also enjoy basking. No stiff breezes unless you breathe deep nature's breath. While you are looking for the Goldilock's of locations, be sure to be accepting of a wide breadth of options.  The temperature that is just right doesn't need to be 72 degrees Fahrenheit give or take 2 degrees. Be accepting of a wider range. It's your choice to accept the situation. Allow the reasons and goals of your meditation to outweigh your physical concerns of the moment.

Timing
When you choose to meditate is up to you. Before other get up in my favorite since I am a morning person. A night person might meditate at the end of the day. Others I know need the mental break that meditation provides in the middle of the day. More important than when, though, is how often and how long. At first, develop a pattern of going into and then out of meditation, keeping the meditation itself to a minimum. Length will naturally increase as your experience matures. Learn to be aware of going into meditation and out of it. This is why I recommend paying more attention to how many times per day and per week than paying attention to what time of the day or week. With practice comes experience. With experience comes understanding. Understanding how you meditate will make when, how long, and how often easier to manage.

Additional Aspects
Some supports that have been shown to aid the meditation environment

• Close or even cover your eyes
• Putting bare feet to grass or better yet recline in the grass
• Rest in a comfortable location and position, although I personally don't meditate in a prone position. I'm likely to become so devoid of thought as to make the outside observer believe my regular breathing technique is snoring.
• Provide soothing background noise: wind chimes, fire crackling, wind through the trees, white noise, water rippling, birds chirping, or the like. There are actual videos of these available that play for quite some time. Music may be an option as well. Look to tomorrow's entry for more on this.
• Practice with a member of your family or even your entire family
• Forgive yourself if you wander off mentally and then wander away physically. With practice come expertise.

Conclusion
Finding the location and time comes with practice. As you develop your personal skills and style, your ability to meditate will become stronger. Then your environment will be outside of time; time will be the environment you build. At least, that's part of my overall learning goal. I can assure you that learning the process of meditation that works for you will have opposition when you start out. My lessons here are a beginner's guide from a beginner in the hopes of helping us push against that opposition. But the best thing you can do to learn is begin.

Next Time: The Myriad of Possibilities in How