I was feeling so scattered today! I tend to get lost in email-world and digital world -- like Tron but less visually stimulating.
I literally closed my labtop and said aloud to no one, "I need a break." I stepped away to my healing room and sat in front of my Sri Yantra picture. And I simply focused. Thoughts came in and out, and I let them pass as I focused I the bindu at the center of the image.
The importance in stilling the mind is not if you are absent of thought, but rather the ability and discipline to not follow the string of thoughts that the mind conjures up.
I love to use the image of clouds passing by across a clear sky. Thoughts come and go, and still we, our essence, remains. Our awareness remains.
The more I focused and the more still I became, the better I felt. Breathing slowed and deepened. I actually became more energized, too.
Such is the power of concentration or focusing the mind.
There are so many centering and meditative practices! It doesn't always have to be still-mind, eyes-closed meditation in order to become centered and at peace. I think this is a misconception that many people have. That's why there's yoga, breathwork (pranayama), and for example, yantra -- focusing one's gaze at an image to achieve still mind.
It doesn't have to be long. In my case just today, 12 minutes turned into 15, then 20-something minutes. I couldn't tell after a while, and it didn't matter.
So very thankful to lose track of time in order to FIND, and not LOSE, myself!
Namaste.
Yay Linda! Thanks for the inspiration and reminders.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a side note, I know the entry isn't about this really, btu there is something very funny and weird about gazing at an image of clouds on a computer screen, while clouds float by outside. :-P :-D
_Julia G