More on Meditation
What did the meditator say to the hot dog vendor?
In a recent post, Henrietta said::
I can’t think of anything else that coincides in such a similar manner. The thing you want the most is denied specifically because you are doing things that create the need for it in the first place.
This made me think of meditation, which we’ve discussed before and will revisit here today and tomorrow (and surely again further on down the trail).
We’ve talked about the pressure we put on ourselves to nap — and napping is easy (well, it’s simple). It’s even worse with meditation: we cannot reach what we need, what we grasp for — ostensibly stress relief or a reframing of our relationship with stress — suggesting (to me) that we may not even be fishing in the right pond.
When we experience distress in the moment, a meditator would have us sit with it, acknowledge how it feels both physically and emotionally, and hold ourselves gently in a difficult moment, all of which will reinforce how we approach our lives “off the cushion.” That sounds like a lot of pressure. And a lot of work. Especially when, rightly or wrongly, most people just want to get the hell out of Dodge during a stressful moment.
I’m not saying meditation isn’t worthwhile: to the contrary, I think it brings many benefits. But when it comes to immediate relief, I still think a nap is the way to go. I also don’t think meditation is the necessarily the best way to pursue its longer-term benefits.