Jane silences the monkey chatter

Meditation takes practice. Getting into a comfortable position is the easy part. Not too comfortable, mind you. Jane finds that attempting to meditate while reclining results in a pleasant nap but nothing else. She also has discovered that sitting with her legs crossed (criss-cross applesauce, as the little ones in elementary school say) is all well and good but she needs to be leaning against something. The goal is to find a position where you can relax and not have your thoughts drifting to the various protests of your body.

Because drifting thoughts are the biggest challenge. It's called monkey chatter and getting those monkeys to settle down also takes practice. Jane's first few attempts were relaxing, indeed, for about ten seconds. After that random thoughts zipped through her head with unfortunate speed.

"Ahhh." Jane relaxed. Wasn't this nice?

"What am I making for dinner?"

"Shhh. Ahhhh."

"I've got to...I should...I wonder if..."

"SHHH! Darn it! I said AHHHHH!"

Now the goal of meditation is to go beyond the monkey chatter into that gentle zone where calm prevails and focus and energy meld into something quite impressive. Jane found it difficult to deny monkey chatter completely and was frustrated until she read more about it. Got monkey chatter? Acknowledge it and let it go. It's there, okay, and now move beyond it.

So why meditate?

Maybe meditation isn't so mysterious after all. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex - brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.

That's the official word, for people who like to have something a little more concrete than "because it feels good".

If you practise regularly, the benefits of meditation will promote a sense of calm and control, you’ll feel far more relaxed and happy. Your ability to concentrate will be greater. You won’t become stressed about things and you’ll feel more peaceful and relaxed about everything. One of the greatest benefits of meditation is learning to go with the flow and things that used to irritate you before simply become insignificant.

That next bit was something Jane found on a meditation website. Same basic thing, just less scientific. From Jane's point of view, which definitely tends toward the non-scientific, meditation is nothing short of amazing. Jane is a meditative newbie. She started for reasons that are obvious to any reader of this blog. And she started right from the most basic starting point, monkey chatter and all.

After struggling a bit Jane decided to see if YouTube might offer some guided meditation. Indeed, they did. Ten minutes, maybe more and maybe less. With a little experimentation to find the right voice and music that appealed, Jane got her jump start. Her opinion? Very good stuff.

And Jane believes that the articles do not exaggerate. She feels much calmer when she meditates regularly. Things that were a big deal are less of a big deal and if they soar to bigness once again she can regroup more readily. Jane found that along with the benefits already listed she got something else from meditation. Something that she hadn't expected.

What, what? Jane knows the readers are clamoring for her to reveal what she got. What she got was an awareness of herself and...even better...an acceptance of herself. This is no little thing. jane feels that meditation has been a significant part of her healing and the discovery of (and acceptance of) her Jane-ness.

Because, you know, when you quiet your mind and release the monkey chatter and relax into the moment you have nothing to hide behind. It is just you right then, just you and the beautiful energy that comes from whatever source you embrace. And it is joyful and it is peaceful and it is loving.

And it is life enhancing. Jane would say life changing, but some people don't want to be caught up in any kind of change. So she'll tell you with the certainty of one who has experienced it, that meditation is life enhancing.

Jane is going to take a moment now to go quiet her own monkey chatter. Inhale...exhale...ahhhh.