It is important to spend time in meditation while present and centered in your head. Calling in stillness as you seek quiet and clarity there is lovely. Just, don’t stop at your head! Make sure to also find time to meditate with your whole body.
Just as traditional meditation brings your full attention and awareness to the mind, you can bring that same attention and awareness into your body: your limbs, your chest, your heart, your lungs, your abdomen, your womb, and beyond. Explore each part of yourself with conscious connection, and then rest in conscious connection to your wholeness.
For the path to liberation does not exist through pure ascension alone. We must also descend. We must also know oneness with body, as part of our our greater Whole.
Meditation. We have all heard about its great value. We all know how it can transform our minds just as it can transform our lives.
The question is: Do you practice it?
Do you practice meditation? Do you do so consistently? And what, exactly, does that practice look like?
Meditation has become one of those powerful ideas here in the West because, well, it is powerful. I mean it. Meditation has a unique power to transform your life just as it transforms your whole inner experience of reality. It has the power to bring you greater peace as you move through life with far less internal chaos and far greater clarity. With this clarity, you can see truth from bullshit, as well as meaning and purpose, channeling all of this as you harness skillful discernment. In this way, you not only often end up feeling immediately better, but you also find your whole life improving.
Like I said, powerful.
Of course, there are problems at play here, and it is worth a blog post (and connected podcast) to explore this idea so that you can cultivate a practice that brings this sort of value to your life.
As I will speak to in this post, there are two core problems with the way people relate to meditation. The first is that too many people think they can’t do it, probably because they tried it once and had a negative experience, and instead of trying one of the countless other ways that exist to meditate, they judged the practice and gave up. The second problem with the way people relate to meditation is that it can be taught in an unskillful way, potentially even bringing harm to the practitioner. Let us remedy both of these in this post.
Lastly, before we really dive in, let us address the fact that, when a great idea becomes a buzzword, it often loses its potency as it spreads thin, with ambiguity replacing what could have been fully transformative. With this post, it is my intention to punch through that ambiguity, bringing clarity to what it actually means to meditate, while also bringing you a full spectrum of practices that can guide you into a meditative state.
Try this – a first look at meditation
Take a few moments to settle down into your body. Do your best to remove yourself from all distractions as you take a few breaths.
As you inhale, feel into the expansion of your rib cage, your belly.
As you exhale, you might hold the intention to let go of any noise you might be holding in your mind or body.
Breathe in, filling yourself with your own awareness.
Breathe out, letting go of all that does not serve and clouds your consciousness.
Take a few breaths like this. With each breath, hold the intention to bring more of your awareness (your own consciousness) into your body as you release all that is “chaos.”
That’s it. Sound simple enough?
My question for you – what do you experience as you practice it?
What do you immediately experience?
If you were to take 5 or 10 minutes, what do you experience then?
If you are like the typical human being, then when asked to rein in your consciousness and to focus on a single place, you probably experience a series that looks like the following:
- focus
- lose focus when a sound disrupts you
- re-focus
- lose focus as you get caught up in thought
- re-focus
- lose focus as your arm becomes itchy
- and on and on
People tend to discard meditation because it is challenging, and that challenge comes because our attention is easily pulled in different directions. But the game is not lost when one loses focus. Actually, losing focus is an inherent part of the practice, and the game really begins here as you recognize that meditation practice is really just an endless series of refocusing your attention. With time and devoted effort, a meditative state will set in, during which the game of refocusing attention falls away, and the practitioner experiences something new – something entirely worthy of your effort!
But again, I am here to remind you that this meditative state can be entered into through various methods. Your task is to find practices that align for you, so that you can experience this powerful part of a spiritual practice.
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Simplifying meditation
Meditation, for all that term is worth, can be complicated. It can also be simple.
Take your attention. Focus it right here on this one thing. Hold it here, doing so even as your mind tries all it can to wrestle it away. With time, devotion, and dedication, a meditative state will arise.
You can do this with one specific thing:
- a candle
- a mantra
- your breath as it is felt in a specific place in your body (e.g., your nose/mouth, your rib cage, or your belly)
This is often taught as a beginner-level meditation practice. Focus your consciousness. And again, when your attention moves onto something else, re-focus it. Repeat for as long as the practice designates. As you practice in this way, allow yourself to experience periods of a meditative state.
This is also often taught as an expert level meditation practice, for a deepening of focus and concentration is traditionally taught as the path to achieving those highest states of consciousness that many spiritual seekers are after.
But the wild truth of it is, meditation does not have to look like this! For instance, I often find myself entering a meditative state while on a trail run. The repetitive steps across dirt and rock, the trees passing by, the expansive sky above me – all of this, combined, moves me into a delightful meditative state. One can also move into a meditative state while in yoga asana: moving through structured practice, calling upon breath to maintain presence within the body, allowing all chaos of mind to fall away.
