It’s a Monday: We Can Doodle a Bit

Ah, yes, Mondays. There’s a fascinating thing about Mondays that people often forget. Known to be the most dreaded day of the week, Mondays are also days of beginnings. Time to get back to work! We set our minds to projects within our constructed time frames starting, often, on a Monday. I suppose all of “time” is man’s construct, but you know what I mean. That, micro-level, “I’m gonna get this done by Friday”-type deal. So we plan, and if we don’t finish in time? Well, there’s always next Monday to set our minds to it again.

Today’s a Monday and I worked and then volunteered to feed the hungry and help kids in need do homework. After this pleasant day of volunteering–which I regret isn’t part of my regular schedule–I thought to do something different for meditating today. I’ve done breathing exercises and could definitely use more practice with them, but I wanted to continue sharing with the reader’s of this blog (gosh I hope there are readers of this blog…) something new to work with.

So… I doodled.
It’s a Monday! I felt good about volunteering my time and thought I can treat myself to a simple meditation today. 

I actually need to volunteer more often and recognize that volunteering doesn’t mean I can treat myself. I just need to volunteer and let the warm-fuzzies be my reward…nonetheless, that’s a topic for another day.

Once I arrived at home, I went to my altar and lit a blue candle and short stick of incense. Then, I put my headphones on and listened to “Across the Universe“, by Terry Oldfield while cutting out knot doodle images from a doodle book I own. I simply colored in one of the images. Simple as that! Adult Coloring Books are huge right now and you can find them in any bookstore or online. They are said to help with calming and unwinding so I thought it would be an appropriate, simple form of meditation. I’ve honestly never been able to finish an entire page of an adult coloring book because they are extremely detailed and I run out of colors before I run out of drawing space. Cutting out small images helped minimize the amount of detail I needed to focus on and, alternatively, became simple and manageable.

I encourage you to go online and print  a few mandalas or Celtic Knot designs to color because they are soothing to work through. All you have to worry about is coloring inside the lines. If you screw up…then it’s just a coloring exercise and nothing is going to be harmed by this little project of yours.

There ya go! Easy Monday meditations to start off your week 🙂

Day 1: An Eye-Opener

Giving credit where credit is due: In my last post on creating a sacred space, I referenced a book by Madonna Gauding called “The Mediation Bible”. As I am starting out I will be working through some of the meditations in her book. The book is a nice pocket size and has a great introductory section for before you begin, as well as easy to follow sections on different types of meditations. If you find that you enjoy the meditations I work through, I highly recommend that you pick up this book as a comprehensive and welcoming place to start.

For my first meditation, I chose a breathing meditation where you count your breaths on the exhale up to 10 and then start over. You do this for 10 minutes. The following explains my thoughts throughout the exercise:

• I want to try and sit the fancy way-cross-legged with my feet on top of my knees. Oh… Ow ow ow!  Foot cramp!! Don’t move it…nope that doesn’t help, stretch it out. Ah… better. Nice start Evelyn.
• Okay I’m just going to sit normal cross-legged. Starts stopwatch.
• 1, 2, 3,… I can’t wait to write this blog…SHH! 4, 5, 6, I’m gonna write in the blog that I couldn’t stop thinking about writing the blog… STOP IT! That’s meta and cool but STOP! SHH. 7, 8, 9, 10.  …repeat…
• 10, 11, 12, oh no! I’m not supposed to be counting past 10, I’m supposed to start at 1 again. Come on, focus. (This happened about 5 times)

For about a minute or so I did fall into a nice rhythm and was completely focused on my breathing. I counted my exhales successfully from 1 to 10 four or five times without going past 10 or thinking about the blog, or my fancy new crystals, or how my back was hurting from sitting straight for so long. I noticed that my vision changed when I inhaled versus exhaled. Things got darker and lighter and darker and lighter, and then my focus broke because I began to think:

• Oh no, am I not getting enough oxygen to my brain? Am I getting too much? I don’t want to hyperventilate right now. Shh, your getting anxious, don’t worry so much. Just breathe normally, close your eyes instead.

Eventually I did get through the meditation. I only adjusted my posture one time because I wanted to stretch my back, and I only scratched one itch. 🙂

As my first meditation, it turned out to be what I was expecting: Gained 1 minute of meditation, and 9 minutes of trying to bring myself back to focus. I realize now how fast our brains move. It isn’t until I try to clear my mind that I realize how much is going on in there.

I can’t wait to try again tomorrow 🙂

 

Featured image from: USA Today

The Sacred Space

Before initiating this daily meditation practice, I wanted to set up a sacred space. This space will only be used for my meditation and spiritual activities. Meditation does not have to be linked to any sort of religion but I’ve been wanting to set up an altar for myself in my new home since we moved in and found this opportunity perfect to finally do that. According to Madonna Gauding’s book “The Meditation Bible” having a “sacred space” for meditation marks a space where you will grow as an individual. A place where you will learn to focus, find peace, and explore a world outside of what you ordinarily see. You will always walk into this space knowing consciously and subconsciously that it is time for growth, empowerment, and answers to life’s questions.

So I created a thrifty altar! And you know what the best part is? There is no right or wrong way of creating that space and/or altar. So, I went into the guest bedroom/office/storage space….(we’re working on this room a bit)… and straightened it up a bit. It’s important that the space you are in is tidy so that you don’t feel distracted by anything out of place. Next, I literally took the empty box that our new vacuum came in, covered it with a thin blanket, and then topped it off with a pretty handkerchief. Then I took items that meant something special to me to help me achieve my meditation goals and placed them on top of this fancy-fied vacuum cleaner box. I chose items to represent the elements. I have a couple of shells to represent Water, a feather to represent Air, and an incense burner for burning incense. I also have a blue candle to represent Fire, with blue as the chosen color since it is said to aid meditation. And finally, I have a bowl to represent Earth which is filled with 2 inches of dirt, then an inch of salt, and topped with a variety of crystals which will come in handy later on in my practice. After transforming a box that I meant to recycle weeks ago into a fabulous little altar, I placed an exercise mat on the floor in front of it and voila! Sacred space created! Oh I also placed a small fan right next to the altar in case it ever gets warm. It’s good to be practical, am I right?

I’m sure my altar with alter (see what I did there?) as I change my goals for meditation, but this set up felt right for starting. Eventually I may write a quote a day that is meant to inspire me, and place it on the altar. I may also add some photos of important role models in my life to help me maintain focus on improving myself as an individual, or a business person, or a family member…it all depends on the goals for the day. Someone else may have a statue of Jesus, or Buddha, or Mother Mary, as I said before, there is no right or wrong way. There is only your way.

Time to begin!