In today's world we are constantly bombarded by sound. The sound of the cars passing down the street, the sound of the dog barking out side and the whirr of machines from garbage trucks, radios, tvs and computers are heard day in and day out. Depending on where you live you can also hear the sounds of the boom box perched on the shoulder of some person as he or she passes down the street only too happy to share their choice of music with the world. Even with the invention of the new smaller music sources such as I-pods and mp3 players, we are still not able to escape hearing what’s coming from someone else’s speakers. In this age of technology it is almost never silent. Right now I am sitting on an airplane and even at 3500 ft in the air am I am still bombarded with sounds, the roar of the airplane engine, the clank of silverware against the plate, the ice cube in the glass, my neighbor's breath and the rustle of paper as she turns the pages of her magazine. All of this is going on in the absence of my voice. I am silent, quietly listening to the world around me as it's happening. Most of us that live in the city are used to hearing sounds and are amply capable of blocking it all and tuning it all out. Many others live in the “country” and even in it’s silence sound still exist. The sound of the crickets as they sing their night song, the lone dog barking, car tires across a gravel road, the creak of the screen door hinge when the door opens, the snap of a tree branch as some animal walks stealthily in the dark. I am sure that those living in the peace and quiet of the country also too learn to un-hear the sounds that surround them daily. We have all gotten so good at tuning out that we can not even tune into our own thoughts. Mediation is the method of listening to your self. Whether it is your higher self or inner self it’s still you with whom the information is showing up through. Meditation is the key to bringing ourselves back to ourselves. How often do we drown out our own thoughts and replace them with other noises like the TV or the radio that we in turn drown out by not really paying full attention to it anyway? What’s our beef with being quiet? If you are like me and grew up in a time when to be seen and not heard was the motto and to be told to “go to your room and be quiet” was a punishment, then maybe the idea of sitting in silence is tied to the idea of punishment and not seen as the reward that it is. Taking time to sit in silence for five minutes a day is restorative to the body, mind and spirit. It affords us the opportunity to see what’s floating around in the ever busy brains of ours. When we first start to meditate it may seem that we cannot stop thinking. Thoughts will stroll from one to another without stopping. We may think “What’s the point? I don’t want to think about my problems, I want to get away from them.” Meditation is often mistakenly used as an escape and surely this is one way it can be used, but that's not its ideal function. Imagine yourself as a snow globe; hold it in your hand. Every move you make, from going to the gym to the taking out the trash shakes up the snow globe. Now, place the (self) snow globe on a table and look at it. You will see the snow is still falling. You can hardly see any water between the flakes of snow. It is a blizzard in a globe. This is the mind still active even though you’ve decided to stop. Imagine that as each moment passes it is representative of you taking another day to meditate and as the snow, although still falling, becomes less apparent you can now see more space between the flakes. Each moment the globe sits still the quieter and softer and lesser the flakes will fall. This is the process of meditation. Beginning by first allowing our thoughts to flow uninterrupted like the latest blockbuster movie across the movie screen of our minds and then with dedication and practice learning to watch the movie with detached interest like the way that we only half listen to the radio or half watch the tv, becoming the silent witness and through dedication and practice the silence between thoughts become more profound and audible. Remember that each time we engage in activity we shake up the snow globe but with practice you will find that the way you walk in life will be from a place of stillness and that when you sit down to meditate you have less snow shaken in your globe than before. We can reach that state of being that we seek where all the answers are stored and all problems are seen from a higher perspective as opportunities to heal, to grow, and practice becoming the silent witness.
Thought for Today: Everything I see, I see through the noise of my inner conversation.
Todays Affirmation: I am silent. I hear that small still voice within. I listen to it's guidence and move in the direction it leads.