Now, religious scholars and serious mystics may come in here and argue: if one is truly to reach the highest states spirituality can offer, then really, one specific stillness/focus/concentration practice is what is needed. And, I might answer… possibly.
But let me ask you this? Are you here to achieve the highest state spirituality can offer, or are you here to make your life and this world better? If it is the former, then let us step aside and have a separate conversation (I will address it in a later writing). If it is the latter, then let us continue.
My point is this: meditation can happen in many ways. And, while there may be roadmaps to the “highest” forms of meditation through precise means, and while humanity can argue over what those best paths look like… well, let’s be honest…
What is actually useful in practice? That answer – it is the practice that you are actually going to practice. It is the ability to find the practices that align with your body, mind, and life. So find the practices that get you there. Practice them with regularity. This is all that matters on your path.
Although, it may be useful to discuss more about what “there” is, and that is a conversation that leads us to a specific sort of practice for today!
Meditation is a state. We enter into it through a diversity of practice.
As I mentioned above, meditation is a state. It is an experience that is, ultimately, impossible to describe in words, yet one that we writers can attempt to point towards with descriptors.
When one is in a meditative state, there is often a sort of peace and clarity that arises. More than this, there is a sense of deep connection, perhaps even moving into unity with the object(s) of the practice. From here, the depths of the universe’s mysteries open to you, and I wouldn’t dare try to put them into a simple blog post like this.
For myself, the clarity piece is what first had me hooked, and it is one of the primary reasons I return to my meditation practices regularly. When all the chaos of the world threatens to keep me stirred up in a chaotic state of mind, it is a consistent return to my meditation practices that keeps me grounded, centered, and aligned with what I need to know.
More than this, there is a simple yet powerful state of joy that arises in meditation. As I spend time in meditation, it is like I can embody more and more of this joy. Then, the task becomes going out into the world maintaining this state.
And, there is a part of meditation that stirs my deeply curious mind! This is the part of me that set out into the world at 18 to become a neuroscientist, but eventually left science and pursued spirituality because the mysteries of this universe seem to be revealed to me in this state! Please remember, this is only one part of the spiritual path! Cultivating clear seeing, knowing, and discernment is also part of the path – not just believing every idea that comes through in meditation.
My point here is that there are different benefits of meditation. Some are directly practical and immediately make your life better. Others exist as spiritual knowledge, offering a mystical path to truth and understanding of this universe. You might practice meditation for any one specific reason, you might practice for a whole host of reasons, and/or you might practice because you are curious and open to what may be here for you (even as you realize you could not even fathom what that looks like as who you are right now).
Lessons from my own history with meditation
I learned meditation through a small set of different traditions. I first read about it through modern Buddhist texts offering mantra as a gateway towards meditation. I honestly thought it was weird (this is when I was still firmly rooted in my Biomedical Engineering Academic days). I did not get into the practice at this point, but viewed this particular frame of Buddhism and its connection to mantra meditation purely as a curiosity. We see here that there was not alignment between this practice, teachings, and the person I was at that time.
Still, I stuck with the study of Buddhist traditions, eventually finding Vipassana (Insight) Meditation, and it is this tradition that guided me to a specific set of practices which would first help me to know myself as distinct from my thoughts and patterns, and to be able to settle into a sort of internal stillness, bringing forth a more refreshing form of peace and clarity than I had ever known!
I was hooked and I attached myself to this style of practice. It served me for years as I applied myself to a highly technical path as a metabolic health science writer. It allowed me to apply myself to some of the most complex sciences, continuously removing the chaos of my mind as I found clarity again and again.
I attached myself to this style of practice. I called upon it to stay clear and focused as I pursued my passion, and, when all hell broke loose in my life, I clung tighter.
This is not a skillful form of practice, my friends.
Eventually, the style of meditation that I had learned (that being, seated in stillness while I become witness to thought/feeling/sensation and continue to bring my attention back to the space in-between) started to fail me. That is, forcing my body into stillness and urging my mind to find peace and clarity was not aligned with what I needed.
What did I actually need? Hell, I had no idea. What I did know was how to walk the path that I had been walking for the past years, one that was embedded in materialism and one that had me devoted to my own betterment.
But if what I needed existed on a different sort of path, then hell, I was out of luck!
I didn’t need luck. I needed to be able to bring my attention to somewhere I never had before. Not to a space where I could continue to run the same program I had always been running, but to a state where I could actually know truth and reality as I discerned my way forward.
