As long as I can remember I've always been fascinated by different cultures and spirituality within them. I've visited countless places of spiritual worship in various countries and love walking into a calm building and soaking up the atmosphere - whether it's marvelling at the brightly coloured stained glass windows and Saint-ridden interior of Notre Dame or quietly kneeling and lighting a candle before a golden Buddha at a hilltop temple in Chiang-Mai.
On top of this, from quite a young age I remember having a specific interest in the idea of meditation. I once ordered some audio cassette tapes on how to meditate when I was about 10 from a catalogue - being a terrible hoarder I don't think I ever actually listened to them, they just sat on my bookshelf gathering dust. So when compiling this list, I thought this was something it was about time I tried.
Last summer in the run up to the Edinburgh Fringe I ended up busy every night and all weekend throughout the whole of July, on top of a heavy workload during the day. I found myself craving some alone time, and found the best way of getting it was to go for a walk at lunchtime from the office and to sit quietly by the nearby lake and do nothing. After a couple of days of this I realised it wasn't a far cry from actually trying to meditate. I'd tried a couple of guided meditations on YouTube before but found them hard to get into so I decided that when I planned my list of challenges, I would add meditation and go on a proper course.
In October I rocked up at the nearby Buddhist Centre to attend the "Introduction to Meditation 1" course, braced for the possibility that I might end up having to spend the evening with a group of hippy-types talking about visions and spirit animals. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a lovely group of people who were all intelligent and interesting and a joy to be around. Better still, most of us were very willing to talk honesty about how difficult we found some of the exercises, and there was a real sense of camaraderie within the group.
The sense of well being I started to get from the meditation sessions was lovely, as difficult as I found it to switch off from work mode to do it. As it went on it got easier to go into it, and I developed more control over the practise. I began to notice the difference in my behaviour at work, with an increased ability to multitask and juggle difficult projects, as well as a greater sense of control and positivity when things were very difficult and stressful.
I finished my six week course and immediately signed up for the level two course. I went to that, finding it even better and more interesting than the first course - I suddenly found I was able to meditate without guidance and just choose what worked for me and my mood and adapt to my environment too. That sense of improved well-being continued and the discussion in the classes was always thought provoking.
But most of all, I went back again because my teacher and the rest of my class were an absolute joy to spend time with. It's such a pleasure spending an evening with such a kind group of people.
I'm starting the third course in January.
30 Things Stats:
Number: 3 - Try meditation
Completion Status: COMPLETE
Summary: Want to improve your sense of contentment and well-being? Try it. I'm so pleased I've gone to a proper class, it's been really lovely. Really the fact I'm about to start my third course speaks for itself...
