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Posted on Sun, Aug 8, 2010 : 3 a.m.

Meditating helps us learn meditation

By Susan Scott Morales, MSW

One of my readers wrote, “Meditation helps me meditate.” This got me thinking about how meditation is a skill but there’s also something else inherent that allows it to unfold itself. Perhaps this is true of most skills. Certainly as we learn a physical skill through repetition, our muscles remember, which aids execution the next time. I see this with meditation. In fact, I even suggested in “Three fundamentals of a meditation practice” that it helps to be consistent about time and place. Some people always shower beforehand and wear the same clothes. Like in sports, such rituals can trigger the mind and body to “behave” in the desired way.

ChinMudra.jpg

Photo by Matruka Sherman

Because meditation is very limited in what the body is “doing,” I see it as a mental and emotional skill. When we slow our thinking, and perhaps access different parts of our brain that we use in most of our daily activities, something special happens. For me, it’s like looking at a beautiful piece of art. I get inspired. Sometimes the inspiration is about a problem in my life, other times the beginning of a poem might emerge. Just as often, I get an insight that improves my meditation.

Instead of using the traditional chin mudra as shown in the photo, one day I had the impulse to touch my thumb tips together, one palm over the other. I immediately felt my attention drawn inward and I enjoyed a deep and peaceful meditation. Although I’ve since learned this is a fairly common mudra, I’d never heard of it before. Now I use this position for my hands often with wonderful results. So, I invite you to share what meditation teaches you. Or start to meditate and find out what there is to learn.

As a mental health professional, an owner of a fitness studio, a writer, and a wife, mother and grandmother, I have found meditation to be helpful in every aspect of my life. To find out about my meditation classes this fall, you can contact me at susanmmorales@yahoo.com or check out my websites: susanscottmorales.com and bodiesinbalancefitness.com.

Comments

Susan Scott Morales, MSW

Sun, Aug 8, 2010 : 11 a.m.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Love the bumper sticker!

Linda Chapman

Sun, Aug 8, 2010 : 8:07 a.m.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "I'd rather be here and now." That's what meditation teaches me, to be present in the moment. No matter how much my mind flits from worrying about the past or fussing about the future, the intention to meditate helps me to return to here and now.