Finding the Zen Moment
From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word Zen is defined as a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.
When I originally set out to write this blog post I wanted to relate the zen moment to climbing on the wall. You’re in the zone, you have everything under control. You know what you're doing and everything just flows…. That meditative moment when you lose yourself in the climb.
It used to happen to me when I was swimming laps too. When you’re just swimming and nothing else matters and everything just falls away.
This week my mind is all over the place with things I have to do in my life, upcoming trips, to-do lists, sequences to write, and an injury that I am nursing back to health. I am so busy with all these things in my life that the only time that I find a quiet moment is when I am in my closet meditating.
So how does this relate to yoga? When we are meditating our mind seems to have this habit of going every direction, every thought, every doubt gets amplified. Sitting with yourself is hard when things come up that you don’t want to even think about.
In The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Yoga Sutra 1.2 is Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodhah: Yoga is stilling the fluctuations of the mind. If there was a Sutra that we could work on for the rest of our lives it is this one. Yoga Sutra 1.2 is all about learning to quiet the chattering mind when practicing asana or meditating. We have all been there, when we are in a pose or sitting for a long time our mind starts to wind up and go a mile a minute.
When I was in teacher training, I was told by my friend about this meditation exercise called Counting Thoughts. This meditation practice is all about, you guessed it, counting your thoughts. It is an exercise to show that you are not your thoughts. As you do this practice more and more your thoughts will start to wane in meditation.
So take a moment to stop what you’re doing.
Set an alarm for 5 minutes
Find a comfortable seat and close your eyes
Start to notice your inhales and exhales
When you notice a thought arise, count it
Keep doing this until you hear the alarm go off
How many thoughts came up? How did you feel after this exercise?
It doesn’t actually matter how many thoughts came up. This practice is just to show you that you do have thoughts of your own, they will arise and that is okay. It also shows that no matter how many thoughts come up, that is precisely what they are… thoughts and nothing more.
No matter what it is you are doing, if you are in the zone and everything is flowing then you have found the zen moment I am talking about. It is a place where being present is absolute. Take some time this week to notice when the present moments arise in your life.
