50 million Meditations

Art by Courtney Rohan

There are 50 million ways to do any one thing, if you consider it long enough. I’ve read and received training for at least a million of the existing 50 million meditations and still there are more ways to calm, energize, ground, uplift and love my spirit through meditation. Sitting meditations are the prime picture of meditation, however, depending on their intent, mediation can be done standing, walking and more importantly, constantly. Meditation is a practice that can be done anywhere and anytime. Life is your practice field.


Sitting for artists, I hit a wall. Not literally but rather, I hit the kind of wall where I begin rocking slightly forward and back, side to side a little. I can’t stop blinking. I wonder if they are getting a good enough vision of me. Are they seeing my struggle? Are they painting it?

I take a deep breath. It soothes me. I am able to sit through the next ten minutes, before the break, without shakes. I am able to fall into the space behind my eyeballs, even though my eyes must remain open. I am not thinking of anything too much. I am breathing. I am being. I am here. They sound for a break and for a moment I can not move. I have begun to commune. Truthfully, I don’t need a break.

Before giving any Thai Yoga Massage, I meditate. This means I bring my consciousness to a place of sub- consciousness. I remove myself, my thoughts, my feelings. I sweep them away or watch them flow out with my breath. I breathe in my focus and let go of control. I don’t think about all this now, the way I used to. It does not take long. I breathe into my space slowly. I exhale slowly. I thank my guides and teachers and when I am absolutely clear, I touch the human-spirit in front of me.

Truly though, there was a time when I could not quiet myself. I was so caught up in ME. I couldn’t let ME go even for a minute. What I’ve learned is that I don’t have to resist me because as soon as I do, I am back in my own mind hitting the walls that prevent me from focusing on being present.

If you have ever attempted to meditate or have been told anything about the process, I am sure you have heard that it is best in the morning or at night before bed. You have been told that you should think about nothing while you sit. You should count your breath or repeat a word or phrase (mantra, I‘ll explain later). This is not bad advice but I want to share with you a truthful place to begin. No one is a master of anything just from reading or hearing about it. As humans, it is our dharma (duty) to experience. Each experience we encounter begins. We have to begin somewhere.

I suggest for the very newcomer that you chose a time that suits your space. This could be on the bus, for a minute, closing your eyes and being. Walking through the parking lot before entering a store, where you’ve parked far enough away from the door so that you have a moment to tune in. Sitting briefly before your food, maybe after you’ve prayed and breathing in the scent of your food, feeling your want and letting it go before you begin. Your space could be a chair or the floor with your back against the wall and your bottom on some pillows. May you lay down, as long as you are sure you will not use this as an opportunity for a nap. If you exercise, maybe you mediate while you are running or pumping your feet on the stationary bike. I personally have always found my deepest meditations happen after a yoga class, after having had a chance to move through all my personal stuff, physically, maybe even emotionally.

Let me go back briefly and explain tuning in. Tuning in is a term often used in the world of spirit (not what most of us see but rather what we feel, our connection inside and outside of our bodies). Tuning in means to listen. Mediation is tuning in. If you are familiar with prayer, this is also a type of tuning in. However, prayer is tuning in to your surface-self in order to generate a thought-felt explosion of gratitude to God and possibly to ask for help. Mediation is tuning your spirit/ vibration to God’s to listen. Though prayer and mediation can be, but are not always, interchangeable, we must do both intentionally. We must tune in, empty out and fill up.

The idea of listening is one that also caters to the meditations using mantra. Mantra, similar to affirmations but not always the same, are words or phrases that encourage change. These statements are repeated in meditation, often, with use of the breath. For example, breathing in “Peace”, breathing out “All that does not serve me”. This is not a phrase you say aloud necessarily. It is my experience that saying mantra aloud, when I am focused on breathing in and out specific concepts, leaves me easily distracted. However, for someone meditating with focus on mantra itself, such as the repetition of “Sat Nam” (I am truth) or “Om” (God connected sound in all), though you are inhaling and exhaling the whole time, that is not the focus. So, saying these words aloud is not such a distraction for me here. I also find this repetition of mantra easier with Mala beads (Indian necklace or bracelet containing 108 beads). This way, I follow the beads, and with this tool, I am able to say 108 mantras (108 is an  number auspicious number in the Indian culture) without having to keep conscious track of the counting.

There are, as I mentioned, 50 million other ways to create mediations. You can create your own, making sure that you are breathing in newness, change, and positive thought. The in breath can be used for inhaling “Peace”, the out breath, exhaling “Peace”, or you can use your exhale to release toxins or negativity. You can even use Mala beads to repeat terms that usher you back to yourself. That is the purpose of this.

I could write 50 million blogs on mediation but I won’t. It is in the experience that we learn how to meditate. We learn what works for me is not what works for all. And then, one day, like my yoga teacher once told me, “you find yourself doing headstand in the middle of the room” without the wall to anchor. You find yourself sitting for a length of time, comfortable, not needing a break.

This is an instrument of healing. If you chose to give someone something, i.e. Thai Yoga Massage, but really anything, meditation is a practice of clearing that will allow you to bring Metta (Thai term for unconditional love) through your hands. If you find, through mediation, that your internal space is messy, it is a good idea to clean it up before you go any further. Rest in knowing that you must heal yourself before you can heal another. It is good… Sat Ra, Namaste.

Art by Alex Powers

Model, Courtney Rohan