Mindful Meditation

Mindful Meditation

I sat down to write my first blog but I couldn't decide what to write so Tucker and I went for a walk.  Before this photo was taken, Tucker was running and playing a mile a minute.  Then, he completely crashed.  For a good 15 minutes - like this!  Besides being super adorable, how does a dog lay, belly up in complete peace in the middle of a park?  How does he find it so easy to calm himself with all of the outside distractions to find such solace in the sun?  And,why do we find it so difficult to be in the moment?  I decided to meditate next to Tucker.

 I closed my eyes and tried to quiet my mind.  I kept picturing how quickly Tucker did this and I kept waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for the my mind to slow. I opened my eyes, re-positioned and tried again. I couldn't still the outside distractions.  I tried a few more times but was unsuccessful.  This quote from Eat, Pray, Love reminds me of what needs to be done:

The article "Meditate Your Way To A More Creative Mind" by Anya Kamenetz, talks about how mindful meditation improves your ability to sift through information and focus solely on what's relevant so that you can free up your mind to do what's important.  If we can free our minds of everything we don't need, we can leave them open to possibilities of what do need.  An important aspect for opening up your creativity.

This article also says to meditate for 12 minutes a day to build awareness of what's around you. Today was day seven.  Finding the time has been challenging, silencing my mind has been even more so.  Perhaps I just needed to find my white room...what's not to love about meditation today?  

Wellfleet Beach, Day 7