Vegas Strip 

Imagine for a moment: It's your first night in Vegas, and you’re excited to take in all the sights and sounds of “paradise” in the desert. Through the backseat windows of the cab, you see the strip lined with people, restaurants, hotels, casinos, and flashing lights. Your taxi driver takes you past a hotel that is several stories high and all the lights are on, so you can see silhouettes of every body. People are dancing, partying and having a good time. It’s complete pandemonium! 

The next night you ride by, and there are only a few rooms with lights on. Most of the guests have left. Hotel staff are fluffing pillows. People are laying on their beds with white robes and mud masks on their faces, relaxing and reading John Muir books–it’s chill.

This imagery is what comes to mind when I think about the power of meditation for the brain.

Myths 

Firstly, I want to say that meditation is NOT about sitting cross-legged for hours upon hours in silence on a rock in the middle of the forest without thinking.

Secondly, I want to say that meditation is also NOT just “some shit white people do.” These are preconceptions that mainstream media has constructed in our minds, creating the perception that meditation is exclusive or inaccessible when, really? It's not. 

Meditation is focusing on whatever you’re doing. Just that. When John Coltrane was playing the saxophone, he was in meditation. When Lebron James gets a rebound, brings the ball down the court, makes three defenders look silly, and does a 360 slam dunk, he’s in meditation.

Put your full attention and concentration on whatever task is in the present moment. If it's sitting and enjoying a meal with a loved one, sit and enjoy the meal. Do not watch TV, look at the phone, and occasionally become conscious of the food on the plate. If it’s washing dishes, it's washing them plates like Mr. Miyagi said, “wax on, wax off!” Thoughts will come, and that's ok. They will always come and intrude on whatever you’re doing, but bring the mind back to the present moment. The key is when thoughts come, don’t attach to the thought. Just allow it to come and go.

It's a challenge 

We live in a day and age where multitasking has become the norm. We have so many devices and distractions, obligations, and responsibilities that our mind is primed to think and think and think. Life sometimes makes it very difficult for us to do one thing at a time. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but over time it becomes a dreadful existence. We can’t sit still without something occupying our mind. We become dependent on our distractions to fill all our time. Eventually, we lose control over our mind and our mind starts to control us. 

Mindfulness exercise  

When brushing your teeth in the morning try to be present during the whole process. Give your full attention to each tooth. If your mind drifts off, that’s ok - bring your mind back to the tooth that you were working on. 

Go slower than usual.

Zen is doing one thing at a time - 3 minute video:

Read #ZenToolkit: Resilience (pt. 1) Journaling

Continued

Next, we will dive into this important tool even more, plus explore the many ways we can cultivate this practice into our life including breathing, walking, and sitting. What you will come to learn is that meditation can be practiced anywhere at any time. 

“Yo, there's a war going on, in the mind, over territory, for the dominion, who will dominate the opinion.”

Lauryn Hill

The facts 

There is a show on the VICE network called Titans of Tech, a five part series breaking down how the technology giants of our generation (Google, Apple, Facebook/Meta, etc) came to be. A tech reporter in the documentary put the iPhone in the same category as groundbreaking inventions like electricity, TV, and the computer, due to the impact its release had on everyday life. That's saying a ton given how much time we spend on them. 

We mentioned in our earlier conversation the misconceptions around meditation and how difficult society can make it given all of our ready-made distractions. We all know that the information age we exist in is growing and not slowing down anytime soon. Many experts already believe the virtual world has taken over the physical world. If this happens our mind will no longer be our mind and that's exactly what they (social media executives) want. 

Become the robber 

At this point in time we all need our devices. We can’t dispose of our phones in a landfill and set them on fire because most of us use them for work and to stay in contact with family and friends. So the question becomes:

How do we navigate a world that is actively stealing our attention? 

Ask yourself, how are they masterfully winning? Why does the world revolve around phones and social media platforms? The looks, the colors, the fonts, the sleekness, certain pictures and posts at the top of our feed–it is not by accident. It's like we invited the robber into the house and sent them off with milk and cookies as they left.

To stop the robber we must become the robber. They (social media geekos) understand the reward center in the brain. We must employ the same strategies they use to keep us on our phones into our daily lives. We must create a new reward center. One that does not involve us scrolling twenty times a day. One that is…wholesome and sustainable. We must with all our might reprogram what the brain currently sees as pleasant.

Walking 

There is a lot of research on walking meditation that you could look up, but I’m going to break down how I engage in this simple practice on a daily basis: Sky: A whole world is above us when we look up. The other day I saw crows circling an eagle that was nearby. I didn't know what was going on but it was a fascinating sight to see as my eyes followed the chaos for the next three minutes. Tree: each tree is unique. Some have thick bark and others are smooth. When I see an interesting tree I make a correlation with something unrelated in the world attaching a name or a title to it. For instance, I saw a tree once that looked like it should have been named  “a seat at the table” given its shape and structure. It’s a fun game to play particularly if you’re on a hike with someone or by yourself. Ground: Just as the sky is full of colorful interesting birds that talk all day, the ground is its own treasure trove. Pick through the grass and see if you can find four-leaf clovers. Simply watch the amazingness of ants carrying items three times bigger than themselves back to their village. You know, what’s funny is as a kid most of us noticed these things naturally because we were so in tune. I guess we got too cool for it.

Sitting 

We move all day long from place to place and task to task. The moment we sit down our mind is still in “go” mode, which makes sitting uncomfortable unless we have a distraction in our hands. When I started to notice this I realized that I was never actually relaxing. When I make a conscious decision to sit and my mind starts to “go,” I bring it back to an object. Whether that be a plant, a memento, or a picture, I continuously come back to the object until my mind settles in (after about five minutes) and realizes we’re not in a high speed chase.

Breathing 

Zen in Black Skin (ZEN:MNM) is a product of mindful breathing. Consciously taking inhales….and exhales. This is medicine that is accessible at any time, day or night. It's like a valve when you feel the walls caving in that you can deploy at any time 

Try practicing box breathing with a visualization the next time you want to relax and truly “do” nothing. The idea of box breath is using the breath with a number–most people use the number four in order to create an even and full breathing practice. Let’s give it a try: 

Breathe in for four seconds, hold the breath for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold the lungs empty for four seconds. The key is to completely fill the lungs and completely empty the lungs on your inhales and exhales. If you want to incorporate the visualization, imagine you are drawing a box as you breathe, inhaling drawing one side of the box, holding the breath to draw the top, then exhaling to draw the opposite side, and holding as you draw the bottom. Repeat as needed.

Let us know if you try this exercise, and if it worked to help you relax.