When we see the word ‘meditation’, our brain sketches a picture of a serene figure, sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat, possibly under a tree. But meditation doesn’t require special space or equipment. You don’t need a mantra or a breathing technique. Meditation is simply the act of watching one’s thoughts, as if removed from our own brains.
Here’s how I meditate:
Every day, at 5:30am while the house is quiet, I sit on my couch. I open up 750words.com (but a blank Word doc or notepad would work just as well.)
Then I let things flow out: whatever woke me up that morning, whatever stressed me out the day before.
As my thoughts show up on the virtual page, I watch them pass by as an observer would.
The exercise clears the logjam of thoughts – the stuff I’m worried about forgetting, the stuff I don’t want to think about anymore, the distractions and all of the rabbit-holes that my brain wants to go down.
If something is important, I can come back it later. If something is stressful, or I’m ruminating on something negative, it’s now out of my head–and I can come back to it later or just let it go.
Don’t stop yourself to correct your spelling or grammar – just let it out. Nobody’s going to read this.
This has a focusing effect: by trimming all of the distractions, my mind is free to focus on the important stuff.
You just watch the thoughts flow out of you without judgment. There’s nothing “right” or “wrong” that comes out of you – it all just goes out either way. You can decide what to let back in later.
You might call this a ‘writing meditation’, but you can do the same thing with a voice memo on your phone.
First, turn off all notifications on your phone. Phones are anti-meditative, because they pull us into rumination and distraction. But we can still use them as a tool for good, if we’re careful. 🙂
Open your voice memo app (I like Otter.ai, because it transcribes what I say.)
Walk and talk for at least five minutes.
Later, transcribe your text with an AI app, and paste the words somewhere. This is an important step – you need a record outside your head. Not because you’ll ever go back and check, but because I want your thoughts to get out and STAY out. Writing them down is more permanent than a voice recording.
Because it’s tempting to stop too early, I’ll give you a goal: 750 written words (about 3 pages).
I learned this from real writers who do the “morning pages” exercise of writing 3 pages before they do anything else. But you might have received the advice, when angry, to write a letter that you never send. Same idea.
Some people can do this in the shower, or while driving. Some can do it while walking a dog (mine is too distracting.) The goal is to enter a state of ‘flow’, where thoughts just flow through your head without judgment or emotion, uninterrupted.
What if you can’t think of anything to write or talk about? Write about writing. Write about how hard this is. That’s what you’re thinking–so write it down. Be the chronicler of your thoughts. That’s meditation.
