Thank you, Asia "Meditation" (73 days to go)

March 19, 2021

I know meditation or mindfulness is everywhere now.  Perhaps if I had never left the US I would still have had experiences with mindful practices, but Asia has been my sandbox to learn in.  

I have experimented with various types of mindfulness the past seven years: mindful eating, forest bathing, mindful walking through a maze, guided meditations, mantras, mindful breathing and mindful movement, and gong baths.  

For about three months on the "Muse" app I listened for birds in my headphones while a gizmo checked my brain waves to see how Zen I was!  (I got fairly good at being Zen, but not as much as LeAnn!)

I have also mindfully floated in a deprivation tank of water chock full of epsom salts - which is to say magnesium and sulfate - which combats stress.  You can choose to lie in the coffin-like tank with or without clothes, with or without light, and with or without the lid closed.  Pretty surreal. 

And now, after trying so many of these, I am finally in a rhythm.  Each weekday morning I spend twelve minutes in silent meditation with a few others in room 617.   This calms and centers my mind for the day, connecting me to the earth, myself, and my Self.  

And then there's the gong. . . but that is another story. 

Thank you, Asia, for introducing me to these practices.

Janet, George, Marty and me - morning meditation group