writing Archives - Page 5 of 5

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

“Success is never a destination—it’s a journey.” ~Satenig St. Marie,

Unless we have a homemade brain wave monitoring machine, we usually don’t have the means to measure our level of success with meditation in a scientific sense. We can feel certain changes and measure them to a degree. The average meditation journey should experience three specific measurable stages:

1.Tension-this is where we notice just how tight our jaw bones are, how sore our backs are and how busy our minds tend to be

2.Letting go-this is when we notice some of the tension releasing and our breathing is slowing down

3.THERE-this is when we become aware of very few things, less and less bothers us physically and mentally we realize our thoughts have slowed down, and we can control whether or not we want to follow monkey mind down its ragged path. We do not follow monkey mind.

These stages coincide with brain wave activity.

Tension = Beta (busy, busy, busy mind)

Letting go = Alpha (focused awareness on our breath and what it’s doing, fewer thoughts)

THERE = Theta (just about to cross the hazy boundary into slumber-ville)

Sleep isn’t meditation as I’ve said before, and theta is the gatekeeper of sleep so the goal is to remain relaxed and aware at the alpha level. Regardless of how messy the day has been, a successful meditation session need only give us a conscious pause from the issues we’re dealing with and that’s enough. Yep. It only takes a few minutes a day to meditate successfully. But what does a successful meditation practice “feel” like?

This brings up the question of goals. Should we have goals where meditation is concerned? Is it better to let things take their course and follow along? Like yoga, meditation is a blend of healthy balance. It’s right to set a goal to meditate for a specific amount of time each day. It’s right to practice particular habits like sitting still and watching breath flow. But it isn’t right to set expectations beyond the realm of the realistic. Why? Because unlike measuring the fact that our brain activity actually slows down during meditation, it creates more stress to attach a measurement or a benchmark for meditation. “If I don’t find perfect peace in my life in three months of meditating, I failed and will give up meditating.” Or “I should notice a major shift in my actions in a set period of time, and if I don’t I will stop meditating because it just isn’t for me.” These are normal examples of our “quick fix”, I-want-it-now mind sets and this doesn’t work with meditation. With meditation, the less you expect, the more you receive.

To answer the question of what successful meditation feels like, beyond the physical and mental releases (which may not feel gigantic, but they occur,) the positive results of regular meditation show themselves in our everyday actions. We are more patient. We smile more. We laugh bigger. We appreciate little things more. We share more. We hold the door more often. We focus better on other projects when our brains are challenged. We are healthier. We are brave. We trust more. We think the best first. We are less critical of ourselves and others. We are more accepting. We are more loving. We are more truthful. We are more understanding. We are more creative. We are more of who we were meant to be.

But it’s a long journey worth every step. Do you have any meditation stories to share from your journey?

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

Be well, write well.

Three weeks after sitting in a court room for over two weeks as a spectator in a murder trial, I get a jury summons of my own in the mail. I’m being “considered” as a juror for U.S. District Court. Well, okay. I believe in the civic duty of serving on a jury but I have personal and moral issues with being the person who casts judgment on another human being. Granted, there are human beings who have committed deadly sins, as in the case I attended in February, and their problems and actions warrant judgment. I am just not thrilled with the prospect of making decisions about the penalties someone should suffer because of their choices. I believe karma will take care of it for me.

So I had blocked out the questionnaire sent in the mail decreeing that I must answer the questions and return it in the prepaid envelope considerately provided within ten days or suffer my own consequences. The explanation of the penance is I may have to go to the office of the U.S. Circuit Clerk and answer the questions there if I miss the deadline.

As a journalist the word deadline has great meaning to me and always has. The history of the word includes the fact that California prisons in the 19^th century didn’t have enough money for fencing and guards were told to shoot fleeing prisoners once they reached “that line of sage brush, that’s the dead line.” Not wanting to be shot in the back, I have always made it my business to meet deadlines in a timely and cheerful manner no matter how much I prefer to procrastinate. That’s right, put it off until tomorrow.

Years of meeting deadlines and making daily to-do lists have empowered my brain to overpower the lazy limbic system where the urge to be easily distracted is created. Yes, our brains are wired to find the easy, comfortable way out of everything and that contributes to why it is so easy to procrastinate. But in my case, years of alternate brain training woke me up at two o’clock in the morning from a dead sleep to remember I hadn’t filled out the damn questionnaire yet.

After searching the house for a bloody number two pencil (I seem to only have disposable mechanical pencils in the house,) I have successfully finished my jury questionnaire in pencil which unnerves me. What if somebody changes my answers? Worry. That’s another blog.

I plan to put the questionnaire in the mail TOMORROW.