Sometimes the events of the day or your stresses and emotions make it really hard to let go and get some perspective, even when you know that dwelling on the matter won’t help you or the problems at hand. Times like that, the benefits of meditation are greatest to help you withdraw from the anxiety and stress, feel the calmness and take a few moments for your self and to feel peace. It gives you some space and perspective so that when you turn back to it, you may feel a clearer mind and better able to confront the issue. Unfortunately, that’s also often when it’s hardest to meditate because you can’t let go of all the racing thoughts in your heads!
What do you do if you are having trouble clearing your mind? Usually I say things like focus on your breathing or practice sound meditation and focus on the ticking of your clock or the sound of the cars driving by outside. Having something specific to focus on rather than just trying to “empty your mind” can be a much more approachable practice. However, there are days when even that can be tough…
I came home after another full week of 14 hour work days but was tryin to stick to my goal to practice shoulder stand every evening for 10 minutes and take those 10 minutes to meditate before sleeping. I was cranky, tired and wired from the workday though so rather than just try to “clear” my mind of thoughts, I accepted I would probably need to replace the racing, useless thoughts with a single beneficial thought. Since I had chosen shoulder stand as the one pose to do every day because I most often suffer from pain around my spine and shoulders when I’m tense and working long hours, I chose a simple positive statement of fact:
“I am stretching my spine at this moment”.
This was both an affirmation and a reinforcement of the benefits of my decision. In a way, it was also a pat on the back to myself because I had made a decision to fit in this short period of time each day for myself and I was doing it. By repeating this statement of fact over and over in my mind, it helped me let go of all other thoughts and to focus entirely on that exact moment and what I was doing in it. I was stretching my spine! And it felt really good! It was so wonderful to rest my mind from everything else. It also felt good to counteract the painful back hunching I often end up resorting to when sitting at my computer for so long all day (very bad and non-yogi like…I know..sometimes, I’m just too tired to care…).
This 10 minute shoulder stand/meditation helped me relax all week so that I could head to bed feeling more at peace and knowing that no matter what has happened that week, I stretched my spine and it felt better at this moment because of it.
What are some things that you do to clear your mind or relax when you don’t have much time?