Meditation Project: The Effect of Thoughts on the Body
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| Clear Ideas by Rene Magritte |
Generally the practice is getting easier for me, which, since I've committed to practicing for a whole year, if pretty nice.
I had some dental work done and my dentist told me I was the best patient ever! Guess who did some meditating—counting my exhalations—in the break between the injection of the anesthetics and the beginning of the drilling, etc. Yes, I was very relaxed and quiet at the start and worked on maintaining that feeling.
No doubt that meditation and relaxation techniques have helped me tremendously with dental procedures. During the week, I did start to question whether or not meditation was helping to sustain me in my everyday life (that's what so many regular practitioners claim). Just now it occurs to me that if it helps so much with my dental procedures, about which I've gotten outside feedback more than once, it must be helping in other ways in my everyday life. Why am I such a doubter?
Another visceral insight I had was that when my thoughts drifted to what I was going to make for dinner, my body responded in the most powerful way by causing me to salivate! Even though I know intellectually how much what you are thinking has a big effect on your body, this was a strong reminder. So when you meditate on gratitude or loving-kindness, you MUST be having an effect on your body as well as your mind. (I heard something on the weekend about the end point of the stress cycle—which is relief and happiness—that maybe could apply here. Will pick this up next week.)
Question: Do most people experience random imagery—similar to a pre-sleep state—while meditating?
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Practiced my regular Sunday practice, with Legs Up the Wall pose with my mantra. I felt quite peaceful and relaxed, and again experienced random imagery similar to pre-sleep.
Monday, April 29, 2019
Practiced my regular seated practice with my mantra. I felt relatively peaceful but noticed so many different thoughts—from serious to trivial—dinner, death, etc. I got a tiny bit impatient at the end and sneaked a look at the timer—just 15 seconds left!
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Same as yesterday. I felt very peaceful at the end. This was after my dental experience, so maybe it counted as the second meditation of the day?
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Same as yesterday. Even though it was after my asana practice and late in the afternoon, I felt comfortable and not sleepy. I'm avoiding sitting in the sun from now on!
This was the day that when my thoughts drifted to what I was going to have for dinner—in the interstitial cracks between the words of the mantra—I started to seriously salivate, which made me consider the power of all your thoughts on your physiology.
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Even though I meditated in the last few minutes before I needed to leave the house, I was still reasonably peaceful. That's a good thing because you need to be able to meditate under any circumstances, right? I did notice how much I was reciting the mantra on autopilot, so I tried my best to also think about the meaning of the words as well as just the sound.
Friday, May 3, 2019
This day I felt that for me meditating is getting easier and easier. Then I immediately began to wonder what the practice is doing for me in my daily life. It's actually part of my personality to always doubt and question things. It's good because it makes me look deeper into things. But I can never rest easy and just take things on faith.
by Nina Zolotow
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