Day 3 of meditation habit

Is meditation really useful and if so, to what extent? Does it have to be useful?

I don't know the answer to either of these. There is evidence in the form of enhanced brain activity in some brain areas on MRIs, and lowered cortisol levels among meditation practitioners. But how that helps one in everyday life, I do not know.

Then there's the debate about what exactly constitutes meditation and what doesn't. People propose chanting names, breathing slowly, mindfulness, walking in small steps to and fro or in a circle, lying down, maintaining absolute silence and many other ways. I think there is no need to search for that one true way. Like belief or the lack of it in religion, everyone can find what works for them.

I decided to take up meditation to get help with my progressively shortening attention span. Lack of focus, anxiety, inability to concentrate for long periods of time are all interconnected and it's hard to pinpoint which comes first. (I'll write about focus in a separate post. It's a fascinating topic.) Does being unable to work on something for long create anxiety and worry or does the existing anxiety lead one to keep shifting to easier, more passive activities that do not help in any way with one's goals? Both may be true. What does help in either scenario is being able to think clearly, seeing things from a 'higher' vantage point, gaining insight into what exactly is going on in your mind. And based on countless anecdotes, it seems meditation helps with that. Also, I've never come across anybody saying meditation ruined my life. So there.

As with other habits, I've had trouble creating one for meditation. It's the usual story. Start out with enthusiasm, do it for a few days, then slowly slack off until the guilt overcomes me a few months later and I start again, only to repeat the cycle.

So this time, I'm following this gentleman's advice based on Leo Babauta's words:

'One habit at a time, five minutes at first.'

Why am I listening to him? Well, his experience matches closely with mine as far as running and creating habits is concerned. And he uses the example of that movie - Limitless , something I've done myself to explain why I started running when talking to friends! That's enough for me to relate to him for now.

So today was day 3 of my attempt at creating a meditation habit. I'm doing a simple version of  meditation - breathing slowly, noticing each breath, letting the body relax gradually while sitting up straight. The amazing part is noticing the thoughts that keep popping up. Somewhere there's an analogy made of the mind being like a monkey, jumping continuously from one thought to another. That analogy feels very apt when I noticed how one thought led to another rapidly. I'm trying not to suppress any thoughts, just mentally tagging them into some category and letting them go, drawing myself back to how I'm breathing, feeling my chest expand and contract. Doing this for only five minutes seems like a good idea. It stops meditation from becoming another chore and liable to be procrastinated upon. Luckily I haven't felt any drag or 'when is this getting over?' feeling yet. I actually feel a bit disappointed that the five minutes get over so soon. That's a good sign.