Unfortunately, I did not know how to do this. So in response, my body caught fire. Flaring anxiety. Crippling panic. This was only made worse when I asked myself to sit still.
Finding freedom and healing out in nature; and, while in motion
In place of my stillness practice, I found what I needed on the trails. Moving my body, the great expanse of nature surrounding me, I felt the freedom I needed whilst moving the fiery energies in my body, allowing my mind to come into stillness and clarity to once again burst forth!
This logic may be difficult to grasp, but understand its simplicity: One does not need to be still to meditate. Meditation comes with a stilling of the mind. This state can arise from many different styles of practice.
Yet, sometimes it does help to be still when it comes to meditation! Allowing one’s body to come into physical stillness may, indeed, help the practitioner to let the mind settle. Then, one may focus their full attention on a singular point, object, mantra, etc., and this can help bring forth the experience that we are here seeking.
The point is, the purpose of a meditation practice is to reach a meditative state, and there are a diversity of practices that can help one to reach this state. Different people may respond better to one practice over another or the same person might respond better to different practices over the course of their life.
Given this, do not get pigeonholed into thinking meditation “doesn’t work for you” just because one practice doesn’t get you there. Endless other options exist.
Meditate, but do so with your whole body
Okay, so now that I have told you that endless options exist for the practice of meditation, I want to actually steer you into a specific meditation practice. To be even more precise, what I want to do is steer you towards a stillness-based practice that involves bringing conscious connection to your body.
One more time: guiding you directly into a meditation practice isn’t particularly skillful on my part (as the teacher), because meditation is more like a state that arises when the right conditions are met. Therefore, what I am going to do is guide you to sit in stillness, and to bring conscious attention into your body, doing so with a specific set of cues to help you to focus. This is our official Practice #5. As you perform this practice, and as you complete this practice in connection to the previous practices in this series (and, as you continue to complete the practices in the rest of this series), it is my hope that you are able to enter deeper states of meditation.
The significance of the body in this practice
Remember, you could experience these types of practices up in your head (for example, sitting in stillness witnessing your thoughts, which we talked about in connection to Practice #1). But for this specific practice, the important piece is that you are bringing conscious connection down into your body. More than this, I do not want you to just witness what is here, but I want you to begin to form an authentic form of connection to that which you are perceiving.
There is a depth of reason why I am cueing you to do this, and those reasons extend far beyond what I can explain here. To simplify, recognize that this blog is embedded in an entire spiritual system supported by a worldview that honors embodiment. It is an entire spiritual system that aims to rectify patriarchy, bringing balance back to a world that over-emphasizes mind and transcendence over grounding, descending, and body.
Our Western has a tendency to over-emphasize mind and underemphasize body. Because of this, it naturally follows that both Western teachers and practitioners end up calling upon spiritual practice (meditation included) with overemphasis of mind and underemphasis of body. We are here to remedy this.
As we do, it is important to understand that while the Western world may connect meditation purely to the mind, in truth most every Eastern spiritual tradition has a bodily component. For example, Vipassana meditation has specific practices wherein one may use their breath to bring conscious connection to their body; or, where one may scan their body head-to-toe / toe-to-head. As another example, Patanjali’s 8-limbed yogic path has us performing asana (physical posture) before sitting down to practice focus, concentration, and meditation.
But here’s the dirty crux! While these traditional paths don’t ignore the body, they still teach it as an obstacle to ascension. Yes, we work with the body, and we notice the body, but then we use meditation as a way to transcend the body. To go back to an example, in that Vipassana style meditation, we are cued to not do anything about what we notice, but to simply notice it, letting the sensation fall away as we return to the main objective of the practice.
I have to be honest here. As a Westerner myself, I cannot be sure of whether this is really the intention of Eastern tradition, or whether it is a defect that has arisen as the great works of Eastern tradition have been translated to Western culture.
What I do know (and this is based on direct experience, including the big mistakes the f***ed me up in the past), is that when we bring awareness to part of Self, and that part brings important information, we should listen to it. Failure to listen and respond with aligned action does not make us spiritually superior; it makes us fools.
When I f***ed up my meditation practice, it happened because I was unable to listen to my body. I was following the “mind over matter” mindset that the West has grabbed hold of, and I wove my meditation practice together with it. The problem? My body had been screaming at me, telling me important information that I needed to take in and respond to. I did not. Instead, I used my meditation practice to “simply notice it, then let it fall away.” I could get it to “fall away” temporarily. But it would show up again and again, getting louder and louder until, well, its loudness disrupted my entire life.
