Meditation

Hey everyone!

Alright, I know Freefall was rather deep and serious, so I thought I would make this post somewhat lighter. But you know me, I can't just write a post without making some serious point. So I will wrap it all up in the end.

The other day we had to do a "Meditation Experiment" in my Hindu class. We sat there, following the professor's instructions as he led us through this exercise.He made sure to let us know that he was not asking us to participate in any religious experience... just an "empirical observational experiment". Right...

We started off by sitting in our chairs, feet flat on the floor, with our eyes closed. Then he asked us to put our hands up by our head, make fists, like we were about to lift weights above our head. He said that we would extend our arms above our heads, open our hands wide and take a huge breath in. After our hands were up, we were to "grab an invisible bar" above our heads and pull it down very quickly and let all our air out of our lungs. We followed his instructions, taking fifteen breaths that way in rapid order while doing Hindu-robics--or whatever he called it.

I couldn't help but envision how funny we all must have looked. I had to take a peek to see what we looked like. As we were pumping our arms up and down and breathing, I peeked one eye open and looked around and almost laughed out loud. We all looked do ridiculous! We honestly looked like some cult. I had to literally bite my lip to not laugh.

After our... exercise?... he told us to rest our hands on our thighs, palms up and just relax, breathing normally, and listen to the thoughts around us. So I did, and the thoughts that kept coming to my head was, "Oh my gosh! What if someone walked in while we were doing that and they just froze at the door and then slowly backed out as if they had just walked in the middle of a funeral?" I kept laughing at the hypothetical look on the imaginary person's face.

We did the exercise two more times after that. Each time it became increasingly difficult to keep myself from laughing. I'm pretty sure my neighbor noticed my exotic noises, but I didn't open my eyes to see if she was looking at me weird. I know, I am immature about these things.

Our instructor warned us afterwards not to do this breathing exercise in excess; that it could draw too much energy into the body and we could overdose by doing it. Yes, he was totally serious. I couldn't help but laugh at that. I learned later that this type of yoga is used for seniors because of its low impact on the body (hence the ridiculous pictures on this post).

After our breathing for the third time, he just had us sit there without moving as he helped direct and focus our thoughts. I really don't know what he said after "relax" because that is exactly where my body went. I'm one of those people who, once their body is in motion it remains in motion, otherwise when I stop I stop. That is why reading is so hard for me: I tend to fall asleep because my body is not moving. Each time I stop moving to rest, my body thinks it is rest-time, so I start to conk out.

So you can imagine what happened when he told me to sit totally still and not move with my eyes closed... Yep, I totally fell asleep. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the point of the exercise, but I did. Thankfully, I realized I had fallen asleep about half way through, because I woke up with a start and opened my eyes to see everyone around the room still eyes closed listening to the professor.

I won't lie that I was tempted in the moment to just scream at the top of my lungs and scare the living daylights out of everyone, including the teacher... but I didn't want and F for the course, so.... yeah....

I closed my eyes again and decided to go into my own meditation world. I started to pay to God. I discovered a new appreciation for meditation. It felt like I was totally alone with God in this empty room with no sound or anything: just me and him. In the quiet space inside my thoughts, I could be totally open and honest and only He would know what was said. I could talk to Him totally freely without distraction or fear of anyone finding out. So I did. I told Him my worries and prayed for my friends in that moment.

I had forgotten how cool meditating on scripture and prayer was. I need to start doing that more often... just not by breathing like a frightened, hyperventilating bank robber. I will try to make time each day to just go into my meditation bubble and talk to God, just me and Him. You should try it sometime too. It's amazing what you will hear when you quiet your mind down enough to where you can actually listen.

Following His Call,
Adam
2 Timothy 2:7