Friday, November 5, 2010

Adventures in Meditation

So, according to my hippy-dippy book (which maybe I should just officially review) meditation is a great way to relieve stress. As some of you might recall from either knowing me or reading about my panic attacks on this little blog, I lead a stressful life. In the interest of having a healthy, happy baby, I am doing my best to act like the rest of humankind and am willing to try mediation as a path to well-adjusted infants.

The book recommends taking deep breaths and imagining pink light surrounding your baby with each inhalation. It says to do this eight to ten times to begin a relaxation period. During my Cruise Holidays lunch break I walked out to the beach, took off my business-casual attire to reveal a one-piece bathing suit, and put down my stuff. I sat at the waters edge, cross-legged and eager to be relaxed. The first breath: the air came in, I saw a pink glowy light surround my baby, and I exhaled. Then, I realized that probably the baby needs to be moving in my imagined womb. A still baby is not ideal so I added that to the list. Breath in, pink light surrounds baby, baby plays with light, exhale. I did this at least 10 times, always an overachiever.

This might be where I began to stray from the course. It seemed to me that I wasn't being visual enough. What color is the light as it comes in? I felt it was a bright white light and that only upon interacting with the baby did it get a pinkish haze. Breathe in, out, in, out. New idea! I breathe in white light, it hits the baby and gets its hue, the baby breathes it in his tiny lungs, he exhales, I exhale. Phew! Then I thought that maybe the exhale should be a different color, and settled on a dull blue. I did a few breathes with the extra visual aid and then realized I shouldn't be imagining anything leaving my body as a pale blue versus pink and illuminated.

And with that, I just went swimming.

So, not the best meditation anyone's ever done. But I definitely did better today than yesterday when I hadn't even tried it.

3 comments:

  1. Hahahhahhahahhahahhahhhahaha. I am officially dying of laughter. I think laughing is good for babies, and also for aunties-to-be!

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  2. I did prenatal yoga for the purposes of easing pain and stretching. I never could get into sending my heart string of light to my baby or creating a ball of light between my hands. However, breathing, stretching, and clearing your mind help to relax.

    The only real part of meditation that worked for me was laying on my back (propped up) and starting at the top of my head and mentally think about relaxing each muscle all the way down to your toes. To this day I use this technique when I can't sleep.

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  3. Colleen - I do that but I start at my toes. Not sure why the toes. I don't usually make it to my head though because I fall asleep.

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