There is one more important piece here, so listen clearly. I do not write this to knock down ancient traditions that have a breadth and depth that I am still trying to understand (but never fully will because I do not have a life and lineage rooted fully within them). What I am trying to point to are the dangers of extracting practices and paths from traditions, especially as they are embedded in our patriarchal Western culture. There is an abundance of nuance when it comes to these ancient traditions, and any one statement that I use to judge the whole of them would be wholly unskillful on my part.
When I f***ed up my meditation practice, that was on me. It happened because I was unable to listen to my body and my needs. This being said, responsibility also falls on us teachers teaching in the West. We have to be cautious about the pieces we teach, because we have to understand our students are not embedded in the same cultures from which these teachings came from.
Vipassana – really, it is a practice of seeing clearly. Had I truly been in this state of clearly seeing, then I would have seen that the practice was making my growing PTSD worse, not better. (Yes, I was in a growing state of PTSD, and I was clinging to my meditation practice for dear life, but it was only making the fire within me burn worse).
Take ownership of your spiritual path
Hear me on this part, dear readers. You may have a similar experience to me. Perhaps it is anxiety, and when you sit to meditate, it gets louder. A stillness practice may help you. Or, maybe it won’t.
Whether or not it does, the point of this post is to bring awareness to the fact that there are so many different ways to practice along your spiritual path. If a practice is not working for you, or if you think it may be making things worse, not to worry. There are other options.
But please, for the love of all things good in this world, do not cling to a practice or path that has been offered to you with some false guarantee that it will improve your life. This stares directly in the face of what spirituality is actually here to teach us, which includes truth and discernment, along with skillful connection.
What is actually meaningful? What is actually skillful?
As we Westerners do the great work that is needed to rectify the terrible rift that patriarchy and colonialism have created, we have to take extreme care deepening roots that make their way down into a grounded space. What, exactly, that looks like, I cannot tell you. But I can tell you that Earth, and that body, are a great place to begin.
Please know that I do offer 1:1 support as a trained Yoga Therapist and Priestess. I can help you in your meditation practice, and I can help guide you to other sorts of practices that may be better aligned for you. Send me an email at katiehemphill11@gmail.com if you are interested in talking about what that could look like for you.
Meditate, doing so with your whole body (full practice)
The following practice comes with both written and audio instructions. I encourage you to listen to the audio version, as it includes extra guidance and you will be able to follow along to my instruction as you practice.
For the written version, I recommend reading through it in its entirety before beginning. Engage in the practice to the best of your memory, not getting caught up on making sure you remember each step accurately.
This practice guides you to bring your attention to your body, doing so by going through a series of different places within your body. If you know yourself to have challenges with particular places in your body, you are entirely free to skip that area.
If, at any point, the practice becomes too uncomfortable, I invite you to return to the first area we will name: your feet in connection to ground.
If you have any questions, concerns, or challenges with the practice, reach out to me directly.
Practice
Find a comfortable, seated position. Close your eyes if it feels comfortable to do so. Otherwise, a soft gaze on an uninteresting object will suffice. Do your best to remove yourself from all distractions as you become aware of your breath in your body.
Inhaling, feel into the expansion of your rib cage.
Exhale fully, and with ease (no forcing or straining your breath).
Continue these grounding breaths, allowing each breath to bring more of your attention and awareness into your body. With this, allow each breath to disconnect you from anything outside of you that holds your attention.
After 8-12 breaths, you will move into a series of focused point. Allow at least one full breath (one inhale and one exhale) at each position.
- Breathing in, bring your awareness into your arms. Breathe out, holding your awareness here.
- Breathing in, bring your awareness into your heart. Breathe out, holding your awareness here.
- Breathing in, bring your awareness into your abdomen. Breathe out, holding your awareness here.
- Breathing in, bring your awareness to your feet (alternatively, if you are in a cross-legged position, you may bring your attention to your sits bones in connection to your chair). Breathe out, holding your awareness here.
Lastly, when you have finished focusing on individual places in your body, a final invitation exists as follows:
- Breathing in, bring your awareness into your whole body. Breathe out, holding your awareness here.
Rest your awareness in your whole body for as long as you would like. When are complete, take your time to come back into the room you are in, gently moving your body (wiggling fingers and toes, shrugging shoulders, etc.)
A few final thoughts. The audio version of this practice calls upon breath as a powerful doorway into focused attention and meditation. This serves as a nice segue into Practice #6, which will be a look at befriending your breath.
Once again, I wish to close this piece by reminding you that each of our 11 practices can be interrelated. For instance, the ability to sit in stillness (Practice #1) and the ability to focus your attention (Practice #3) are of value here. Still, it is worth it to break apart each of these into individual practices as we play with each in their own way.
I hope this practice has served you today, and continues to serve you on your embodiment path.