Just Breathe… Meditation Made Simple

by Kat Barton

It’s Monday morning and it’s raining.  It seems like everyone has forgotten how to drive.  Route 84 has suddenly turned into a parking lot.  And you’re going to be late.  No doubt about it.  With your teeth clenched as your grip the steering wheel you begin to lose it.   You attempt to switch lanes and swerve back in line as the horns blast around you. You can’t believe this is happening again.  

We’ve all been there. You can’t control the traffic.  But you can control your reaction.  You’re going to be late.  Getting angry is not going to change that fact.

“When we feel a certain sort of irritation…concentrate fully on breathing, nothing else… When you started breathing, the mental state was irritated, but then after 20, 30, this sort of breathing, your mental state will be a little different, a little more calm,” said The Dalai Lama when asked about meditation. (Dan Rather interview 12/09)

Meditation is a skill anyone can learn and with practice it can improve your well-being. The breath is involuntary no one needs to teach you how to breathe. Learning to use the breath to calm the mind begins with awareness.  Begin to notice what is happening in your body when you become stressed.

Meditation is as simple as focusing on your breath.  Just breathe.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will speak on Oct. 18 and 19, and the public is invited to a free showing (video simulcast) in the Ives Concert Hall, 180 White St. To help promote this opportunity, WCSU students have created a Twitter page.

Check out the youtube guided meditation video from The Chopra Well and begin your meditation practice today.

“ Meditation, not for your next life.  Not for heaven, but for day to day well-being.” His Holiness The Dalai Lama, 2009