What Is Meditation?

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I was talking to a client yesterday about meditation. It was an unusual conversation in so much as she understood what meditation was even though she didn’t practice what most people think of as meditation. To the majority of people it is simply sitting cross-legged and quieting the mind. Of course it can be that but it is not exclusively so.

There is a fabulous book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi that came out in the 1980’s. It is a seminal work in the field of psychology and one that frequently gets referred back to by books covering a wide range of subjects including of course life coaching. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-hi I am reliably informed) takes a look at people that have the rare ability to take seemingly mundane events and make them fascinating and absorbing by adopting deep concentration. That does not do the book justice at all but I’m not blogging about that book per se so if you are interested, read the review by clicking the link.

So anyway back to the conversation. This lady had a hobby of glass cutting and aerobics. When she was participating in either of these activities she was effectively meditating. It isn’t the actual tasks themselves but the complete concentration and absorption to the exclusion of anything else that made it a meditative or trance state.

You can meditate walking, sitting or even in the shower if you want to. With the latter example simply concentrate on the task in had rather than thinking about what you have to do when you get out. Concentrate on just the feeling of the water by closing your eyes and shutting down your hearing. Then focus solely on the sound of the water hitting your body and exclude all your other senses. That is meditation.

It is just a question of being in the moment and not letting you mind wander aimlessly. If you would like to know more about meditation I would suggest a great book called Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life“